THe Court Hearing today - Urgent Help please

[judelsg]

Hello,

 

We went to court today to face Bankruptcy from an old creditor.

Their Solicitor turned up and sat down with us for 15 minutes before we went in front of the Judge.

 

We explained

a) We did not receive the Statute Demand. They claimed we did. The have a written truth something from someone saying they sent us a card saying they would turn up at 9pm, but came at 5pm and pushed it through our letterbox.

 

b) We believe this debt to be statute barred which we told them back on October to produce proof it was not. They turned up at court claiming the documents had been archived and it takes time to get them out

 

c) We offered to pay £40 a month to try and stop this going to court. They declined saying they wanted at least half the debt £600 straight away and suggested we borrowed it from friends, PLUS £40 a month.

 

The Judge told my husband and I to go see Citizens Advice Bureau immediately. The case has been adjourned for 4 weeks which allows the creditors to pull out the documents to prove it is not Statute barred. If it is not statute barred the Judge will put the debt against our home and should we fail to make the payments of £40 a month ( which has still nto been agreed with the creditor ) then the home can be sold to pay off the debt.

The solicitor for the creditor then asked the judge if it was OK to give copy of the statute demand to us there and then..he agreed.

 

I was trying to hold back the tears as they explained to us what was happnening. THe Judge again looked at my husband and said Go SEE CAB !

 

We went to CAB straight from court but you have to turn up in a morning at 9am and queue. I will do this Monday.

 

I thought though the only a debt signed to be secured against your home could in fact be secured against your home?

Should we get a solicitor? Do they cost much?

My husband has suggested we sell the house now and go into rented accommodation, pay the debt and then see if we can buy again.

We have a £35k equity in the house.

 

The debt today stood at £1500, but the Solicitor asked the judge if she could add today's court proceedings costs to the debt and he said yes, so it continues to go up and up.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[judelsg]

I also was led to believe that should you ask the creditor for a copy of the original agreement and a copy of the account and they did not bring it to court that the judge would say no to the petition, but he just agreed all the time with the solicitor when she asked for a adjournment.

[spamheed]

Given that the actual status of the account is undetermined I be3lieve that the judge is in the wrong to allow costs to either party, you really needed to get this sorted at an earlier stage. You needed to stand up for yourself in court, the solicitors do this on a daily basis and will happily coerce the judge to suite their own ends

 

If they haven't yet proven that the debt is not statute barred then the judge needed to make an order for them to do so BEFORE any sanctions were made against you, this is assuming that the debt is substatiated by an agreement in the first place

[sam614]

judelsg.

have I found the correct thread.

hun is this the same one as your PM?

 

 

:mad: LOWELL.denying statute barred back in october

WITH THE ATTEMPED PAYMENT CRAP.

 

SAM

[judelsg]

Hi Sam

 

Yes this is the same one. The court hearing was today. I felt such a fool.

I an unsure what I can and cannot say to the judge. AM I allowed to say hang on, your charging us for them not having the documents ready for a case they brought ?

 

I am supposed to be going to CAB on Monday, but I have been offered 4 weeks of work, which in our current circumstances I think I should take. When can I get the time to go see CAB when you have to turn up at 9am and queue?

 

Totally shocked and not understanding what is going on.

 

Mu Husband and I are putting our house on the market next weekend. Sell up, pay off and run for cover. Breaks our heart as the house we live in was built by his late parents. BUt what else can we do?

[toddle2u]

I cannot see the reason for selling the house. The debt is for £1500 whcih in the scale of things is not a large amount.

 

The Judge is saying that the creditor can put a Charging Order against your house which can only be turned into an order for sale if you fail to keep up the repayments of £40 - and this is only if they prove it is not statute barred. If it is you are in the clear.

 

You seem to be panicing - don't calm down and think about this rationally.

[sam614]

Hi Sam

 

Yes this is the same one. The court hearing was today. I felt such a fool.

I an unsure what I can and cannot say to the judge. AM I allowed to say hang on, your charging us for them not having the documents ready for a case they brought ? you had stated that this debt was statute barred.

LOWELL claimed a attempted payment 5 1/2 years ago for £1.70 odd:rolleyes:

you denied this and asked for proof.this was back in october,they never sent ANY PROOF.how the hell as this got to court.

you should have come back for further help.:(so you knew what to write on your form/and what to say in court.

 

as spam says no order should have been made.

but you should have stuck up for yourselfs.

 

if they had this back in october WHY was this not send to you

why did they not produce it in court.

DID YOU SAY ANY OF THIS?

 

I am supposed to be going to CAB on Monday, but I have been offered 4 weeks of work, which in our current circumstances I think I should take. When can I get the time to go see CAB when you have to turn up at 9am and queue?

 

Totally shocked and not understanding what is going on.

 

Mu Husband and I are putting our house on the market next weekend. Sell up, pay off and run for cover. Breaks our heart as the house we live in was built by his late parents. BUt what else can we do?

 

you can post here.get the help that you need.why should you pay,you claim that it is statute barred.

 

they have been given 4 wks to produce.

so you have 4 wks to get your self ready for next time.

you have to be polite in court,but you HAVE to stand up.

 

would start by listing,what has happened since october.

sam

[judelsg]

The debt was a credit card with HSBC Bank. We also had a bank account with them which was overdrawn I believe.

My husband and I separated and I opened a separate account in another bank. So did he. This was in March 2003. Neither of used the account or the card since then.

They are saying that a payment of £1.93 was made in July 2004 from my husband. We dispute that.

When we first received the Petition asking us to go to court we sent a letter to both the court and Lowell saying that a) this debt is statute barred and b) we did not receive the statute demand and asked for proof it was statue barred

 

After two weeks we received nothing from either Lowell or the court. I rang the court first and asked that this case should not be going to court until they have proved it is not a statute barred debt. The court said the case WILL go ahead but my letter would be taken into consideration.

I then contacted Lowell and asked again for a copy of the signed contract, and accounts details of when these payments were supposed to have been made. They aplogised and explained they are sorry for being unprofessional and will get back to us. I made this phone call to them every two weeks until Jan 8th our court date.

 

IN court I told the Judge I had asked for these details and that I had rang them every two weeks, I even told them the guys name who apologised to us for being so unprofessional. Their Solicitor then piped in saying that the documents had been archived and it takes time to find them. That is when the Judge said you have 4 more weeks to find them.

The Judge did said to their Solicitor to ask her client to consider the £40 payment as this debt is obviously an old one. She said she would speak to them.

 

Right at the end, I was crying and trying so hard to hold it in and no make a fool of myself when the Solicitor asked for "reasonable costs to be added" and the Judge said yes.

He then said see you in four weeks and we were all stood up. BY the time it had sunk in they were getting costs we were out the door and too late to say anything.

 

When we go back I want to say:

 

a) How come they bought the case on Jan 8th without having the account details with them and forcing my husband to take a day off work with no pay and yet we took with us all our documents.

 

b) If it is Statute barred, what happens next? Do we get our costs paid for false claims? Should I ask?

c) If they prove it is not statute barred ( what happens if some money went into our account that we were no longer using and they made a min payment to the card from that account? Can that Happen? £1.93 is such a weird amount. Could it be a rebate from some other company?

If it is not statute barred, do we just agree to paying the £40 a month or do we still dispute the extra costs added?

 

d) Can I suggest to the Judge that in most cases at the first court case if they cannot prove after we have requested it is statue bared then the case is thrown out?

 

Thank you for anything you can help with

[judelsg]

Also, we had offered before the court case to pay £40 a month, they turned it down and insisted on £600 up front then £40 a month.

This was discussed in court and the Solicitor argued that at £40 a month it would take a long time to clear the debt.

The Judge told her to speak to her client about that they should have accepted the £40 a month.

My Husband piped up " They say they allowed us to make a payment in 2004 of £1.93 but £40 is not good enough? Something stinks about this if you ask me" Nobody else said anything.

[the main man]

Hi

 

What has the Judge actually ordered Lowell to produce? and has he ordered them to produce the documents to you prior to the next hearing?

 

I had a Judge at my first hearing who also seemed not so understanding, but did order disclosure and a witness statement, at the next hearing we had a totally different Judge who didn't like the fact that Lowell hadn't complied with the request!!

 

So all is not lost:)

[judelsg]

Hi,

 

The Judge has ordered they produce documents to prove how old the debt is and proof of when payment was last made.

I hope we get another Judge ! Fingers crossed