Hi, Just to keep you updated. I had a letter from Shoosmiths last Thursday, copying me in on a letter they have sent to the court. They have asked for another months stay! They said along the lines of that they were endeavouring to resolve the issue with me and were in negotiations etc and hoped to resolve it rather than take up court time etc. Well this made me so angry as they have done nothing of the sort! They have ignored all of my attempts to resolve this. So i wrote them a letter ( sent by Special on Friday) saying i was a bit suprised that they had asked for another stay and their reasons - as they have been ignoring my letters etc and said that i hoped this meant that they would now finally consider resolving this out of court etc. And i sent a copy of the letter to the court too. I wanted the court to see that i am all along trying to resolve this and that the other side are not really telling the truth... I have heard nothing further and have very little faith that i will hear from Shoosmiths, i think that they will wait to see what the court do, if the courts grant another stay then i know that Shoosmiths will do nothing in that month and we will go on and on... What a waste of time. So, sorry i have nothing more interesting to write but i will keep you updated on any developments. Many thanks

Hi everyone, hope you had a great Easter break. Just to let you know that i have now had a letter from the court saying that the other side had until the 14th April to submit new directions. If they did not respond then it will be struck out. I imagine that they will respond to that so i am just waiting to see what directions they submit etc and move on from there. I will let you know as soon as i hear anything... All the best

Thank you! I will have a read...

Hmm.. Just on the off chance that a similar thing happens to me as Bozalt ( really similar cases i think) How DO you work out your own costs? What is a reasonable amount to suggest???? Thanks.

Hi there, I have now read your thread Bozalt and really happy that you are at some sort of a result at last! Doesn't it all seam a bit silly when all they had to do was accept that we are totally broke and will pay them what we can until we become solvent again? Anyway... Thanks for stopping in The Shadow. I could understand you drifting off to sleep on my thread as it is pretty boring at the moment! So where we are - you are correct. We both submitted AQ's already but they had asked for a stay, it was granted before the judge looked at the AQ's at all apparently. The other side did not contact me during the stay - well, only the once in a W/P letter to say that they had got my letters but nothing other than that. They had put in draft directions but they did not stand etc. So i sent copies of my attempts to resolve the issue during the stay to the Court ( under the advice of one of the Court clerks) and that is where we are. I imagine that the judge is still getting around to looking at the AQ's? Like you say though, i think i may call the court on Monday just to double check i'm not missing anything.

Hi there, How did it go for you? Nothing happening on my side - still waiting to hear from the court...

No i heard nothing from them after they asked for the stay ( that'll be the stay they asked for to "try and resolve the matter out of court".....yeah....right... big effort they made there!). Now i am just waiting to hear from the courts about when they want our lists etc. Will be interesting to see whether they do one for me? Can't wait to see if they list a DN that doesn't even exist! In your case, i can't understand how it is still going ahead if they have not even done their list - isn't that a bit of an insult to the legal process on their part? Well, i really hope you get a considerate judge, one that sees how difficult the other side is to deal with. That's all i can hope for too. Best of luck, let us know how you get on!

Hi Bozalt, how are you? I was just wondering if you ever did get a list from Shoosmiths?

Spoken to the court and yes, the draft directions do not stand. Judge has not even looked at AQ's yet so no need for me to panic about the 1st March. Am sending off copies of my attempts to settle during the stay to the court today. Will keep you updated. All the best

Wow thanks citB! Speedy response! No the draft directions were just from Shoosmiths - nothing from the court at all apart from the notice of stay etc. You are right - i am going to call the court in the morning to check. So in regards to the list - can i list their docs as well as mine? i.e where they have terminated in a letter, where they accepted / rejected my payment offers and the DN's etc? Not sure why but i thought it was just my own letters etc. Ok so i will basically list everything that does not have without prejudice on it from me and the important letters etc i have had from them. Thanks!!!

Hi, So i have heard nothing further from Shoosmiths since their letter saying that they had given my last letter to Alliance and Leicester. I need to get moving on a few things now. I know i need to write a letter to the court to tell them that i have been trying to resolve this out of court and enclose the proofs of posting etc. I will do this tomorrow. I need a bit of help with this though - on the claimants draft directions it says that by 1st March - Monday (!) each party must give to the other party standard disclosure by list with inspection seven days thereafter. Does it stand / apply even though it says draft directions and they had a stay granted? Shall i get a list together and send it to them regardless? I am a but confused as the last letter i had from the court said that if the issue was not resolved then the next step would be that they would look at the AQ's. So as far as the list goes, do i need list every letter i have ever written to A&L and shoosmiths about this matter? Including the letters where i am just sending them £1 a month? Or do i just list documents that are "important" to the case? I am a bit annoyed with myself as i have put without prejudice on a few of my letters - advice taken before i knew what all this meant to be honest.. My fault. As always, any advice greatly apreciated.

Hi everyone, Not been on as not had much to report but thought i best stop in and let you know i am still around! All that is happening is that i did ring the court to check about the AQ that was listed as option three on the most recent letter about the stay i had from them. I got through to a very helpful lady thankfully. So basically it is that if the matter is not resolved in time then the court will go back to the AQ's that have been submitted already and look at them. I don't have to submit another one. At that time of ringing the court i had not heard at all from the other side so i mentioned that. She said if i had been writing to them and trying to get this resolved and they had not been responding then as the time came closer then i am to write a letter to the court explaining this - with proof of my letter sending etc. So i wrote another letter to the other side and asked them to again look at accepting a monthly payment from me and also said to them that i am doing my all to find a job - any job, at the moment. All my letters are sent by Special Delivery etc. I did get a response to my last letter from Shoosmiths saying that they had got my recent letters and that they had passed them on to A&L. That was about it. So time ticks on and i can only sit and wait to see what happens next. I will keep you posted. All the best

No not had their disclosure list, with the stay now would it mean they won't do one until around the 15th March? Is that right? On the letter i have had today from the court it says to return a completed AQ if the issue is not resolved - i have already done one and returned it, so if it is not resolved, do i ask the court for another AQ to fill in? Bit unclear on that, i will maybe ring the court again tomorrow to ask. Thanks for your support citizenB, i know, today i have been trying to tell myself to calm down, that it is not 100% that i will lose and be ordered to pay their costs etc... and i am not going to make us lose the house that easily either etc. I am going to try to relax as you say and get on with this. Thanks

Many thanks for your response the Shadow. I'm not sure about time order either to be honest but it was mentioned to me. Thanks for the link. I will have a look and will have a think about it. I would not want to go that way and actually end of worse than the road i am going down now... As you say, i will wait until i see what the next move is from Shoosmiths. At what stage do you think i can ask for disclosure now the Shadow? I really do want to see what they have. Just to say too that i have approached two solicitors about helping me with this so far and neither one has been able to take the case, one not sure my case is strong enough based on the DN's alone and the other not able to due to how far along i am, so the help i am getting on here is even more precious now! Thank you.

Hi, I have had from the Court this morning, a Standard order for stay for settlement with consent of all the parties. It is stayed until 28 Feb to enable the parties to attempt settlement. Then on or before 15 March, one of the following steps must be taken: either the claimant must notify the court that the whole of the claim has been settled or the claimant or defendant must write to the court requesting an extension of the stay period, explaining the steps being taken towards settlement and identifying any mediator, expert or other person helping with the process. The letter should confirm the agreement of all the other parties. or all the parties must file a completed allocation questionnaire at the court. Where a settlement of some of the issues in dispute has been reached, a list of those issues should be attached to the completed questionnaire. The list must be agreed with the other parties and must indicate that it has been agreed. Then there are some notes at the bottom - Where settlement of the claim is achieved before the end of the period of stay, the following will be taken to include an application for the stay to be lifted: a) an application for a consent order to give effect of the settlement b) an application for approval of a settlement where one or more of the parties is a person under a disability and c) the filing of a notice of acceptance of monies paid into court or an application to accept monies paid into court out of time Note ii) Extensions to the period of stay will generally be no more than 1 month I am not totally sure what all of the above means but i am pretty sure that the other side is not going to attempt to settle this in any other way than make a demand for full payment... Does anyone know anything about a Time Order? I am wondering if this may be the way for me to go? Any thoughts please on this or the above stay?

Thanks the Shadow, you make a lot of sense! Of course! If they did send one dated 18 May then they should not have defaulted my credit file on the 18th! And even if a DN dated 18 May doesn't exist, surely they should not have defaulted me based on the one of 5 May as the time was not up? Either way, they should not have defaulted my file on the 18th May? Something is not right here but i just can't quite figure it all out yet! I am intrigued now to look at their document list.

Hi, Thanks for looking at this again. I've rang the court but they had no info for me, said i will get something in a letter next. May ring them again in a couple of days though if not had anything. I agree with you about the post from Vint, i am going to have to fight to say that the date on the DN cannot be seen as De Minimus... And hope i get a nice judge that can see i have not been left with a lot of options? Just to say that i am not 100% sure there is another DN of 18 May. Just that they said in the POC, Default 18 May. It just confused me. I didn't think about there being one ( or their saying there was one) of the 18th May, i just thought it was an error, until someone mentioned that they may be saying there was another one. I paid to look at my credit file today and sure enough it says that they put a default on dated 18 May. But then this was recently updated by them so i guess they could have changed it? I'm sorry i didn't realise the relevance of this before we put the Defence in - as per my post 78. I think we thought about amending at the time CitizenB but The Shadow thought we were ok, so hopefully we are? I think he thought as you do, that the third one, if it was ever sent out, was within the time of the second, so didn't make sense etc. The only thing i can think of is what Diddydicky was maybe referring to, about Un - defecting a DN by sending one before the time limit is up? I am really learning as i go along here. Sorry. In the Defence we put in, we did point out that we have only had the defaults dated 27 Feb and 5 May. This will hopefully show that we know nothing about the 18 May one if it does exist? Wish now though i had realised about them saying Default 18 May and asked for everything before so we could see if they do have one or not dated 18 May. That will be the next step though i think - the list of documents then i can ask to see them? Yes, i did continue to make my payments of a £1 a month after i got the DN's. Up until they terminated.

Hi Bozalt, Just stopping in to say best of luck and hope things get sorted by a strike out! All the best Ava

Thanks for dropping in slick132, i know, i am taking all this personally and i shouldnt but it's just hard to get it out of my mind at the moment. I am really uneasy about these solicitors being so dodgy... I am thinking about getting a no win no fee solicitor as well as the help on here, as supersnooper mentioned, as this may help stready my nerves on the days in court but i am struggling to find one on the net in the East Midlands, anyone have any suggestions? You know these ones that come up saying fax us your documents and we will have a look etc ( but don't seem to have an office?) would you trust any of them? Any recomendations would be appreciated. Thanks

Subbing as going through the same thing with Shoo / A&L - even down to them using a DN that does not exist on the POC. A bit behind you as have only just submitted AQ. I am really hoping that it is going to be easy to prove that these DN's are fake / were never sent... Will watch with interest, all the very best of luck to you. PS my thread is " help need with court claim please" in this forum.

Have seen a post on another thread by diddydicky - on Invalid Default Notice ( hope it's ok to quote like this as not sure how else to do it) Quote: "the DN is defective as soon as it is sent- and cannot be un- defected by the creditor then adding a few days weeks or years on to the end of the stated deadline it can only be Un- defected by the issue of a correct DN BEFORE the time limit stated on it has expired" could this be what they are doing... pretending they sent me another one on the 18th May? Not sure if they can prove it BUT, and i would need clarity on this, if they say they sent me one on the 18th May and my dodgy DN expired on the 19th May then date of service of the second ( well third actually ) one would be the 20th May so they would not have got it to me in time anyway!? This may though explain where this mystery date of 18th May has come from? Am i making any sense? Anyone have any ideas on how they they can prove they sent me another one? This must have happened before i would think?

Just to confirm that i have worked out that the amount of arrears shown on the DN does not include the notice of default sums letter charges ( 4 x £25) but this amount is included in the total outstanding account balance.

Just a quick post to say thank you for your advice and thanks to Supersnooper for stopping in too. Really appreciate your support. No CitizenB i've not checked with the court yet about the other sides submission but will do so on Monday to make sure. I'm going to read through the links, thanks for pointing them out. Speak soon.

Can the court put a charge against the property right away as a result of this case then? I didnt realise that. I thought they may order me to pay something per month first and then if i default on that then put the charge on the house etc? Would be good to hear from anyone who has been in this situation and lost to be honest.... I am waiting for the court to say if they are going to agree to the second stay request. Will let you know as soon as i hear anything. Other than that, not sure when we need to get stuff in next, just what Shoosmiths have said, "Each party must by 4pm on the 1 March 2010 give to the other party standard disclosure by list with inspection seven days thereafter." Does the court have to agree to that first? What are the major differences of it going fast track rather than small claims?

Hi, Yes the original stay was rejected and they have asked for another one. The claim is for under 9K but only just with them adding the court fee etc in. Yes, they really are playing hard ball with me aren't they? I can only think they are after the house. They are kidding though if they think they can get money out of this, we are in so much negative equity! We would have sold it otherwise but my husband has done everything he can to hold onto it ( he was paying the mortgage on credit cards when he was made redundant so he too is in major debt) so we hope we can sell it when the market recovers and come out clear at least... I think they think i have money somewhere maybe but i honestly don't and they should be able to see that? I used to earn decent wages but i was in lots of debt mainly due to being silly and overspending on our wedding... So i earned a lot but most of it went to pay off debts each month. I was so naive to think i would never lose my job and then my husband lose his too, and then get pregnant ( not that i ever, ever regret that - she is worth her weight in gold!) Most of my other creditors have been fairly reasonable to be honest, at the moment i owe BOS quite a large amount too yet they have been letting me pay a small amount a month for about a year so far and are quite reasonable to deal with. Shame A&L have not been this way too. I just don't know which way this is going to go, it's awful and i think they are a bunch of bullys. If i had the money or a job then i would be paying them, just like i did every month before i lost my job! I used to have a perfect credit rating even though i was in debt and then it all went bang! Pretty scared about what is going to happen and not sure if there is any way out of this. What is the worst case scenario - does anyone know? Thanks as ever.