11th hour request for advice - Court on Monday - Paratus

[summerbreeze]

I have just been approached to help someone who is in court Monday for a 1st repossession hearing. I dont have any experience regarding repossession but have been to court regarding unsecured debt and I am not afraid of the courts and proceedings.I am willing to speak up for my friend if allowed.

 

She has completed an I and E form sent to her by Paratus and before I was involved had borrowed money from her very elderly parents to try to stave off proceedings to no avail..

 

I am concerned that the offer she has made to Paratus is untenable if she is unable to work a lot of overtime . How can I ask them to actually accept a lower offer ? She has been borrowing from Peter to pay Paul etc and has a few payday loans . I dont think she can service all her debt.

 

She was £4k in arrears ..has paid £1k off via the loan ....payments should be £550 and she has offered £700 pcm . She works all hours she can ... working herself into the ground ...

 

The house is in her name only but she has an awful feckless estranged partner who lives in the house [ married ] who refuses to help and sponges off her [ I know I know ...] He tells her that if she divorces him he will take half the house etc etc.

 

I think there is equity in the house but she is convniced she will not be able to sell if she is in arrears . I have told her I am sure she can try to sell as the mortgagees will definitely get all their money back if she sells. She thinks she will have to give the awful sponger money from the sale ...I am not sure about that .

 

Can anyone help me to help her ?

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, what date is the hearing? If her monthly payments are £550 and she is offering £700 against £3,000 arrears then I can't see a judge giving possession to Paratus. Need some more information before I can advise further

 

How long has the mortgage left to run?

Are there any children living in the property?

Has she filled in the defence forms from the court yet?

[summerbreeze]

Hi Ell-enn

 

Thank you !

 

I dont know how long the mortgage has to run ..Its a local authourity house bought under right to buy probably 10 years ago or so.

 

There are no dependant children .

 

She says she has sent an I and E to the court but didnt mention defence forms

[summerbreeze]

the date is this coming Monday 10th sep

[Ell-enn]

She would have received an N11M defence form from the court with the notification of the hearing. Can you ask her if she completed them and sent them back. Really need to know exactly what she sent to the court. If you have access to a printer we can do a statement for her to take along to the hearing ?

 

I'm logging off now but will catch up with you tomorrow and we'll see what can be done to help

[summerbreeze]

Thank you so much .

 

I will find out as much info as I can and post again later today.

 

I have a printer

[summerbreeze]

hi Ell enn

Ok I have got the following info from the defence form

do you agree with details of mortgage Yes

do you agree with amount owing No as has paid 1000 off since claim

claim only mentions arrears no other reason

do you consider terms of mortgage are fair Yes

Do you want court to consider changing terms No

Have you made agreement with mortgage company Yes 700 per month

Do you want to pay arrears by installments Yes 150 on top of 550 monthly payment

Do you receive benefits No

Any dependants No

Other occupants 1 My husband ( named ) who I am separated from but not divorced . He does not work or sign on but refuses to contribute to household expenses.2 My son who does work pays towards electricity and buys some food for himself.

Other outgoings not in arrears

I am in arrears with gas and electric but now on meters

I am in arrears with council tax and water rates but have made arrangements with them.

 

That's all she has relayed to me and hope you can help

thank you

[Ell-enn]

Has that been submitted to the court?

[summerbreeze]

Yes she has submitted that info

[Ell-enn]

OK, I assume she filled in the income and expenditure part of the N11M ? the only additional thing she could do would be to take a statement to court asking the judge to take into account the Norgan case law (this is case law which refers to allowing mortgage arrears to be repaid over a period of time - in some cases over the remaining length of the mortgage - this is a commonly used case law in repossession cases). If she would like to take a statement to this effect please let me know and I can draft one for her.

[summerbreeze]

Hi Ell enn

Thank you . As you know I am concerned that she has offered too much and will definitely struggle to maintain 700 per month so I would appreciate a statement that could possibly reduce the payments and stretch the arrears along the remaining term. Before she submitted the defence and I and E she had no advice whatsoever apart from being advised to throw out the partner!

I wish she would have been more forthcoming before but she was ashamed and was just desperately trying to borrow the arrears from friends and family.

[Ell-enn]

OK, can you get her to complete the affixed budget sheet (it calculates automatically as you fill it in). She should be as honest as possible. Let me know when she has completed it and if it shows she really can't afford and extra £150 per month then we'll tell the court in her statment that she felt pressurised by Paratus into making an offer she won't be ble to sustain. At the end of the day the repayment of arrears has to be affordable and judges to take that seriously.

 

What was the reason for the arrears occuring?

 

Are there any children living in the property?

Budget Sheet.xls

[summerbreeze]

Hi Ell enn

I will try to get the info for you re the budget sheet. It may be later tonight or tomorrow.

Yes she has made the offer in a panic in the hopes that she will be able to keep to it.

I believe some arrears had accrued last year and she had begun to pay £700 per month to reduce them. Then due to a family situation which I won't go into on a public forum she felt she was obliged to pay for something very expensive and she then did not pay her mortgage for a few months leading to the current arrears.

Her situation at home is terrible and no matter how we try to advise her she can't see a way out without the total break up of her family .

 

There are no children living in the house

[Ell-enn]

OK, but you will need a printed copy (3 copies actually) of the budget sheet to go with the statement which she will have to hand to the judge in the hearing - will you be able to get that done and printed off to give her before Monday morning ? I could do with seeing the budget sheet before printing to make sure it's ok.

 

Ideally it all needs to be done and printed by tomorrow night? Does your friend live near you?

[summerbreeze]

Printing will not be a problem

I will phone her and see if I can get the info and do the budget sheet myself and how do I send you a copy of it?

[Ell-enn]

You can email it to me at [email protected] (there's no space between the c and o, the website just shows it like that for some reason). Let me know on this thread when you've emailed it so I can look out for it.

[summerbreeze]

Will do :0 )

[summerbreeze]

Hi Ell-enn

 

Budget sheet sent to you

[Ell-enn]

I've got it and sent a response........... we have some work to do on that!

[summerbreeze]

Hi Ell-enn . can you help me with the statement ?

[Ell-enn]

Hi, the statement is affixed - you need to fill in the information where there are XXX's at the top of the statement (the information will be on the court papers) - read it through carefully to make sure all the info is correct.. When you print it out the printer needs to be set for A4 paper (not Letter size) so it all fits on one page.

 

Print off 3 copies of the statement and Budget sheet. Your friend will need to sign each copy of the statement. One set is for the judge, one for the rep for the lender and one for yourselves to refer to in the hearing.

 

On the top left hand corner of the Budget sheet write the Claim number (it will be on the court papers) and on the top right hand corner write Appendix 1.

 

Staple a budget sheet to each one of the statements.

 

When you arrive at the court tell the usher you wish to accompany your friend - also ask if there are any duty legal advisors or housing charity advisers and if there are approach them and ask for their help.

 

When you get into the hearing, wait for the judge to finish his opening words (don't interrupt) and then say “Sir (or Madam) may I please give you an up to date statement” and just hand it over. Give a set to the other side's rep at the same time.

Summerbreeze statement.doc

[summerbreeze]

Thank you so much . Will let you know what happens

[Ell-enn]

[summerbreeze]

Arrived at court and managed to grab an advisor. Gave her the statement and revised budget sheet and I made my friends case for her and the advisor approached the other side . Flat refusal to accept the new offer to reduce the arrears so we went before the DJ .

He was very nice and friendly but the other side set out at length their reasons to refuse our new offer based mainly on the amounts going out on unsecured borrowing.

The DJ after some time and debate about the amount of unsecured lending asked if my friend would reconsider what she could offer and the advisor suggested an amount exactly midway between the 2 offers [ I was not allowed to speak or I would have suggested somewhat less ].

The DJ bit her hand off and said he was not going to refer that offer back to the other side and set the arrears repayments at that revised offer.

So suspended repo order and a more affordable payment than originally offered.

 

Hopefully my friend can try to sort her life out a little.

 

Many many thanks to you Ell - enn from me and my friend . You are a star !!

[Ell-enn]

That's great news - well done:) did she manage to give the judge the new statement?

 

So how much does she have to pay towards the arrears now?