http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/press_release_attachments/Aktiv-Kapital Have look at the above, in particular para.5. The debt is statute barred if you have not paid anything, or recognised the debt in writing in the last 6 years. There are a number of suitable letters on the forum to send them, if they don't go away after you write to them put in a complaint to the OFT quoting their warning to AK Martin g

Good morning, You must get the SD set aside and you need to do this within18 days of service. There should be a court named on the SD, is this your nearest court that handles bankrupcy, phone the court today to check. You have an absolute defence in that a genuine dispute exists and a SD is abuse of the insolvency service. Have a look at the thread below which is broadly similar, you will be pleased to see it is in the success section http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?294673-Withdrawal-of-Statutory-Demand It would help to have a bit more info, Name of debt collector? Did you get before a judge with the claim/ counterclaim or did it just fizzle out? Can you post up details of the SD claim and the sum involved? I think that getting SD into the tile of your post would bring in the xperts, 42man and others and I will ask a mod to change the title Don't worry, you will get this set aside and get costs against the claimant. Martin g

Blimey, that was quick- many thanks. Martin g

Hi, Please also report the claimant to the OFT for using the SD as a debt collecting tool, and for generally running their business in a shambolic manner. You probably won't get any feed back from the OFT but it may count against them when their consumer credit license comes up for renewal. Martin g

Hi, You seem to have posted this in a little trawled area. I hope that a mod can move it to somewhere else so you get more input. Martin g

Hi, It is my understanding ( having gone through this) that once a defence has been lodged with the court the SD can only be withdrawn by the claimant. This has to be in writing and the court admin. fee has to be paid at the same time, this was £40 in 2009, and may be a bit more now. Did the claimant do this? Obviously he did not because it was still listed by the court. I would write back and advise him that if he doesn't pay the costs by X date you will instruct the court baliff to collect and this will cost him an extra £100 or so. Martin g

Well done, The court will allow them a period to pay your costs, normally 14 days. If you don't get the payment you can get the court balliff to recover the sum and this will cost them an extra £100 or so. Don't be fobbed off with any excuses for delay. Martin g

I agree fully, just pointing out what a difficult judge on a bad day may say. However, saying "I am continuing because I want some costs" won't go down at all well but saying " I didn't start this, the other side have been unreasonable and are trying to abuse the insolvency service by using it as a debt collecting tool. Please Mr judge, I need this finalised today, the other side are trying to withdraw at no cost to themselves but have not given any assurance that this is the last I will hear of the matter, and by the way here is my bill for wasted costs" would sound pretty good. Martin g

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/press_release_attachments/Aktiv-Kapital Have a look at the above, AK are under warning about their license, put in avery strong complaint to the OFT and also copy in your MP and demand that he tells the OFT to take the action they have threatened against AK. http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/requirements.pdf The above relates to MH and rerquirements put on them by the OFT about chasing statute barred debt. Ditto what I said above. Martin g

Hi, The court will charge a fee of £40 ( may be a bit more now) for their admin costs in the case of a discontinuation. Obviously, you don't want to pay this as you are the innocent party so I would either get the other side to pay the court costs and your wasted costs or proceed to court. The only warning is that the judge might feel that you should have taken the other sides offer to settle/ withdraw and you will need to explain why you wanted to put before the court- finality and so on. Martin g

Hi, I'm just interested in the maths on the claim You owe them ( in round terms) £12,000 and they want to add 8% interest, or say £1,000 p.a. You are paying them at the rate of £5 per month or £60 p.a. To pay the capital sum off is £12,000/ £60 =200 years, and, sadly, none us are going to live that long. To pay £12,000 less £60pa plus £1,000pa (plus I assume compound interest on £940 at 8%) means that the debt will compound and stretch beyond infinity. In fact,it would over a longish period of years exceed the whole world's financial output. No doubt, there is some one reading this who could tell us how many years it would take for this to happen. Don't you feel that you should point this out to the judge and the claimant and try to come up with a sum of money in full and final settlement? Just my thoughts, Martin g

Hi Eshezo, I'm pleased to see that you have won, it sounds like a very comprehensive victory. Have you had your costs from the other side yet, writing the cheque will really hurt them, and if not don't forget that you can put the Court baliffs in to collect the sum due. Martin g

Why not, the councillor is there to represent you- the more pressure the better. Make them work for your vote. Martin g

These are public/ civil servants drawing a good salary and will eventually get a final salary indexed linked pension ( unlike the great majority of the population.) They are there to speak to the people who pay them- even you who will eventually do so and in my opinion have no right to refuse to speak to any local resident. I would get hold of your local councillor and tell him/ her that you want it sorted this week, escalate to the leader of the council if need be. Councillors do a good job normally, after all they will be after your vote ( and your friends and neighbours) fairly soon. Martin g

Hello, This will bump you up to the top again, 42man hasprobably the most knowledge about SD's and will hopefully give his thoughts. IMO if the letter from Capquest is to an old address and has not been signed for by the addressee it is arguable that proper service has not taken place, which means that they would struggle at a bankrupcy hearing. You could return the letter with a covering note "not resident at this address- opened in error", preferably photocopied with proof of return postage and this should stop them; and of course you won't be lying. If your brother is sure that 6 years have passed since the last payment or acknowledgement is the debt it will be statute barred, which is a complete defence to the SD and he could then look to getting it set aside (lots of posts on these forums for guidance), however if he does this the imperfect service angle goes out of the window because it has obviously reached him. Whatever you and he decide I would suggest that as a matter of urgency you send a SAR to Egg to estatblish the last payment date and to find out if there are PPI and penalty charges to recover. Martin g

Hi, Build the above quotes into your statement word for word, do not just quote the references because the judge is not going to look them up him/ her self. Martin g

Hi, If you want to post up your set aside statement I am sure that you may get some suggestions to "polish" it, to help you to polish off your opposing solicitors. Martin g

Good Morning, The co. I worked for put the statement in as part of the signature box to open the account. their solicitors felt that it should be a separate, discreet box/ statement with it's own signature so that the applicant was fully aware of the commitment. Without seeing the document you signed I would not like to comment. However, the only thing that you have to demonstrate to the judge is that a " triable issue" exists and that the SD is an abuse of process because the case should be put before a county court judge who can assess the case and order full disclosure of all the documents/ invoices/ statements/ return notes/ etc. Put " a triable issue exists" a few times in your statement. You need to put the claimant to strict proof that your co. is in liquidation and demand from them full details of how they established this "fact", this is the reason they have issued an SD so they need to put up or shut up. Obviously a letter from your bank or accountant or even a bank statement or VAT demand would prove you are still trading. Lastly the £40 charge is a unfair penalty and would not be upheld by a court, a further "triable issue" and for this reason alone the sum claimed will be incorrect and should negate the SD. Martin g

Good evening, In answer to your questions 1/ The 18 days run from the date of service, it would be sensible to put in your set aside statement that it came into your hand on the 27th. 2/ The insolvency courts are not a short cut to settle a dispute, this the function of a County Court. Insolvency judges hate this kind of thing and I would urge you to put in a claim for your costs. The standard litigant in person rate is £9.25 per hour but I have seen, on this forum, the self employed and directors claiming their professional rate £80/ hour or so and the judge agreeing, especially if the claim is vexacious. IMO if the invoices were made out to your limited co. and it is still trading you have a complete defence, more so if the account is disputed and you have a paper trail. Lastly, I worked for a company that included a personal guarentee as part of the account opening process, howeve the co;s solicitors were certain that it would not hold up in court. It was quite useful though to twist the arm of slow payers. Martin g

It is my understanding that community police have no powers of arrest, if they really thought that a crime or assault was about to take place then they would have called for proper policemen to attend. It sounds like they were abusing their position to me and should be disipline or sacked. Martin g

Hi, I'm niot an expert but I would go down to the police station with your videos and witnesses and make a complaint of breaking and entering against the bailiff and the police officers involved. The desk will try to fob you off but demand to see the duty inspector and tell him you expect action to be taken against all those invoved. Martin g

What a terrible story, I feel thjat you urgently need to establish what the Bailiffs have charged you in fees and what they should have legally charged you. Once you have this info. and the bailiffs have to reveal it, you will be in a stronger position to negotiate with the Council who are responsible for the actions of their agents. I would also write a letter of complaint to the council chief executive , headed official complaint, outlining the story you have told here and the helpful attitude of the judge. Also, if you feel brave enough and I know people don't like washing their undies in public, get onto the local press who are generally up for a story about council/ council agents misdeeds. Best of luck, Martin g

Hello, My wife worked for Thames Water and common principles appy. Have a look at this link to ofwat, the industry regulator. Ofwat are helpful and proactive and the water co's don;t like dealing with them because of the paperwork involved which uses a lot of staff time and costs the company money. http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/consumerissues/problemspayingbill/gud_pro_custdebt20070327.pdf The regulator says you must be treated fairly and certainly Thames would call off their solicitors if you made a payment offer. If you have problems contact Ofwat but remember that this does not stop the clock ticking with the court. I would try to get a manager in their billing section to sort it out, most of the people on the phones have little sense or latitude in their actions. You can always put in a holding defence to the court stating that the water co. have not provided you with the info you need under CPR so you cannot be certain that you owe them money. If push comes to shove and it goes to court and you are told to pay up, do so within 28 days and it does not appear on any credit reference files. I think that when paying you need to get a certificate of satisfaction from the court. Martin g

Hi, It has always been my understanding that before commencing any legal action- including issuing a SD- the claimant must have to hand all of the paperwork that they intend to rely on. As this never seems to happen with the companies on these forums I feel that the judge should not adjourn but should kick their claim out with costs. Sadly, I can't see ths happening. Martin g

Good morning, I don't think that you are being ignored- I suspect that no one knows the answer to your question because the insolvency courts are not governed by county court rules. You find yourself in a strange position and I know that being in limbo is very unsettling. I think that you need to talk to the court manager- not the oily rag, and point out that Capquest are ignoring the Judge and you want it refered back to him for action. I do know that insolvency judges and courts have very wide powers and I think that in the circumstances he may set aside without a further hearing but you may need to push the court manager to get action/ Martin g