County Court exposing documents to Creditor - what can I do?

[lochlisa]

Have to pay Costs on a small claims claim. Submitted I&E report along with offer to pay. Court sent this to the other side which I believe is illegal and against Data Protection Act. Now the other side is questioning outgoings I have had for many years for essential insurance cover and even questioning why my water bill is so high despite it being fixed costs and not metered.

 

Can I moan at the Court for this? I am on benefits so the law says what I need to live on and for this reason I offered £1 per month which the other side has gone mental about.

 

Any advice what I can reply to Court with?

 

thanks

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Was the I&E ordered by the Judge???

The Creditor is usually allowed to see

if the offer to pay is fair and reasonable,

the decision lays ultimately with the judge.

[lochlisa]

The I&E was not ordered, I submitted it with my application to pay monthly and the Court sent it to the other side.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

OK,is this is a formal application for a variation of

a payment forthwith order if so it will be sent

for the consideration of the creditor.

[DuffNCustard]

An I & E is something that a creditor can legitimately request if a debt is defaulted on. They are not able to use it to direct the debtor as to what 'savings' should be made for example NR was one of my creditors and was included in my debt management plan, they 'required' me to reduce my food bill to about £30 a week and not pay my other creditors - they had to put up and shut up. A judge on the other hand in a claims court can make direction and one would not expect to see things such as alcohol, gym memberships or cigarettes listed!

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

This not a question of any sort of default, an order

has been made by a court and it seems from the

information given so far that it may have been a

''forthwith'' order that the OP is applying for a

variation to pay by installments.

[lochlisa]

The other side has made demands that I reduce certain outgoings in order that he may be paid at a higher rate. Am I right that the creditor has no right to demand such things, especially as they are utilities and insurances and outwith my control?

 

thank you, this is helping me put a reply together.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi, Your best approach is to ask for the judge

to review the I&E and make an order for

the payment.

[DuffNCustard]

You are right - they can demand all they like - but it doesn't matter the Judge will decide what they get! Utilities rent etc are considered to be priorities and consumer debt comes way way down the list. If you haven't already done so you might call one of the debt charities or visit their websites -

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

http://www.payplan.com/

 

they have I&E templates - there might be items on there that you have overlooked dental costs, hair cuts, pets, emergency funds - you are entitled to all of these

[lochlisa]

I used a cccs template. My only income is benefits so by law that is the amount I am legally entitled to receive, so how can I be forced to pay more than a token payment if my benefits are what the law says I need to live on?

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

You cannot be forced to pay more than

you can reasonably afford with out causing

hardship to you and any dependants.

This must be put before the judge.

[citizenB]

National Debtline might be able to advise what levels of monies you can spend on certain items (after all your priority debts have been paid). That should put paid to the claimant attempting to force you into poverty.

[DuffNCustard]

Although your post is specifically about the claim, your creditor has behaved disgracefully. You might want to give serious consideration to reporting them to the FSA. The first step is to write to HFC and request a copy of their complaints process, this request has a legal footing and they are required to respond within a given periosd. Then use the process, again they are required to resovle your complaint within a given period. I strongly suspect that they will do neither of these things, this is grounds for reporting them to the FSA. If they fail to resolve your complaint that too is grounds for escalting to the FSA. For a creditor to hound someone on benefits and attempting to force them into subsistence in order to pay a debt is appalling and quite frankly should be reported. The FSA does not act on individual complaints but if they get a significant number of complaints about an organisation then they will. Incidentally I believe that for every complaint the FSA receives the crediotr involved is debited an administrative fee of severl hundred pounds?

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

There is a HMCS guidance booklet available on

income and expenditure not sure if it is now available on line.