Was paying for years

[citizenB]

Yes, the bemused letter..

 

Dear Sirs,

 

I am surprised that XXX have instructed you to proceed to litigation in this matter.

 

This account is in dispute with XXX and has been since they failed to provide documents in respect of a request made under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 on (date).

 

Please return this account to XXX in order for the dispute to be resolved.

 

Yours etc.

 

You dont need any more than the above:)

[F_DCAs]

Quite right. That's all you need do - and report any company involved to the OFT.

[calmlikeabomb]

Many thanks to you all, I shall get that off to them tomorrow.

[calmlikeabomb]

Ok, here is the gist of the latest letter from them, bearing in mind I still dont have a signed copy as requested.

 

Despite our numerous attempts etc...

 

Our investigations into your current financail position, based on the information we currently hold, are now complete and it is unfortunate that we find ourselves preparing a statutory demand under section 268(1) (a) of the insolvency act 1986 which will be completed on or around 13th Feb which will be served upon you.

 

If you do not apply to set aside the statutory demand within 18 days or otherwise deal with the demand as set out in the appropriate notes within the demand, you could be made bankrupt and your property and goods taken away from you.

 

Then goes on to say that any application to set aside should be supported by an affidavit stating the grounds on which the demand should be set aside.

 

The debt is a little over 2.5k currently which I more than paid off over previous years except MBNA kept whacking on loads of interest

[debt4get]

if the stat demand is served on you then you will need to have it set aside within 18 days of it being served..of course this could simply be pressure to get you to ring and come to some arrangement to pay them.. personally i would wait and see what happens.if they do serve then post here and i am sure people can help you form a defence to get it set aside, i gather it is not that difficult to get these set aside..they are simply a shot across the bows..lets wait and see

[debt4get]

A Statutory Demand is the first step to bankruptcy against an individual and this is prepared and served without any court involvement. A statutory demand can be served as soon as the debt is due and a judgment is not necessary. If the debtor disputes the claim, he or she can apply for the statutory demand to be set aside. The bankruptcy court will halt the bankruptcy if there is any dispute about the sum outstanding. It can be relatively easy for a debtor to have a statutory demand set aside and the process can result in an order for costs being made against the creditor.

Please note that a statutory demand in 90% of instances is 'bluffing technique' used to scare a person into paying up. If a bankruptcy petition does not follow then this will become apparent.

 

 

this is from debtinsolvency website hope it helps

[calmlikeabomb]

Thanks for the replies, I shall wait this one out then for now.

[Undercover-Elsa]

Hi again,

As above, scare tactics but we need to be ready to act to get it set aside, if, by some stretch of the imagination, they try to follow through.

Do you own your house?

Elsa x

[calmlikeabomb]

Hi, literally everything is in the other halfs name. House, car, all possessions are hers.

 

I had some business troubles about seven years ago which lead to some debts and not surprisingly coincided with me defaulting on my cc's. For the past six and a half years everything has been hers as we moved house then, Im not even on the voters roll at my house but certain stuff is addressed to me here.

[Undercover-Elsa]

Little point in them issuing a Stat Demand then

Did you ever figure out from your SAR how much of the amount demanded consists of unfair charges?

(A good basis for overturning an SD is if the amount claimed is wrong)

[calmlikeabomb]

Well Im not too sure what that is, but my situation about 6 or 7 years ago was thus:

 

I had a loan and a cc via MBNA, balances on both were approx 2.5k and 3.5k respectively. I ran into some difficulties, ended up pretty much out of work for a little while after my biz went pear shaped and came to an arrangement to pay £50 per month on both at a reduced interest rate. Now here is the confusing part. I spoke to someone when I made the arrangement and I thought I was getting the reduced rate on both, but Im not so sure now. I also found I was paying about £18 per month for pp insurance which I wasnt aware of and cancelled as I wanted all the repayment to go towards the balance.

 

About five or six years or so into paying (I got back on track a bit in that time after moving house etc) I rang MBNA to find out my balance. I found out that I still had about 2.5k on the cc and they couldnt even trace the loan?

 

Now I wasnt so concerned about the loan but more aggrieved that after all those years the balance hadnt hardly altered and in a bit of a huff I cancelled the £100 per month from my bank.

 

Some months later I got a letter from CQ who found me at my current address and I then found this site, the rest as they say is history

 

So in a nutshell I dont know if or when the loan was repayed, they couldnt find it. I am very aggrieved that I was paying for pp insurance for goodness knows how long and that the balance hardly reduced when I thought I was on a lower rate.

 

Now I appreciate I should have been in contact with MBNA to monitor things but I just wanted nothing to do with them and to get the payments made and get on with my life, hence my anger when I discovered the balance.

[Undercover-Elsa]

Hi again

I'm not clear which debt the threat letter is for..the Credit Card or the loan?

If it's the Credit Card, if there are unfair charges (overlimit fees etc, not interest) included in the balance they're demanding, these will be grounds for setting aside an SD.

If it's the loan, perhaps grounds could be that they mis-sold the PPI, in which case you could reclaim the payments you made towards it prior to cancellation. It would also make the amount claimed incorrect and be grounds for a set aside. Have a look here to see if you qualify to reclaim:

PPI Reclaiming Guide: £1,000s for missold loan insurance...

 

Just my opinion, but I'd be tempted to cut to the chase and try and pre-empt them by sending them something on the lines of:

 

Dear Sirs,

I am in receipt of your letter of xxxx in which I note you threaten to issue a Statutory Demand.

May I respectfully remind you that this account remains in dispute due to failing to comply with a formal request for a copy of the agreement relevant to this alleged account under Consumer Credit Act 1974 regulations, as notified previously by letter on xxxx.

For your further information, should you carry out your threat to issue a Statutory Demand, this will be vigorously disputed and a set aside applied for on very valid grounds.

Finally, as I do not own any property or material possessions it would, quite honestly, be a pointless excercise on your part.

If I am supplied with a copy of a valid, signed enforceable agreement for this account, and the correct amount owing is established, I will be only too pleased to come to a suitable repayment arrangement in line with my limited means.

However, as I'm sure you are aware, it is against OFT guidelines to state or imply that you hold a copy of the signed agreement if non such exists.

To save further procrastination and abuse of court process I would therefore be grateful if you would confirm in writing whether or not you actually hold a copy of a compliant, properly executed agreement signed by myself in relation to this account.

yours faithfully...

 

Again, just my opinion, see what others think

[calmlikeabomb]

Hi Elsa,

 

Thanks for the reply. Its definately for the credit card which had the PPI insurance attached to it. I must admit though that Im not happy with the amount owing as I was expecting it to be substantially lower.

 

Also, is there a possibility that I overpaid on the loan? I dont know when or if I paid that off and just carried on paying them £50 of the 100 per month.

 

Thanks once again for your help.

[Undercover-Elsa]

Only way to find out is to send them a Subject Access Request for ALL the accounts they hold on you.

Elsa x

Edited February 10, 2010 by Undercover-Elsa

[calmlikeabomb]

Hi all, long time no post.

 

Just got a letter from Legal & Collections giving me 7 days notice to pay. Should I resend them a copy of the account is in dispute letter as stated above?

 

Thanks

[Undercover-Elsa]

Heyyy welcome back!

Yes, send them that. How are you getting on?

I presume they didn't follow through on the Stat Demand?

 

Elsa x

[calmlikeabomb]

Hi, No this is the first piece of correspondence Ive had since the start of the year. Still never got any info from them, its all a real pain if Im being honest

[Undercover-Elsa]

well at least that letter scared them off, pleased about that

[debt4get]

you can but there is no need the account is in dispute end of...

[Jasper1965]

have you been able to claim back the PPI and any unlawful charges yet?

[calmlikeabomb]

Hi Jasper, I havent actually tried to.

 

I have just dug out the copies of the statements they sent me and this is how it breaks down.

 

Dated 4/5/05

 

Payment by direct debit of £50 - I had agreed this with them and it was meant to be interest free as I was in financial trouble.

 

Credit of £50

Interest charge £0.00

Payment protection £18.55

Est Interest next statement £0.00

 

New balance: Still high lol

 

Now I was paying like this for 5 or 6 years. First up, I wasnt aware of the PPI which I know is my fault but I didnt receive any statements from them due to moving around a lot. Secondly, even if my balance was reducing by £32-33 per month theres no way that six years down the line it should be virtually unchanged.

 

Looking at these old statements it looks like they decided to stick on the interest around 5/3/06 so the breakdown is as follows:

 

Credit of £50

Interest charge £39.21

Payment protection £16.48

Est Interest next statement £40.67

 

New balance: Still high but now not decreasing as 23.9% interest has appeared from nowhere.

 

At this point I am now paying £50 per month but getting hit with fees of $55.69

[calmlikeabomb]

As a footnote I stopped paying the PPI in March 06. From memory I think I rang them to enquire as to whether I was paying for it, they confirmed this and I told them to stop so more of the debt would be reduced per month.

[Undercover-Elsa]

If you were paying £18.55 a month PPI for 6 years, they owe you £1335.60 plus interest. Not to mention all the unfair charges.

You seriously need to do a Subject Access Request to MBNA.

[calmlikeabomb]

Im not sure when I first got the credit card tbh but I stopped paying the PPI in 2006. There is the possibility I had PPI on the loan I had from them which no-one seems to know anything about when I last spoke to MBNA. I shall do a subject access request, but will they have records going back 10+ years in your opinion?

 

Cheers for all the replies, it is appreciated.

[calmlikeabomb]

Gawd this gets even more confusing. Looking at the correspondence from Capquest, they are quoting a different account number to the one on the copies of the credit card statements they sent me that they got from MBNA. Now Im seriously confused.

 

Its like this (not exact numbers)

Number on statement copy: 5450012345670008

Number on Capquest docs:5407987465325039