1st credit, LCS SD received on old citi debt

[jumpjet]

I have recieved a statutory demand from LCS

who are solicitors for 1st Credit whom I have been paying in relation to a debt with Citi associates.

 

 

I have paid £5 per month to them since Dec 2004

when the debt was assigned to them and from Sept 2006 £25 per month via a DMP with the CCCs.

 

 

I had approached The associates regarding charges on the debt

and having recieved the data access info, wrote to them to reclaim £1000.

 

 

Their response was a "get knotted letter" and as such I had decided to take them to court.

Unfortunatley, I have been unable to do so as I am not in a position at the moment to pay the required fees.

 

 

The statuory demand from LCS is for some £2400 and obviously the debt would not be at this level had Citi not added charges.

 

 

Though 1st credit wrote to the CCCS not accepting the payment of £25/month as sufficient

they have not specified an amount to them or ourselves

and i had assumed that they were now happy with the arrangement

they have been taking the payments with no further correspondence.

 

 

At first we were told by the CCCs to ingnore the letter,

but on reflection and after seeing some of the posts on hear,

 

 

my wife emailed them and now they hae told us to send a copy to them,

andf write to LCS and 1st credit.

 

 

My concern is that we only have 18 days to do this.

 

 

I would assume that I could get the petition set aside on grounds that though not a proper payment order,

monies have been paid to them on regular basis via the DMP and that they have accepted it.

 

 

As I cannot afford to take the associates to court I had decided to make a complaint to OFT regarding the charges

in the hope that they could help sort it out.

 

 

Would this count as a dispute for the money that 1st credit are claiming?

 

 

Obviously I want to stop this action if I can.......but don't realy know how!

[jumpjet]

I have recieved a Statutory Demand for LCS who are the solicitors acting for 1st Credit whom I have been payng in relation to a debt with Citi Associates. I have paid £5 per month to them since Dec 2004 when the debt was assigned to them and from Sept 2006 £25 per month via a DMP with the CCCs. I had approached the Associates regarding charges on the debt and having recieved the data access info, wrote to them to reclaim £1025. Their response was basicaly a "get knotted" letter and as such I had indedent to take them to court. Unfortunately, I have been unable to do so due to my present financial position. The debt would not be at this level had Citi not added charges. The demand from LCS is for £2,480. though 1st credit wrote to the CCCS not accepting the payment of 25/month as sufficient, they have not specified an amount at least not ot us, and we assumed that they were happy with the current arrangment as they have been recieving regular payments since Sept. 2004. we know we cannot ignore this demand but are at a loss as to what we can do about it and how seriously it should be taken.

[reduk054]

Hi Scampjet,

Can you PM Sequenci, as he would be interested, and will probably be able to help you further, but he is not normally on line until Monday.

Hope this works out for you.

Red

[reduk054]

Here is the link, just click and you should be able to PM him.

Red

sequenci vbmenu_register("postmenu_774527", true);

[reduk054]

Here is the link to the relevant post as well:

DCAs who send out Statutory Demands purely as a punitive measure / scare tactic

[rory32]

First of all the statutory demand is for too little. Judges usually will not entertain bankruptcy petitions under £5K.

 

Secondly the amount of the statutory demand has to be accurate, clearly it is not.

 

With regards to reclaiming charges this would be done through the FOS not the OFT.

 

Would this count as a dispute for the money that 1st credit are claiming?

It most certainly would count as a dispute.

[gizmo111]

First of all the statutory demand is for too little. Judges usually will not entertain bankruptcy petitions under £5K.

 

 

Why is this - I thought anyone could petition for bankruptcy as long as there is a debt of over £750 - I don't know the OP's circumstances but he is on a DMP so it is likely that his total debt would be over £5k anyway.

[rory32]

Why is this - I thought anyone could petition for bankruptcy as long as there is a debt of over £750

True but the petition will cost around £1K in total. The petition would fail on the grounds that the sum owing is not accurate. Judges in general don't like granting bankruptcy petitions. From netlawman website:

 

 

When do you use a statutory demand?

Use it when:

• You are chasing more than, say, £5,000.
  
• You are absolutely certain that they owe you the money - every penny of it and the debt is crystalised. That means you do not need to ask a judge to calculate how much money is due to you.
  
• Your debtor has the money.
  
• You calculate that your debtor will pay rather than risk your issuing a petition. This depends of course on his perception of you.
  
• You are prepared to follow up by issuing a petition. You hope that might never be necessary. But, as in any litigation, hesitation comes through in your tactics. You lose the impact completely if you are seen to be bluffing.

I don't know the OP's circumstances but he is on a DMP so it is likely that his total debt would be over £5k anyway.

And therefore the other creditors would have to agree. Unlikely as they don't know how much money they would get from bankruptcy. The fact that the OP is in a DMP would also count against the creditor.

[jumpjet]

Hi all,

 

I am reading your responses with great interest.

 

 

While it it true that we are paying debts as per a DMP which totals more than £5K.

 

 

It is also true that 1st Credit are the only company who have not accepted the payments as sufficient,

even though they have increased under the DMP by £20/month.

 

 

after reading other posts and advice from the CCCS,

 

 

it would seem to be a scare tactic but I have to take it seriously.

 

 

Exactly what that entails is where my uncertainty lies.

 

After contacting the CCCS,

they have told me to write to first credit and ask them to set aside the action on the grounds

that we are paying all we can and back this up with our financial statement.

 

 

I have done this today,

but also added that the debt as obtained by them was more than the total owed due to the original creditor

(Citi Assosciates) levied charges to the account to the sum of £1025 and have refused to repay them.

 

 

I had intended to take action against Citi for these charges but due to present circumstances cannot afford to do so.

 

 

Instead I have referred the matter to the Financial ombudsman

and informed 1st Credit and LCS of this too,

and asking them to confirm thier intention to persue this action with enough time for me to apply

to the court to set aside the demand.

 

 

Also, I have included in the letter to 1st credit a CCA request,

in the hope that this will make them think again.

the total monies owed to 1st Credit is £2480.

 

 

Hopefully they will look at it again if they think that the total owing may in fact be £1,455.

 

 

I do feel that any court will not rule in thier favour as we are doing everything we can.

 

 

As the

CCCS point out, we can't do anymore and they cannot be prioritised.

 

Please feel free to give all advice and opinions.

[sequenci]

Why is this - I thought anyone could petition for bankruptcy as long as there is a debt of over £750 - I don't know the OP's circumstances but he is on a DMP so it is likely that his total debt would be over £5k anyway.

 

i've known a few creditor's petitions go through for debts way below £5k; personally i think it is an unfair practice being adopted by more and more debt collection agencies, but we digress.

 

i have a few questions.

 

1) are you in mortgaged or rented property?

 

2) have you sent the creditor a CCA request?

 

3) do you have any reasonable grounds for attempting to have the statutory demand set aside? you mention unlawful charges?

[sequenci]

Sorry for the delay in replying.

 

I have a few questions.

 

1) Are you in mortgaged or rented accomodation?

 

2) How was the demand served? Via post or in person?

 

3) Have you sent a CCA request / SAR to the OP?

 

When was the demand served? What have you done so far? How much of the debt is made up of charges?

 

thanks

[jumpjet]

Sorry for the delay in replying.

 

I have a few questions.

 

1) Are you in mortgaged or rented accomodation?

 

2) How was the demand served? Via post or in person?

 

3) Have you sent a CCA request / S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to the OP?

 

When was the demand served? What have you done so far? How much of the debt is made up of charges?

 

thanks

 

1) Joint morgage.

2) By 2nd class mail.

3) CCA request sent on 2/7/2007 along with letter as recommended by

CCCS

 

We recieved the demand 29/7/07.

We have done all as my last post. The amount due at present is £2,438.54 and Citi had added £1025 as charges. Which they do not acknowledge as repayable. As of yesterday, I have writen to the Financial ombudsman re Citi.

[jumpjet]

i've known a few creditor's petitions go through for debts way below £5k; personally i think it is an unfair practice being adopted by more and more debt collection agencies, but we digress.

 

i have a few questions.

 

1) are you in mortgaged or rented property?

 

2) have you sent the creditor a CCA request?

 

3) do you have any reasonable grounds for attempting to have the statutory demand set aside? you mention unlawful charges?

 

 

1) Joint mortgage.

 

2) I have now! The CCCS suggested that I write to 1st Credit and ask

them to set aside the demand and if not whether they intend to persue

the demand given the circumstances of the debt I.E. regular payments have been made

which are £20 more per month than what they would recieve if not via the

DMP and all spare available funds are sent to the CCCS. Under the DMP

their payments will gradually increase as other creditors are paid off. I have pointed out to them that Citi are the subject of a complaint to the FO

and If upheld the total of the debt they obtained would be £1025 less. I have also sent them a copy of our financial breakdown and asked them once again to accept the terms of the DMP as they are the only creditor who say they do not and any increace in payment would mean that they are being Prioritised.

[jumpjet]

Hi all,

 

Heared today from LCS solicitors they will not enforce the debt until they have obtained Agreement. I assume 1st. credit should have had it anyway?

 

How good are they at getting hold of agreements?

 

Are they likely to present it in the near future?

 

any advice please!

[rory32]

3 threads merged.

[rory32]

I would suggest that after all this time it is unlikely they will come up with a copy of the agreement, but who knows.