Help with repossession order

[Family of Six]

First Plus have been granted a possession order as we had built up arrears and then inadvertently missed a number of payments due to a debit card change. Is there anything we can do at this stage to save our home? Should we be discussing a payment plan with FP or is it just too late for that now? We are a married couple with 4 children aged 3-12, I have a good job and recently, a good income. First mortgage with NRAM has a suspended possession order and we can maintain the payments OK.

 

Thanks

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, did you attend the possession hearing and put forward your defence?

 

How much are the arrears?

[Family of Six]

Hi, no, we did not attend (foolishly) and the arrears are in the region of £4000.

[Ell-enn]

OK, have you had a copy of the court order yet? what does it state (exact wording) i.e. you should give up the property in 28 days or is there a suspended order.

 

Did you send in a defence to court?

[Family of Six]

1. The defendant give the claimant possession of.......(address)...... on or before 17 September 2012

2. Judgement for the claimant £70,237.97

3. The defendant to pay the total amount of £70,237.97 to the claimant

 

Thanks.

[Ell-enn]

OK, you have some time to try and negotiate with the lender - I can draft you a letter to send to them. I am at work at the moment but will be online later this evening -will you be able to be here then?

 

If you don't move out before the 17th September the lender will have to apply for an eviction warrant and if that happens you can defend by applying to have a hearing in front of a judge to stop the eviction and we can help you with that - but you will absolutely have to attend the court hearing.

[Family of Six]

Sorry, we also sent a simple letter saying that we had offered £100 over the standard monthly payment but had not heard anything further from Clarity.

[Family of Six]

I will be available later tonight, many thanks for your help.

[Ell-enn]

OK, it might be after 9 though - I have to go out shortly

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, you will need to send a budget sheet with your letter to FP (you will also need one if you need to defend eviction). I have affixed the one we normally use in these cases - it calculates automatically as you fill it in. Let me know how it works out so we can be sure you are able to afford £100 extra each month.

 

Before I can finish the letter to FP I need a little more information:

 

Is the property in joint names?

What was the reason for the arrears?

Had you contacted FP before court proceedings to discuss arrears?

How long has the mortgage left to run?

Budget Sheet.xls

[Family of Six]

Thanks for getting back to me.

 

Property is in joint names.

Arrears - we had general financial difficulties due to having 4 children and moving to the expensive South from the North. Had arranged reduced payments with FP and have been paying those successfully for quite some time in the knowledge that some arrears would build up. The payment came out of my debit card rather than a DD but sadly I did not recall that when I changed my card a few months back. We missed 3 payments without realizing and FP instigated the court action without any further communication.

Contacted FP and were advised to call Eversheds solicitors. They said they did not have the files. Then received a letter from Clarity and we offered an increased payment but never heard back from them.

19 years left to run I believe.

 

will complete the budget sheet tomorrow.

Thnanks again for helping.

[Ell-enn]

OK, will catch up with you tomorrow

[Family of Six]

Hi, I have completed the budget sheet and all looks OK, I will check it again with a fresh pair of eyes in the morning and then will be looking to contact First Plus and see if we can reach some agreement. Will you be able to help with the letter tomorrow? Many thanks for your help and assistance.

[Ell-enn]

Yes, I can help tomorrow - will you be onlilne during the day?

[Family of Six]

Hi Ell-enn, I am online today if you are able to help?

 

Thanks

[Ell-enn]

OK, do you want to email the budget sheet to me so I can check you have accounted for everything? my email is [email protected] (there's no space between the c and o - the website just shows it like that for some reason).

 

I'll draft the letter and post on here for you to review - will be this afternoon, I'm at work at the moment and have a couple of meetings. Do you have the correct address and department to send the letter to?

[Family of Six]

Just sent that across to you. Not sure that I have the correct address details and department to send the letter at this point but can research that tonight prior to sending in the morning.

[Ell-enn]

OK, will take a look.....

[Ell-enn]

Hi, I've replied to your email

[Family of Six]

Hi Ell-enn, just need the letter now and then I can find the address details and have it sent out tomorrow. Thanks again for all of your help!

[Ell-enn]

Hi, letter affixed - you need to put your mortgage account number where there are XXX's and also add in your address and First Plus address. Make sure the letter stays all on one page (set your printer for A4 paper not Letter size).

 

Make sure you keep a copy of the letter and budget sheet in case we need it to be included in a defence if FP enforce the possession order. Send by special delivery and keep the receipt for posting safe so you can check on royalmail website a few days after posting to print of the signature receipt, when you have that staple it to the copy letter.

 

If Evershed's contact details are on the court order you could send them a copy of the letter and budget sheet with a covering letter as follows:

 

 

...................................................................Your address

 

Date:

 

Eversheds Address

 

Dear Sirs,

 

Your Client - First Plus Case No XXXXX

 

Please see affixed letter and budget sheet for your information.

 

Yours faithfully

 

XXX & XXX

 

Enc.

Family of six letter.doc

[Family of Six]

Hi Ell-enn,

 

Letters were delivered on Monday and thanks again for your help. we now await a response. However, we have today received an unexpected letter from the court regarding the e-mail that we sent to them and to Clarity a week before the court date, making an offer to pay an additional amount towards the arrears.

 

The letter states:

 

Your correspondence dated 15 August 2012 has been placed before the District Judge who has made the following comments;

"The defendant will need to make an application to vary the order"

 

Do we need to do something about this now, or await a reply from the letter that we have sent to First Plus?

 

Thanks

[Ell-enn]

I would wait for a reply before entering an application to the court - there is a fee to pay for the application and if you can reach an agreement with FP without goung to court the money for the fee could be used towards the mortgage payment.

[chillinlong]

Forgive me if I'm wrong Ellen but is it not worth putting in application to suspend repo order rather than letting it go further down the line to eviction hearing? Grounds could be the payment plan attached etc. This would be back up plan in case lender don't play ball.

[Ell-enn]

I understand what you mean Chillin - but, nothing can happen till after 17th September so it would be better to wait until at least the end of this week/Monday next week to see if FP will agree to the payment proposal. Then if no response an application can be made to court for a hearing - I'm just trying to save the op the £80 court fee when it might not be necessary - and there's plenty of time to get an application in if we need to.