Acenden Repossession Order ** ORDER SUSPENDED **

[Lea_HTH]

If they do not withdraw the case (which is the right thing for them to do under the circumstances since they should never have started proceedings given they lost your payments), then you MUST respond to the particulars of claim (defence) and state that there are no arrears on the account, they in fact 'lost' your payments which they have now 'found' (provide proof - bank statements and their letter if you have it by then), and invite the judge to STRIKE OUT the case as they have no cause of action.

 

No arrears = no cause of action.

 

My suggestion would be that you MUST attend the hearing (they won't bother, they will write to the court requesting an adjournment with liberty to restore), and repeat your request that the application be struck out as the claim was brought without merit. In addition, state in your defence that you respectfully request the judge to make an order for no costs to be added to the mortgage account or the security -this is imperative as they have no right to charge you for what is essentially their mistake, but if the court do not order this they have a right under your terms and conditions to go ahead and charge. You must use the wording in bold in your defence statement and ask the judge to use this wording in his judgment at the hearing.

[Ell-enn]

If you need help with writing the defence to send to the court please say so and I can draft one for you. You should take Lea's advice and definitely attend the hearing - the last thing you want is an adjourned hearing hanging over your head, just in case they "lose" your payments again and decide to apply to restore the hearing, and the whole things starts all over again.

[whitsend]

I am hoping it will not come to that but if it is not adjourned I will attend and request it be struck out, I will use the words you have used exactly. Would it help to mention they also lost all my correspondence details and everything else to do with my account.

[whitsend]

I'm going to pay Junes by card this week to make sure they get it, this will give me time to check that it has been allocated to my account as they say that what happened with the lost payments, they were received but not allocated to my account by their finance dept. If it does go to court I will need help with a defense, lets hope that it will not come to that.

[Ell-enn]

Once you have made the June payment - take a print out of the transaction and we can affix that to the defence statement for court I will start to draft the statement so it will almost be ready for when you get their letter about finding the lost payments. You can take it to the court as soon as it is done as it will have to be there before the hearing date.

 

If you don't enter a defense and attend the hearing you will end up with an adjournement.

[whitsend]

Ok, I will do that as soon as it shows up on internet banking next week.

[Lea_HTH]

I am hoping it will not come to that but if it is not adjourned I will attend and request it be struck out, I will use the words you have used exactly. Would it help to mention they also lost all my correspondence details and everything else to do with my account.

 

Just to be abundantly clear, you do not, under any circumstances, want the case adjourned - it MUST be struck out, and you need to do everything you can to ensure it is struck out and that no charges are laid onto your account. It was their error, they lost the payment, they had no cause of action against you to take you to court, so adjourning will be in their favour when in fact they had no right to take you to court in the first place.

 

I appreciate that the terminology may be causing difficulties, but it is set out clearly in my earlier post. The case must be struck out because they have no cause of action...ergo, they have no legal standing to make a claim against you - do not let them get away with this. In fact, if it ends up in court, it is one instance in which I would suggest (strongly) that you ask the court to award YOU costs.

[whitsend]

Well I received 2 letters today, one from Lightfoots solicitors saying that they have written to the court asking for an adjornment and one from Ascenden saying that they would not oppose a suspended possession order. I have asked about this and they said this is nothing to do with the missing payments, it's because due to late payments every month I am constantly in arrears and I am in arrears again now, because they have added on a £5 fee for making a payment last week even though they told me how much to pay exactly so the account was clear. So how do I stop it being adjourned.

[whitsend]

I am self employed and like other people have suffered from the recession. I have a mortgage with the Halifax and a remortgage with Capstone. I have struggled to pay Capstone as I know how agressive they are but have not kept up with my Halifax payment. They are now taking me to court on 20th November to try and reposess my house. I am currently 1533.08 in arrears and have paid 550.00 today so once that hits my account I will be £983 in arrears. I spoke to the Halifax's solicitor last week and although the letters they send, say, they can make an arrangement, their stance with me, on the phone was, that they would not cancel the hearing unless the arrears were paid in full. And if I did make an arrangement they would ask for it to be guaranteed by a suspended repossession order. I phoned them again this afternoon and now they are saying that if I make payments that only leave 3 months balance, which is £498, left to pay, they will close my case and it will be up to the Halifax to deal with those arrears. I am going to try and make another payment of £180 this weekend which will leave £800, and then I will pay anything I can next week but the chances of me paying it all off are slim, before the 20th of November. I have a large settlement £4k being paid to me 26th November, but this is not in time to stop the suspended repossession they are trying to get.

[Ell-enn]

Do you have any documentary proof of the £4k you are expecting on 26th November?

[whitsend]

It is settlement of an invoice, so yes I have the invoice.

[Ell-enn]

Is the payment guaranteed ?

[whitsend]

I have done this job for this company 6 times in 7 years and they always pay on time. I also have a repayment VAT payment due of £1159, which was paid last month but due to me moving my business, HMRC sent it to the wrong address and I have had to wait for them to receive the payable order back from my ex landlord. They received it back 23rd October and authorised it to be paid again by BACS on the 1st November, so I am also waiting for that.

[Ell-enn]

If the VAT payment arrives will you be able to pay the arrears off before the hearing? If there are no arrears, there can be no hearing.

[whitsend]

I received a letter today from Acenden and their solicitors Lightfoots saying that they had set a hearing date for repossession on 16th August. This is the first correspondence about repossession I have had.

 

I have had arrears in the past but I have always managed to pay them off before it got to court as the most they have ever been is £1800, however due to me being self employed and a number of bad debtors and low sales the arrears have grown to £3800 of which £860 is charges. I offered to pay and extra £120 a month starting on top of my £331 I am paying now, starting August, to pay these off as my boyfriend is moving in with me and we could afford that, but they will only accept it if I pay a lump sum of £2220 first by 31st July. This I do not have, so where do I go from here, I was hoping that when my boyfriend moved in things would get easier. I really do not want to go to court or lose my house. They have had an income and expenditure and the say my spare income with my boyfriends will be £675 so it is affordable, but I cannot raise the lump sum.

[whitsend]

The offer of £120 a month off the arrears on top of my mortgage payment was made on the phone, would it be a help to send this in writing. They did a budget sheet over the phone which didn't really give me chance to think straight. They did say that if I did not pay the lump sum they would continue to charge me £70 a month fee, which would push up the arrears even further.

[Ell-enn]

Hi, you should definitely follow up in writing. Also, re-do the budget sheet and tell them in your letter that you felt pressured into giving income and expenditure over the phone and that you had no time to check your figures. Affixed is the budget sheet we normally use (it calculates automatically as you fill it in). If you need help with the letter please let me know.

 

Send the letter by recorded delivery and keep a copy for yourself - also, keep the postal receipt safe so you can check it on the royalmail website to print out the signature receipt.

Budget Sheet.xls

[whitsend]

Should I do a SAR request as well, as they have included fees in with the arrears.

[Ell-enn]

I would ask them in your letter to provide a breakdown of the arrears as you cannot reconcile the amount they are asking for. If you need help with the letter please let me know.

[whitsend]

Ok, so I wrote to them with my proposals to pay £120 per month on top of my monthly payments, and asking them for a breakdown of the arrears. I also asked them to reconsider the £2200 they were asking for as a lump sum. I received a letter this morning from Ascenden and it was as if I have never written to them. They have completely ignored my letter and it was sent by recorded delivery. The letter basically just said the contact them immediately and make payment proposals and to see if an alternative solution could be found.

 

Should I now start a defence to send to the court.

[Ell-enn]

Yes you should start to draft a defence - you should hand it in to the court in person if at all possible.

 

Have a look at my guide here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?325527-CAG-guide-Are-you-facing-eviction-or-repossession pages 6 and 13 in particular.

 

If you need any further help please let us know.

[whitsend]

Should I still make the payment towards the arrears even though the offer has been ignored by Ascenden.

[Ell-enn]

Yes, any payments made before the hearing will help your case and show the judge you are committed to the payment plan you have offered. Make sure you can get proof of the payment.

[whitsend]

I have received a letter today from Ascenden saying they will only accept the £120 a month towards the arrears if I pay the lump of £2200, as per their telephone call. They have also sent me a breakdown of arrears which are £2940 arears and £860 fees. But when I went through it, the total amount of fees added to my account in the last 5 years is £4700. Do I need to put this in my defence for court, because without these fees I would not be in arrears

[Ell-enn]

the arrears should consist of missed payments - does the £2940 equate to a number of missed payments. Arrears fees should be added to the outstanding mortgage and not treated as arrears - if the arrears fees were removed from your account the the only impact it would have is that your outstanding mortgage would reduce and if you are on an interest only mortgage the interest would reduce thus making your monthly payments less.

 

However if the lender has been using the additional payment you are making to reduce the arrears that is a different story.................