Hello all

I'm seeking some advice on how to deal with a letter I received from Capquest dated 25th July.

The letter contained a Statutory Demand for Bankruptcy!

To my knowledge I've not had any previous dealings with this company.

It referes to an unsecured overdraft my wife and I had with National Westminster Bank prior to 1995. To cut a long story short. We had a joint account, I was made redundant and we couldn't pay it back. I had a meeting with the Bank's regional manager who stated that as there was little chance of them getting their money back, he'd recommend the debt be written off. That was back before 1995.

Anyway, for some reason, we'd been paying NatWest £50pm to clear the debt since 1995. It was £11,000 + and now is £5,000. However, about 4 years ago because my wife and I seperated, she cancelled the payment for £50 to Nat West. No further payments have been made since then. This is of course within the 6 years!

What should I do?

I've spoken to the Bridgend County Court and they are sending me forms to apply to have the case set aside. Will the judge allow it to be set aside and on what grounds can I request this?

This is all very scarey!

Cheers

John

Hi John,

I'm in the same boat with a Capquest SD. There are lots of others here also dealing with this so I'd reccommend reading through the threads, including the thread with sample letters ( http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html ). My own thread is here ( http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/154556-me-capquest-hsbc.html ) which includes the letters I sent, to get you some idea of what you need to do. If you do use these letters, make sure that you take notes of the comments in the thread as I made some mistakes.

Crapquest and 1st Credit are trying it seems a new tack of issuign as many SD's as possible without any recourse to the normal process, you must get it set aside as soon as possible. there are lots of threads on here telling you what to do.

Soon the judges are going to get really ****ed with these 2 companies and hopefully something will be done about it.

good luck

Soon the judges are going to get really ****ed with these 2 companies and hopefully something will be done about it.

We can only hope

Good luck...

yeap, they told me they are going to issue one (to a previous address) lol

If they have your new address that would be abuse of process.

Capquest did this to me Went to court weds Judge set aside SD Crapquest did not turn up or even write to court.Just yet anuother one of their scare tagtics.About time gov put a stop to this like they have in the states.If a DCA makes a threat like this there,they must carry it out by law.I have to tell you my dealings with these people has led me to believe nobody at crapquest has got a clue about the law or what to do next.Once you get the SD set aside they will send all the same compute gen letters again then anuother SD.Never admit the debt and as you have not paid for four years let them carry on with their silly games for two moe years then the debt will be stat barred and then they can never collect.

Well, I'm in court on 2nd September to ask the judge to set aside this Statutory Demand. I must confess, I'm scared stiff and for the past 3 weeks, this has caused me huge distress.Thanks for all the support and replies, they do help.Muffin - I'm interested in your reference to 4 years "as you have not paid for four years let them carry on with their silly games for two moe years then the debt will be stat barred and then they can never collect."Why 4 years? What sort of questions did the judge ask you and how long were you there?Personally, I feel like claiming for the distress and time this has taken, but I'm guessing that isn't possible.CheersJohn

Very briefly : after six years the debt becomes statute-barred and repayment cannot be enforced. Effectively the debt dies. You have not paid for four years so in another two years you will have reached that stage.

what i don't understand is

DCA sends you a SD

you then have to apply to the court for set aside

but surely the court would never have received a copy of the SD from DCA

so, would this mean, you are actually starting a legal

litigation in the court?

are there any fees to pay?

how would you go about applying for a set aside

Reason i ask, Capquest now have my new address and they might send me one so want to me ready for them

Regards

Dave

Capquest and 1st Credit appear to be using the scare tactic of issuing Stat Demands like there is no tomorrow, this is a win win for them,

the SD costs them very little to produce, the alledge debtor if not in the know see's the court thing and bankcruptcy bit, and straight away phones these DCA's up to settle before court.

in the few cases an alledged debtor knows their rights and gets it set aside these scummy firms either fail to show or tells the court that if a debtor gets or applies for a set aside to drop the SD.

it seems that very rarely, (unless they think they have a watertight case) do these firms actually push through with the SD.

Dont know how legal or not this approach is but it must show up to the courts (and OFT/FSA Etc) soon, and hopefully something is done to stop it

I would send a SAR request to the Natwest if it was me. as no doubt this account would be made up of a substantial amount of charges, although claiming it back after 6 years might be a problem....however it is pretty unlikely that Natwest will have ANY records at all.....

I did a SAR to Natwest for an alleged account I held with them 6 years ago, and they couldn't even trace my name to ANY activity with their bank...!!

What does it say on the claim ? does it say under a credit agreement ?

Okay, an update.

I attended the County Court this morning to request the Statutory Demand be set aside.

At 10:30am I was called to the court and less than 1 minute later I was out!

The judge said he had received a letter from Capquest stating the debt was not statute barred but as I'd raised other issues, he was setting aside the demand. He commented, something like 'you'll have to wait and see what action they take now'.

So, a few questions:

1. IF a payment to reduce this debt has been made within the last 5 years, I can't win in the basis of statute barred?

2. What should I do now? I haven't received any signed agreements or other documentation from Capquest.

3. What will Capquest do now? Lets assume they issue another Statutory Demand for Bankcruptcy!

Any other info would be great.

Cheers

John

Hi John

I would base my defence around the fact no credit agreement has been provided and without such a document they are not legally entitled to seek enforcement.

So crapquest just sent a letter in to the judge? they obviously knew the SD would not stand close scrutiny.

Stat Barred means no payment or written acknowledgment of the debt for 6 years.

Have you send the OC a SAR to see what the state of the overdraft is

I would now wait for crapquest to respond to the judges decision

Well, I'm in court on 2nd September to ask the judge to set aside this Statutory Demand. I must confess, I'm scared stiff and for the past 3 weeks, this has caused me huge distress.Thanks for all the support and replies, they do help.Muffin - I'm interested in your reference to 4 years "as you have not paid for four years let them carry on with their silly games for two moe years then the debt will be stat barred and then they can never collect."Why 4 years? What sort of questions did the judge ask you and how long were you there?Personally, I feel like claiming for the distress and time this has taken, but I'm guessing that isn't possible.CheersJohn

Youve got nothing to be scared about - you are not on trial or anything, its not gonna be a courtroom with a jury there & you having to plead "guilty/not guilty" at the end of it or anything like that.

Hi John

Simply send a CCA request by recorded deliverey if you have not already done so.If Capquest had any paperwork for this debt they would have produced it in court.If you receive another SD from Crapquest simply defend it with the fact that Capquest have failed to supply a valid CCA.

Thanks for the replies guys

Am I best off waiting for Capquest to provide all relevant documentation to me rather than me being pro-active and requesting it?

Is CCA a Consumer Credit Agreement? They say in their letter to me that I signed one in 1995! Of course, I have no recollection of this.

Cheers

John

CCA = consumer credit agreement, CCA 1974 = consumer credit act.

I'd hardly think they can produce a CCA from 1995!

What evidence did they give to say it wasn't statute barred?

Thanks for the reply babybear.

I really wasn't in the court room for more than 60 secs. All the judge said was:

"I've received a letter from Capquest saying it isn't statute barred but you've raised other issues so I'm setting this demand aside. Just have to wake and see what else they decide to do."

That was it! I thanked him and left.

I was a bit p****d off as I'd paid for 2 hours parking

Did you not claim your exspenses?

Hi

Capquest have gone a little quiet now so think it is about time you reported them to the OFT if you haven’t done so already.

Please bear in mind that the template letter on the first page of this thread:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.c o.uk...=1#post3422496

may not be suitable for all and you will have to adapt it to your own circumstances I.E

You applied to get it set aside and CQ didn't turn up

You applied and CQ agreed to discontinue

You ignored and CQ did nothing

Today the OFT set out some new guidance and sending SD's as a debt collection tool is now frowned upon.

If you want to read it, here's the link

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/con.../OFT664Rev.pdf

You can complain by email and the OFT will email you back a form to sign and post back to them for them to be able to add your complaint to their list.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/contactus;jses...1D83BF00 04F6EA

Thanks for this information.

I'll read it carefully when I get back from work.

Cheers

John