Charging Order/court Hearings

[ziggy04]

hello to all of you out there, this is my first time on the consumer forum,

can anyone help me withh filling in a N244 COUNTY COURT FORM,

i have been sent an interim charging order by a D C A, with a hearing set for end of may 08 at Wandsworth county court in London

This is approx 150 miles from where i live on the east coast, i have no transport & i am partially sighted, i want to get the court hearing moved to my local court, and i have to fill in this N244, which my son printed of the internet for me, but it doesn't have any thing on it about changing court venues, i don't know what to put where !! all this is doing my head in ,is anyone out there done this ? any help would be great thanks;)

Edited May 13, 2008 by ziggy04

[Hobbie]

Bump

 

Anyone out there able to offer some advice?

[Mr lex]

Hi Ziggy,

 

First of all Welcome to the Consumer Action Group

 

I am sorry to hear of your circumstances, Don't panic.

 

I have ask one of our more experienced 'legal' people to come over to your thread and help you with your N224 and your case.

 

Help is coming.

 

Lex

[ziggy04]

hello Lex, great to meet you, thanks for helping, i wish i found this site last year ! got myself in a mess financially , its a bit of a mindfield to me, thanks again Ziggy

[ziggy04]

hello hobbie, thanks for looking at my thread nice to meet you thanks Ziggy

[pt2537]

Hi there Ziggy,

 

this isnt my normal area of expertise, but can i ask when did the case go to court? i am assuming that they already have a CCJ and you didnt keep up with it? is that correct?

 

if you could give me a little back ground on this i may be able to help

 

my first thoughts were , if there are grounds for it, was to try and get the judgment set aside but i would need a little more details to advise further

[steven4064]

Hi ziggy

 

In part A put

 

I ziggy04

 

intend to apply for an order that

 

this case number xxxx be moved to xxxxx County Court

 

because

 

the court to which the case has been allocated (Wandsworth County Court) is approx 150 miles from where I live in xxxxxx, I have no transport and I am partially sighted.

 

In Part C put any supporting evidence you can - eg attach a letter from DWP about incapacity benefit or similar (write "Letter from DWP attached" on the form)

[ziggy04]

thanks for your reply,

the original debt was to barclaycard,the original debt was approx £3,700, when i defaulted ,the debt was sold on to a D C A They took me to court and a ccj was granted and i have a instalment aggreement of

£50.00,i am up to date at the present time with my payments to them , but in february i was late with one payment but i did pay it, so i expect that was when they applied for an iterim charging which i received in april, with the final charging order date set for end May 08 at wandsworth county court in london, i live in gt yarmouth on the east coast approx 150 miles away, i am going to try to get it moved to Lowestoft county court.

there is no way i could get there due to the distance involved i don't drive or have transport i am partially sighted & have other health related issues

Around the time that i got the ccj summons i had Bells Palsy and was not well enough to go to the hearing so i sent the forms back, i realise in hindsight that i should have challenged the amount claimed, the ccl was for £5,752.76 which i expect were penalty charges added by the creditor,

i am sure it was bumped up over £5,000 so they can charge extra interest

if the charging order is made final,the annoying thing is that i have my house up for sale so i can clear my debts, but can't sell until after the hearing, but what with the housing market the way it is it still may take a while, i wish i had done things differently , but that's the beauty of hindsight isn't it, its not doing much for my blood pressure that for sure!

anyway that the long & short of it by the way i am co owner of the property being charged & the debt in registered against me, thanks for taking the time to help much appreciated

Ziggy

Edited May 13, 2008 by ziggy04

[ziggy04]

hello Steven thanks for your help with the N244 just one other thing do i have to put anything in the two boxes at the top of the form, where it says how do you wish to have your application dealt with etc; and the claim no & defendant box , heaven knows how i'll get on when i got to court not looking forward to that ! thanks again

Ziggy

[ziggy04]

hello all,just sent of N244 form to get hearing moved to nearer my home, just have to wait & see what happens

[ziggy04]

Hello all, as i already have a ccj & interim charging order,does anyone know whether i could claim back any excessive charges as i suspect the dca & original creditor added, if so how do i go about it? grateful for any advice thanks

ziggy

[sequenci]

I'm really sorry I didn't get to see this in time.

 

You may wish to follow up the n244 with a letter which stresses the need for you to have the hearing transferred to your local court AND:

 

a) the 'overriding objective' of ensuing that the parties are on an equal footing (r.1.1(2)(a))

 

b) that the charging order application could be more conveniently and failry dealt with in your local court (r.30.2(1)(b)) amd (r.30.3(2)(b))

 

c) the facilities available at your local court would be more adequate due to your disability (r.30.3(2)(f))

[ziggy04]

hello thanks for the advice,i did state on the N244 form that i had a severe sight sensory impairment,but i could certainly send a follow up letter,i hope they transfer it , because i haven't a chance of getting to London thanks

ziggy

[ziggy04]

hello to all

i wonder if anyone has any views or advice for me, a brief outline of my situation,got a lot going on at the present time hope you will bear with me!! i am going to court in a few weeks to attend & oppose a final charging order on my house, this has arisen from having a ccj for a barclaycard debt, however the debt was sold onto a DCA & they persued it through the county court. (i was unable to attend at the time as i was ill) . iv'e been & still are paying the amount oredered by the court but was a

bit late paying one instalment & that how i've got to this stage regarding the charging order,

i am relativelly new to the forums and found this site trying to find advice on the net,anyway

Now the original lender & the DCAwho now owns the debt have between them added approx £2000 in charges/penalties.

i know i cannot do anything about the ccj, but would like to know if i can find out what i have been charged for & would i have any grounds for reclaiming charges even though the debt was sold on,? any advice & help would be much appreciated,it seems so wrong that they can slap on these charges, my personal view is that they somehow inflated the original debt to over £5000 so its over the limit for the small claims procedures and to top that they will get 8% interest every month until the debt is paid,if the charging order is granted,makes me see red", thanks for reading this

ziggy

[Castlebest]

If you were ill and couldn't attend court for the CCJ hearing then the judgment you have against you is a judgment by default. Basically the judge had no evidence in your favor so had no choice but to award in favor of the claimant.

 

This means that your case hasn't been heard properly, if you can prove to the court you were ill that is grounds to apply to have the judgment set aside, together with the fact you are a litigant in person and ignorant of the workings of the court.

 

Even without that there is nothing stopping you, in fact they should be telling you, exactly what the debt is made up with and of course any penalty charges and interest on those charges would become a counter claim to be submitted with your defense.

 

How much time have you go to sort this out?

 

pete

[Rahl]

Worth looking here too ...

 

 

National Debtline England & Wales | Debt Advice | Factsheet 12 How To Set Aside A Judgment In The County Court

[ziggy04]

hello thanks for your reply

i live on the east coast & the court hearing is for 30th may at wandsworth county court about 150 miles from me i am partially sighted with other health issues, the plaintiff is the infamous HFO services a difficult lot to deal with, i have applied to have the court hearing moved to my local court and are waiting for a date/reply,do you know how i would find out if the charges were illegal from reading other threads i have noted that a subject access request should be send but from what i've read HFO often do not comply & drag their heels,i have never been to court & frankly i find this really disturbing, heads going around abit that why i'm up so late,can't sleep much though,would i have to get a letter from my doctor ,regarding my health ?

thanks again for taking the time to read this

ziggy

[Rahl]

I try and get a mod to look....

[ziggy04]

thankyou very much rahl appreciated

[Rahl]

When was the original ccj granted ? Just thinking of chances of getting it set aside etc ...

 

Mods notified, but it is late, so probably will see them giving you advice tomorrow ...

 

Did you ever get a notice of assignment from the dca ?

 

It is better that you do get a letter from the doctor in the chance it can be set aside .

 

It is a bit late for a SAR , but a cpr18 might give you the info you need. If you can use those for a second hearing..I do not know / , but there are many here that are well versed on these matters to help )

Edited May 17, 2008 by Rahl

[Castlebest]

Ok that should be enough time for you to get all of this on the right footing, yours not theirs

 

Have you spoken to your local Citizens Advice Bureau? they can be a great help and might sort things out quicker because they can look at all of the documents and correspondence you have rather than us asking questions and giving our thoughts.

 

whatever you do you will need to send both a Consumer Credit Act section 78 request (costs £1) and an SAR (costs £10) to the DCA to base your defence on.... and see what you get back, if you start to get close to your court date with no replies you can use the judges rules to get the information .

 

pete

[steven4064]

two threads merged into 'legal issues'. If you don't think this is the right place click on the rd triangle andf ask for it to be moved. Please keep to one thread to avoid confusion.

[sequenci]

Regarding a set-aside, there must be grounds for this to be successful.

 

DEFAULT JUDGMENT

 

You may have a default judgment made against you where there was no hearing and you have not sent back the 'acknowledgement of service' form to say you intend to put in a defence. You may also have a default judgment made against you if you have not sent in the reply form asking for time to pay within the time limits.

 

When must the court set aside the judgment? The court must set aside the default judgment if you:

 

-have paid the whole amount owed (including any interest and costs) before the date the creditor entered judgment;

-sent back the acknowledgement of service form within the time limit;

-put in a defence within the time limit; or

-sent in the reply form early to pay within the time limit.

-The court must set aside the judgment in these circumstances, even if you do not have a defence. There is no time limit for making an application on these grounds.

 

When is it up to the court to decide?

 

The court may agree to set aside the default judgment if you did not send in a reply form with the time limit if:

 

-the court thinks you have a real chance of a successful defence to the claim; or

-the court thinks there is some other good reason why the judgment should be set aside.

 

There is no time limit for making an application on these grounds but the court will look at whether you made the application 'promptly'.

[ziggy04]

hello tthanks everyone for you advice and trying to help

Had some bad news this morning my N244 application to have the hearing moved to my local court was denied , yhey state that i did not have the right documentation to support my 160 form for fee remission, i have been on income suport for a number of years due to my disability, i only get a notification of benefit payable annually, i don't get a benefit determination letter every year,even if i could get one it would probably take too long for the DWP to send me one, so that's that the DCA will get their charging order by default,the court hearing is set for 10.30 am on the 3oth, haven't got ahope in hell of getting there from the east coast, feeling rather low & a bit tearful ( i suffer from chronic depression ) not got any fight in me now, anyway thanks alot everyone

you have been very kind

ziggy (diane)

[robcag]

Hi Diane

 

Would it be possible for you to beg borrow or steal (OK, not steal) the fee from a friend or relative, as these fees can be re-claimed from the court up to 6 months after payment.

 

I was in the same position as you a few months ago (no acceptable proof of income-based JSA) but fortunately had the cash available to pay the fee.

 

I then went into my local Job Centre and got one of the staff to 'produce' a letter for me which stated I was in receipt of said benefit. I then had to submit a fresh EX160 form to the court to claim the fee back, which was refunded by cheque about 2 weeks later.

 

Maybe you don't have to give up yet!

 

Good luck

Rob