Advice please re Charging Order

[christel]

Hope I've posted this on the correct board:rolleyes2: but would really appreciate some advice.

In 2005 I had a ccj from Northampton court which was taken out by CL Finance. I was in a bit of a bad place at the time, had inherited loads of debt by my ex (I was in an abusive marriage up to 2002 and was pretty stupid letting him take loans etc out in my name).

My second husband had been having treatment for cancer and I was having difficulty dealing with everything. Anyway, the ccj was granted and my offer to pay £10 per month was accepted by the court. I have been paying this since 2005 by standing order.

Recently I plucked up the courage to take a look at my credit record which is now very good and have been offered a remortgage off the high street to escape from Kensington.

It's almost gone through but I have discovered a £6000 charge on my property from CL Finance which I will have to clear before I can complete the remortgage.

I rang them up (then discovered on here that I shouldnt have done that!) to offer a full & final settlement but was told that because the charge is on the property, they are not interested and would rather carry on receiving £10 per month forever. (I did not tell them I was remortgaging, I said a family member had offered to lend me money to pay my creditors off)

My question is, can I still write to them offering a settlement figure, or because there is a ccj in place will I just have to accept that I need to pay them in full?

Sorry if I'm rambling, I need to sort this out urgently because I really want to make a fresh start but this is now holding everything up and I am so gutted and dont know where to go from here

The ccj is in my previous name, and nothing has shown up on my credit record, it only came to light when the land registry search was done.

Any advice welcome x

[CleverClogs]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

My second husband had been having treatment for cancer and I was having difficulty dealing with everything. Anyway, the ccj was granted and my offer to pay £10 per month was accepted by the court. I have been paying this since 2005 by standing order.

How did those buggers get a charging order if you had not missed any payments?

[christel]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

Basically because I was stupid and admitted the debt. It was being dealt with by Cohen solicitors, and looking back on old papers, I think they did it because it is going to take me forever to pay off monthly. Wish they would accept an offer, I just want to get their name off my deeds but cant afford the full amount

[KatieCD]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

I had this when I sold my property a few years ago, similar circumstances... When the sale went through the charge was dealt with by my solicitors and they sent them full payment from the proceeds of the said sale, which they had to accept as I was no longer going to own the property. Suggest you speak to your solicitor and they will make the necessary arrangements. I don't think they can turn down a settlement! I don't know the legal side of things, and can only speak from my own experience but good luck....

[christel]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

Thanks, I suppose if I have to pay in full then I will but it means it will swallow up the whole remortgage (I borrowed an extra £6000 as I need to do some work on the house) and I will then have to pay the solicitor myself as it's extra work they have to do so isn't included in the free legal costs.

I'm still tempted to write them a letter, as surely they would rather have the money up front rather than wait for years! On the court document it states:

"Apart from a charging order, all other execution is stayed as long as the defendant pays £10 per month"

My financial advisor has suggested asking my new lender to up the offer to cover the £6000 (the repayments would not be that much higher) but I am now scared that they will be put off if he tells them its for a 7 year old debt

[KatieCD]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

My solicitor didn't charge me for diverting some of the money over to them, so it is worth checking out their fee if any for doing this. Is there no chance your new mortgage co. will extend the new loan by a couple of thousand to help with the work on the new place? I suppose my circumstances were slightly different in that I just wanted them paid and finished with... maybe someone knows of a legal way to transfer a charge to a new property?

[christel]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

Thanks for your reply, my solicitor wants £480 to pay off the charge which I dont really have up front to pay. Sorry, I should have said, it's not a different property, I only wanted to remortgage to do some work on my exisiting house and to move away from kensington (I couldnt go to high street lender when I divorced due to my poor credit record)

My financial advisor has said he will ask new lender to up the offer to get rid of the charge, but I'm not holding out much hope because as far as they are concerned I have a good credit rating, so an old ccj showing up may make them withdraw their offer completely.

I just wish there had been forums like this when I was in a mess 10 years ago, its fab to have advice from people who have been in the same situation

[Guest]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

If you did not receive any notice of the interim charging order, or you can show the documents were sent to another address if you have moved, then you can make an application for a set aside. You dont need a solicitor.

Telephone the Land Registry office that administers your property. To locate which office that is - search here and enter your postcode:

http://www.landreg.gov.uk/about-us/office-finder

Have your Land Registry title number ready, and ask the helpline which court made the charging order final and on what date.

Telephone that court and ask for a form to make the application for a set aside.

The court might ask you to file a statutory declaration. Use this template:

I: [NAME] residing at [ADDRESS AND POSTCODE]

DO SOLEMNLY AND SINCERELY DECLARE THAT:

I had no prior knowledge or any correspondence from [NAME OF COURT] or [NAME OF CREDITOR] following a charging order on my property known as [ADDRESS OF PROPERTY] on [DATE] for the amount of [AMOUNT] for an unpaid [TYPE OF DEBT].

From information provided to me today by the [NAME OF COURT MANAGER] at [NAME OF COURT] I am informed that a hearing for this matter was held in my absence and the reference number for this case is: [REFERENCE]

AND THAT:

Notification of this charge came to my attention on [DATE] when I applied to remortgage the property.

I genuinely do not remember receiving any notice of this charge.

I make this solemn declaration under Section 7 of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835 believing the same to be true.

DECLARED AT:


SIGNED:


DATE:


Before me:
Solicitor/Commissioner for Oaths:

[christel]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

Thank you so much!! I dont think I had prior notice, and I have details of the court (Northampton) so its certainly worth a shot!

[Duffers Mum]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

I think its an absolute disgrace that these companies can apply for and be granted charging orders for debts which were unsecured. Unsecured borrowing always comes at a far higher rate of interest than secured borrowing. It really is not fair that nothing can be done to stop this underhand practice.

I hope you manage to get everything sorted.

[christel]

Re: Advice please re Charging Order

Sorry guys, before I go ahead and ask for order to be set aside, can someone take a look at the correspondence I did have as it looks like the order was put in without me knowing and AFTER I had started making payments:

7/3/2005 - Date of initial court claim form
10/3/2005 - I completed the income expenditure form for court and sent it off
26/4/2005 - Form returned to me saying it was too late and judgement had already been entered on 7/4/2005 I also had a copy of a document saying that Claimant may apply for a charging order
26/4/2005 - Date of letter received from Howard Cohen & Co asking me to complete a standing order mandate for £10 per month. Payments began on 25/5/2005

I have obtained a copy of the deeds from land registry and this is the entry:

"(10.08.2005) Equitable charge created by an interim charging order
of the Keighley County Court dated 22 July 2005 in favour of CL
Finance Limited.
NOTE: Copy filed."

So am I right in thinking that although I had been keeping to the ccj payments, they went ahead and obtained a charging order almost 3 months after agreement was made?

I would love to get it set aside but I'm just a bit nervous about applying in case there is something I have overlooked and it makes matters worse! :help: