At the moment, what Mercers appear to be doing is throwing their toys around and trying to get you to pay the appears. While not to be taken lightly, the issue of DN may not necessarily mean they intend to start proceedings, there are many many caggers who have been issued DN and are simply pursued by DCA's who then buy the debt. Well going down the court route, my understanding would be this : Assuming you will defend any proceedings, if they have an unenforceable agreement then technically the court should not enforce if any of the prescribed terms are missing under section 127(3). Regarding the Enforceability issue due to incorrect pre-contractual form and content: As per section 127(3) of the act the minimum requirement for a court to consider enforcing a agreement of this type(Running account Credit) is that it should have the Debtor/ Hirer’s signature and all the prescribed terms contained in Statutory instruments 1983/1553 Schedule 6; As directed by section 60 of the Act • Credit limit• Rate of interest • Repayments If any of these items are missing then a court cannot enforce any agreement made and regulated by the Act prior to April 6th 2007. In these circumstances, a CCJ and then a charging order then would appear somewhat difficult to obtain - as long as you defend. Do not be put off even if they do initiate proceedings, they may very well be bluffing on the thought you may be scared of the big bad court and they get a judgement by default. Your main concern, If I gather correct, is a charging order, therefore finding what the cretins have in the way of an agreement pdq is obviously the main objective so you can posture and tell them to get stuffed if it is unenforceable. Just my understanding, hope it helps.

Hi Do you have any statements with charges for over limit / late payments on account? - If so Letter before action to barclayshark asking for refund + interest, if no reply, start a small claims N1 from route requesting all charges + interest. That will improve your position and get Barclayshark / mercers off your back as soon as you file your court papers - there are lots of template letters re N1 and reclaiming charges + interest on the site. If you don't have the statements required ask for full statements showing charges etc within your Subject Access request them for copies of both sides (ie front and rear)original signed executed agreement contract document. The CCA route seems exactly what everyone else is coming up against with barcalyshark, keep at them, some Caggers have finally received the original signed agreement after some protracted pressure. Have you put the account into dispute owing to their failure to supply agreement? Cheers for now

Morning Folks, a warm welcome to the site. Understand your situation totally, I was in a similar situation to yourselves before I stumbled, quite by accident, on this fantastic site, you will find some amazing people on here and by sharing experiences we all gain strength to manage the situations we all find ourselves in. Never ever talk to them on the phone, absolutely never, keep everything in writing so you have an accountable paper trail, they are a slippery bunch and will deny phone conversations if it suits their cause. Firstly, make no mistake, you could be in a position to fight Barclayshark and bankruptcy (if it comes to that) first you need to ascertain the strengths of your position measured against the creditors, bit like chess moving your pieces into position. If Barclayshark do not have a correctly executed agreement containing all the presecribed terms as laid down by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 they are right royally stuffed. The Act is the law, having been on the statute book for more than 30 years there are lots of test cases judgements which will demonstrate this point eg Sir Andrew Morrits Judgment in the Court of Appeal in the Wilson & First Counties Trust case : "In effect, the creditor--by failing to ensure that he obtained a document signed by the debtor which contained all the prescribed terms--must (in the light of the provisions in ss 65(1) and 127(3) of the 1974 Act) be taken to have made a voluntary disposition, or gift,of the loan moneys to the debtor. The creditor had chosen to part with the moneys in circumstances in which it was never entitled to have them repaid". So you need to ascertain the agreement position. As a general rule of thumb, do not offer to pay them any more than you can realistically afford, in the unlikley event of it going to court, the court would require to take into account your financial situation and will not or should not make an order for you to pay more than you can afford - so stick to your guns pay what you can afford, not what they want, all they want is money as much as they can get - possibly on the back of a dodgy agreement - worth bearing in mind Hope this helps

Fab many thanks, straight to the point, will tweak it slightly and launch it at them.

Hi folks, any thoughts on the pattern of these Barclaycard calls. I am approx 3 weeks after not paying monthly statement, still waiting for a copy of my original signed agreement they have thus far sent an up to date copy agreement which could be relevant to anyone and the up to date terms and conditions only. Had an absolute barrage of calls over a period of 5 days, none of which I answered (just let them all be caught by house ansaphone) then had an urgent message left to phone someone by set time time and then calls have stopped totally for the last 4 days. Any thoughts or experience would be really helpful to know what to expect next.

I am at a similar point, about to take a creditor through the small claims process for refund of charges. Apparently, you make the application for the refund of charges or similar action and then, as soon as possible, make an incidental application for the supply of documents relevant to your claim. As Rory says, the summary offence route under the Data Protection Act seems to be a waste of time in Scotland, an application for other documents may be possible as a stand alone request as the small claim form does offer you the option of decree or other order sought - although, I do not know if the supply of the original executed documentation may equally ineffective on its own. Rory may well have the answer or the sheriff reasoning behind this issue, it does seem a point which is becoming increasingly problematic in Scotland, I have half a dozen creditors who have failed to comply with the SAR and same organisations unable to cough up an signed document all hiding behind the true copy legislation. Hopefully Rory will be able to help, anyone know how to ask if he could advise?

Sincere thanks again Rory, we are feeling much more relaxed now over all this.

Hi Rory thanks you are a top man. Hopefully we can keep our heads above the water, meeting mortgage payments is our no1 priority, if it came to it, would an inhibition upset the mortgage company and would the inhibition dissolve under any circumstances or does a decree last indefinately?

Thanks Rory, all becoming much clearer now. 1. Is my understanding correct, If they obtained a decree against us for one of the debts, they would be able to obtain an inhibition if we defaulted on the enforced agreement / repayments set by the sheriff? 2. As suggested, got the small claims forms, 1 creditor has failed to comply with the SAR, we have our own 3 years of statements but the ppi on account extends well beyond 3 years. Would we start the small claim requesting refund of ppi then make an incidental application for the full statements at the first hearing? Any thoughts much appreciated

Hi Prudent, non compliance of SAR would be a complaint direct to Information Commissioners Office, you can download the complaint form from their website. Have you done a section 78 request for copy of executed agreement?

Hi Ida Thanks, was it not an MBNA incident? Will try some with a F&F then, there is one card we want £4k ppi refunded, if I go down court route to get ppi/charges money refunded back, does the account have to be not in arrears at the time of litigation? This one does appear irredeemably unenforceable, however, at this point I would rather not have the virtual balance adjusted. Any thoughts Thanks

Many thanks dx and Ida. With a full and final offer route, sorry for sounding thick, but could we propose repayments if they crystalise a significantly low figure - say x pounds per month, over x months owing to the failure to establish a correctly formatted document? Thanks again

Hello all, this is my first post, although have been a member of this brilliant site for a while now. Essentially we have multiple unsecured debts - credit cards, loans. Have carried out s 78 request on all cards and usual responses from Citi, Barclaycard with generic card carrier executed agreements. Mbna have sent a couple of single sided short application forms with no prescribed terms, Amex same. All cards taken out 1994-2002. No missed payments yet, account in dispute letters all lodged, usual guff from creditors stating account not in dispute complain to the FOS if you are not happy. About to commence withholding payments programme, SAR requests are all away weeks ago. I do not want to get into the game of DCA's hassling us, as partner is disabled/vulnerable. If anyone could advise, many of the cards have some late fee/overlimit charges on, some have PPi, also some appear (pending results of SAR requests) to be unenforceable failing to meet minimum criteria to allow a court to enforce under 127(3) 1. Is the court route in Scotland a productive way to fend off a original creditior from passing / selling on to DCA by raising for example an ordinary cause or summary cause to reclaim charges, PPi as shot across their bows so to speak. 2. If we raise an action for refund of these charges, can we request a consideration of unenforceable at the same time - would the fact that an agreement is unenforceable preclude the reclaiming of charges? 3.Bankruptcy, we have approx £50k equity in our house, can any creditors attempt a bankruptcy action with an unenforceable agreement? Any advice greatly appreciated.