Incasso: Court date

[rathian]

Hello,

 

Incasso had a court verdict awarding a sum far in excess of what I can afford to repay upheld.

 

I have appealed the decision and requested a day out in court. The letter arrived setting a date of August 12th at my local court.

 

Now what? I am confused on how to proceed.

 

What do I need to take with me?

 

Do I need to register what I take with me with the court prior to the court date?

 

What tactics should I be using?

 

I am at the court because of a bad accountant with bad advise. Once I discovered they were doing nothing that they had agreed to it was too late to stop the CCJ. I have offered payment to Incasso via the courts which was rejected however I have continued to pay the £10 per month offer while awaiting the outcome.

 

Any help would be appeciated.

[I've got no money]

Could you give us a bit more information - you say that Incasso had a verdict upheld??? - I don't really understand that.

 

What are you appealing against - is it the original judgment or is it the instalment order - is it an appeal or is it a redermination of the instalment order.

 

Did you have to file an N161?

[rathian]

OK, I will start from the beginning.

 

My company had an overdraft. £15,000 jointly guaranteed by myself and my business partner. We had to put the company into receivership and was advised along the way by an accountant. He said he had plenty of dealing with the Royal Bank of Scotland at head office level and that any documentation received should be forwarded to him and he would take care of everything.

 

I received a letter from Incasso about 4 months after and forwarded this to the accountants. I heard nothing and believing no news is good news and that the accountant was sorting everything as promised I left it.

 

Just after Christmas I received a CCJ application from court filed by Incasso. I attempted to contact the accountant for 3 days receiving no response from his mobile nor getting a call back from messages left with his receptionist.

 

My new employer put me in touch with his accountant who gave me a little advise. It appears as though I was conned by this bunch of accountants. I contacted Incasso on the accountants advise and they told me that what I told them I could afford to pay was not acceptable.

 

They informed me that as there was a joint guarantee on the money outstanding I had to accept the full amount and fill out the income and expenditure form along with the offer of what I could afford.

 

I duly obliged, whether this was right I am not so sure after finding these forums, but what is done is done I guess.

 

I didn't hear anything for some time until a CCJ arrived in my mail along with an order to pay £223 something a month. There is no way I can afford this as I only have about £60 left in my account once all my bills have been taken care of.

 

I followed the instruction on the bottom of the form on how to appeal the decision, again sending a copy of my income and expenditure and requesting that I have my case heard at my local court.

 

I received a letter which said that I had had my request accepted an that the case would be heard at my local county court.

 

About a week later I received my last communication stating I had to appear at the local County Court on 12th August at midday.

 

Does this help?

[I've got no money]

Ok - it sounds as if the hearing is to deal with how much you are going to have to pay every month.

 

It'll be you, someone from the other side and a District Judge in a private room, you need to take evidence of your income and expenditure.

[rathian]

I am assuming evidence of my income would be my payslips.

 

For evidence of expediture would bank statements suffice or do I need more information like the actual paper bills?

 

Thank you for your help.

[I've got no money]

No - Payslips and bank statements should be fine - especially if all of your utilities etc come out of the bank...

 

Unfortunately I don't know enough about guarantees and business debts so I can't really hazard a guess as to whether you could have the CCJ set aside.

 

One thing that does strike me - have they only sued you? You mentioned that the overdraft was jointly guaranteed with your business partner - has the bank sued them as well?

[rathian]

They have sued my ex business partner too. Not sure where he is as I have not had chance to speak with him for a few weeks.