Unfortunately, since 2007 they have tightened up the rules in regards to CCAs and if it has explicit details like who the agreement was made between such as your name(s) addresses, interest rates, repayment amount, installments, etc. on the first page is usually legitimate. If you have defaulted they (Halifax) would have needed to send a notice of default as this is the first stage of passing off any debt to an external DCA. Once they pass it to a DCA, unfortunately, you cannot resolve the problem with the original creditor by paying them (Halifax) directly. However, if Halifax had passed this to Moorcroft you should have received a Notice of Assignment which I am 110% sure they must do if they 'sell' the debt. If only management of the debt is the case I am not so sure. There is no panic though because they CANNOT bankrupt you if the debt commitment is less than around £5000 because this changed sometime ago. They could take you to court and you would end up with a CCJ but this is a pain for them because courts remove ANY control they have over the debt i.e. they can't harass you or demand more payments, etc. and they tend to resort to this more for things not covered by the Consumer Credit Acts. You could ask Moorcroft for both a copy of the Notice of Assignment and a copy of the CCA (you can get a formal request letter template off this site I believe) which really proves awkward to a lot of DCAs because they are required to get it with 18 days and then they are legally bound by rules governing this (you will have to look them up as I can't remember them all). You must enclose a payment of £1 with the request (Postal Order, Cheque, etc.) which they can ONLY use for that request. Mostly, if you have to pay amounts don't offer them more than you can spare/afford taking into account circumstances may change. Most will not typically take less than £5 pcm so you start with this and negotiate. Most DCAs take these 'token' payments and then can't really do anything if you continue to pay regularly. I don't know if this helps but I have infinitely more debt than yourselves and luckily most predate the 2007 changes so are harder for DCAs to enforce and I have been paying small payments for years and increasing them when I could but I also got close to being taken to court and managed to force the DCA to back down so I have learned a lot from this. The main thing is to not panic and, yes, there is always worry but the DCA who tried to take me to court was hit with a HUGE fine for their practices so DCAs have been just using fear tactics with more subtletly. Don't answer phone calls (bar them if you can) and force them to write as I had phone conversations where they conveniently forget agreements (even if they say they are recorded). Don't know if this helps but good luck.

Thanks for the help. I had a rather lengthy set-aside affidavit with text supplied by one of the CAGGERs (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?272095-Received-an-interesting-SD-cancellation-letter-from-Connaught-Collections-Advice-please&p=3079807&viewfull=1#post3079807) which covered just about everything including legal examples. Had it sworn in court on Friday. I rang the court yesterday to ask if a letter from the creditor formally withdrawing their SD was enough to cancel the set aside application and they said it was and to forward them a copy of the letter referencing the set aside case number. They then said this would be recorded against the case so hopefully the set aside will be cancelled and the reason will be officially recorded on the case file. This will cover me legally should they try to move forward with the Stat demand. Thanks for getting back to me.

Hi, received advice from this forum about applying for a CCA and then applying for a set-aside which I did last Friday (13th July 2010). Received a letter from the court today: You application to aside a statutory demand The court has received your application to set aside a statutory demand. Your application will not be given a hearing date immediately. It will first be referred to a District Judge. If the judge considers that your application shows no cause for setting the demand aside. your application may be dismissed . If this happens you and the judgment creditor will be told. If the district judge does not dismiss your application on first consideration, you and the judgment creditor will be sent a time and date when the application will be reconsidered. Yours faithfully Is this standard as I've never done this before and don't know court procedure? I was advised by some people on the forum to seek a set aside , despite having had a written letter from the debt collector (Connaught) stating they'd formally withdrawn the stat demand, just to make sure they couldn't execute it within the 14 months. Have I just dropped myself in it further? Would appreciate any help for those who've been in similar circumstances...

Hi, received advice from this forum about applying for a CCA and then applying for a set-aside which I did last Friday (13th July 2010). Received a letter from the court today: You application to aside a statutory demand The court has received your application to set aside a statutory demand. Your application will not be given a hearing date immediately. It will first be referred to a District Judge. If the judge considers that your application shows no cause for setting the demand aside. your application may be dismissed. If this happens you and the judgment creditor will be told. If the district judge does not dismiss your application on first consideration, you and the judgment creditor will be sent a time and date when the application will be reconsidered. Yours faithfully Is this standard as I've never done this before and don't know court procedure? I was advised by some people on the forum to seek a set aside, despite having had a written letter from the debt collector (Connaught) stating they'd formally withdrawn the stat demand, just to make sure they couldn't execute it within the 14 months. Have I just dropped myself in it further? Would appreciate any help for those who've been in similar circumstances...

I'm not setting aside a CCJ, I'm setting aside a Statutory demand. Different forms.

Just filling in the forms for set aside, on form 6.4 where it says 'attend before the Registrar as follows', do I complete time and date or is that done at the court? For the 'names and addresses of the persons upon whom this application should be served' should I enter just 'Connaught Collections' or should I include the name of the individual mentioned, in this case a Mr D Silcock? The same question goes the 6.5 form. Should I be referring to Connaught Collections' (the DCA who issued the stat demand or the person mentioned on the stat demand who works for Connaught? Thanks in advance...

Just filling in the forms for set aside , on form 6.4 where it says 'attend before the Registrar as follows', do I complete time and date or is that done at the court? For the 'names and addresses of the persons upon whom this application should be served' should I enter just 'Connaught Collections' or should I include the name of the individual mentioned, in this case a Mr D Silcock?

Just filling in the forms for set aside, on form 6.4 where it says 'attend before the Registrar as follows', do I complete time and date or is that done at the court? For the 'names and addresses of the persons upon whom this application should be served' should I enter just 'Connaught Collections' or should I include the name of the individual mentioned, in this case a Mr D Silcock?

Thanks for this. I'll be filling out the forms today with a view to applying on Friday for the set aside. They are in default as of today. Probably will have a couple more questions before Friday but would like to gratefully thank everyone for their help so far...

Thanks for this. Is this the text I need to insert (changing the asterisks), should I include all of it: case references, etc.. Should I include the costs thing given they've sent a letter stating they've withdrawn the SD and they would present the letter to court should I try to obtain costs? What should I answer should the court query the fact they've withdrawn the SD in writing, or so they say?

I've had many comments suggesting I set aside but, as yet, nobody can help me as to what grounds I might do this on given the info I've provided on the situation. I need text on the affidavit that can relate to my circumstances and I can't believe nobody here can help me with it. I've dug around and STILL can't find something that I can both understand and will allow me to defend my position in court. I've found out that the idiots at Connaught directed me to Leicester County Court as the place I need to apply for a set-aside only to find they don't deal with my residential area at all and I'd have to travel to Coventry (30 miles) away which I could barely afford to travel to. Since I'm going to have to drag BOTH my kids (one being 2 years old) to the court as I have NO family or friends to take care of them I'm a little bit backed up to a wall here. My wife's boss would steal her clients if she took time off work (I'm not kidding, my wife lost half her hairdressing clients after taking a month off to give birth to the second child) being self-employed this would be disastrous. Like most people in this situation we can't even get days off to rest, let alone weeks. I'm a little pressed for time and have been asking the same question for nearly 5 days now and getting a bit panicky. I have only Thursday or Friday to apply for set aside and only a few hours prior to these days to get the paperwork prepared so I'd like to get it right as I will not get a second chance. Much appreciated.

Answers in red above. I've read the Stat Demand strategies thread and either I'm stupid or I can't find any text to suit my circumstances. I'm not good with legal jargon. I've also sent a request to the Original Creditor requesting details of interest, charges and another copy of the CCA because there may be unlawful charges or PPI stuff relating to the account. The account is over 10 years old and I don't have records myself as many were lost in a fire 4 years ago.

I don't suppose you can tell me what you put on the forms for the set aside or point me in the right direction. I've asked a few times and there seems to be a few conflicting comments dependent on which thread you look at here?

I haven't actually applied to have it set aside as yet and I don't know what grounds I should do so under and what wording to actually put on the forms...Like I said earlier, it seems there may be some question (here on the forum) if the only grounds are not sending a copy of the CCA... You said contact the court to see if the SD has been withdrawn, is that the court stated in the SD document?

I'm having some issues with this too. You might want to read one of my threads: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/270008-help-connaught-issued-statutory.html