expensive rescission of judgement

[Boeta B]

Good day,

my wife has a high court judgment on her credit record.

long story short, I googled and researched a bit and found some a couple of lawyers who can get the judgment removed from your name quickly and affordable which ranged between 1500 to 4500 rand.

I picked one, (an advice office with a panel of their own attorneys) made contact and explained everything and they said A-for-away. cost was agreed upon R4500 for rescission by consent from or R10000 for a substantive court application based on merit/reason/etc.

We payed the R4500 but according to them the other party did not want to consent so we forked out another R10000 for the court application.

A few emails later they send us a couple of forms and affidavits that my wife had to complete and then we sent the docs back to the lawyer to submit the application at the high court. and so we waited...

All seemed fine until the lawyer requested another R8500. We queried why another payment and they said the R10000 was only for the court file search and drafting of the application/affidavits. I was like WTF?

We paid the R8500 thinking that all is sorted now and we just have to wait and see what happens now.

2 days went by and I got another email from the lawyer saying that the application has been submitted but in order for them to go to court they need a further R12000.

I'm confused and I starting to think that these people are taking me for a huge ride. We've spend R23000 so far and the bill definitively will not stop at that.

We dont know what to do anymore, all our savings are exhausted and I wont fork out another sent for this.

I feel that the layer did not correctly explain all the costs involved.

please help thanx

 

[HavocXphere]

Money down the drain in my opinion. My condolences on a very expensive lesson hopefully learned.

 

[Crowley]

Which law firm was this?

 

[Chi Chi]

With the new law that was passed a couple of months ago, judgements automatically come off your record after the debt is paid in full. The credit bureaus have 2 months to do this.

See point 2 in this doc:

https://www.experian.co.za/assets/consumer-information/Published regulations 26022014.pdf

So not quite sure why you would need a lawyer to do it for you?

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

You did research, yet you still paid someone 23k? Those guys probably ROFL'd whenever you deposited more.

 

[Boeta B]

With the new law that was passed a couple of months ago, judgements automatically come off your record after the debt is paid in full. The credit bureaus have 2 months to do this.

See point 2 in this doc:

https://www.experian.co.za/assets/consumer-information/Published regulations 26022014.pdf

So not quite sure why you would need a lawyer to do it for you?

Debt not settled yet that's why my wife did not qualify for the "free" removal of the judgment. that's why we tried to apply to the courts based on the merit that she has been making regular(and more than required) payments every month and there was a good explanation why and how she got the judgment.

It is then up to the court to decide whether this is good enough but I dont think its worth R23000. I know lawyers are expensive bu damn...

 

[falcrum]

I'm pretty sure under the CPA they are supposed to explain all the costs upfront, and not give the impression that the R10k will cover all the costs, only to charge more later. Do you have any written record where they stated the costs? It's not a requirement, but would help a lot if you want to build a case against them. That said, if you want to take on a lawyer, you'll probably need another lawyer...

 

[HavocXphere]

I'm pretty sure under the CPA they are supposed to explain all the costs upfront, and not give the impression that the R10k will cover all the costs, only to charge more later. Do you have any written record where they stated the costs? It's not a requirement, but would help a lot if you want to build a case against them. That said, if you want to take on a lawyer, you'll probably need another lawyer...

Technically they said thats for the *filing* of application. A bit sneaky but not untrue. So I doubt you'll get any traction there.

 

[AthenianOwl]

Good day,

my wife has a high court judgment on her credit record.

long story short, I googled and researched a bit and found some a couple of lawyers who can get the judgment removed from your name quickly and affordable which ranged between 1500 to 4500 rand.

I picked one, (an advice office with a panel of their own attorneys) made contact and explained everything and they said A-for-away. cost was agreed upon R4500 for rescission by consent from or R10000 for a substantive court application based on merit/reason/etc.

We payed the R4500 but according to them the other party did not want to consent so we forked out another R10000 for the court application.

A few emails later they send us a couple of forms and affidavits that my wife had to complete and then we sent the docs back to the lawyer to submit the application at the high court. and so we waited...

All seemed fine until the lawyer requested another R8500. We queried why another payment and they said the R10000 was only for the court file search and drafting of the application/affidavits. I was like WTF?

We paid the R8500 thinking that all is sorted now and we just have to wait and see what happens now.

2 days went by and I got another email from the lawyer saying that the application has been submitted but in order for them to go to court they need a further R12000.

I'm confused and I starting to think that these people are taking me for a huge ride. We've spend R23000 so far and the bill definitively will not stop at that.

We dont know what to do anymore, all our savings are exhausted and I wont fork out another sent for this.

I feel that the layer did not correctly explain all the costs involved.

please help thanx

FAIL.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Debt not settled yet that's why my wife did not qualify for the "free" removal of the judgment. that's why we tried to apply to the courts based on the merit that she has been making regular(and more than required) payments every month and there was a good explanation why and how she got the judgment.

It is then up to the court to decide whether this is good enough but I dont think its worth R23000. I know lawyers are expensive bu damn...

Wait, debt is not settled, but you happily forked out R23k to lawyers to get the judgement removed??!?!

Why didn't you just put R23k into the debt instead, it would have been a more useful payment.

 

[Deadmanza]

Wait, debt is not settled, but you happily forked out R23k to lawyers to get the judgement removed??!?!

Why didn't you just put R23k into the debt instead, it would have been a more useful payment.

Was thinking the exact same thing...

Looks like they wanted a quick fix to have the judgement removed, in the end, quick fixes are expensive.

 

[Nikita_k]

Wait, debt is not settled, but you happily forked out R23k to lawyers to get the judgement removed??!?!

Why didn't you just put R23k into the debt instead, it would have been a more useful payment.

+10
what is the balance o this debt? would it not be better to just pay it off as quickly as possible?

 

[ToxicBunny]

+10
what is the balance o this debt? would it not be better to just pay it off as quickly as possible?

Its probably a large debt.... and somehow they think that a judgement can be removed even if you owe money on it...

I've yet to hear of anyone have a judgement removed whilst they still owe money.

 

[Boeta B]

+10
what is the balance o this debt? would it not be better to just pay it off as quickly as possible?

balance is around R80k atm. gawd damn study loan. was R127k. thats what i told these lawyers now. we could have paid off a huge portion of the loan with that kind of money.

 

[ToxicBunny]

balance is around R80k atm. gawd damn study loan. was R127k. thats what i told these lawyers now. we could have paid off a huge portion of the loan with that kind of money.

Like the lawyers cared what you could have done with the money.

They saw a payday, and you willing walked into it.

School fees son, school fees.

 

[HavocXphere]

balance is around R80k atm. gawd damn study loan. was R127k. thats what i told these lawyers now. we could have paid off a huge portion of the loan with that kind of money.

Wait...this is a valid judgement for a debt thats still outstanding?

Lawyer: Honorable judge, please reverse your previous judgement.
Judge: Why? Its a valid judgement. On what basis should it be reversed?
Lawyer: uhm...there is none.
Judge: Application dismissed.

 

[MandM]

See my signature

 

[KillerBOB]

Just walk away. Sadly, you will never win this one. Hopefully you've learnt some kind of lesson here.

 

[Nikita_k]

I think the best way out of this is to draw up a plan and pay the debt off. It will take few years to pay it off but at least at the end of it all you will have valid grounds to remove the judgement.

as for the 20 something k... school fees it is.

 

[ice_cubes]

bloody expensive schoolfees at that!