My Mum Against Abbey - trying to get stay lifted

[lee_s]

Hi All

Just would like some advice/pointers - or just some encouragement that I am going along the right lines.

Couple of years ago, I succesfully got £4K ish back from Abbey by following guidelines here on this website. My mum was widowed 2 yrs ago and is on minimum income ie: small pension and since reduction in income she started to go into the red which Abbey who have penalised her quite heavily. She's not in the best of health and has a habit of sticking her head in the sand but after a while of me nagging she finally agreed to start a new account elsewhere and let me help her reclaim her charges. Basically the small amount she had coming in was being swallowed up by Abbey charges.

Intial letters sent to Abbey and standard responses came back.
Got the info finally with details of charges and asked for these back.
Same std letter from Abbey saying they wouldn't refund, so CC claim started.
Luckily, she didn't have to pay the court for application due to low income. Claim was filed and Abbey responded with their standard defence.
Then they applied for a stay which was granted without any option to have our say.
We've now submitted the N244 and again due to her financial situation didn't have to pay a fee. We did it on the grounds of hardship + other arguments made here ie: human rights etc.
She's had a letter back from court saying a hearing has been set for 6th December and assumption is that a copy of her application and witness statement have been sent to Abbey as well. (she received a duplicate of her original application along with the notice of hearing)

My thoughts are the court know why we've applied to have stay lifted. Copies would have been sent to Abbey's Solicitors as well.

I have asked her to complete an income /expenditure sheet showing current financial status (with copies of pension details/benefits) to prove she is finding it hard to get by.

Do we need to submit anything further to the court prior to hearing ?

At what point would abbey start making an offer to settle. Is it prior to the full blown hearing - as opposed to lifting of a stay ?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
Lee

[Castlebest]

Hiya Lee, I'm personally not acquainted with the Abbey Habit (sorry for the pun) in this situation but most banks are defending stay appeals in court and because the OFT test case is now only a few weeks away most judges are upholding stays pending the outcome even in cases of hardship .

Having said that, as you have a date I recommend you go along and argue your case, you will need to prepare a bundle, this will not only give your judge all of the facts he needs but I found it useful giving some structure to my own argument in court. (you can just follow all the points through and answer any questions you judge has).

heres the template
Bundle for stay hearings

Download it and add/edit it to your mum's claim, let us know if you have any queries.

pete

[lee_s]

Thanks Pete

Will get my head around the bundle and get this submitted asap.

Lee