Solicitor urgently required

[Anon1234]

I'm in the Derby/Nottingham area and am seeking some debt advice (hopefully free).

I'm in danger of loosing my house over an unsecured HP agreement and urgently need the advice of a solicitor on how best to proceed.

PM me if you like.

Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

TIA

[soprano]

Anon1234 said:

I'm in the Derby/Nottingham area and am seeking some debt advice (hopefully free).

I'm in danger of loosing my house over an unsecured HP agreement and urgently need the advice of a solicitor on how best to proceed.

PM me if you like.

Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

TIA

I'm afraid I don't have a recommendation but if the debt is unsecured, why do you think there is a risk of you losing your house?

Edited by soprano on Tuesday 29th July 20:38

[bad company]

soprano said:

I'm afraid I don't have a recommendation but if the debt is unsecured, why do you think there is a risk of you losing your house?

Edited by soprano on Tuesday 29th July 20:38

Spot on. The credit company would need a Court order, very hard to get.

Sounds like the op has been intimidated.

[PurpleMoonlight]

Has the lender taken the assets to which the HP agreement relates, and there is a balance owning?

If so, they would first need to get a CCJ for the debt. Then they would need to get a Charging Order to secure the debt against your home. Then they would need to get a court order for sale.

Where are you in this process?

[Anon1234]

PurpleMoonlight said:

Has the lender taken the assets to which the HP agreement relates, and there is a balance owning?

If so, they would first need to get a CCJ for the debt. Then they would need to get a Charging Order to secure the debt against your home. Then they would need to get a court order for sale.

Where are you in this process?

All of the above events (apart from the last step) have already taken place.
I'm now being taken to court, where the finance companies solicitors are trying to get a court order for sale.

Many thanks to everyone who has replied so far.
I'm now in the position where I urgently need legal advise on how best to proceed and prevent my house from being sold.

[Sarnie]

Anon1234 said:

All of the above events (apart from the last step) have already taken place.
I'm now being taken to court, where the finance companies solicitors are trying to get a court order for sale.

Many thanks to everyone who has replied so far.
I'm now in the position where I urgently need legal advise on how best to proceed and prevent my house from being sold.

Citizen's Advice?

[mybrainhurts]

Radio 4 recently ha a bod from the National Debtline, or something. Free advice.

[Anon1234]

Sarnie said:

Citizen's Advice?

I went to see them yesterday.
Although as helpful as possible they advised me to consult a solicitor ASAP who is conversant in debt issues - hence my request.

[soprano]

Anon1234 said:

I went to see them yesterday.
Although as helpful as possible they advised me to consult a solicitor ASAP who is conversant in debt issues - hence my request.

If you are willing to post some more details on here you will get some decent advice, I'm not suggesting it as a substitute for seeing a solicitor but your chances of finding somebody to represent you on a pro bono basis is pretty slim.

How much is the debt, how long has it been outstanding. Have you paid anything, are you paying anything on a month by month basis or are you in a position to do so?

What is the position with your house, how much is it worth, is it mortgaged and if so how much equity is there? When was the charge secured and have you made any offers to pay anything? Are there other charges secured against your house? Are you in a position to remortgage to repay the debt? Can you raise other unsecured borrowing to pay the debt?

[Anon1234]

mybrainhurts said:

Radio 4 recently ha a bod from the National Debtline, or something. Free advice.

I spoke to them yesterday as well.
Again very helpful, but they tell you upfront that they are not legally trained.

[Anon1234]

soprano said:

If you are willing to post some more details on here you will get some decent advice, I'm not suggesting it as a substitute for seeing a solicitor but your chances of finding somebody to represent you on a pro bono basis is pretty slim.

I realise it's a bit of a longshot, but I'm getting desperate and anything's worth a chance.

How much is the debt, how long has it been outstanding. Have you paid anything, are you paying anything on a month by month basis or are you in a position to do so?

£10k
Since 2008
I haven't paid anything yet as I disputed the debt and still do.
I am able to offer a monthly repayment or a reduced full and final settlement.

What is the position with your house, how much is it worth, is it mortgaged and if so how much equity is there? When was the charge secured and have you made any offers to pay anything? Are there other charges secured against your house? Are you in a position to remortgage to repay the debt? Can you raise other unsecured borrowing to pay the debt?

The house might sell for £160k - substantially less if it goes to auction.
Mortgage is £120k
Charge was secured in 2008
There are £13k of other charges secured against my property.
My credit score is shot to pieces so the chances of remortgaging are nil.
I may be able to borrow a few k of family.

[Sarnie]

What are you disputing?

The £13k of 'other charges' secured against your property, is that in addition to the £10k owed for this debt?

[soprano]

Anon1234 said:

First things first, you are not in a position to challenge the debt, the time for that has long since passed. If the creditor has a charge over the property, that charge will be based on a judgment of the court which pre dates the 2008 charge. There is no realistic prospect of you setting aside or appealing the original judgment or the charging order 6+ years down the line. The court on an application for an order for sale cannot go behind either the judgment or the charging order.

It has been a long time since I've dealt with one of these but charging orders and applications for an order for sale are dealt with under the Charging Orders Act 1979/Part 73 of the Civil Procedure Rules and the Trusts of Land and Appointment of a Trustees Act 1996 (frequently called TOLATA or something similar) sections 14 and 15 respectively. Section 15 sets out the considerations of the court which you will need to consider. Remember that this legislation will be used not only for creditor/debtor type scenarios but also for example couples who live together but have separated and one wants to sell, the other one doesn't.

Try and negotiate with the creditors solicitor either by offering a lump sum or monthly payments or a combination of the two. I suspect they are unlikely to accept a discounted lump sum figure because looking at your figures there is enough equity in the property that they will be paid in full hence there is no real attraction in accepting anything less.

If you are making offers in writing you can do so on an 'open' basis or a 'without prejudice' - the latter cannot be put before the court when hearing the substantive application to sell the property.

My recollection is that the court can do a few things to things to assist you:

1. Vary the judgment so as to be payable by instalments - this would have to be upon your application, but you might be too late for this.

2. This is more likely - make the order for sale but suspend it upon terms that you repay X per month off of the debt. It will have to be a reasonable amount, £1 or £5 per month is simply not going to do it. It will depend on the judge on the day but most expect it to be cleared within perhaps 3-8 years, sometimes longer. That would mean paying somewhere in the region of £100 to £300pcm off this debt.

Prepare a schedule of income and outgoings and be realistic. There is no point in offering £300 per month if you are going to immediately default because the suspended order for sale would bite.

3. Decline the application for an order for sale. This is unlikely given that you have paid nothing for 6 years but there are still judges out there who do not like to see family homes sold to pay debt and will simply refuse to make the order.

A couple of last points, houses are rarely sold through auction any more, they are mostly marketed as you or I would. Also be prepared to face an application for legal costs from the creditors solicitor. I would not be surprised if its at least a few thousand pounds. Making reasonable 'open' proposals may assist you in defending a claim for costs against you or at least reducing it.

Good luck.

[soprano]

Sarnie said:

What are you disputing?

The £13k of 'other charges' secured against your property, is that in addition to the £10k owed for this debt?

I suspect the 'other charges' refer to another creditor who has secured a prior charge against the property.

[skeggysteve]

A few years ago we had very, very good free advice from Freeth Cartright in Nottingham (think they have changed names now) not on the same problem but might be worth a try.

Best of luck OP.

[Anon1234]

Sarnie said:

What are you disputing?

The £13k of 'other charges' secured against your property, is that in addition to the £10k owed for this debt?

Yes.

The original loan was for a car.
After it got repossessed, due to me getting made redundant and not being able to keep up the payments, I was told that the car would be retailed to obtain the best price. If the finance company had done as they said (it was a desirable car, hardly used, right spec, still as new, best time of year to sell etc)instead of sending it to auction, they would have achieved sufficient funds to pay off the loan. As it was the car went for £25k, instead of the £32k which similar cars were going for at the time.
The £7k shortfall + £3k interest = £10k they now claim I owe and it is this which I was and still am disputing.

[Anon1234]

Soprano - Many thanks for your informative reply and suggestions on how I should proceed.
I hope you don't mind, but I've just sent you a PM

Skeggysteve - Thank you for your suggestion.
I've just rang Freeth Cartright (they have offices in Derby and Nottingham)and am waiting for someone to call me
back. How did you manage to get some free advice? I've had a look on their website, but they don't seem to offer
an initial free consultation.

Edited by Anon1234 on Thursday 31st July 17:59

[Grandad7184]

They will claim theres no set price at auction. And the risk is that there will be shortfall. If you have your finance t&c I would carefully check the small print.

My FIL said if it was a house and if it went to auction and did not achieve the price the bank would right off the shortfall. Or if a profit then that would be paid back

Edited to correct my self.

Edited by Grandad7184 on Thursday 31st July 18:23

[Fotic]

Anon1234 said:

Yes.

The original loan was for a car.
After it got repossessed, due to me getting made redundant and not being able to keep up the payments, I was told that the car would be retailed to obtain the best price. If the finance company had done as they said (it was a desirable car, hardly used, right spec, still as new, best time of year to sell etc)instead of sending it to auction, they would have achieved sufficient funds to pay off the loan. As it was the car went for £25k, instead of the £32k which similar cars were going for at the time.
The £7k shortfall + £3k interest = £10k they now claim I owe and it is this which I was and still am disputing.

As has been said - the time to dispute the amount was at the County Court hearing at the time. Pointless saying that you dispute it as the judgement has been made - your dispute has effectively been proven to be incorrect.

Sounds like your credit has come home to roost. £32k car in a £120k house? Various other charges on your property too?

I think you need to sell your house and get your finances in order really.

[PurpleMoonlight]

OP, the debts secured on the house are already near its value.

Have you other debts too not secured on the house, might you be better off declaring bankruptcy?