HELP. In Court vs Varde Investments/Hegarty LLP

[Amethyst]

Re: HELP. In Court vs Varde Investments/Hegarty LLP

Okay you have two options, wing it and hope the paperwork is deficient, and if it is you manage to convince a judge that is enough to let you off with the debt - something which doesn't happen a great deal these days, OR deal with it now..avoid the AOE by entering an admission and offer to pay - with a low income on a £6k debt anything from £20 could be accepted under an installment order by the court. There wouldn't be any further risk of costs although there may be an application for a charging order over your home. It would basically mean you have a set payment leaving your account, that you can afford, and you can effectively put the debt to the back of your mind. It sounds like your credit file is already pretty trashed so it shouldn't affect you too much that way - the CCJ stays on your file for 6 years, much in the same way defaults do. You would be obliged to complete a statement of means to have an installment offer accepted though.

Forget the Freeman type stuff completely - unless you are 100% sure on what you are doing it won't have a cat in hells chance of working.

Re the paperwork it does sound like you have seen the assignment and default notices etc just ignored them. Even if you are entering an admission you should still enter a CPR 31.14 request for a copy of the credit agreement - the default notice - the deed of assignment etc - and a statement of the acccount - as this will ensure Varde are entitled to collect the debt and you will be able to see if there have been irrational charges added to the account. Do you recall what the balance of the original card was before it defaulted?

There may also be some mileage in the sale of the card to Goldfish then MBNA and the massive hike in interest rates - nowadays they have to let you stop using the account and pay it off at the original interest rate if you so wish so it may be worth looking at that angle further.

Howvever - first job is to stall the AOE enforcement process by entering the N244 - and the best way to do that is by showing you will have a valid defence - and them failing to send paperwork despite requests should assist with that....just don't go all out on the 'no paperwork, no debt' argument - you are entitled to respond to a claim (and decide whether to defend all, part or none of the claim) when you are in receipt of all the relevant facts, and currently you aren;t.

Do you have any paperwork still relating to the debt ?

Do you now have a copy of the original claim form ? or just the judgment letter ?

As always just a few thoughts Don't panic and do let your head rule your heart on this one.

Re: HELP. In Court vs Varde Investments/Hegarty LLP

I am also considering a "Freeman on the Land" style court appearance but given my limited knowledge of the legal system this would probably be a recipe for disaster.

Don't even think about trying such tom-fool nonsense, unless you want the judge to believe you have been smoking exotic cheroots.

It won't work and it only makes it obvious that the "freeman on the land" is a blithering idiot.

However, you might care to add that the Consumer Credit Licence for Varde Investments (Ireland) Limited, no. 0577595, appears to have lapsed on 13/11/2010.

[Hephaestus]

Re: HELP. In Court vs Varde Investments/Hegarty LLP

Hi Folks,
Thanks for advising me on how to proceed, it is truly appreciated.
The date of the judgment was 14th September, so this has escalated rapidly in the last 10 days.
I have foolishly destroyed most of the letters I have received as they all seemed the same and my only plan was to ignore it and hope it stops! Not a good plan..

I did have a credit card several years ago with LV. This got took over by goldfish, but then almost immediately it got taken over by MBNA. The first thing they did was increase the interest to 34% and I immediately was stuck with the repayments. I defaulted and the debt was sold to Varde. I actually remember reading the letter saying it had been taken over by Varde but, I chucked it out...
I know I have done everything wrongly in my dealings with this matter. I just lost the will to fight or even acknowledge what was happening and let it snowball out of control.
I haven't got £60 let alone £6K so I do not know what I can do.
My main hope is that Varde have not got their paperwork in order and I can stop it on a technicality. But that seems a bit hypocritical of me considering the state of my paperwork!
I am also considering a "Freeman on the Land" style court appearance but given my limited knowledge of the legal system this would probably be a recipe for disaster.
In answer to a query above, I have no other threads on this matter. I have dealt with DCA's in the past, APEX, Westcott and Moorcroft to name a few; and in these instances I kept proper records and sent my mail recorded delivery etc. I have used template letters which asked for
Proof of claims,
Sight of the original contract bearing my wet signature,
Proof of protection from liability and
Sight of full auditing.
etc etc.

However, although these things were in the template letter, I do not understand exactly what it is I was asking of them... I was effectively calling their bluff.
Now they appear to be calling mine! Yikes.
I do not recall signing a contract with either Goldfish or MBNA, these changes in ownership just happened without me having any say in the matter.
I most definitely do not have a contract with Varde or Hegarty and am hoping that will be of use to me.
I am reluctant to fill in my statement of means regarding an attachment to earnings order and wonder if by submitting form N244 I negate the need to do so. However, I think the courts may require this no matter what now as they have sent it to me so quickly and do not seem very flexible.
I will contact the court and query this.
I will post any developments as they happen, I don't think I will be waiting long.

Thanks again.

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: HELP. In Court vs Varde Investments/Hegarty LLP

Thanks JM - this is good advice.

I would add that 'it is contrary to natural justice and to the overriding objective of the Civil Procedure Rules to have a judgement enforced against me when I had no prior knowledge of the case being heard and hence no opportunity to put my own case.'

Hephaestus, if you have a low income, you are exempt from the £80 - you need to fill in a Form EX160 which you can get online or form the court office

[Amethyst]

Re: HELP. In Court vs Varde Investments/Hegarty LLP

Utterly fine JM

[Judge mental]

Re: HELP. In Court vs Varde Investments/Hegarty LLP

Hi Hephaetus

You have given a perfectly good reason for the Judgement to be set aside, however you ought to mention the case number and date of Judgement, you could also request the case be transferred to your local court and that all enforcement action is stopped until your application is heard, e.g.

To have the default Judgement from Northampton county Court (case number xxx) issued on (date) to be set aside as I was not forewarned to appear in court and denied the opportunity to defend the claim against me, and for the case to be transferred to my local court.
Further, that all enforcement action is ceased until this application is heard.

You should also, in part C of the N244, include details of your defence (and include any supporting documents) as you will need to convince the Judge you have a reasonable chance of success.

If there has been a delay in you making your application you should include the reasons for this.

Hope it helps
Stuart
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
Amethyst, Sorry for the duplication in our posts, I didnt realise you had replied before I posted

[Amethyst]

Re: HELP. In Court vs Varde Investments/Hegarty LLP

Basically the claimant has entered a claim against you through the bulk centre (standard stuff), as you didn't receive the paperwork you were unable to enter a defence, or an admission, and they have claimed judgment in default - sounds like they then haven't wasted any time in going for enforcement via attachment of earnings.

What is the actual date of the judgment ?

So the N244 - yes you are right in what to put to ask for the setaside - you do have to show that had you received the claim you would have a valid defence so we need to look at that quickly as well - I know you have queried the paperwork previously with the claimants but is there a debt owing to MBNA of that sum ?

Do you have a thread elsewhere with previous details of this debt (eg were you advised to write to them asking for proof of the assignment etc)

You also need to put on the N244 that you are asking for all enforcement action to stop - it will not happen automatically so I would still return the AOE forms within the time limit but add a note that you have also entered an N244 for a set aside.