In terms of money a debt to pay of about £10k

I've just received a letter....'The Deputy District Judge has considered the statements of case and questionnaire filed and allocated the claim to the small claims track'...so I've now got a date in April to attend Court. A bit concerned that the Judge has considered the statements but still thinks it's worthy to arrange a hearing. I thought my defence was cast iron but starting to doubt now. Think I need to do a little more investigating. Like I have referred to earlier I have adhered to all the criteria for the 'debt' to be considered SB. Any tips on what I should do now - instruct a solicitor? Thanks

Hi Angel, I'll update when resolved...if ever! It's been moved to a local Court now so at least I won't have to travel very far. I'm not sure what Noodles have to do with it though! Thanks

Thanks. Not heard anything yet but it's early doors. I have asked them to transfer it to my local Court so we'll see what happens. I've already requested a copy of Bryan Carter's complaints policy because I think, as a solicitor, before he proceeds to court, he should check whether the debt is valid. I'll see what comes of the Court case before filing the complaint.

Ok, thanks for the advice.

As far as I am aware it is SB. No payments for well over 6 years and I've never acknowledged a letter or even picked up a telephone call. I did put in a defence that the debt is SB. I've since received a letter from the solicitor giving me the option to settle outside of court by monthly instalments but if they do not hear from me they will apply to the Court to strike out my defence at hearing. I've also received a letter from the Court advising that it appears the case is suitable for the Small Claims Track. There is a small claims track directions questionnaire form with the letter which states that it must be completed and filed with the court by 6/1 (tomorrow) but as far as I am aware I don't need to fill this in - the solicitors have sent me a copy of their completed form. I'm a bit confused as to how they could win by default if the debt is SB. Surely it's SB if I attend the hearing or not. My defence will be the same in person as it is in writing. The court is over 100 miles away and I don't want to have to travel that distance just to show my face. Thanks

Well, this has now been passed to a small claims court. They've paid their court fee and I await the result of the hearing. They've still not provided a shred of evidence to me yet. Has anyone been to this stage with this Company yet? I'll update when I know the result.

Hello again, Well, I sent the letter but it wasn't acknowledged and they decided to take it to court anyway. In my defence I advised the court of the contents of my letter which they passed on to the solicitor. I received a letter today from the solicitor that their client wishes to proceed at this time but that 'the claimant agrees in principle to mediation'. I'm not even going to check my historical bank statements because I triple-checked them last time. The credit card payment was defaulted well over 6 years ago. No payments made since, no acknowledgements of any letters, nothing signed, never even picked up a call from them. I've basically ignored everything. I'm a bit concerned now that they have information that I'm not aware of or, even worse, that they have forged my signature on a document. Is this unheard of? Another side of me thinks it might be a last throw of the dice to try to get me to acknowledge the debt and agree to pay a reduced sum; ie. the benefit of the debt being paid far outweighing any court costs or knuckle-wrapping. So, I'm a little unsure where this is leading but any guidance/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi, I honestly can't remember if I received a default notice. I received so many letters over the years and they all ended up in one place! The original Creditor is HBOS but surely the default notice would be issued just after the date the first payment was missed. As they state they will issue proceedings tomorrow I really need to get a letter faxed over to them. Which one would you suggest at first, a request for the original default notice or the 6-year letter? Thanks

Yeah, I've spent ages looking at my account and the last payment I can see was early 2007. I'll have to trawl through my account again, just to double check up to when I was made redundant in Jan 2009 - I wasn't even paying my mortgage then so I definitely wouldn't have paid a credit card! I'll check again but if correct I assume that I just send one of the template letters to the solicitors. One last thing, silly question, but if I do send a letter to the solicitor should I sign it? Thanks

One other thing, on the Credit History Summary it states 'Amount of Outstanding Debt (excluding mortgages) = £0' Is this significant? thanks

Hi, thanks again for the advice. I'm pretty certain the last payment was made in early 2007. I've checked my credit file and the only thing on their is in relation to this debt. The entry is for Lowell Portfolio and it was updated 22/09/2013. The Default Date is 11/03/2010 but I assume this is the date it was sold/assigned to Lowell because, as I say, the last date I made any payment to the credit card was early 2007. Can I just ask about that Default Date. Have Lowell registered that incorrectly, should the Default Date be the day I failed to make a payment? Many thanks again. MeganElliot

Hi, Thanks for your reply. I'm not sure if it's on my credit file. Does it matter if it is? How do I get access to my credit file? Thanks

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help. I've received a letter with regard to an historic credit card debt. Bryan Carter Solicitors LLP have been instructed to issue court proceedings in the next couple of days. I've checked my bank statements and the last time I paid anything on the credit card was well over 6 years ago. I've never acknowledged the debt and they've never issued a CCJ. Is the debt Statute Barred? When does the clock start ticking? Is it the day I missed the first payment? If so, then it's probably 6 and a half years old. Any advice? If it is Statute Barred any advice on how to get these guys off my back? Thanks

Hi all, After reading some of the threads on here I feel like I've probably got it easy, compared to some, but I hope someone can help or give me a nudge in the right direction. I've worked for a legal firm for over 2 years. Perhaps if I start from the beginning. 1. I was employed as an assistant and at the interview a salary and working hours were agreed as normal - 10am to 5pm with 30 mins for lunch (Mon-Fri). Several weeks after I started my manager called me into her office and said that I would have to work 9:45am -5:15pm (Mon-Fri). I was not offered any more money, I was just told that my hours were being increased by 2.5 hours a week. I felt that I had no choice but to accept. I think it was still within my notice period so I was concerned about losing my job. 2. I was told at the interview that I was being brought in as an assistant with a view to becoming a fee-earner when a posstion became available. Several months later a fee-earner left but I was not offered their position. Instead, I was assisting another fee earner but the truth is that they were assisting me! Although I was assistant I was clearly the more experienced. I felt that I was held back because I was able to 'keep a watch' over a weak and inexperienced fee-earner. Management knew that the files would be ok provided I was assisting and, at the same time, saving money by not promoting me to a fee-earner position. 3. The fee-earner who I assisted eventually took long-term sick leave and I was asked to take conduct of the files whilst they recovered. No assistant was provided to me so I had to run the files myself. I eventually received a memo to say my salary had been increased. I assumed this was because I had helped the firm when I had taken temporary conduct of the files and also because I had impressed with my work, knowledge and experience. This went on for sometime and, eventually, the fee-earner never returned back to work. 4. At no stage have I discussed any new terms of contract and no contract has been put in front of me. This is important because the notice period is increased to 3 months as a fee-earner. I have mentioned this several times to my manager (at the time) but then they were side-shifted (They are still at the company) and I was unable to get anything in writing or to discuss my salary expectations. I had received a few salary increases in that time but nowhere near what I expect to be earning as a fee-earner. Each time the letter didn't refer to why my salary was being increased, it was just a single line to say 'As from the (date) your salary has been increased to (£)'. As I stated, the only contract I have signed was as an Assistant. Can I just say to my employer that I only signed a contract as an assistant and I want to cease the fee-earning position and revert back to my role as an assistant? If so, can I argue that my salary should remain as it is or will they insist that I revert back to what I was first earning as an assistant? 5. The above points aren't my main issue. Over the last year the department has been under unbelievable pressure which increased even more about 6 months ago when the only other fee-earner and their assistant handed in their notices. Aside from my Supervisor (who had to step into a fee-earning role) I was the only fee-earner in the department for a quite a few months and the stress was unbearable. I warned management several times that they had to stop taking instructions because we did not have the capacity to deal with this amount of work. Still the work piled on. I warned my Supervisor on several occasions that we would receive lots of complaints from clients, which we did. 6. Approximately 6 months ago a job was advertised for a fee-earner role. They usually send a company-wide advert as well as externally. When I saw the advert I almost flipped my lid because the salary was between £5k - £7k more than what I was earning. I immediately emailed my Supervisor and said, more or less, that I wanted my salary increased by a minimum of £5k. He notified his (and my) superior who arranged a meeting with me in August to discuss my issues. He said he would get back to me a week later with an answer. A week went by and I didn't hear from him. I didn't want to chase him because I didn't want to ruin my chances of getting the increase. I didn't hear anything until November! By the way, we work in separate cities so it's not like we cross each other during the day. 7. I was asked to apply for the job advertised (referred to above) because it was a more senior role. I declined to apply for the role because in my opinion it was impossible to do due to the sheer volume of work involved. The company then interviewed and employed 2 fee-earners. However, I have now been informed that the volume of work for this role has been reduced by about 40%. If this was advised at the time of the advertisement I would have certainly applied for it. I feel like I was deliberately put off from applying for this role. Where do I stand on this? 8. In October, another manager (there's so many of them!) inadvertently raised the issue again and then contacted the manager who was supposed to get back to me in August. He said he did not recall us discussing this at the meeting and apologised! We had another meeting and he said he would have to discuss it with the partners and come back to me at the start of December, which he did. At this (very) brief meeting he said he would not be increasing my salary. The reason? Too many complaints! I felt like somebody had picked my pockets! I said that I had warned that clients would start to complain if he didn't put a stop to the instructions whilst staffing levels were poor. He acknowledged that I had warned them! 9. He said he would consider my request again in 6 months but this depends on market forces (the usual bull). He did say that he may have to look at it again in April. He also said that there may have to be cutbacks. He said he may have to look at who to let go. I took this as a veiled threat. Also, I don't think he should even be mentioning this to me. I like my colleagues and I feel that I should tell them what he said about possible redundancies in April but if I do will I get into trouble. I don't like having this information when my colleagues don't. Should he have mentioned this to me? Could it be seen as a veiled threat? I know it's long-winded but it's the first time I have talked (typed) about it. I feel like I have been treated poorly, especially over the last 6 months. I basically kept the department afloat whilst they were able to get new staff in and the carrot of a payrise was left dangling for 6 months. New staff who have not been billing any work yet and have basically had an easy ride whilst I have been tearing my hair out. Also, their workload will never reach the level which was intended. They will only ever be dealing with 60% of the workload for which they were hired to do. In addition, I am expected to carry the same amount of files as them whilst earning (at least) £5K less. It's completely unfair. Is there anything I can do? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I'm not sure how to start a new thread but need advice about my mortgage. I have arrears of £4000. I received a letter from a solicitor advising of possession proceedings. I contacted them immediately and they asked me to complete an income and expenditure form and proof of earnings. I then received a letter from the Court advising me of the Court date. I completed the forms for the solicitor and advised that in addition to contractual monthly payment I would pay an additional £200 a month towards the arrears. I also advised that this could be increased to £400 in August when nursery fees no longer apply. This would mean the arrears could be paid in 12 months. I also proposed paying just the interest plus £500 a month towards the arrears meaning that the arrears would be paid off in 8 months. I was confident that this would be agreed by the Lender and then today I received a letter from their solicitor advising that their client has instigated possession proceedings with the case being heard in April. From what I have read and discussed any judge is likely to agree that my offer is a fair one so why is the Lender going ahead with the proceedings? Once proceedings begin can they not be called off if a reasonable agreement is achieved? Also, how would it look to a judge if I proposed a smaller repayment plan? We can afford the first offer but, to be honest, only just. Would it go against me if I now proposed paying the arrears off by, say, £50 a month? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I've never posted on here before. I've just buried my head in the sand for months. I've now received a 'Notice of Intended Court Action' with regard to a credit card debt. I want to repay the debt but, after being made redundant last year, funds are tight. I would be willing to offer them £50 a month but I wouldn't be able to afford anymore. Can anybody advise, in their experience, whether such a small payback plan would suffice? I won't mention the exact debt but it is over £7000 but less than £8000. I just wanted to see whether anyone had any experience of this before I ring the company that has been hounding me on the phone for months (although I've never answered it!). I'd appreciate any help whatsover. Kind regards