repossession hearing 9th may

[sunnygill]

Hi im just wondering if you can help with an income and expenditure form, and what information do I need for the court hearing? I have been advised not to do an income/expenditure form over the phone, but to post instead. Can anyone shed any light on this? the arrears are £22,000, we have done a rough expenditure form and we are able to offer £150 overpayment each month.

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, you should not do an i & e over the phone, they will bully you into offering more than you can afford. Affixed is the budget sheet we normally use in these cases (it calculates automatically as you fill it in).

 

Have you responded to the court claim? you should have had an N11M defence form with the possession papers?

 

How many years are left on the mortgage?

Are there any charges included in the arrears amount of £22k?

Who is the lender?

Budget Sheet.xls

[sunnygill]

Thanks for the budget sheet. We haven't responded to the court claim yet, what do we need to do? We have 22 yrs left on the mortgage which is interest only. And yes there are charges included in the arrears, the lender is NRAM

[Ell-enn]

How much of the 22k is charges?

 

You need to get a statement to court this week if your hearing is on 9th May - I can help you with that.

[sunnygill]

Were not sure how much of the arrears is made up of charges, what does the statement involve? Do we need to discuss the arrears/ charges in court or is this a seperate matter?

[Ell-enn]

If you look here, you will see what a statement for court looks like http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?325527-CAG-guide-Are-you-facing-eviction-or-repossession

[sunnygill]

when you mentioned the staement, do you mean the defence form. We received that from the coiurt.

[sunnygill]

we need some help with the defence claim form, can you help us with that?

[Ell-enn]

Yes, you should return that to the court before the hearing, with a statement attached for Question 27, explaining your circumstances/offer of payment etc. If you read the link I posted above it will show you

[sunnygill]

hi im just filling out the claim form. I wasn't sure what to answer for these two questions:

5. Do you want the court to consider whether or not the terms of your original agreement are fair?

6. Do you intend to apply to the court for an order changing the terms of your loan agreement (a time order)?

[sunnygill]

I have just read in the link that you provided above that we could ask the court or mortgage lender to change the mortgage type. Would we still be elligible to do this even if the arrears on the mortgage amount to £22,000? This would help us alot, as the morgage at the moment is interest only. We ideally want a mortgage that is repayment, so we are working closer to making the house ours. Would it be wise to state this on the court form and to ask the mortgage lender?

[Ell-enn]

If you change the mortgage to repayment the monthly payments will increase dramatically

 

It would probably be better just to do a witness statement with a budget sheet attached and take that to the court by the end of this week. There is an example of how to set out a witness statement on page 13 of the guide - you just amend to suit your circumstances.

 

You should include the following paragraph:

 

• We wish to bring to the court's attention that the arrears figure the Claimant pleads contains late payment charges and therefore is not a true reflection of the arrears situation.
  

[sunnygill]

so in terms of the questions in my previous thread, do we agree or disagree with the terms of the original agreement as fair?

[Ell-enn]

5. No

6. No

[sunnygill]

In terms of the arrears balance of £22,000, which like you said is not a true reflection of the arrears situation, should we contact the mortgage provider to get a clear figure of how much is the real arrears and how much are added charges. In my opinion it would be favourable for the judge to see a clear picture of how much the 'real arrears' are. Would it be possible to ask the judge if they are able to levy these charges?

[Ell-enn]

I doubt if you'll get that information before the hearing. Do you have a recent mortgage statement that shows the charges ?

[sunnygill]

No i dont, do you think they mortgage company would provide us with this information? They should do legally??

[Ell-enn]

you are supposed to get an annual statement from them. However if you mention in your witness statement that the arrears figure is not correct the judge has to consider that fact and will probably ask the lender to provide information

[sunnygill]

hi i was trying to finish completing the claim form online today, but it wont allow me to do it now, comes up with message that there is less than 5 working days until the hearing, what do I do?

[Ell-enn]

As I said in a previous post - you don't need to complete the form - you can take a witness statement with the budget sheet attached to the court before the end of the week. Take it in and ask the court staff to put it in the file for the judge to read. You will need to keep a copy of it for yourself so you have one to refer to in the hearing.

 

Have you written the witness statement yet ?

[sunnygill]

Because there are two defendents do we need to complete 2 defence forms, because we only seem to have one. im getting a little confused here, is the witness statement the answer for Q27? it states on the form and online that we must respond back to the claim by completing the defence form?? help!

[Ell-enn]

have you looked at the example of a witness statement in the guide I gave you a link to ?

[Ell-enn]

If you are struggling with writing the witness statement - would you like me to draft one for you ?

[sunnygill]

Thats very helpful Ell-enn, im going to inbox the statement i've done, if you could check it and make any ammendments that would be fantastic.

[Ell-enn]

Hi, received your message - your statement looks fine (just check a few placed where words are running into each other, although it may be because you have copied it into the message.

 

Make sure you take a copy of it for yourselves before handing it into the court and ensure the budget sheet and statement are securely stapled together before you hand it in.