We have recieved a letter from the county court saying the halifax are taking us to court, mainly for a suspended repo order on the house, hubby starts his new job on monday 26 april, and the date is set for 4 june, i have told the solcitors about the compensation money we are getting, and the company it his coming from have sent me a letter confirming this, as it is guarenteed. Now we can start paying the mortgage from now till 4 june, could we ask the court to put the date back, ie; set it for a later date, so at least we have bought ourselves time so to speak in paying a bit more of the mortgage plus arrears? i know i did this once about 6 yrs ago, but i know things have changed since then, would they let us change to a later date, as i know we can aford the mortgage, and also the compensation is guarenteed, so if it doesn't come through in time, i have been told to take the letter comfirming this with me to the court on the date of the hearing. any help/suggestions? thanks, JANE.

-- jane (janey1@emailaccount.com), April 23, 2004

Answers

All you can do is take the letter confirming the compensation with you on the court hearing date which you absolutely MUST ATTEND. You could ask the judge to adjourn the hearing for a month and he/she might grant that - but I suspect the outcome will be that the judge will consider that there is nothing to be gained or lose by granting the mortgagees a suspended possession order on terms. A CCJ for the whole mortgage debt and costs wil also be granted, but that too is suspended and neither will appear on your credit records.

I would go forearmed with a spreadsheet showing expected income and outgoings to show that you can afford the monthly mortgage paymewnts plus something off the arrears each month - this is in case the judge asks what happens if the compensation falls through for whatever.

Note that if you get a suspended PO, the notice will say you have 28 days to give up possession and that the order is suspended on terms that..............etc. This does not mean you have to vacate - the order is suspended and will not come into play unless you subsequently default.

Please be sure you got to the hearing - that is a priority over everything else - non appearance usually means that the judge makes a normal 28 day possession order which is not suspended.

-- David J. Button (davidjohnbutton@supanet.com), April 23, 2004.