Proposed County Court Action

[stevieb]

I am helping my mum out of a hole while going through a divorce.

BUT


A county court summons has landed on her mat over the weekend, she is aware of the arrears that she owns and where we proposed a payment plan to clear this by christmas, which was accepted.

No formal notice of "Letter before action" was sent by the company.. When i have used money claim before i was requested to provided proof of delivery of all final demand notices to support my case.

Am i right in thinking that if no final demand or letter before action has been sent we can object to the summons in principle to delay by a few weeks to get all of the cash together?

thanks

[Piglet]

Hi Stevie, has it actually been issued by the Court - ie does it have a stamp on it? Often firms just send the claim forms out as an additional way of putting pressure on.

Presumably your mum has had correspondence from the company concerned previously? I don't think that you can use the lack of a letter before action as a way of delaying procedings but I haven't done litigation for a while - perhaps Lurking Lawyer is around - he's a litigator.

It would be worth your mum contacting www.cccs.co.uk/ they are a charity that help to deal with debt, they can make contact with the company and try to broker a deal. Usually (unless you're dealing with a debt collector) a company trying to reclaim money would rather do a deal with the debtor so that they know that they are going to get something back - it does depend on the company of course.

Good luck, I hope it all works out for you and your mum.

[stevieb]

I have been reading the Small Claims guidance and that a reasonable amount of time must be given (Suggested 1 month) to resolve the issue.

This has not been given! also they have sent the summons to her previous address and not her new address. They are fully aware of her leaving her previous home and all correspondents have ben acknowledge for the company to accept this on thre records, further communications have been recieved since the new address has been lodge on there records, but i do not understand why they have sent the summons to the previous address.

We are looking a debt of around £200

1st november will be upto £400 less payment of £300
Leaving an outstanding debt of £100.
1st December Balance will be £300
followed by payment on 1st december by £300
Hence cleared the balance and in such revert to original conditions of the terms to pay £200 a month.

[stevieb]

Piglet said:

Hi Stevie, has it actually been issued by the Court - ie does it have a stamp on it? Often firms just send the claim forms out as an additional way of putting pressure on.

I am not to sure, i did not check for this when i looked at the letter.

I have the cash to help out to clear the outstanding amount completely including all of the future payments but i did not really want to commit to this unless there was a last resort.

On another note if i did clear all of the outstanding debt, would a CCJ still be lodged???

[Piglet]

stevieb said:

Piglet said:

Hi Stevie, has it actually been issued by the Court - ie does it have a stamp on it? Often firms just send the claim forms out as an additional way of putting pressure on.

I am not to sure, i did not check for this when i looked at the letter.

I have the cash to help out to clear the outstanding amount completely including all of the future payments but i did not really want to commit to this unless there was a last resort.

On another note if i did clear all of the outstanding debt, would a CCJ still be lodged???

No, there would be no CCJ if you clear the debt at this time.

If it's a small amount I'd try to contact them and agree for your mum to pay say £30 a week (if she can afford it)with all interest being frozen until the debt is cleared.

What sort of company is it she's dealing with?

[slapmatt]

Piglet said:

If it's a small amount I'd try to contact them and agree for your mum to pay say £30 a week (if she can afford it)with all interest being frozen until the debt is cleared.

What sort of company is it she's dealing with?

Be VERY VERY careful with that approach - especially if you are now dealing directly with the court.

I was overpaid salary for a company I used to work for and when they tried to get it back they sent all the correspondence to my old address. The first I knew about it was when a court summons landed on my new addresses doormat. Without understanding the severity of the situation I sent it back saying I'd pay £100 a month, which was agreed on. Without knowing it I had in fact received a County Court Judgement. The only way to I could have avoided this is to pay off the full amount without the court having to pass judgement. When I realised my mistake I paid the full amount, but I still have a CCJ on my credit record, albeit one that's paid off, and it will remain on my credit history for 6 years. So beware!

[stevieb]

slapmatt said:

Piglet said:

If it's a small amount I'd try to contact them and agree for your mum to pay say £30 a week (if she can afford it)with all interest being frozen until the debt is cleared.

What sort of company is it she's dealing with?

Be VERY VERY careful with that approach - especially if you are now dealing directly with the court.

I was overpaid salary for a company I used to work for and when they tried to get it back they sent all the correspondence to my old address. The first I knew about it was when a court summons landed on my new addresses doormat. Without understanding the severity of the situation I sent it back saying I'd pay £100 a month, which was agreed on. Without knowing it I had in fact received a County Court Judgement. The only way to I could have avoided this is to pay off the full amount without the court having to pass judgement. When I realised my mistake I paid the full amount, but I still have a CCJ on my credit record, albeit one that's paid off, and it will remain on my credit history for 6 years. So beware!

I will see what other correspondent i recieve from them and before they set the date. if needs be i will transfer all money across to clear this and thus hopefully clear the outstanding debt, and avoid a CCJ on my mums record.

[superlightr]

Just pay it off. She owes it, pay it.

[Piglet]

Stevie, I've just re-read your first post again and see that you'd already agreed a payment plan. Assuming that you can evidence this and your mum has kept to it, you'd have a very good chance of being successful in Court.

BUT I'd imagine your mum is under enough stress at the moment and irritating though it might be if you're in a position to pay the outstanding amount it's probably better to just do so move on.

[stevieb]

superlightr said:

Just pay it off. She owes it, pay it.

Piglet said:

Stevie, I've just re-read your first post again and see that you'd already agreed a payment plan. Assuming that you can evidence this and your mum has kept to it, you'd have a very good chance of being successful in Court.

BUT I'd imagine your mum is under enough stress at the moment and irritating though it might be if you're in a position to pay the outstanding amount it's probably better to just do so move on.

Will transfer all of the cash later today, on the assumption that the case will be dropped and no ccj awarded

[superlightr]

apologies if I was a bit blunt - I would pay it for the reasons the other poster gave, less stress and hassle and its a relativly small amount and its not disputed the amount is owning.

[stevieb]

superlightr said:

apologies if I was a bit blunt - I would pay it for the reasons the other poster gave, less stress and hassle and its a relativly small amount and its not disputed the amount is owning.

You are right though it would be one less thing to worry about but annoying. The out come was that if i pay it off then there is no CCJ agaisst my mum. She is looking for a new house but is waiting on a settlement from selling of family home. So it is one less thing against here credit record.

[Smartie]

if the deabt is paid within 30 days of the court issuing the CCJ then it doesn't get recorded on the register of CCJ's.

If you mum is disputing the amount then she can go to court happy in the knowledge that if she does lose, and then pays the debt off within 30 days then it won't affect her credit rating at all, though she will have costs etc on top of the debt.

[Lurking Lawyer]

Piglet said:

Presumably your mum has had correspondence from the company concerned previously? I don't think that you can use the lack of a letter before action as a way of delaying procedings but I haven't done litigation for a while - perhaps Lurking Lawyer is around - he's a litigator.

Not much to add to what Piglet has said - she's quite right about the lack of letter of claim not being a procedural bar to them brining the claim (assuming of course that it has been issued, rather just sent to you in draft, to try to apply pressure).

The sanction for not sending a letter of claim is possibly being deprived of some or all of their costs if they were to succeed at trial. If the amount in issue is less than £5K, the point is somewhat academic since you don't get any legal costs back (other than the fee you pay on issuing the claim) irrespective of whether you win or lose.

[stevieb]

Thanks for the help, to save the hassle and any further stress i have BACS the money over to the company in question.

Now to fill in the court form... would this be a denial of the debt at the time of signing for form. or an acceptance of the debt stating that it is now paid??

[superlightr]

denial - with reason that the debt has been paid.

Write to the company to give a receipt for the funds transferred and to ask them to contact the court to withdraw the case.