URGENT - Help Needed

[helpme23]

Our mortgage company received an order for possesion 12 months ago, at which point i brought the arrears up to date. Since then, i have kept the mortgage up to date, albeit a little hit and miss with repayments!

 

In June, my wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor and spent all July and August in hospital, she is currently recovering at home but unable to work. We both work in our own business, and because she has not been involved in the business, and i have been occupied with her and the kids, we have unfortunatley fallen behind again with mortgage repayments.

 

We are currently £2700 in arrears, and have been served with an eviction notice for the 24th of November. I have an immediate £1000 i can pay, however the mortgage company have said they need "substantially more" and i just cant raise it quick enough. I estimate i should be able to raise the full £2700, plus decembers payment, before the end of december from my business..... but i cant prove this as it is reliant on multiple small payments coming in from clients.

 

Can i stay the eviction order on this basis, asking the court for another 2 months to let me pay?

 

Any help would be much appreciated...

[rebel11]

Hi Help

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will advise as soon as they are available.

[newstarter]

Helpme23 hi there just read your post this is typical of lenders using a suspended possession order for a small amount of arrears incurred at a later date what this does is save them from going through the entire court process again and they are all too ready to use it as a scare tactic as a means to try to get you to pay far above the amount you can afford,i can,t see any judge granting the order over 2,700,however you need first to download an N244 form,just google that if you have any problems,download the form and also do an income and expenditure sheet as soon as possible,today if you can.Write down your income and expenditure and what you intend to offer as an overpayment towards the arrears,remember it must be what is left over after everything else is paid.Hand both forms in to your local county court,dont forget to keep copies for yourself,they will give you a date ,its hearing in front of a judge and he will decide if your offer is fair and realistic,believe me you wont have any problems and you wont loose your home,but get cracking on the n244 and incoime and expenditure now .

[newstarter]

As soon as you have finished those two forms you need to get down to your local county court tommorrow morning if you can and get them handed in,if you need anymore help i shall be online.

[helpme23]

Thank you for that, this is my problem, i ran through the income and expenditure forms with my mortgage company, my wife isnt earning as she isnt in the business, so on paper, we couldnt really afford the repayments.

 

However, because i have my own business i am able to take out larger amounts of cash if/when required, but i cant prove that!

 

If i complete a income/expenditure form based on my provable income, i wont be able to afford the mortgage let alone the arrears!

 

Whats your thoughts?

[newstarter]

I get your point helpme23,but if you can take larger amounts out of your business,although you couldnt actually prove it you could still factor that into your income and expenditure,because the arrears is relatively speaking quite a low figure, i couldnt see a judge looking to closely at the figures,remember the hearing will only take 5-10 mins,anyway you could always factor one or two larger self payments as part of your average income.

[helpme23]

Thanks Newstarter, can i just ask a couple more questions..

 

Will the fact the mortgage is interest only make a difference to the decision?

 

Will the mortgage company/solicitor/representative attend the hearing?

[newstarter]

What im saying here really is just dont try to prove your income,just demonstrate that you have the ability and means to pay your mortgage plus an amount of the arrears,dfo that and you will be fine but you must get cracking straight away.

[newstarter]

Intrest only will make no difference whatsoever and dont let anyone tell you differently,yes the other side may turn up,they may not either way you will be fine im sure of that because i have been there myself,i have been through this experience as you may have guessed,you will be fine,just get cracking on those forms.

[newstarter]

i shall be on line in case you need further help.

[helpme23]

Thanks Newstarter! Much appreciated i will get down to the court first thing tomorrow... do you think its worth telling the mortgage company what i am going to do and pay them the £1000 i have? Surely if its this easy, they will realise the judge will put a stop on it and save both our time and costs?

[newstarter]

No dont do that in most cases it wouldnt make any difference anyway offer to pay the extra 1000 at the hearing it will look better on your part,the solicitors for the lender will be notified of the hearing in any case,dont do them any favours their not going to do you any.Even though my case was dismissed by the courts,i asked why the lenders do this,drag people through the courts for reppossession hearings,you know what a court official told me? because they can, crazy or what. Give me a shout if you need more help.

[newstarter]

Just a thought but if the lenders solicitors do try to pressure you into paying more off than you can afford there is case law you can refer too if nessessary ,i doubt you would need to in your case as the arrears is minor,but it woulod show their side that you had done your homework,you can mention that the Norgen ruling allows for any arrears to be paid over the full term of the mortgage as i said,you really wouldnt need to use this in the court hearing but it would show their side that you had not come to court without doing some homework if you feel intimidated in any way.Another point you can raise is charges to your account,i would also be looking to find out if the lender had added charges to the account and inflated the arrears figure,worth a look.

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, an N244 form is affixed to this post. You need to write a witness statement for Q.10 of the form, if you can't find anything suitable on previous repossession threads for example:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?278977-2nd-Eviction-Notice

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?282746-Capstone-restored-possession-hearing.

 

 

I'm just a bit short of time tonight, but if you're struggling let me know You need to quote the Cheltenham & Gloucester case law and S36 of the Administration of Justice Act.

 

 

You also need to send in a budget sheet with the N244 and I have affixed the one we normally use in these cases (it calculates automatically as you enter the figures). When filling it in you need to make sure that the amount you are offering to pay towards the arrears each month is the amount left over after everything else has been accounted for.

n244_0400.pdf

Budget%20Sheet(1).xls

[helpme23]

Thank you all, i have downloaded the forms and completed them and will be setting off to file them in court in a minute. I have attached copies of my wife's diagnosis to back up what im saying. I will let you know the outcome!

 

Thanks everyone!

[newstarter]

Please do im sure you will be fine

[newstarter]

P.S dont forget to look if arrears charges have been added,if they have they could be unfair and as such you would be able to make a claim to get the money refunded,as i said earlier in the thread its worth a look.

[Ell-enn]

Have you done a statement for Q.10 of the form? I should have time to look over it this morning it you like.

[helpme23]

Hi, Quick update on this, i completed the forms and filed them at the court on monday. Hearing set for Thursday! Just now i received a phone call from the mortgage company and they were adament they didnt want to take this to court. Basically they have asked me to pay £1000 and resume normal monthly payments (my previous offer which they declined). I asked them to put it in writing and they have faxed over.

 

I cant pay the £1000 until friday, and the hearing is on thursday, eviction date next wednesday! What should i do, they are adament they will cancel the eviction on friday, but i dont know if i should attend court on thursday and try and get it stopped before i make payment?

 

The mortgage company are a little overkeen for me to cancel the hearing, which makes me think they have other reasons behind them not wanting this to go in front of the judge, any ideas what they could be? They have also told me if it goes to court and is cancelled i will still be liable for their legal fees, is this true?

[helpme23]

P.S dont forget to look if arrears charges have been added,if they have they could be unfair and as such you would be able to make a claim to get the money refunded,as i said earlier in the thread its worth a look.

 

How do i know if the charges are unfair, they have charged £85 per month from June onwards, plus "Interest of Arrears of around £5 per month", they have also charged a litigation fee, im not sure how much they have charged from this, but from my last mortgage statement in must be around £150? So total charges from june to now will be around £680ish

[newstarter]

Right,first off carry on as planned,do not trust them,you must turn up for the n244 hearing on thursday morning,if you dont,they will be granted the order,secondly dont pay that 1000 to them on friday,let the judge decide.Dont trust your lender at this point because even if you did find the 1000 before friday my guess is the hearing would still go ahead even if they told you the action had been cancelled,thus,you would be sitting at home after forking out a grand,then you would get the phone calls :oh we didnt realise the court hearing was still going ahead:,your lender would be blaming the solicitors,the solicitors would be blaming the lender,and you would still have an eviction order hanging over your head.Dont trust them and dont alter your course of action at this stage.As for the charges inform the judge theres 680.00 charges on the arrears figure which you will be trying to reclaim,thus the arrears figure has been artificially inflated by charges added to your account,we can challenge these after your hearing,sounds as if they are running scared to me.

[newstarter]

P.S charges will be added to your account when you are in arrears but those charges have to be fair and in line with any extra work carried out ie extra letters and so on but 85 pound a month seems very steep to me,but we shall cross that bridge after the hearing,look your paperwork is in ,ellen sorted that out,you have nothing to worry about,but you must be at the hearing on thursday if its the last thing you do. good luck for then,you will be fine.

[newstarter]

just one more thing,charges can only be added to the large figure,ie the mortgage,not the arrears.

[functions]

hi help,

 

i'm sorry this isn't much help but i do wish you the best on this and reiterating other advice - don't trust the lenders. frpm the looks of the charges and their actions thus far, theyre definitely behaving like right scoundrels. sincerely hope it works out for you!

 

functions

[Ell-enn]

I think you should carry on with the hearing - you've paid the fee and you won't get that back. Lenders and solicitors are notoriously bad at communicating and I'm afraid there is no guarantee that the cancellation of the eviction will get done before the actual eviction day. Best to attend the hearing and let the judge make the order that you pay what you have offered each month towards the arrears.