Help! Court Errors Made Me Homeless
Hi, my name is Helen and I'm looking to raise enough funds to get a Barrister to fight my case and put right the mistakes a Court made, that made me homeless.
I need a Barrister...a good Barrister. When I've been to court I find that Judges just look down on the rest of us and definitely when you're a woman. The Judge in my case was rude, so very rude, patronising and intimidating. He treated me as though I was a child and seemed to enjoy seeing me nervous and unsure of all the right protocol.
I had no chance on my own when the Insolvency Service had sent their barrister to defend my ex husband and demand the sale money from our house, to pay HIS debts.
The Judge and the Barrister just bounced lots of legal jargon back and forth to each other. It was humiliating. I was trodden underfoot and left to emotionally die basically.
I left the Court and burst into tears. I now have no home, no money to live on for the rest of my years, as the house sale money would have provided....I'm 63 and have no income anymore, because my house had been my income, from letting out bedrooms to lodgers and doing summer-time B&B.
Let me begin at the beginning! When my parents died my childhood home was sold and I put my share towards a beautiful house in the hills of West Wales, UK. It was our dream home. It became a nightmare.
I found my husband on internet dating sites and soon after he upt and left us, taking every penny out of the bank. When I say 'us' I mean my autistic son and I. He never gave us another penny, ever, after he left. He thought he could starve me out of the house, it would have to sell and then he would have more money to spend on all the women he was 'entertaining'.
The government benefit system refused to help us even though I had an autistic son in school. They just said my assets were 'too big' so, determined not to see my beautiful home repossessed, I rented out all the bedrooms in our house, including my son's and my own and I slept in the living room from then on. In the summer I was able to do some B&B to help us. We just about scraped by and survived whatever life threw at us.
Then came the day of the final Court decision, after divorce, on dividing up our assets, something that took forever and many Court hearings because Judges just kept making mistakes, over and over again, and the ex husband continually submitted more and more applications dragging out the agony, fears and worry.
The house I had paid 50% for in the beginning, with my inheritance, and then paid the mortgage, repairs and maintenance on it for the next 19 years on my own, was my pride and joy... but the mortgage was increased in 2009 by an extra £600 a month when the ex husband constantly ran up debts with all the women he was taking on holidays etc. making the Mortgage Lender rate him as 'high risk', and move the mortgage onto a penalty rating, increasing the monthly payments by another 50% . It was an 'interest only' mortgage so I was paying £7,200 a year extra for absolutely nothing. Dead money. They constantly refused to take him off the mortgage so I was trapped. Pay, or be repossessed.
I was so worn down by the situation, and suffered several thefts from people living as lodgers in my home. Month by month I struggled to keep up the inflated payments...so eventually I was forced to put the house up for sale and 4 years later I finally had a buyer.
At the 11th hour, just as the house sale was going through...he was declared bankrupt. The Insolvency Service stopped the sale. I had a family of 5 staying in a rented holiday cottage 3 miles away from me. waiting for me to move out so they could move in. It was devastating. The only way the Insolvency Service would allow the sale to proceed was for the money from the sale to be kept by the solicitor. It was the end of November and all of my life and beautiful home was now crushed in 6 x 20ft storage units costing £480 a month ( and its all still there now...in April!!).
This left me with no home, no money from the house sale and no income to live on. I was left with nothing from the house sale. It was just frozen forever it seemed. Then 3 days before Christmas they let me have some money 'to go on with' which I've used to pay for the storage but that's vertually gone and they refuse to release me any more money because of their issues with paying off my ex husband's debts. They don't care a toffee what happens to me, while he continues to run his business and drive a Jaguar.
Because of the ex husband's bankruptcy, and then his appeal and complaint that he was not being given enough money in the division of assets....the case went to the Appeal Court in London.
The Insolvency Service then demanded all the money ( my share too ) from the house sale to pay his debts. The Judge ignored my pleas and upheld the ex husbands view that I 'had used the house as a business' while he'd been out of our lives all these years. The Judge then allowed the Insolvency Service to take a very large proportion of the money from the sale to pay his debts.
Worse followed when today I was told by e-mail from the Court that I am to pay HIS legal charges from the Insolvency Service......a cost of £10,000 and they expect me to pay this somehow. It was his debts, his irresponsible money wasting, his bankruptcy, but I have to pay because they said 'it would be unfair to take the money out of what he's been given to pay his debts as there may not be enough to pay everybody. They then said that because he had won his appeal for more money...I must pay his Insolvency legal charges.
I'm 63 and have several health issues that stop me getting full time jobs jobs. I clean toilets on a Sunday for some pocket money to pay for food etc. The rules and regulations are supposed to be adhered to by the Court, but the Judge who has done this, like all the other ones, has basically broken thes rules, simply because he would not listen to the facts and did not read the paperwork. They just scan the papers for about 10 minutes before each hearing. It's why so many mistakes get made.
A really good Barrister could hold an argument against a Judge. I cannot. They charge £260 an hour and the more complicated the case, the longer it takes to prepare, not to mention travelling to London, having accommodation overnight and being in Court all day.
Often at this stage of a complicated case...it can mean 2 or even 3 days in Court, hence the large bills they run up. The solicitor dealing with my house sale told me to be prepared for the worst if I appealed because a barrister will be £25,000 or over. There are alot of things to deal with and that's time...time is mega money when legal people are involved in the issue.
Barristers have to be paid up-front....they will not do the case unless they have been paid first, unlike solicitors who do the work 1st and then send the bill.
Please, if enough people offer just a few pounds I can take this to a new Appeal and get some of my money reinstated to me, and then get somewhere to live. I 'camp out' with my son at present in his one bedroomed little place. It's not fair on him.
Thank you so much if you are able to help. I will be eternally grateful. It will restor my faith in human kindness, it really will. Thankyou in advance if you have helped me, even if it's only a pound, it will help.
I need a Barrister...a good Barrister. When I've been to court I find that Judges just look down on the rest of us and definitely when you're a woman. The Judge in my case was rude, so very rude, patronising and intimidating. He treated me as though I was a child and seemed to enjoy seeing me nervous and unsure of all the right protocol.
I had no chance on my own when the Insolvency Service had sent their barrister to defend my ex husband and demand the sale money from our house, to pay HIS debts.
The Judge and the Barrister just bounced lots of legal jargon back and forth to each other. It was humiliating. I was trodden underfoot and left to emotionally die basically.
I left the Court and burst into tears. I now have no home, no money to live on for the rest of my years, as the house sale money would have provided....I'm 63 and have no income anymore, because my house had been my income, from letting out bedrooms to lodgers and doing summer-time B&B.
Let me begin at the beginning! When my parents died my childhood home was sold and I put my share towards a beautiful house in the hills of West Wales, UK. It was our dream home. It became a nightmare.
I found my husband on internet dating sites and soon after he upt and left us, taking every penny out of the bank. When I say 'us' I mean my autistic son and I. He never gave us another penny, ever, after he left. He thought he could starve me out of the house, it would have to sell and then he would have more money to spend on all the women he was 'entertaining'.
The government benefit system refused to help us even though I had an autistic son in school. They just said my assets were 'too big' so, determined not to see my beautiful home repossessed, I rented out all the bedrooms in our house, including my son's and my own and I slept in the living room from then on. In the summer I was able to do some B&B to help us. We just about scraped by and survived whatever life threw at us.
Then came the day of the final Court decision, after divorce, on dividing up our assets, something that took forever and many Court hearings because Judges just kept making mistakes, over and over again, and the ex husband continually submitted more and more applications dragging out the agony, fears and worry.
The house I had paid 50% for in the beginning, with my inheritance, and then paid the mortgage, repairs and maintenance on it for the next 19 years on my own, was my pride and joy... but the mortgage was increased in 2009 by an extra £600 a month when the ex husband constantly ran up debts with all the women he was taking on holidays etc. making the Mortgage Lender rate him as 'high risk', and move the mortgage onto a penalty rating, increasing the monthly payments by another 50% . It was an 'interest only' mortgage so I was paying £7,200 a year extra for absolutely nothing. Dead money. They constantly refused to take him off the mortgage so I was trapped. Pay, or be repossessed.
I was so worn down by the situation, and suffered several thefts from people living as lodgers in my home. Month by month I struggled to keep up the inflated payments...so eventually I was forced to put the house up for sale and 4 years later I finally had a buyer.
At the 11th hour, just as the house sale was going through...he was declared bankrupt. The Insolvency Service stopped the sale. I had a family of 5 staying in a rented holiday cottage 3 miles away from me. waiting for me to move out so they could move in. It was devastating. The only way the Insolvency Service would allow the sale to proceed was for the money from the sale to be kept by the solicitor. It was the end of November and all of my life and beautiful home was now crushed in 6 x 20ft storage units costing £480 a month ( and its all still there now...in April!!).
This left me with no home, no money from the house sale and no income to live on. I was left with nothing from the house sale. It was just frozen forever it seemed. Then 3 days before Christmas they let me have some money 'to go on with' which I've used to pay for the storage but that's vertually gone and they refuse to release me any more money because of their issues with paying off my ex husband's debts. They don't care a toffee what happens to me, while he continues to run his business and drive a Jaguar.
Because of the ex husband's bankruptcy, and then his appeal and complaint that he was not being given enough money in the division of assets....the case went to the Appeal Court in London.
The Insolvency Service then demanded all the money ( my share too ) from the house sale to pay his debts. The Judge ignored my pleas and upheld the ex husbands view that I 'had used the house as a business' while he'd been out of our lives all these years. The Judge then allowed the Insolvency Service to take a very large proportion of the money from the sale to pay his debts.
Worse followed when today I was told by e-mail from the Court that I am to pay HIS legal charges from the Insolvency Service......a cost of £10,000 and they expect me to pay this somehow. It was his debts, his irresponsible money wasting, his bankruptcy, but I have to pay because they said 'it would be unfair to take the money out of what he's been given to pay his debts as there may not be enough to pay everybody. They then said that because he had won his appeal for more money...I must pay his Insolvency legal charges.
I'm 63 and have several health issues that stop me getting full time jobs jobs. I clean toilets on a Sunday for some pocket money to pay for food etc. The rules and regulations are supposed to be adhered to by the Court, but the Judge who has done this, like all the other ones, has basically broken thes rules, simply because he would not listen to the facts and did not read the paperwork. They just scan the papers for about 10 minutes before each hearing. It's why so many mistakes get made.
A really good Barrister could hold an argument against a Judge. I cannot. They charge £260 an hour and the more complicated the case, the longer it takes to prepare, not to mention travelling to London, having accommodation overnight and being in Court all day.
Often at this stage of a complicated case...it can mean 2 or even 3 days in Court, hence the large bills they run up. The solicitor dealing with my house sale told me to be prepared for the worst if I appealed because a barrister will be £25,000 or over. There are alot of things to deal with and that's time...time is mega money when legal people are involved in the issue.
Barristers have to be paid up-front....they will not do the case unless they have been paid first, unlike solicitors who do the work 1st and then send the bill.
Please, if enough people offer just a few pounds I can take this to a new Appeal and get some of my money reinstated to me, and then get somewhere to live. I 'camp out' with my son at present in his one bedroomed little place. It's not fair on him.
Thank you so much if you are able to help. I will be eternally grateful. It will restor my faith in human kindness, it really will. Thankyou in advance if you have helped me, even if it's only a pound, it will help.
Organizer
Helen Richards
Organizer