Avoiding a CCJ - I've received a claim letter

[OutofIdeas86]

A long story, my mum died is February of a major blood clot aged 66. it was completely unexpected. I arranged her funeral and am acting as administrator.
She had over £10,000 in her several accounts, many based in Ireland.
Her funeral was £5000.

6 months later I still haven't been able to close the accounts and pay the funeral costs.

I have paid them £2400 for the UK accounts (2 in total).

The funeral directors have now issued a claim letter for county court for the remaining amount plus interest and court costs, a total of £3000 approx.

I received it one week ago (it is dated 24th September)

I want to avoid a CCJ at all costs, obviously.

I have managed to pull together about £2000 from relations in ireland, and paid this directly to the funeral director today (the claim letter says to pay everything to the claimant not the court).

I can pay the remaining about from my salary but not for 22 days.

What do I do with the claim form?

Everything I've read says NOT to admit the debt, as its an automatic CCJ?

I could send the acknowledgement to ask for more time, this should just about give me enough time to fully pay it off?

Or do I complete the dispute form and say as I've now paid £2000 of the £3000 the claim isn't right?

If there was £10k across various accounts can you not use those funds?

Just contact the funeral home and explain the situation. You have paid the majority of the costs and offer a payment plan for the remainder. Put this in writing. They won't be able to get a CCJ for anything that will be better outcome than that.

Contact the claimant and tell them when you will be able to clear the remaining balance. Even if they issue the CCJ this can be removed from your file as long as it is paid within 30days of the date the claim is issued. You have not even had the official CCJ so you have more than 30days at this point. In the meantime you could issue an appeal to say you have been trying to make arrangements to pay and since you have received the notice, you have paid a further £2000 therefore the claim amount is incorrect.

See

nationaldebtline.org/get-information/guides/pre-action-protocol-in-the-county-court-ew/