Attachment of Earnings without notification(Off topic)

[MrShed]

Hi all, hoping that someone may be able to help with a situation I am currently in.

I have found out today that the payroll department at my employers has put a court order for attachment of earnings onto my pay. This is currently all I know, so the rest is merely educated guesses....it may be a computer error or suchlike. However, assuming that it is correct, I currently have no idea where this has come from. I have never received any notification from anyone regarding court dates or suchlike. My only suspicion is that it may be to do with a bank I had dealings with at an old address....they do not have my current address.

My questions are manyfold:

- Can an attachment of earnings ONLY arise from a CCJ, and a court hearing having occurred?
- Would I have any grounds ask for revokation of the CCJ or have another hearing due to the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about any court hearing? Neither have said bank ever warned me that they were taking me to court. Or would this be seen as being my own fault due to not keeping the address up to date? *EDIT* I know for definite that the bank did know I was no longer at the address they had...unsure if this would make any difference?
- Obviously I have not given any expenditure details etc to any court....would I be able to bring the matter back to court in order to potentially change the percentage being deducted?
- Is the percentage based upon net pay or gross pay?
- Once things have reached this stage, is there any point in having any negotiations with the creditor? Or must payments now go via the AoE? Can you pay any extra than the judgment when you have it?

I'm sure there were more but shall post them later. Would just like to clarify....if it is the bank I am guessing, then I do owe them an amount, and not changing address was an oversight on my part when I moved....totally forgot about the account! My issue is not with repaying the money, just the fact that I have (I think!) received a CCJ for it and being forcibly removed from my pay, possibly at a much higher rate than I can afford.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Worldlife]

Others may be able to advise in more detail on your legal rights.

Detachment of Earning orders are I believe used for maintenance payments and Councils will use attachment of earnings order to enable them to secure payment of Council Tax arrears (Liability Orders in a Magistrates Court) and they can be used to recover unpaid fines. Until you can establish why this attachment has been made you are making stabs in the dark at the true source of the alleged debt.

From a practical point of view I am wondering if it may be appropriate to write to your employers stating that you have had no warning of any issues that could have given rise to the attachment of earnings. (that may help clear you name within the Company)

Ask your employers to cease the payments and notify the Court or parties concerned that you wish to appeal against this attachment and seek further details of the reasons for the attachment and by whom it has been made.

Your employers will then have to explain to you why they can't do this or at least advise you to contact the Court concerned.

OTH could it be that the legislation concerning debt it designed to ensure that debtors such as 'fly by night' tenants cannot escape their debts by moving on to a different address and its rebounded on you!

[Energise]

Contact the registry trust MrShed, they will be able to tell you who/when/.

Registry Trust Ltd
173/175 Cleveland Street
London
W1T 6QR

020 7380 0133.

[MrShed]

Thanks for the advice both of you. Very helpful. Would still like to see if there is anything in this situation I have any recourse in, or if anyone knows who would be good to contact to help me find this out?

Worldlife: I know I am totally taking stabs in the dark about this. However, I cannot think of anything else at all which it could be....I am not registered to pay council tax, I have no fines etc(that I know of). And so I am preparing myself for worst case scenario. I also take your point about the letter to my employers, however I am not overly concerned about my reputation or similar within the company....being a large company, I'm just basically another name on a piece of paper! However, you cannot ask the employer to cease the payments...if an employer receives this request off the court they legally must enforce it. The payroll department can, however, inform me who it was and how much it will be, when I speak to them tomorrow.