help please - problem

[**Tilly**]

hi jayneuk

your welcome and good luck:)

[jayneuk]

Can only find an income support letter from April 06. They will probably say its too old wont they, but I havent got anything more recent.

[**Tilly**]

yes they will want a recent letter or document are you any other benefits which you might have an update one for or give them a ring and ask them if they could send you a letter confirming your benefits it will mean waiting for a few

more days before filing your n1

[jayneuk]

ok or shall i send it all off anyway, and get a more recent letter for in case they say they need it?

[**Tilly**]

if you send it of they will more than likely return it to you asking for an up todate letter or document you could always try ringing the court and ask them

[jayneuk]

right, i rung them, and it has to be less than a month old, so now i will ring the income support people.

 

just realised im not sure which court it all goes to. is it the county court? i thought county was the one with a jury, and magistrates was the smaller one?

[**Tilly**]

hi

yes you send it to your local county court

[jayneuk]

right. sorted then. as soon as i get the letter i will send it all off. thank you.

[**Tilly**]

thats great once you get your letter and you have sent it all

into the court and wait to hear from them they will reply with a deemed served date with a date that they have to

acknowledge by

[jayneuk]

Hi again,

 

Right, today I have received a defence. I'm not sure what that means I should do next.

 

Can anyone advise please?

 

Thank you.

[**Tilly**]

hi Jayneuk

 

now you sit and wait you may recieve an AQ some courts do

send them some dont but the court will keep you informed

of the progress of your case have a look in this link you will

see other cases so you will know what to expect

 

**URGENT** Halifax Defence filed in HULL. Read here.

 

 

have a lool to see if your court is staying claims

Find out here if your local court is staying claims

[jayneuk]

So do I just wait now then? Does it mean I will have to go to court? The defence says stuff about their charges being ok (part of the contract etc) and about the fact that I have gone back further than 6 years too.

 

Does it mean it hasn't been stayed? Or does the stay happen later?

[jayneuk]

I've looked at some other threads. The one you posted said this -

 

10-08-2007--Defence received from Halifax

13-08-2007--Judgement Request sent

 

Do I do the judgement request too then? Should I send the defence to the court? I had a letter from the court today as well saying that the bank would be doing a defence, but they obviously did it very quickly, as I received both today.

[**Tilly**]

 

Does it mean it hasn't been stayed? Or does the stay happen later?

 

 

they will inform you if your claim has been stayed

[**Tilly**]

hi Jayneuk

have you recieved anything back from the court

the halifax have 28 days to acknowledge your claim

if they havent acknowledged it by the end of the 28 days

you can file for judgement by default but if you have recieved

papers from the court then like i said it is a case of waiting

for the court to get in touch

[jayneuk]

yes i have had the acknowlegement of service from the court, plus a copy of the defence from halifax solicitors.

 

on the acknowlegement of service it says "this court orer has been made of the courts own initiative. if you object to it you must make an application to have it varied, stayed or set aside iwthin 7 days of receiving it." does that mean anything?

 

i cant understand why i should do nothing when i have received a letter from the court and a defence from solicitors. it feels like the ball's in my court as i have heard from both?

[jayneuk]

Today I've received a letter from the court saying my case is to be stayed, and reviewed by a district judge as soon as practicable after the 7th of March.

 

It says that I have the right to apply to lift the stay, specifying why the claim should not await the test case decision.

 

Could somebody tell me what to do next please?

[**Tilly**]

hi jayneuk

yes you can apply to have the stay lifted here is the link

Application for removal of a stay - UPDATED TO ACCOUNT FOR OFT TEST CASE

 

[jayneuk]

Thank you Tilly. I will attempt to fill that in - I will probably get in a muddle with it though lol.

 

I need to pay £35 though don't I? Which I don't have.

[**Tilly**]

hi

if you have problems filling it out just shout there is always

somebody to help

[sea-sidelady]

Can you claim hardship?

[jayneuk]

I don't know. I guess I can. I'm a single mum on income support. Does that mean I can?

 

Do I have to send the £35 in with the form? Or can I claim it like I did the court fees? Because I don't have it.

[jayneuk]

I have written this for the hardship bit. Is it ok?

 

I am a single mother of two children. I cannot work because I suffer from agoraphobia, panic disorder and depression.

My only income is benefits. I receive no maintenance for my children.

I have more money going out that coming in each month, and am getting into debt. I try to run my bank account as well as I can, but with so little money coming in, it is inevitable that I will sometimes have failed direct debits and other unpaid items. Due to this, I am still receiving bank charges of £30 or £39 a go.

I am also in debt. I owe money to my gas and electric suppliers, my phone bill, another bank, as well as personal debts to my family and friends. I have got behind with nearly all my payments.

As my sole income is from benefits. Benefit payments are set to the minimum level to cover the basic requirements to live on. To allow the bank to continue to charge me these huge charges would cause extreme hardship and deprive me and my children of basic living essentials. In calculating the levels of benefit, the Government did not take into account the extravagent levels of bank charges.

Bank charges reflect a disproportionate burden on those on benefits particularly, as we have no way of boosting our income and limited access to credit to pay off previous charges. Thus once a charge has been applied the likelihood of further charges increases leading to a spiralling effect on our finances.

 

I found a post saying that I should send the n244 along with my witness statement to the bank's solicitors now, rather than straight to the court? Is that right? Should I send it to the solicitors and give them 7 days to respond before I send to the court?

 

So sorry for all the questions.

[Goldlady]

Probably worth a try jayne. They might offer to settle - although the halifax were very hard-nosed with me last week when I tried to reclaim £39 charge for being 79p short to pay my council tax, even though I paid £1 in that day and had to queue for bloody ages to pay it in:(.

 

I did get most of my misappropriated (is that word OK mods?) tax credit back from them earlier this year but they told me they would not refund any more until the test case, saying I had a legal claim against them?? I said I hadn't as they had refunded most of the charges but if they wanted me to make a claim for the outstanding charges (about £300 or so) just because they wouldn't refund me one £39 totally unreasonable charge then they were idiots.

[sea-sidelady]

This is what you need.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/115023-application-removal-stay-grounds.html?highlight=hardship

 

And yes as you are on income support that qualifies you for hardship, it also means you dont need to pay for the court costs.