Unpayable CCJ awarded against us.

[Postie166]

My wife and I have been struggling financially due to my being unpaid for the first 10 weeks of this year and this being followed by me being made redundant. Following this I was unemployed for 2 months, I have now found employment as a postman but my take home wage is approx £1,200 less than it used to be.

 

We are keeping up to date with all our priority debts, we have fallen behind with non-priority debtors, now we have written to other debtors and most of them have agreed our reduced payment terms, HSBC seem to be ignoring our letters at present.

 

My wife's Sygma card passed it onto Dryden Fairfax solicitors, despite our writing to both Sygma and Dryden Fairfax with our offer of reduced payment they decided to issue a CCJ. We filled out the forms supplied by the court and sent them a budget statement giving a detailed breakdown of our situation, our statement shown that we had £135 available to distribute amongst non-priority debtors which we did on a pro-rata basis, this allowed £3.20 per month for this account.

 

Today we had a letter back from the court stating that "The claimant has objected to the rate of payment you offered", it then states that the court has decided on a rate of £635.81 per month.

 

There is no possible way we can pay this amount, I have downloaded and filled in a N245 form offering a payment of £20 per month, we can afford to stretch to this.

 

Is there any other action I should/can take at this point ?

Should I send a letter with the N245 form asking how the figure of £635.81 was arrived at and then explain our current situation ?

[Guest]

how much roughly is the judgment for?

[Postie166]

just under £1,900, the current payment rate would see it cleared within 3 months.

[Guest]

630/mth seems a bit unreasonable re the amount owed re income!

you're doing the right thing re application. 20/mth = 9 years approx, seems alright. q is whether they will accept or not, and if not what court then decides to do.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Ford

[Postie166]

If they don't accept it I don't know what we will do, there is no way we can pay £630 a month, we have cut everything to the bone as it is.

How can a court expect people who are in financial difficulty to suddenly find that amount of money, if we had that much spare cash things would be a lot easier.

[Guest]

know what you mean, seems as if court wants you to default!

is there any property? if so, beware that a charging order application may soon follow.

[Postie166]

There certainly seems to be a complete lack of logic behind their decision, but maybe there is an agenda here that I haven't considered.

Yes we have property.

[Mike_hawk]

Did you send a copy of your proposal and I&E to Drydens with the admission or to the court?

[Postie166]

Can't be 100% sure, but think they were sent to the court.

Going to send the I&E with the N245 form.

[Guest]

fair point, if court didn't see your income and expend. usual procedure then is for them to come back to court with yes or no. if no, court then determines (which they did). anyway, you are sending the court one with your application. mind you, 3.20/mth prob wouldn't have been awarded as being unrealistic (52 years), although inst orders are always open to review/variation, and where property a charging order.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Ford

[Postie166]

I can understand that £3.20 was a low offer but to then convert that to £635/mth is unbelievable, I have no idea how they arrived at such a high figure, if we could afford that we could afford the approx £30 a month that is the minimum payment.

 

I can't find any template letters to send so will draft one myself explaining our situation and send that with the N245 form.

 

Is there likely to be an point in contacting the claimant directly to see if something can be sorted?

[Ell-enn]

Check the claim form you received from the court - it most probably says that the admission/defence form should be sent back to the solicitors (this happens a lot) - the court don't get to see your I & E, the sols just object to the small payments.

 

If you send your N245 to the court a judge will decide if your offer is reasonable based on your income and outgoing - I expect that your offer of £20 will be accepted.

[Postie166]

That would make sense, I can't believe the court saw our I & E form and then arrived at their judgement, surely that must be running very close to the wind for the solicitors.

[Guest]

quite agree re #11 (crossed post), 630/mth is unreasonable to say the least, hence why mike suggesting maybe they didn't see your income/expend?

yeah can do a covering letter. send all to court.

outside of the instalment order? prob not unless able to offer a reduced lump sum in satisfaction, but would then need to ensure that judgment is deemed satisfied.

[Postie166]

Perhaps I should also ask the court if they saw our I & E and if not why wasn't it presented at the hearing.

Don't want to stir up a hornets nest but also don't think it fair representation if they didn't.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Postie166

[Guest]

Check the claim form you received from the court - it most probably says that the admission/defence form should be sent back to the solicitors (this happens a lot) - ....

 

quite right, admission form says to send to address shown on the claim form as one to which docs should be sent. ie the sols/claimant.

defence form (if defending) goes to the court.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Ford

[Postie166]

Just checked the claim form and yes it says to send docs back to solicitors, so assuming then they didn't "bother" to pass the I & E on to the courts, that seems very immoral to me.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Postie166

[Conniff]

 

- I expect that your offer of £20 will be accepted.

 

 

and so would I, start making the £20 per month to them now. Pay it via a method you get a receipt in case they refuse it and that wont go down well with the judge.

 

One good thing about a ccj, no more interest or penalties can now be added.

[Postie166]

There is a facility to send to first payment with the N245 form, we will send a cheque for £20 and make sure this paper work is sent directly to the court.

 

As you say the up side is no more interest or charges.

 

The frustrating part of this is that we communicated with Sygma and Drydens but they chose to ignore our efforts to find a solution and went ahead with a CCJ.

[Guest]

Just checked the claim form and yes it says to send docs back to solicitors, so assuming then they didn't "bother" to pass the E & L on to the courts, that seems very immoral to me.

 

in general, for anyone doing an admission form perhaps send a copy to the court?

[Postie166]

That sounds like good advice, its seems solicitors can't be trusted.

[Guest]

That sounds like good advice, its seems solicitors can't be trusted.

 

seems like the thing to do. at least then court would be aware of def's income/expend no matter what sols do. but, it should be a matter of course anyway for them to advise court of def's IE otherwise how can court make a fair proportionate decision if claimant refuses offer and court has to decide without the IE. doesn't make sense!

Edited September 28, 2012 by Ford

[Postie166]

Your right it doesn't make sense but it also doesn't make sense to award them £635/mth when our "spare" cash is £135, something doesn't add up somewhere.

[Mike_hawk]

It has 14 days to dispute any redetermination, tbh its usually met with a c/o app......perhaps you should look into the history of its [DF] creation, it may give you some insight into why the court would not be aware of your proposal.

[Postie166]

It has 14 days to dispute any redetermination, tbh its usually met with a c/o app......perhaps you should look into the history of its [DF] creation, it may give you some insight into why the court would not be aware of your proposal.

 

I'm new at this, could you please translate a few points for me

 

It= who does this refer to

Usually met with a c/o app

What is a [DF] and how do I trace its history.