Marston HCEO

[oldspots]

Hi,

you all seem really good and helpful here so hopefully you can advice me on a scarey matter.

 

 

My husband lost his pig farming business due to the usual rising costs and

rather than go bankrupt we decided to pay off our £80k debts,

we sold our land and paid over half the debts and the remaining debts

 

I contacted everyone and agreed monthly payments.

All but one creditor agreed and they decided to go down the Marston Group way but we did come to an arrangement with them.

 

After paying them for two years without missing any payments

they agreed for us to pay the company we owed the money to which we did until one month the payment was returned to us.

 

We assumed we had completely paid the debt so increased payments to the other people we owed money to,

but the company themselves had gone bankrupt.

 

We received a letter from the solicitor dealing with this asking for the money in full which was £1200,

this we did not have, but I asked if we could pay £50 per month but never received a reply.

Stupidly, I thought we would not hear again but

 

 

we have had a letter pushed through our letterbox from Marston Group saying the debt is now £4299.38

and we must pay in full if not they will come and remove goods to that value.

 

I have written to them offering to pay £100 per month, paid the first installment.

Sadly, they are not the friendliest of people to talk to and can be very intimidating.

 

They are now saying they want the amount in full which we do not have.

Please, can they just do this. I would appreciate any help.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG. I'm sorry to hear about your problems, life must be tough.

 

I expect the forum guys will be along later, please bear with us until they are able to get here.

 

My best, HB

[oldspots]

Thanks honeybee13, thats sweet of you. Just when you think life is sorted its a big kick in the teeth:-(

[ploddertom]

Can you explain what you mean by "the Marston Group way"?

[oldspots]

Instead of excepting our offer of paying monthly to pay off our debt they got Marstons to act on their behalf.

Our other creditors accepted our offer and the majority of the debts have now been paid in full.

[renegadeimp]

Ask marstons for a full breakdown of the amount owed. Especially if theyve added on a few thousand to the debt.

[ploddertom]

Instead of excepting our offer of paying monthly to pay off our debt they got Marstons to act on their behalf. Our other creditors accepted our offer and the majority of the debts have now been paid in full.

 

Has a CCJ been obtained for what you owed?

[oldspots]

Yes I have and they have sent me one, according to them its execution costs, judgement cost, interest and enforcement fees

[oldspots]

Yes there was as the company we owed the money to wanted us to pay £500 per month and all we could afford was £100

[ploddertom]

How much was the original CCJ for and when was it awarded?

 

 

Did you submit a defence to the CCJ?

 

 

Did you attend Court or was it awarded by Default?

[ploddertom]

As for the Writ - again when was it granted and do you know if it has been renewed each year?

[oldspots]

The amount was for £6,693.74,

 

 

we did submit a defence but we did not attend.

 

 

We paid £200 per month until the business folded and

 

 

then we were allowed to pay £100 which we did continually until the monthly payment was retunred to our account as the company had gone bankrupt.

[oldspots]

It was in 2007 and I had no paperwork to say it had been renewed every year

[ploddertom]

Do you have any idea how much you have paid to date?

 

 

The downsides of paying monthly is the HCEO will have been taking a share of each payment 60/40 splits are not uncommon in some cases.

 

 

Do you still have the original Form 55? Were any goods ever seized?

[oldspots]

When the monthly payment had been returned to us we were then told by the solicitor acting for them that we actually still owed £811.84.

 

 

Marston did take a cut up until 2010 when it was agreed we could pay directly to the company we owed the money and

then Marston did not take a cut.

 

 

No goods were ever seized.

 

 

What is a form 55 please.

[ploddertom]

A CCJ was obtained against you for a sum of money that had gone unpaid.

 

 

Following Judgment the debt had still gone unpaid and no suitable instalment plan was made.

 

 

The Claimant then has the choce to transfer up the Judgment through the High Court for enforcement.

 

 

The Writ that is obtained doing this only lasts 12 months but can be renewed on request

- the cost is added to what you owe.

 

 

A High Court Enforcement Officer would usually visit you

- without any prior warning

- he should have left you with some paperwork about the debt

- Form 55 perhaps.

 

 

This should give some details such as the Writ No, the date it was transferred from the County Court etc.

 

 

Obviously an arrangement was made to pay £200 per month for what appears to be best part of 3 years

- approx up to £7200

- then it was agreed you paid the Claimant direct at £100 per month for the next 3 years

- another £3600, totalling some £10k and they still want more.

 

There are a few different things that can be done:

 

1 - write and ask Marstons for a full breakdown of fees charged as advised in an earlier post

2 - in my view a better suggestion is to write to Marstons for a Subject Access Request

- costs £10 but should reveal more info that a breakdown request

- can take up to 40 days for a response

 

3 - write to the solicitor asking for a list of dates & payments made

 

However doing any or all the above does not prevent the Enforcement Agent attending and causing distress.

 

 

To prevent this you urgently need to apply for a Stay of Execution which if granted halts all further enforcement action and charges.

This is applied for on Form N244

- download from HMCTS website

- in my view you have many grounds for applying.

 

 

The cost of the application is £155 but if on certain Benefits or low wage then you may be able to get full or partial exemption

- see Forms EX160a & EX160c for details.

 

I will also send you a PM on different suggestion to take up, that should be with you in the 10 minutes or so.

[ploddertom]

PM sent - check Tool Bar top right where it says Notifications

[Bailiff Advice]

Very busy day today so will return to this question in the morning.

[oldspots]

Very busy day today so will return to this question in the morning.

 

You have been absolutely amazing - thankyou. I will now do everything you have suggested. We will have to pay the fee, which is not a problem, as we do not claim any benefits.

 

Huge thankyou to you.

[oldspots]

Hi - I have spoken to the Enforcement Office ant The Roayl court and the writ has not been re-newed.

[oldspots]

We have also spoken to Marstons again this morning and they will not except our payments but want £1,000 to stop the van turning up on Monday morning. We are trying to raise this money as we do not have it. We have also told them we have filled in the forms for a Stay of Execution but they were not interested.

[ploddertom]

Hi - I have spoken to the Enforcement Office ant The Roayl court and the writ has not been re-newed.

 

If the writ has not been renewed then you need to advise the the solicitor who has put this back into marstons hands to sort out. You should mention you have spoken with the Enforcement Office at RCJ to get this information. I suspect that Marstons are just operating on the say so of the solicitor whithout checking themselves - although it could be this is a recent application that is not on record yet.

[ploddertom]

We have also spoken to Marstons again this morning and they will not except our payments but want £1,000 to stop the van turning up on Monday morning. We are trying to raise this money as we do not have it. We have also told them we have filled in the forms for a Stay of Execution but they were not interested.

 

They would say that and if they believe they have a live Writ will continue to enforce. In your case a Stay of Execution need to be applied for in person either at the RCJ in London or at a County Court near you that also acts as a District Registry of the High Court. To see Courts near you that may do this see https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/ - enter your postcode into the box given and alter the Area of Law box to show High Court - you have to scroll down for this.

 

The forms are best presented on a morning, explaining the urgency of the application and in many cases a Judge can be found who will hear your application on the spot. If so you then notify Marstons ASAP giving Court, date, Judge & any terms that have been laid down. When you receive the paperwork you also forward a copy to them - do not rely on others having done this. The Form itself can be a little awkward to fill in - I shall send you a guide on what is wanted again by PM.

[oldspots]

Again huge thanks. I have rung the solicitor who was dealing with this but he has now left the company and the new solicitor taking over is not in the office until Monday. The nearest court is about an hour away which doesn't give us any time to get the forms filled in and to them this morning!

[oldspots]

I would just like to say an enormous thankyou to Ploddertom who has been such a massive help to us over this. Without his help we really would not have known what to do. I will certainly be sending this forum a donation