Written by John Kruse, one of the leading experts on Bailiff Law, this consumer friendly guide is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with a bailiff.
The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
How do you go about issuing a Statutory Demand, in this case for bankruptcy?
I've been in considerable financial difficulty for a couple of years now and things are only getting worse. I'm not working (another story) and I'm not eligible for benefits (yet another story). I can't even afford to petition for my own bankruptcy.
I have numerous creditors many of whom are threatening me with bankruptcy but none of them seem to want to actually carry out their threats. Not sure why...
What I would like to do is prepare a Statutory Demand for each of the creditors in order to make it easier for them. Prod them into it, as it were.
Hi Palomino, you have to be sure this is what you really want to do, its not a minor step to take. Have you gone down the CCA route as yet? There are many members who have had lots of financial troubles who have done this and the creditors have disappeared in a puff of smoke. I appreciate you may feel downhearted at present but please read around to see how others have fared.
Stat demands don't quite work that way - the Statutory demand has to be personally served on you (which costs the creditor) a bankruptcy petition then has to be issued (the last time I looked that has a fee of £190 - on creditor petitions)
How much do you actually owe? As Miss Muppet asks have you CCA'd all of your creditors - that costs £1 each - it may turn out out that you don't owe some of them anything.
No I haven't CCA'd all of them. In the majority of cases there is no dispute about the debt or its enforceability. In any case some of the debts are for my failed business which I doubt very much is covered by the CCA (I asked about this here a few days ago but no-one gave (or was able to give) a definitive reply.
This really isn't the point. What I want to do is send a completed SD back to the DCA or solicitor whenever they threaten me with bankruptcy. Call their bluff in other words.
As to your other points - I've examined the bankruptcy route in some detail and it appears the way to go (even my solicitor suggests it) but doing it yourself costs a lot of money. Maybe, just maybe, one of creditors can be pushed into doing it for me.
I'm not sure of the amount owed at this time but it must be about £80K. It keeps rising inexorably as the various DCAs etc. keep adding charges - in one case a single letter was charged at £1500.
My state of mind is not too bad at the moment although 2007 was a bit of a nightmare. I've long accepted that any realistic repayments are simply not going to be possible which has, strangely, taken a load off my mind. I'm girding my loins for the attack in the hope I can cause as much trouble for the DCAs as they have caused me.
Incidentally, there is one organisation that hasn't treated me like rubbish and that is Bristol Wessex Billing Services. I think they deserve an honourable mention somewhere.
Incidentally No 2. I'ver spent some time examining the ins and outs of the bankruptcy route and now have some possibly useful experience to offer. If there is sufficient demand I'll start another thread on that topic (or is there one here already - CAG is so vast).
Calling their bluff doesn't in my experience seem to work - I've got £60k plus of personal debts - no assets at all - of mine probably £20k are business debts - the other £40k are CCA debts. At one stage I tried to persuade them to issue bankruptcy proceedings - one got as far as serving the stat demand but then when they realised that I'd got no money at all they decided not to bother.
The real problem, for a sensible creditor, in my case is that it does cost money to make me bankrupt. There is nothing in my estate so they won't recover anything so no sensible creditor is going to waste the money.
Consumer Credit Act whether it applies to your debts depends on he facts of each agreement - the act is "An Act to establish for the protection of consumers" - S16B Exemption Relating to businesses
(1) This Act does not regulate-
(a) a consumer credit agreement by which the creditor provides the debtor with credit exceeding £25000, or
(b) a consumer hire agreement requires the hirer to make payments exceeding £25,000
if the agreement was entered into by the debtor or hirer whooly or predominantly for the purposes of a business...
Have a look at S16B and also S140 A to S140C
In lots of cases the Act does apply but it depends on the facts and how much is at stake - less than £25k and in my view the Act applies
"The real problem, for a sensible creditor, in my case is that it does cost money to make me bankrupt. There is nothing in my estate so they won't recover anything so no sensible creditor is going to waste the money.
"
How many of them are 'sensible'? There must be one of them somewhere that might respond to my egging them on.
Perhaps it's not worth pursuing after all. Just a thought.
Thanks for your thoughts and comments.
As has been pointed out to me elsewhere the CCA route is not applicable in some of my cases because I already have several CCJs outstanding. One of these is by a certain Bryan Carter, but that's for another thread.
you can also contact your local trading standards money advice service who can help you with any of this
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I've read through this and it is a fairly basic coverage. There is a lot that isn't there. One example : during the year you are bankrupt you do not pay tax. The IR will issue you with a nil rate tax code. What happens is that the tax you should be paying becomes another debt owned by the OR. If/when there is a payout the IR get the same percentage share as all other creditors.
Statutory Demands
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