Advice please re: HFC & Weightman's

[squarepeg]

Hello everyone, just when i thought things were chugging along nicely up pops a court claim from Weightmans re a HFC debt.

 

Perhaps I should explain a little of the history behind it all. We currently have a DMP with Payplan, this has been in place for two years. HFC is just one of 8 creditors, we have paid our monthly amount to payplan on time every month, and they have distributed the relevant amounts to each of the creditors.

 

Earlier this year the HFC debt was taken over by Weightmans and we had letters to say they wanted to put a charge on our house, the matter was passed to Payplan to deal with and we heard no more - until yesterday - when this mail came from Northampton County Court. I have emailed our case worker at Payplan to ask what to do. the debt is made up of genuine debt but also late charges etc which i have not got around to claiming yet. I have told payplan that i intend to send a SAR to HFC for my statements to find out how many charges they have made.

 

Can anyone advise me further please on the following.

 

If I have entered into a DMP that HFC have agreed to how can weightmans take me to court.

Will the court make us pay the whole debt as weightmans are demanding (we don't have the money to do this).

Should I be requesting the CCA from HFC or should i be requesting it from Weightmans.

 

sorry to be asking so many questions, but we really thought that we were getting somewhere with our debts, but this is just starting all the stress again and at our age we don't need it, it already means that my husband will have to work until he is at least 67 (another 7 years) so that we can pay off our debts.

 

thanks for any help

 

SP

[powelll]

If I have entered into a DMP that HFC have agreed to how can weightmans take me to court.

 

The debt can still be passed on to a DCA you can still be defaulted and county court action can still be taken even if you are in a DMP

 

Will the court make us pay the whole debt as weightmans are demanding (we don't have the money to do this).

 

You would get the chance to respond to the county court claim form you get through the post with an admission & offer of payment eg the same as they are getting on the DMP . If you admit you owe the money. You could look at defending or partly defending the claim also eg if charges involved.

 

If your offer of payment is rejected by the creditor then it's up to the court to decide what's 'reasonable' for you to pay. So can't give definite answer - I would certainly be pointing out that your other creditors are getting a share of your surplus and are happy with it though...

 

Should I be requesting the CCA from HFC or should i be requesting it from Weightmans.

 

Weightmans

 

Best of luck; keep us posted

[squarepeg]

Thanks Powell, for your reply

 

i have had an email from payplan today asking me to fill the forms from 1 - 5 and they will fill the rest, I will phone them in the morning and see what they say, my working hours have changed and my shift pattern means that my monthly pay fluctuates quite a bit, so i don't know what to put in the income section, and i certainly don't want my employer to find out the mess i'm in.

 

Sp

[squarepeg]

meant to ask as well -

 

where do i stand if weightmans can't produce the CCA?

 

thanks

 

SP

[powelll]

meant to ask as well -

 

where do i stand if weightmans can't produce the CCA?

 

thanks

 

SP

 

If they breach CCA you can stop paying them until they comply. You need to be aware that PayPlan aren't really set up to cope with this as they primarily provide a debt management service.

[squarepeg]

yes, I am aware that payplan can only deal with the debt side of it all.

 

 

thanks

 

SP

[squarepeg]

ok - need some urgent advice please.

 

I have had a notice from the court to say that weightmans have refused the amount proposed (i assume that Payplan entered weightmans share of the £170 per month that we pay them).

 

The court has ordered us to pay £160 per month to weightmans. we can't do that as well as pay payplan £170, so where do i go from here?

 

I am going to ring the court tomorrow and I have also asked our case officer to call me urgently.

 

this is really getting me down now.

 

 

SP

[squarepeg]

anyone? please?

 

I have come across a thread

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/118878-help-court-ccj-letter.html

 

and think i might just send that letter off to weightmans and see what happens, I haven't had the CCA from them, I mentioned it to our case worker, who hesitated a bit when i asked if weightmans had the CCA and he said Yes they did.

 

do you think that this letter is appropriate for my situation? also some of the debt is made up of charges does the CCJ stop me from claiming them back and what happens to the CCJ if i go ahead with the claim.

 

I think I need to get my butt in gear and get these CCA requests off to everyone concerned.

 

thanks

 

SP

[PriorityOne]

It sounds as if there is already a CCJ on this account... in which case it overrides any non-compliance of a CCA request now.

 

You appear to have 2 options here.

 

1. Complete and submit form N245 to the court, in order to have the payments reduced to an affordable level.

 

2. Apply to have the CCJ set aside on the basis of either... unlawful charges having been applied to the account or due to non-compliance of a CCA request.

 

Set asides are not my thing... so you would need to someone else to advise on this.

[squarepeg]

Thanks PrioityOne, yes the CCJ is in place, i had notification yesterday but at a level we can't afford.

 

i will speak with the court and payplan tomorrow and see what they say

 

SP

[PriorityOne]

I'm not sure how much use Payplan are in these situations, but the court should be able to advise you on the N245.

 

If the CCJ has only just been applied, then you may have grounds for a set aside.... but it needs to be discussed on here before you go to the court with it, so you know what you're doing, the liklihood of success, etc.

 

[squarepeg]

i will know more tomorrow, i didn't send the forms to the court it was dealt with by payplan, so i don't even know how much they have declined. I must say that i am not happy with payplan at the moment - they assured me that the amount i needed to pay would not increase. and the court would take into account the fact that we have paid into the dmp for two years with no problems

 

I know that this CCJ is a step to having a charge put on the house which is what weightmans have been after all along.

 

sp

[PriorityOne]

This is often the problem when you place your trust in DM companies ... You are better off taking the advice offered on this site and doing things yourself IMO.

 

If you want to look into getting a set aside.... PM tomterm8/rory32 to have a look at this thread and I will help you where I can...

 

[Hopeful1]

Hi Squarepeg. Follow Priorityone's advice and send a private message to the people she has suggested.

 

I am dealing with the same two companies and i get the feeling you do need to be on top of them. Best of luck with this.

[squarepeg]

Thanks i will do that

 

SP

[squarepeg]

Ok, i have just etc spoken to the court who said that as i have admitted the amount owed i can't now claim the bank charges that are included in the debt, so i can't counter claim.

 

the lady said i need to write to the court asking for a reconsideration within 16 days. i explained that we were in a dmp and this debt has been part of the dmp for 2 years. she said it sounds like this has not been made clear and there 's been some sort of confusion!

 

does this mean i can't send the letter to weightmans asking for the CCA (as in pt2527 letter in this thread - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/118878-help-court-ccj-letter.html

 

I'm not very good at letters, so any help would be useful.

 

thanks

 

SP

[tomterm8]

Ok, i have just etc spoken to the court who said that as i have admitted the amount owed i can't now claim the bank charges that are included in the debt, so i can't counter claim.

 

the lady said i need to write to the court asking for a reconsideration within 16 days. i explained that we were in a dmp and this debt has been part of the dmp for 2 years. she said it sounds like this has not been made clear and there 's been some sort of confusion!

 

does this mean i can't send the letter to weightmans asking for the CCA (as in pt2527 letter in this thread - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/118878-help-court-ccj-letter.html

 

I'm not very good at letters, so any help would be useful.

 

thanks

 

SP

 

 

It sounds like you have admitted the debt at the county court stage. It will, therefore be difficult to get a set aside. I don't really have much experience with getting a set aside granted in these circumstances; I would suggest pming maybe rory32 or gizmo111 (site moderators) and sequenci to have a look at the thread.

 

In practice, I personally would strongly suggest sending a redetermination letter pointing to the DMP which you have been in for the last 2 years, the fact you suggested payments are within the recommended level by the debt management charity, and containing a statement of affairs etc. Sequenci is a good person to advise you one what works in such a letter.

[sequenci]

Ok, i have just etc spoken to the court who said that as i have admitted the amount owed i can't now claim the bank charges that are included in the debt, so i can't counter claim.

 

It could be difficult to obtain a set-aside but it could still be argued that you didn't know when you admitted the debt and now you are aware of the charges.

 

the lady said i need to write to the court asking for a reconsideration within 16 days. i explained that we were in a dmp and this debt has been part of the dmp for 2 years. she said it sounds like this has not been made clear and there 's been some sort of confusion!

 

some creditors couldn't care less about DMPs (grrr) - You should write requesting a redetermination including info about the original judgment + why you want the redetermination + a supporting budget sheet to show your statement of affairs + other creditors.

[squarepeg]

summing up..

 

i got a re-determination, it's taken from november to now. first it was sent to the wrong court, i didn't find out about the court date until 5 days before, they had sent the new date to Payplan who had 'forgotten' to inform me, anyway, i couldn't get to court so I wrote a letter explaining, then i found that the judge had decided to transfer it to my local court and the new hearing was last week. I again wrote to the judge explaining that we were in DMP, hadn't missed payments, unfair advantage on other creditors etc - the result was that my court overturned the £160 that the first hearing asked for in favour of the amount that we have been paying all along - £16.11p.

So, really pleased with the outcome, although I think that Weightmans will now go for a charge on our property. I will make sure that the hearings come back to my local court and complain that we are being harassed. It might not do any good but at least my feelings will be made known.

 

SP

[tomterm8]

They can't go for a charge on your property. if the court has accepted £16.11p as an installment order, then as long as you pay the £16.11 you are entirely safe (at least until the new court act comes into force)