Apologies to all who have sent PM's etc to me. I have been off line for some time not being able to pay for my broadband connection due to an embarrassingly low level of funds. I have been maintaining my payments due to my creditors including Restons who within a very short space of time were trying to come to a settlement. As I have no spare funds at present I have simply ignored them. I did have a few heart stopping moments after the judgement when the court clerk dropped a clanger and sent both me and Reston's a letter stating the judgement was for £100 a month instead of the £10. Immediately I contacted the court and requested them to correct their error. I received a corrected letter but I'm not sure Reston's did as I received several very threatening missives from them. To give them their due they did apologise profusely when I pointed out to them the settlement was for £10 per month ands asked them to double check with the County Court before they jumped up and down any further with their threats! I am hoping to cobble together some cash from my sons and a possible lucrative work offer that I will know more about in June/July and then approach Reston's for a 'full and final'. If that comes to pass I will no doubt be here again for some sage advice. Thanks again to everyone. In the next few days I will try and catch up with the PM's etc.

Thanks CB Well Reston's got their Charging Order but I did manage to win some breathing space. The judge ordered that MBNA could take no further enforcement as long as I maintain a payment of £10 per month. This has been fixed for one year. So hopefully I can start getting my finances back on an even keel again. So one very quick question - at the end of the year do I need to go for another Variation Order so as to fix payments again when this period expires? Again thanks to all who sent PM's of support and those who have helped on this thread to date.

Hearing time today! Thanks to all who have given help and opinions - all greatly appreciated. I'm just wondering what I am going to get in the judge lottery today! If I get someone like the last one I may as well roll over and die! My main hope is that the judge will look at my Variation Order and set payments to start paying off these horrendous people so I can at last start getting all my finances in order. Knowing MBNA as soon as they are able they will go for the jugular with a Sale Order and I want to give them no ammunition whatsoever. If there is anything I can do to pre-empt such an action I look forward to further contributions! Anyway I will post up the result of my hearing later today.

Jeff200 As far as I know the other creditors have no knowledge of the CO. My wife does not want to appear in the court - far too nervous. She is also working at that time. I could get her to draft a letter with her objection to the CO and take that with me. I have not paid anything towards this debt since the last payment made on the last statement received. There are reasons for this - each time I tried to negotiate payments - myself, CCCS and Communtity Legal Advice MBNA flatly refused stating it was not enough. I have also spent a lot of time in hospital - in total I have had five operations in the last year and a half which was the reason I defaulted. Who did I send payments to - Virgin, MBNA or Reston's? Who was the payment to be made out to? How was the payment to be made? I had/have no bank account so needed BGC details or clear instructions of where payments were to go as these had to be made by others when I was in hospital.

Removed as it was a double posting.

Jeff2000 Thanks for your interest and assistance. Yes I do have other creditors. These have (except for one and this one is accepting reduced payments) all accepted token payments and frozen interest. This was negotiated through the Community Legal Advice people and all payments have been religiously made as negotiated. There is probably enough equity to repay all debts - the mortgage still has a few years to go and is about a quarter of the property value. Though how much the house would fetch in today's market is anyones guess!

Thanks Jeff2000, I have phoned the court and the Interim order was issued on 14th October so I'm afraid the CO has precedence.

Jeff2000, My Variation Order was received and acknowledged by my local County Court on 21/10/10. The restriction was placed at the Land Registry on 26/10/10.

Thanks rebel11 I do not think my son will actually count for much as he is living at home (he's 21) before going to University next year. The only reason he is here is to save as much as he can before going to University.

I think I have four arguments to use to fight the Charging Order: 1) It would prejudice my other creditors who have agreed token payments and frozen interest until I am in a position to afford to pay more. 2) I have not been given the opportunity to demonstrate I can make regular payments as ordered by a court (submitted Variation Order). 3) The debt is small in comparison with the total value of the property. 4) It is unfair to subject my wife and son to penalties as I am solely responsible for this debt and my wife paid the deposit and mortgage since its inception. 5) The original debt is made up of a high proportion of higher than average and punitive interest rates. These interest rates reflected the risk the bank took when they granted the credit facility on an unsecured basis. A CO will negate this risk factor as the bank will have a secured debt after having charged an interest rate far higher than that of a secured credit facility - they will have charged for the risk without having taken any. Whatever the outcome I will be asking for an installment order. Comments welcome particularly if the arguments are valid and what would be the correct order of presentation in the Court. Any other arguments I can use would be most welcome.

Thanks Paulb1972 I have an income expenditure sheet ready to print off in triplicate. Also I will take details of my other creditors in case I am asked with the Community Legal Advice documents where payments to these were set with their help and, if I can find it, the letter when CLA advise me MBNA had turned down the offer of payment they tried to negotiate. The CLA payments were negotiated through a joint income (me and the wife) expenditure sheet though this is not clear in the documentation. Am I correct in assuming the court will only assess my income with the Variation Order as I am only intending to provide my income and expenditure? - After all it is my debt not my wife's.

Thanks DD for your input. I had not been idle since MBNA got their CCJ. Following FG's advice I wrote to the court immediately asking for them to set a payment schedule to start paying off the debt. After hearing nothing I phoned the Court who told me I had to submit a Variation Order. I managed to get the £35 from a friend and I submitted this. From the Court I received aknowledgement of this and a date for the hearing (Tuesday). About a week afterwards I received the notification that Reston's were going for the CO - hearing exactly the same date and time as the one for my Variation Order. I did ask on here whether the hearing for both was now one and the same - heard by the same judge. Presumably no one knew the answer to this or it was obviously the case. Of course I am panicking - I have not been in this situation before and just the faint threat of losing my home over what is (still) an unsecured debt made up of huge chunks of punitive interest charges with a bank who has steadfastly refused all offers of payments negotiated through myself, the CCCS and Community Legal Advice based on my current income. The Variation Order I hoped would set a level of payment that MBNA had to accept until I was in a position to pay them more. In fact I still do not know what the position is regarding this VO that I paid for - was it a total waste of money or will it be dealt with on Tuesday?

Thanks Paulb1972. Very unfortunately I had no idea I had to present my arguments against a CO in advance to both the court and the creditor. Obviously 'ignorance is not bliss' so I am going to have to plead my ignorance of this due to being unable to afford legal assistance or advice. I thought that because my wife has a 50% stake in the property and the debt having nothing whatever to do with her would make it difficult for them to get a 'Sale Order' as this would be punitive for her rather than for me. This whole situation seems to be going from bad to worse!

I failed to add that a couple of days ago - totally out of the blue - I received a copy of an Interim Charging Order that Restons's had obtained. Until I received this document from the Land Registry this is the very first I had heard of it. It is too late obviously for me to do anything about this but surely I should have had some information that they had applied for this so I could object? Or is this yet another underhand tactic that they are going to get away with?

My CO hearing is on Tuesday so I am doing some last minute preparations for this. Thank to FG I have the couple or arguments to use that she so kindly outlined - namely: a) A charging order would prejudice my other creditors who have agree token payments until I am back on my feet again and can afford more. b) I have never been given the opportunity to demonstrate I can maintain regular payments as ordered by a court. Also I have been considering adding the argument that I have been paying a higher level of interest on this credit card debt to reflect the risk of it being an unsecured debt. MBNA are now attempting to turn the unsecured debt into a secured one - hence taking no risk whatsoever meaning all the extra interest and punitive rate hikes charged to myself have been unjustified. Thus if the debt becomes secured through a CO then it should be done so on a far lower figure to reflect this. If this is a valid argument I would appreciate some assistance from wordsmiths who are adept at phrasing such an argument clearly and effectively. As always all comments, help and opinions welcomed.