GE Money about to enforce suspended reposession order. Please help

[IamALLthatIam]

Hi all, Really need help with this one. G E Money Home lending sent a letter, dated 5th may 2009 (we received it yesterday 11th May) stating that consideration is now being given regarding enforcement of the order for possession that was suspended on 11th November 2008 for six months, resulting in a a date being set by the baillifs for an eviction appointment. They have stated that they "may be willing to provide us with one further option to withhold further action if the breach of the........." (they left the sentence unfinished, but we are assuming the are implying if the breach was remedied ie arrears paid , which we are unable to do) I now know - (yes I know its a bit late now , but I hadn't found this site back then ) that to get a case stated or a judicial review is unlikely because of the time limits being exceeded. Is there any other way of getting this back into court for a rehearing , if so how do I go about it there is not equity in the property at all and it is not on the market for that reason, so that is not a option any and all advise would be very much appreciated

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, could you give a little more information please?

 

Did you attend the court hearing to defend the action?

What were the conditions of the suspended possession? i.e. were you to pay the arrears over a period of time?

 

If you can answer the above I can advise you further

 

Kind Regards

 

Ell-enn

[IamALLthatIam]

Hi there, Both my husband and I attended the hearing but didn't know any of what we know, now unfortunately, we basically wrote to the court, in defence, before hand explaining our situation, long story but one of financial hardship due to unforeseen circumstances but this was not taken into consideration at all. After confirming who we were and who the other party where, ie. a representative of GE money who was in attendance , he stated that he was applying for a possession order and it was granted but suspended for six months on the basis that we continue to pay the monthly instalment of £833 = £174 arrears. We were asked if we were able to maintain the payments if not to say so because "their was no point in delaying the inevitable" to which we relied " we are going to have to arent we , it doesn't look like we have got much choice" after her having said she could just grant a possession order ( not suspended) and that was about it. We have kept up payments including arrears for the last five months ( nov, dec, jan, feb, missed marches, but paid april's) but ti has been at he expense of everything else. We are self employed and run a small village shop, because we have paid the mortgage payments at the expense of everything else we have defaulted on all other agreements , we have had to temporarily cease trading because of the threat of bailiffs ( council tax) gaining peaceable entry. So now we have no income whatsoever, we have been refused benefit because we own the shop and the house. I have just sent then a letter asking for a subject access request. The court case was based on information in the "exhibit B" which was a copy of the "mortgage offer" which only has our signatures on it NOT the mortgage lenders. The actual mortgage contract was not produced at all let me know if you require anything else

[Ell-enn]

How much were the arrears at the time of the hearing?

[IamALLthatIam]

At the time of the hearing it was £2950.53 and now it is £2936.66 , as i said we have paid 5 x £174 but most of that has gone on charges / charges added

[Ell-enn]

OK, well firstly the charges cannot be added to the arrears - they are added to the outstanding balance of the mortgage and are not arrears they are charges! The 5 payments of £174 should come off the arrears.

 

However, you can enter an N244 form at court to ask for a hearing to stop enforcement of eviction - but the problem you have is that you say you have no income at present so therefore you cannot demonstrate how you will maintain payments going forward. That being the case the judge would have great difficulty in finding in your favour.

 

The other option would be to ask the court for time to sell the property. Is this mortage for the shop or the house?

 

Ell-enn

[IamALLthatIam]

this mortgage is for the house. the shop is mortgaged by way of a secured business loan. We would have an income if we were to open the shop again, which is our intention as soon as we stop bailiff action

[Ell-enn]

Is there any accommodation with the shop? i.e. could you move into that and rent out the house to pay the mortgage?

[IamALLthatIam]

i am assuming there is interest added to the arrears at at present as £14 has come off of the balance despite having paid £870

[IamALLthatIam]

there is a one bed flat which is in a state of disrepair really as we were halfway through remoderniseing it and making it self contained after extending the shop in order to accommodate hubby's mum , we were sole carer's for her , she had alzeimers , it was out intention to move her into the flat to be better able to care for her but she died in April before the work was completed. we have four kids

[Ell-enn]

As a long shot you could write to GE and ask them to add the arrears to the end of the mortgage (is it interest or repayment mortgage?). If they were to agree, would you be in a position to start trading again and make payments to the mortgage? Is the shop your sole source of income?

 

If they don't agree then given that you have no income with which to maintain the mortgage payments going forward I suspect that any application you make to the court would ultimately result in a possession order being granted to GE.

 

However, if you do nothing at present and wait for GE to apply for an eviction warrant you could buy yourself some time to make arrangements for alternative accommodation. It can take a few weeks for an eviction order to be served on you and you could then apply for suspension which, given you have 4 children, might give you a further 28 or 56 days.

 

It might be a good idea to ring Shelter tomorrow (tel: 0808 800 444) they have advisors who will be able to help you in your situation and may be able to support you in court.

 

Ell-enn

[IamALLthatIam]

Yes the shop is our sole source of income, we bought the shop when hubby lost his job, we were both running it along with caring for his and my mother and the kids, but since his mother died i have been unable to work - lymphodema, two slipped discs, chronic asthma and hypothyroidism - so he has been running the shop. Income through the shop plummeted since all passing trade was redirected due to road works , new racecourse is being built at the bottom end of the village along with another 250 houses - opens in July if all goes to plan , so income is likely to pick up in the long term. My mother,70 yr old , has now been sectioned under the mental health act so no help there. We have contacted the council and asked to be put on the housing register but have been told that they can't do anythign until we get an eviction notice , there arent any properties round here anyway ( very rural wales) and our points are very low because we own property and are considered to have more that £18k in assets even though it is all subject to repossession. the shop has been on the market for over a year now

[Ell-enn]

OK, I would urge you to give Shelter a ring in the morning - see what they say and let us know.

 

Ell

[IamALLthatIam]

OK will do, thanks for your help , i`ll let you know how I get on x x

[IamALLthatIam]

HI folks I am back again. We are still at the house and GE are still like a dog with an old bone.

 

We have been backwards and forwards to court with various eviction notices. i shall try and fill you in as briefly as possible.

 

April 2009, With regards to the shop, natwest tried to make us bankrupt but failed as they declared they did not have a "secured" interest in the business - they have and we proved it via land registry. they were ordered to rely on their "interest" ie go for possession first. Which they still have not done.

 

We finally had to cease trading June 2010, the shop has been marketed all this time and we now have a buyer and sale going through, althugh natwest are ignoring all requests for a redemption figure???? Apparently the requests are being treated as complaints ??

 

18th august 2010 GE Money issued us with an eviction notice again to be executed 1st september 2010 - on the 20th august my dad had a stroke and died on the 3rd sept

 

We applied for a stay of eviction on the grounds that there was a pending benefit claim ( trying to claim income support after business closed in june , still no decision made) application to stay eviction was refused on this point but adjourned until 12th november so that we can submit more info into the court re; the proposed shop sale.

 

Went into court on 12th november , with confirmation of shop sale, solicitors details ect and a sworn affidavit stating arrears to be paid from proceeds of shop sale. Also included confirmation that i am now in receiot of benefit and offering the monthly instalment plus £200 off arrears each month until shop sale completes.

 

Claimant demanded monthly instalment plus £82.73of the arrears each month

 

judge accepted our income and expenditure form and noted that we are offering £117 per month off the arrears MORE that the claimants request but still dismissed the application to stay the eviction but stated that "the eviction is not to be enforced for eight weeks as the court is not in the habit of enforcing evictions before christmas. And he grants us leave to appeal when the claimant gets a new bailiff date " ????

 

The order came thrugh with 6 weeks on it NOT 8, we now have a new date for 10th january 2011

 

We are currently making weekly payments by standing order for the monthly instalments PLUS the £200 we offered that the judge refused

 

Obviously we will appeal again , but where do we go from here.........any suggestions............

[Ell-enn]

Has the sale of the shop been completed yet?

[newstarter]

Hi there, what reason or reasons did the judge give when dismissing your application for a stay of eviction,as i see it,you have proof of sale,regarding the shop,so proof that you can pay off any outstanding arrears,you are in reciept of benefits so can afford your mortrgage payments going forward,your already paying more off your arrears than the claimants requested,and you are disputing the arrears amount as you believe charges have been added to the arrears figure,(all this info needs to be going on your n244 form by the way when you recieve your eviction notice).

 

Sounds to me like the judge was not switched on here, you have had 2 very poor hearings,if you can show that you are are paying off the arrears,can meet the monthly mortgage payments and your arrears is in dispute the i see no reason why this eviction should not be suspended,however you will need a good defence as this next hearing sounds as though it may be your last shot.Dont take this the wrong way but it may be that your last defence was not up to scratch,legally speaking,if that was the case then you will need to bring together,the change of circumstances and some case law,this should not be a problem as at least you have been given some breathing space.

[IamALLthatIam]

HI Ell -enn,

no not yet, although solicitors have been appointed on both sides and finance on the buyers part had been agreed ( offer made and accepted)

[IamALLthatIam]

HI Newstarter,

 

the judge did not give a reason, in actual fact after reading what was put in front of him he did actually say that yes he could see what was offered was reasonable and more than the claimant had asked for but.... he was still going to dismiss it. My solicitor objected, but before she could put forward a valid reason why he came back with "it would not be enforced for 8 weeks" ( effevectively suspending it - despite it being "dismissed") to which the claimants barrister objected demanding that it be enforced immediately - the judge them coming back again with "the courts were not in a habit of enforcing evictions before christmas."

 

The solicitor, did say before we went in ( urs was the last of the day ) that it "was not looking good - as he has dismissed all of the previous applications that day " surely all cases should be judged on their own merit.

[newstarter]

mmmmmmmm sounds like you caught him on a bad day,all the same reasons for dismissal should have been given,and you recieved no paperwork afterwards,giving reasons for the dismissal?. Im also surprised your solicitor didnt ask,the barrister managed to get his two penneth in,why didnt she? This sounds like a poor job all round,plus a judge on a bad day,sounds to me that you were walked all over in court.

[newstarter]

If i were you i would put my defence of this eviction together myself,i would begin with,the sale of the shop and the fact the arrears would be paid by the proceeds from the sale,that there had been a change in circumstances regarding benefits,that there were issues with the arrears figure regarding charges, (also mention the s.a.r) i would also be looking at ge,s behaviour over this,complete an up to date income and expenditure sheet,back up your defence with some case law and go to the hearing properly prepared and defend it myself.

[Ell-enn]

What;s the chances of the sale completing before the next hearing?