Legal advice

North Lower Neil

Have had a summons forwarded onto me by my ex tonight, hadn't picked up my post from the old place in time to get any warning I might have this on the way.

Basically for something I was told I didn't have to pay, and therefore didn't, not for anything too bad.

Leaving that aside as I believe I am stuffed due to the fact legally I am liable to pay this amount whether I was informed (I know now wrongly) this or not:

Do any of you legal types know if you fill in the 'I cannot pay this now but will be able to in...." section - in my case 3 months time at bonus time - how likely this is to be accepted? I cannot afford this, at the moment and am therefore very worried.

North Lower Neil

P.S. It would not be installment payments at that point I could pay the whole thing.

uncle

Go for it. If your offering to pay in this climate they might just accept that

Chizz

Please, please, please take advice, either from a qualified legal advisor or from an independent, free source, like the Citizens Advice Bureau.

I am sure there are some people on here who are very willing to give you their thoughts, and genuinely offering what they believe to be constructive, useful advice. But what would you do if you acted on that advice and ended up in trouble?

(But, for what it's worth, I reckon Uncle's right!)

North Lower Neil

That's what I was hoping.

Know at work (car insurance) we'd generally take it if offered before the summons stage, but just don't know about after that.

I'm fuming because it's basically down to being advised wrong (i.e. your account is all paid up) by the people now passing it to solicitors. I think it should come under public liability or something, but just think as it is for services rendered and they were rendered, I'm stuffed!

North Lower Neil

Yeah, I'm going to try to Chizz, I just thought that outside office hours if there's a qualified solicitor etc on here, might put my mind at rest a bit!

Mortimerician

Sounds like a big grey area, but really need more detail. E.g who informed you that you didn't need to pay it - a rep of who you owed the money to, or a bloke down the pub? Was it in writing? On what grounds were you told that it wasn't due? Roughly how much is owed? What's it for. Have they issued any other reminders. How much could you pay now?

Basically though, claiming debt this way is expensive and hard, so if you contact them and offer to pay it off in instalments without need for court, then it'll probably be fine. Go back to them in writing, paying as much as you can as a sign of good faith, explaining why you hadn't done so until now (providing copies of any paperwork), explaining how and when you'll get them the balance and letting them know that this is the first you've heard of it. If they then take you to court they'll look like vindictive idiots.

North Lower Neil

Long story but we were told by the solicitors we didn't have to pay these fees as we didn't class for it as our house was bought under part ownership. However, we do.

We had the same when we bought the house 2 years ago regarding stamp duty (yeah, turns out the solictitors were very rubbish!), at the time I asked a solicitor at our work and he's said that as this is in effect a tax that we would have had to pay anyway, it's not down to the solictor under professional liability unfortunately - because we'd have had to pay it either way.

Not picking up my post for a month or so (I no longer live there with the ex) has been completely my fault, so first I've known about this is a summons. I can prove I'm getting a bonus in May that will cover this easily, have it in writing, so am hoping I fill in that section of the summons and include a photcopy of that, I'll be OK.

Mortimerician

Yup, I reckon that ought to be OK for your creditor, I'd still pay them anything you can down to demonstrate that you're doing what you can and are innocent in all this. Apologise and let them know why you weren't paying attention to. Also worth a mail to (I'm assuming) your crappy solicitors telling them that they have misinformed you, and letting them know that you'll hold them liable for any additional costs that you might face and suggesting that they might want to refund their fee.

Might be an idea to get mail forwarding sorted out too!

F-Blocker

[cite]Posted By: Mortimerician[/cite]Yup, I reckon that ought to be OK for your creditor, I'd still pay them anything you can down to demonstrate that you're doing what you can and are innocent in all this. Apologise and let them know why you weren't paying attention to. Also worth a mail to (I'm assuming) your crappy solicitors telling them that they have misinformed you, and letting them know that you'll hold them liable for any additional costs that you might face and suggesting that they might want to refund their fee.

Might be an idea to get mail forwarding sorted out too!

Also mention you're going to contact the Law Society about it - that usually gets them to pull their fingers out a bit...