Charging orders - a salutory tale

[diddydicky]

so, today i went to court to contest a Restons Charging Order application- armed to the teeth with a statement from myself and my solicitors that Restons had deceived me into accepting a judgement in return for agreeing monthly payments, and then failed to include that fact in the consent order and subsequently then signed a false statement of truth in the application for the charging order that no agreement to payments had been made

 

Short and sweet thought I- got them bang to rights and here comes a bloody nose for Restons After all this agreement with restons was made between my sols and Restons.

 

I had even sent a copy of my statement to my sols a week ago showing them how i was going to "sock it to em"

 

indeed, so confident of success was i, having previously seen off their SJ application and they having failed to comply with s78 failed to provide an executed agreement and unlawfully l repudiated- that i informed the judge that if he/she was minded to grant the order- i would apply for a stay on execution and immediately apply for a set aside of the judgement on the grounds that it had been obtained by deception on the part of the claimant- and i would go to trial as planned

 

 

Or so i thought

 

nice lady judge- sympathises with my arguments- but then produces from the papers supplied by Restons- a copy of the consent order- SIGNED AT THE TIME LAST OCTOBER by my sols- with no mention of the agreed terms

 

in fact what they had signed up to was a forthwith order!!- with nothing in return!

 

no communication or admission from them as to their failure- between October or now (now i know why they did not send me a copy of it).

 

no communication from them pre warning me that my statement to have the charging order dismissed might backfire on me because of their signature on the consent order

 

result- charging order granted £7000 in costs that i was confident in defending. and no chance to apply for a set aside on the grounds of deception because my sols had signed a forthwith consent order agreeing to a judgement

 

moral of the story

 

don't trust you solicitors make sure they give you copies of EVERYTHING they do

 

 

Having fought this from the outset- gunned down by my own sols

 

well- that certainly wont be the end of that matter

[Drowning but not sunk...]

I hope its not the end for you. Solicitors charge an extortionate amount of money and they should be held to account for everything they do or don’t do more to the point....

[rebel11]

Hi diddy

 

Sorry to hear that, (Restons) solicitors and (yours) solicitors same drink from the same trough.

[tifo]

you may have a possible case against your solicitors .... start with a complaint and then take it to the SRA, LCS or Ombudsman.

[butts]

A real sickner - you have my sympathy !!!

[diddydicky]

Hi diddy

 

Sorry to hear that, (Restons) solicitors and (yours) solicitors same drink from the same trough.

 

my sols dont drink from the same trough

 

they are on this forum and they know who they are!!

[debbbbsy]

in fact what they had signed up to was a forthwith order!!- with nothing in return!

Did you give permission to the solicitor to sign this without your knowledge consent ?

As you say, you informed them of your defence, they must have known this document would be produced.

 

Tomorrow, ring the sols, ask for a copy of there complaints procedure & the name of the person responsible for handling official complaints.

Only after following these procedures, and depending on the response, it can be passed to the LCS. ( a supposedly independant authority, a team of solicitors that are supposed to make an unbiased decision on other solicitors....).....when they say your complaint is unfounded, they did nothing wrong....escalate it to the Solicitors Ombudsman. It stinks....I know.

 

Can you name the Solicitor. Is it a big company or local.

 

You can SAR your solicitor. Find out exactly what they have done.

 

failed to comply with s78 failed to provide an executed agreement

You are so far down the road, regarding costs. You have nothing to lose in going further. Are you aware, that now that they have instigated proceedings to further enforce the original claim, you can apply to the court for a "declaration of enforceability". It can be made when the creditor makes a claim to further enforce the CCJ. You can challenge the enforceability of the CCJ. It all depends, did you defend the CCJ, what grounds could be contested.

 

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2003/1574.html&query=title+%28+southern+%29+and+title+%28+district+%29+and+title+%28+finance+%29&method=boolean

[frettful38]

Hi DD I know exactly how you feel as my thread is it a mistake or fraud and my OH's bankruptcy was soley the fault of my solicitors and the other side's solicitors. They got a deal between themselves and made me sign a consent order.....BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE which cost me thousands.

 

If I knew then what I know now trust me this never ever would have happened but you have a lot of choices and a brain in your head so do everything and anything you can to fight this and get to the bottom of this. Do not give up what ever you do that is my advice. You have been stitched up there is no question about it. This is a professional negligence case against your solicitors and there is plenty you can do.

[diddydicky]

thanks i am aware of that- i just wanted to make others aware of the dangers

[diddydicky]

Did you give permission to the solicitor to sign this without your knowledge consent ?

As you say, you informed them of your defence, they must have known this document would be produced.

 

Tomorrow, ring the sols, ask for a copy of there complaints procedure & the name of the person responsible for handling official complaints.

Only after following these procedures, and depending on the response, it can be passed to the LCS. ( a supposedly independant authority, a team of solicitors that are supposed to make an unbiased decision on other solicitors....).....when they say your complaint is unfounded, they did nothing wrong....escalate it to the Solicitors Ombudsman. It stinks....I know.

 

Can you name the Solicitor. Is it a big company or local.

 

You can SAR your solicitor. Find out exactly what they have done.

 

You are so far down the road, regarding costs. You have nothing to lose in going further. Are you aware, that now that they have instigated proceedings to further enforce the original claim, you can apply to the court for a "declaration of enforceability". It can be made when the creditor makes a claim to further enforce the CCJ. You can challenge the enforceability of the CCJ. It all depends, did you defend the CCJ, what grounds could be contested.

 

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2003/1574.html&query=title+%28+southern+%29+and+title+%28+district+%29+and+title+%28+finance+%29&method=boolean

 

no, debsy i didn't- the sols who some months earlier had indicated the possibility of CFA told me only a few days prior to the trial that they would not work on CFA basis and if i wanted them to act i would have to pay - as a result i asked them to see if the other side would come to a settlement- as i did not have time (2 days) to recover the files from them and prepare the defence myself. .

 

According to my sols- Restons agreed to accept low monthly payments if we agreed to a ccj unopposed- which at the time to save costs and because i did not have time to take over the case we reluctantly agreed to

 

I just saw the consent order in court today and the sols had signed it back in Oct on the day it was agreed-minus any reference to the agreement for payments.

 

Restons deny any knowlege of agreement for payments so either my sols are being "economical" with the truth or are negligent in signing the consent order without checking that it contained what was agreed.

 

what really p*ssed me off is that he sent me a statement confirming that he had made this agreement with restons (for monthly payments) , has also had sight of my own statement in effect accusing Restons of deceit in attempting to get a charging order based on a false declaration that no agreement for payments was made - yet he STILL let me go to court knowing full well the consent order would be produced with his signature on it and it would blow up in my face

 

I am sure he will read this in due course and he can rest assured that i am not letting the matter rest

 

to say that i am furious would be an understatement

[rebel11]

I've recently had a similar experience of how firms act, a different field, they received a letter on the 12th October, I'd waited 4 months for the information in that letter, I'd spoken to to them several times between the 12th October and 2nd November and at no time did they give me the info that I had been waiting for.

 

my sols dont drink from the same trough

 

they are on this forum and they know who they are!!

[the_shadow]

DD,

 

From what you say seems you have been treated very shabbily by this firm, my sympathies

 

S.

[diddydicky]

thanks shadow- it certainly was a big let down from a fellow cagger

[rebel11]

I've known of a situation where a Barrister was hired by a firm of solicitors to look over documents related to a company event, the Barrister didn't read the documents for 18 months. And ultimately was giving wrong advice for 18 months. And yes he was paid.

[diddydicky]

i cant say too much more about the person/company concerned as it is now almost certainly going to result in litigation-

[caro]

Thanks for the heads up DD. I'm really sorry that this has happened to you, and I hope you manage to deal with the culprit(s).

 

I just hope that others will learn from your experience and take note that help on this site is free, so if someone offers to help but wants to charge, please let admin or a member of the site team know. Even if it's no win no fee, they are breaking the rules of this site if they're looking for business on CAG.

[diddydicky]

Thanks for the heads up DD. I'm really sorry that this has happened to you, and I hope you manage to deal with the culprit(s).

 

I just hope that others will learn from your experience and take note that help on this site is free, so if someone offers to help but wants to charge, please let admin or a member of the site team know. Even if it's no win no fee, they are breaking the rules of this site.

 

i think i now understand why the site has prevented him from sending/receiving pms!!

[caro]

i think i now understand why the site has prevented him from sending/receiving pms!!

[meursault22]

Sorry to hear about that diddydicky. I've unfortunately had a similar thing where a solicitor sold me down the river without me knowing until the court hearing. It's ultimately resulted in me losing my house over a debt that never actually existed in the first place.

It just goes to prove that solicitors have more loyalty to each other than to the customer who's paying them, and remember county court judges are solicitors too. They're all on the same gravy train and it just plain stinks.

One day, these people will deceive the wrong guy and really regret it!

[citizenB]

I am so sorry to hear this dd.

[Ell-enn]

I don't know how they sleep at night

[PriorityOne]

my sols dont drink from the same trough

 

they are on this forum and they know who they are!!

 

Worrying......

[AA99]

I had an instance 30 years ago, where someone asked me if I was sure my solicitors were acting in my best interests! I was gobsmacked, never thought they couldn't be!

You've now got me worried on this one as I have a case in court at the moment..... it's all on Legal Aid though, so hope that covers me to a degree?

 

ps. Hello diddydicky, long time....... and Good Luck

[**Tilly**]

I don't know how they sleep at night

 

People like that have no conscience thats how they sleep at night !

[PriorityOne]

I had an instance 30 years ago, where someone asked me if I was sure my solicitors were acting in my best interests! I was gobsmacked, never thought they couldn't be!

 

Not always.... I would have lost my home by following the advice of mine several years ago. Sometimes you have to trust your instincts....