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This article applies to the law as it stands in England and Wales. If you’re having serious debt problems, you may receive a county court claim from a creditor. This means that they plan to take you to court to get the money they claim you owe them. The court will examine the case, decide whether there is a debt to be paid and how much it is, and order you to repay it, with instructions on how to do so. It’s not a criminal suit, so you can’t be found ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’. You don’t even have to attend the court hearing yourself if you don’t want to. All you need to do is send the court the information that they request from you. You’ll receive a county court claim form from the court, which will outline the case brought against you by the creditor and the details of how much you owe. The form also allows you to outline your side of the story to the court. You now have various options on how to proceed. If you want to repay the debt in full, you will need to send the payment directly to your creditor, whose address will be listed on the form, within 14 days. The payment will have to include the court fees and any interest due on your debt. Ask for a receipt as proof of payment. If this is the course of action you decide to take, it will be the end of the matter. There will be no court hearing. If you can’t afford to repay the debt, there’s a form to be filled in to explain this. It’s called an ‘admission form’, N9A. You’ll need to make a proposal of how you will repay, for example in instalments, and again you’ll need to send the form directly to your creditor within 14 days. There won’t normally be a fee for this. If you’re in dispute with the creditor regarding how much money you owe, there’s another form to be filled in. In this case, there are two ‘admission forms’ to be completed – N9A and N9B. Explain the situation and how much you believe you owe, and this time send it back to the court within 14 days, either with payment for the amount you owe or with details of when you plan to repay or how you plan to repay, for example in instalments, if you can’t afford to repay it all immediately. Finally, if you want to defend yourself in court, complete and return to the court the ‘defence form’ N9B within 14 days, stating your case against each of the points or ‘allegations’ of the claim. If 14 days isn’t enough time for you to set out your case, complete and return an ‘acknowledgement of service’ form N9 within 14 days to confirm your receipt of the claim against you. You will then be given an additional 14 days to respond. There’s normally no fee for responding with a defence. You may want to make a counterclaim if you believe that the claimant owes you money. If so, there’s a section to fill in on the defence form for making a counterclaim. The court will sometimes charge a fee for dealing with your counterclaim. There’s also a ‘Money Claim Online Service’, which allows the claim to be administered over the Internet. The 14-day rule still applies with online claims. The court will review the case and make a decision. If it’s decided you owe money, a County Court Judgement (CCJ) will be issued, to which you must adhere. It will set out details of how much you have to repay and by what means. If you’re in the unfortunate situation of having several judgements against you, the court may issue an administration order, in which you make one regular repayment which is then distributed among your various creditors. If you disagree with the outcome of the hearing, you can have the CCJ ‘set aside’ to be reviewed again by the court. The CCJ therefore won’t be recorded against you until the case is heard again, right from the start. (This means completing the relevant forms again.) If you’re having trouble meeting your repayment obligations under the CCJ, make sure you get in touch with the court as soon as possible to try to come to an alternative arrangement. If not, your creditor may have to return to the court to obtain their money and you will be liable to pay the fees for the further administration that the court has to undertake. All county court judgements that haven’t been paid in full within one month are recorded on a public register for six years. Financial organisations have access to this register and use it to make decisions on lending and credit, so if you have a CCJ your credit score is likely to drop and you may find it difficult to obtain any kind of financial products (although some organisations will still lend to people with CCJs against them in certain circumstances). Whatever your situation regarding the debt or the claim, make sure that you respond to it within 14 days. If you fail to respond in time or ignore the claim completely, your side of the story won’t be heard and a ‘judgement by default’ may be made against you. If this happens, full and immediate repayment may be ordered by the court and you could also be penalised in terms of your credit rating. This article is copyright protected and is not for republishing |
