incorrect ccj judgement while directly negotiating with claimant

[Guest marky313]

hi there,

 

to summarise my situation, iv a lot of unsecured debt for which im paying a £1 a month to my creditors on a hardship basis. a previous property investment/mortgage brokerage company i worked took me to court regarding advisor fees that were outstanding for monthly fees to work for their company. in the letter they stated i owed them £750 for unpaid feed and for "their" equipment ( laptop and scanner) that i had not returned.

 

now the facts are that i worked as a mortgage advisor for a superbroker (dunno whether i can mention their name or not!?) whereby they took a percentage commision and monthly feed of £100 for compliance backup. THIS company, not the investment company(from now on ill call them TOOL) provided the equipment originally. Now TOOL also worked under this superbroker, and i was told that if i joined them i would get 5 red hot quality leads of previous customers every week and would no longer even need my existing client base. Now as i was struggling a little i jumped at the chance, and switched accordingly-this was in october 2009. this consisted of judt transferring my registration with the superbroker to be under TOOL. however i had to now pay £150 a month as i got all these leads. i spent four months with them and the leads were low quality names off their old database( proclaimed as serious property investors off whom one could make a lot of money) and many hadnt even transacted with or heard of TOOL. in fact the majority it was impossible to even contact as the database hadnt been updated with invalid phone numbers or email. so iput my heart an soul into it thinking that maybe it would improve with time-but after speaking to fellow advisors who also jumped to TOOL with me at the same time, it became clear that everyone was experiencing similar results and were hugely disappointed.

any way by march 2010 my contract with them was terminated as i had not written any business and i switched back to working directly under the superbroker. by july i left mortgage advice altogether when i realised that i needed to do something different to make money.

BACK TO RECENT TIMES - TOOL sent a letter through a solicitor worded exactly as so -:

 

'We understand that to the period ending 31 July 2010 you owe our client £750 ("the debt") in respect of a laptop and scanner("the equipment") supplied by our client to you to carry out your employment. The equipment has at all times remained the property of our client and you therefore have no legal entitlement to retain possession of the equipment.

 

We are therefore instructed to inform you that unless by 4pm on 10 August you pay the debt of £150.00 and return the equipment we will be starting Court action against you without further notice. We note that our client has already given you confirmation that payment can be made by cheque or bank transfer into the following account:

 

(blah blah blah account details)

 

This equipment must be received at our client's London office in full working order inside the seven day deadline. Should the equipment be damaged or fail to work properly then our client reserves its position to bring an action against you for cost of repairs or replacement value. ' END OF LETTER

 

I was abroad when this letter arrived ( all paid for by partners family in case you think im not that poor!) an the seven day deadline had expired by a week. When i read the letter the facts were incorrect and seemed contradictory and i foolishly thought to leave it( yes i know, but i have been so stressed and had broken my arm while away meaning i could no longer do my new commidion only reps job- i buried my head)

 

THe court letter came near end of september but the wording was noticeable different to letter from sols- exact wording:-

 

'1. The claimant is and has at material times been a mortgage brokerage. The Defendant was at all material times employed by the Claimant in the capacity of a mortgage broker. The Claimant provided the Defendant with a laptp and scanner("the I.T. equipment") at an agreed cost of £150 a month. It was a term of employment contract that when the Defendant wrote business, the cost of the I.T. equipment would be offset against commision, and the net paid out to the Defendant accordingly. The Defendant failed to write any business and since leaving the Claimant's employment has failed to return the I.T. equipment.

 

2. To end March ,the Defendant owed the Claimant £750

 

3. Despite repeated requests, the Defendant has failedto pay the sum of £750.

 

4. THe Claimant is entitled to interest pursuant to Section 69 of the County Court Act 1984

 

AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS:-

 

1. The said sum of £750.

 

2. Interest pursuant to Section 69 of the County Court Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from April 1 2010 to the date of issue, amounting to £26.63 and continuing to Judgement or earlier payment at the daily rate of 16 pence.

 

3. Costs "

 

END OF CLAIM

 

When the letter from the court came i had a mini breakdown( not proud of it) but just over a week i got myself together. i tried ringing the mobile of the director named in court letter but always was off and could not leave a message. I finallly managed to get hold of him by the thursday of last week and he was fairly calm and said i just had to get a letter from the Superbroker confirming the return of the equipment and he would work out what i owed them and he'd tell me the correct figure-once i had that i was to ring him to confirm. He also said that the Superbroker was billingthem monthly for the use of the equipment.

So feeling a lot of relief, i contacted the superbroker and asked for confirmation re return of THEIR laptop and scanner,and the lady there seemed perplexed by TOOL's statements and said that the fees were not for hire of the equipment, which incidentally was THEIRS not TOOL's and that TOOL left the superbroker shortly after me and certainly were not being billed for anything....Curiouser and curiouser.... anyway by the next day i received email confirmation of my safe return of THEIR equipment. that day was friday last week and i tried repeatedly tp contact him but he had his mobile off all day and was not in the office. so i texted him of the scenario and hoped to speak to him monday( yesterday) - i asked him to provide his up-to-date email address (as i only had his previous superbroker email which was obviously no longer valid) so i could forward this confirmation to him. I tried calling him again to no avail but managed to speak to him eventually in the afternoon whereby he said that i just owed them £600 now. I told him of my current financial plight and debt problem whereby i could only afford a £1 a month and he said to send him the offer and they would accept that.

 

LO and Behold today ive received a letter from the court daying they obtained a judgement for £ 936 to cover £750 debt interest and costs. I knew the court deadline was close but i ( turns out foolishly) assumed that considering i was currently negotiating directly with the client, and that certain facts were evidently UNTRUE , that court action would be abated. I was going to send the letter to TOOL today but now i dont know what to do ?!

 

For anyone who read all of the way through this, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE. All i want to id there any way i can get this judgement removed for any reason , bearing in mind conflicting claims from solicitor and court and also incorrect information re: equipment issues. I also fel i was enticed to move to TOOL under false pretences, i.e. great leads and support, when in fact i got rubbish leads and almost no support. I spent lots of money travelling up and down the country for meetings, converted my garage into an office, bought furniture etc. i was told of how i would be able to make a difference to my familys life because of the great income opportunities, when in fact i was a glorified unpaid telesales chasing some of the worst leads i have ever had the misfortune of been given. I could have used that time to try and earn money from real prospects or even get another job but instead put all of my eggs into their basket because of the "fantastic" client database they had( purchased on a song i believe).

 

PLEASE PLEASE CAN SOMEONE ADVISE ME AS I UP A METAPHORICAL HEIGHT AGAIN .

 

Again a massive thank you to anyone who could be bothered reading my essay, even if you cant help thx for trying.

 

cheers in advance,

 

marky313:sad:

[sillygirl1]

Contact the court and ask for an N244 application, you can state on that you are arguing the terms of the original defence with the clients, explain you have been unwell and explain that you are also now unemployed and that any award will have to come out of your befits at £1 a month....