Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

[Amethyst]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I'd stay off that subject for now re bankruptcy. You have the Lloyds claim and that will make life a lot easier so we're just getting through until then really then we can re-evaluate things.

OH needs to get his butt in gear tho.

case/claim No: [cLAim number]

In the Northampton County Court

Orange

CLAIMANT

-AND-

Bluebell

DEFENDANT

DEFENCE

All allegations made in the particulars of claim are denied unless specifically admitted in this defence.

1: The Defendant had an account with the Claimant for supply of telephone services and/or equipment hire, account number xxxxxxxxxx hereinafter referred to as “the Account”.

2: The Account, at the time of the claim, is in debit by £135.00 (the amount of claim less the court costs/stat. interest.)

3: The Defendant has not attempted to avoid this debt and has taken steps to ensure her creditors receive payments at an amount that the Defendant can afford.

4: The Defendant is currently under a Debt Management Plan managed by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, reference XXXXXXXX, in an attempt to bring her financial affairs into order. The Defendant has recently suffered a considerable drop in income due to Maternity and does not expect her financial situation to improve for the foreseeable future.

5: Further, the Defendant has previously written to the Claimant with details of her income and essential expenditure and requested time to pay. Please see letter attached dated 11th February 2008 (appendix 1)

6: The Defendant has attached her updated Income and Expenditure to this claim (appendix 2)

7: The Defendant respectfully requests the court make an order for payment by monthly installments at an affordable amount as determined by the court.

8: The Defendant also respectfully requests that the court order interest on the account be frozen at the date of judgement, as further interest is likely to counter the effect of any installment payments made toward this debt.

9: The Defendant also submits that the Claimant has not followed the pre-action protocols in that request for consideration of her circumstances and offers for repayment have not been acknowledged and the Claimants have proceeded to court without further communication regarding the matter. The Defendant has also failed to supply sufficient information before bringing this claim, in accordance with PreAction Protocol 3.1(a), therefore the Claimant has requested further information in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rule's part 18.

[Bluebell]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

and another thing...!!! I've just looked at my file and I paid Orange £45 in January after Moorcroft pestered me and made all kinds of threats. I couldn't afford that £45 and it shows I'm not trying to dodge the debt. Could that be added too?

[Bluebell]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

sorry for coming up with more info in dribs and drabs

[Amethyst]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

yep - has that £45 been accoutned for in the balance claimed ?

also re CCCS was it a DMP or just a discussion cause I can change that bit too

[Amethyst]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

case/claim No: [cLAim number]

In the Northampton County Court

Orange

CLAIMANT

-AND-

Bluebell

DEFENDANT

DEFENCE

All allegations made in the particulars of claim are denied unless specifically admitted in this defence.

1: The Defendant had an account with the Claimant for supply of telephone services and/or equipment hire, account number xxxxxxxxxx hereinafter referred to as “the Account”.

2: The Account, at the time of the claim, is in debit by £135.00 (the amount of claim less the court costs/stat. interest.)

3: The Defendant has not attempted to avoid this debt and has taken steps to ensure her creditors receive payments at an amount that the Defendant can afford.

4: The Defendant has been in contact with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, reference XXXXXXXX, in an attempt to bring her financial affairs into order. The Defendant has recently suffered a considerable drop in income due to Maternity and does not expect her financial situation to improve for the foreseeable future.

5. The Defendant has not tried to avoid repayment of this debt and at detriment to her essential living expenses made a payment £45.00 on XX January 2008 in order to reduce the amount outstanding. This payment was made through Moorcroft full business title reference xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

5: Further, the Defendant has previously written to the Claimant with details of her income and essential expenditure and requested time to pay. Please see letter attached dated 11th February 2008 (appendix 1)

6: The Defendant has attached her updated Income and Expenditure to this claim (appendix 2)

7: The Defendant respectfully requests the court make an order for payment by monthly installments at an affordable amount as determined by the court.

8: The Defendant also respectfully requests that the court order interest on the account be frozen at the date of judgement, as further interest is likely to counter the effect of any installment payments made toward this debt.

9: The Defendant also submits that the Claimant has not followed the pre-action protocols in that request for consideration of her circumstances and offers for repayment have not been acknowledged and the Claimants have proceeded to court without further communication regarding the matter. The Defendant has also failed to supply sufficient information before bringing this claim, in accordance with PreAction Protocol 3.1(a), therefore the Claimant has requested further information in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rule's part 18.

[EXC]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

Nicely written Ame

[Bluebell]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

thank you thank you thank you. Just got back from Post Office!

Had to buy a florentine which wasn't on my IE form to celebrate! Woo hoo

[Amethyst]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

EXCELLENT :kiss:

Errr one down.....a few to go

Will try get a letter sorted for write off requests this evening.

Am going to nosey my way in on your Lloyds hardship claim thread a bit too....if we're asking for a write off as well as the refund well, be daft to do it seperately really.

[Bluebell]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

oh yipee thanks!!! you are a star!!!! :kiss:

[Amethyst]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

Okay - before we do the write off letters we have three important bits to sort out



1) COUNCIL TAX - £541 arrears
2) ELECTRICITY - £800 arrears
3) WATER - £725 arrears


MONTHLY PAYMENTS CURRENTLY (not paying arrears ?? just current payments can you confirm figures are correct - total for the house not split between you and OH that is)

1)COUNCIL TAX - £124.00
2)ELECTRICITY - £30.00
3) WATER - £45.00


Can you list exactly where you are with each of these, communication you have had with each authority etc.


With baby coming you have to get this sorted so you're not in a perpetual circle. We'll have to look at trust funds for water, prepayment meters for leccy, post office account for your new benefits, and council tax will possibly look at housing/co tax benefit. Priority at the moment is to ensure you and baby have some where to live, water, heat and food.

I also need to know what OH is doing about his debts - has he set anything in motion ?

[Bluebell]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

Things have got a bit messed up re these arrears. We haven't paid anything and I haven't written to them. :embarassed: I've had my head in the sand. I was put at ease by the CCCS who said not to worry to forget them all and write saying I was declaring myself bankrupt - so I tricked mysef into believing it would all be ok - I know it's absolutely stupid. I should've written straight away...I knew it too.

Since we moved we have transferred our new supply into my OH's name as the arrears were all in my name apart from CT. I can't remember which debt advise agency it was - but they said the electricity and water were therefore no longer priority debts.

Still I owe water £725 and Electricity approx £800.

I spoke to my old council re the CT arrears and they agreed to me writing with a payment proposal within a month (it's down to about 2 weeks now). My half is £541 the whole lot is £1082

Current payments are

1) COUNCIL TAX - £124.00 - payment due end of month
2) ELECTRICITY - £30.00 (estimated as we haven't been here long enough to know for sure)
3) WATER - £45.00 (same as above)

I opened a cash card account with Barclays on Friday for any benefits. Have filled in forms for HB & CTB, Working Tax Credits, Maternity Allowance, just need OH to fill out his bit.

As for what he's doing about his debts - he just wants rid of them, and has been doing a bit of research re bankruptcy. BUT he's also worried that his work will fire him if he were to declare himself bankrupt. He had an off the record chat with his immediate boss who was ok with it but said that the owners of the company might not be. It's thrown OH into a bit of confusion now...

[Amethyst]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

hmmmmmmmmm okay. thanks honey.

Well done on the cash card account thats a good move Get OH to get his bits on benefits forms sorted and things can start moving.

OH really needs to see a insolvency practitioner - having himself an appt with CCCS is probably a good place to start.

Keep up the current council tax, water, gas and electricity payments and the rent.

All the rest can be sorted out with payment offers. We might still end up looking at Bankruptcy but it has to be worth a shot at avoiding it if possible doesn't it?


The council tax needs writing to re this payment offer....they arent slow to get bailiffs involved etc so communication needs to be open. We can write and tell them you have applied for co tax benefit due to your change in circumstances and for the time being offer to pay off the arrears at something like £10 a month.

I really really don't know enough about bankruptcy and council tax, utilities debts so will have to do some reading.

Will have a good think tonight, unless anyone else jumps in that knows.

[Bluebell]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

Thank you Ame you are being such a help!! I will get together a letter and see what you think.

Dear Mrs CT,

I am writing with reference to our telephone conversation on [ ] regarding Council Tax Arrears at which time you requested that I write with a proposal for payment.

Although my partner and I had agreed to a repayment of £125 / month we now realise that we just cannot afford to pay this amount in addition to all our other expenses. We recently moved house and are now paying £190 more rent per month. I am also expecting a baby at the beginning of June, and I do not know when I will be returning to work. As a result our income is unlikely to change in the near future. We are making an application for housing benefit and council tax benefit and will be in receipt of some other benefits when the baby is born, but obviously expenses will also increase.

I enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows our total income from all sources, and the total outgoings of our household. As you can see we have very little money left to make offers of payment to our creditors.

In view of our circumstances, would you please accept payment of £10/month at present to be reviewed in six months.

Should our circumstances improve we will contact you again.

Thank you for your assistance. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Ys



I hope this is enough? I suppose they have to accept the £10 as we just can't afford to pay more. I'll enclose the IE form for both of us (it's so confusing having 2 - they never seem to match up ..but anyway)

[Bluebell]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

I forgot to mention I had £12 available for debts

[Amethyst]

Re: Bluebell's Debt Thread & Hardship Claim

That sounds fine to me hunny, even if they don't accept its communication and they are made aware you have a claim for council tax benefit in.

You need to write similar to the Water and Electric too. You won't be able to offer them as much, well £1 each a month, so put what you can afford at least it opens the lines of communication and stalls any debt collection practises and if things did progress you can show you have been responsible and have tried to get things sorted.


The electricity is a different supplier to the one you have in your new house and the debts in your name as opposed to OH's so that debt shouldnt have any influence on your current supply - ie they cant force you onto a prepayment meter to suck back the debt. Whos the supplier the debt's with ?