Sequestration

[Qohldrs]

My husband and I can no longer afford to repay our debts. We have been paying Payplan for more years than we care to admit but haven't even begun to make a dent in our debts.

 

Today 2 men came to the door and presented us with a Charge for Payment of Money for the amount of £3482.60. We called the company concerned but they want a payment of £300 before they will consider a repayment plan. We simply do not have this money.

 

I've emailed our Payplan advisor person to ask him how we get the Sequestration ball rolling but thought I'd post here too. We know Sequestration is going to be hard but we have no other way forward, our debts are huge, we can't afford to pay them off and have realised Sequestration is the only way we can even begin to get things back on track.

 

Thanks for reading, does anyone have any advice? Has anyone gone down the Sequestration route?

[Qohldrs]

Just realised that I've posted in wrong place - sorry about that. Will move it

[Qohldrs]

Posted this on another board but realised it was in the wrong place.

 

My husband and I can no longer afford to repay our debts. We have been paying Payplan for more years than we care to admit but haven't even begun to make a dent in our debts.

 

Today 2 men came to the door and presented us with a Charge for Payment of Money for the amount of £3482.60. We called the company concerned but they want a payment of £300 before they will consider a repayment plan. We simply do not have this money.

 

I've emailed our Payplan advisor person to ask him how we get the Sequestration ball rolling but thought I'd post here too. We know Sequestration is going to be hard but we have no other way forward, our debts are huge, we can't afford to pay them off and have realised Sequestration is the only way we can even begin to get things back on track.

 

Thanks for reading, does anyone have any advice? Has anyone gone down the Sequestration route?

[IdaInFife]

you can apply for time to pay order that you can afford,

 

Download form | free legal help from Govan Law Centre, Glasgow, UK

 

 

but if you really want to via sequestration then here a few links on whats invocved and how to:

 

http://www.aib.gov.uk/guidance/publications/debtbankruptcy/bankruptcypostapril08

 

National Debtline Scotland | Debt Advice | Factsheet 01 Bankruptcy

 

National Debtline Scotland | Debt Advice | Factsheet 01 Bankruptcy

 

Ida x

[IdaInFife]

i'll be honest and done it years ago and which i hadn't but now done and dusted

 

without knowing what types of debts and amounts, if you have any assetts can't really advise what options you have,

 

but 14 days from your charge of payment you will be apparent insolvent in which you can file for BK and will cost £100.

 

Ida x

[Qohldrs]

Hi Ida and thanks for replying.

 

We have no assets, no savings, no shares, no policies. We do have 2 cars but both are old bangers that cost next to nothing and are essential as we live in the sticks.

 

Our debts amount to over £20,000. We have tried to pay them off but can't afford to give a lot to Payplan so we haven't really been making much headway.

 

Can I ask why you regret it? We were going to do it a couple of years ago but decided against it, we now wish we had gone ahead. The stress of all this is unreal and in some ways we are relieved that this Charge for Payment has come, if we don't pay within 14 days we have discovered it can be used as proof of apparent insolvency.

 

I'll look at the Time to Pay document and show it to my husband.

 

Thanks again.

[PCPFORMULA3000]

Hello,

 

We will help you out on this, the charge for payment, what was it for? A creditcard or council tax?

[Qohldrs]

Council tax. Complete nightmare.

[PCPFORMULA3000]

Hello

 

Is the sheriff officers Scott & Co?

 

What you need to do is start them off with a verbal income exp, What they will be looking for is how much you earn, this is to determin how much they can arrest from your wages, what your looking to do is offer just over what they can arrest and this will be accepted on the spot, the only reason they are looking for an upfront payment, the agent that you speak with only gets commission on credit or debit card payments hence the reason for upfront payment, first of all these guys are,nt born yesterday, they prob have a note of who you bank with already and possibly who you work for, if they don,t they will want you to supply these details before an agreement is set up. go to this link below to see what they can take off of you

Earnings arrestment - maximum daily, weekly and monthly deductions from wages

 

is this around 3 yrs past council tax, what about the current year 2009/10, have you an agreement set up for this? if you are paying this years, I would draw up an income/exp to show this and to offer only what you can, they will normally accept it in most cases, reason being they are working on behalf of the council, and this years council tax is the most important thing for the council to get paid, the best thing to do is get and keep in contact with the sheriff office company, and remember you are only speaking to a collection agent at the other end of the end, they always like to think they are in authority.

 

If a verbal offer is not accepted you will need to put in writing, the only thing you can do wrong is ignore them, technically your bank account can be arrested and wages arrested after the 14 days have elapsed, they do not normally act this fast though, they will prob have who you bank with due you having dd set up with the council at some point.

 

To sum up get an income/exp drawn up Mortgage/rent, food, travel, insurance, ctax for this financial yr, any hp or car payments, try adding a little extra on, other things like sky tv and lux items will be scoffed at or creditcards, they see themselves are the main creditor behind your mortgage company due to the charge for payment.

 

I read that you have no assets, would you consider BR? once the 14 days has passed on the charge for payment you can pay £100 each and petition for BR, this would wipe out all your debts including ctax up to the date BR was granted, this sounds like the best option for you, I would always say you need to speak to a money advisor or prof help before going through with it.

 

Hope this helps

Edited August 12, 2009 by PCPFORMULA3000

[Qohldrs]

The company is Striling Park. My husband spoke to them and they are adamant that if we don't pay the £280 they will arrest his wages. He is going into work tomorrow to talk to his boss and warn him this will very probably happen.

 

The arrestment won't be huge but we have honestly had enough, this is simply the straw that broke the camels back. We know we should never have got into the position in the first place but life happens and things get out of hand - in our case in a huge way.

 

We would go the BK way it has got to that point. I have downloaded the necessary forms and we're reading our way through them.

[PCPFORMULA3000]

Hello,

 

When the charge for payment 14 days runs out you can then send out your br pack to Accountant in BR with a copy of the charge, please seek some advice on this though, remember if you have any money in bank accounts this will be frozen, you could write to your bank now and ask if you can keep the account open. At the end of the day you have everything going for you regards assets etc, you have nothing to lose....

[IdaInFife]

everyone is different so you if you have a read over the links it will give you an insight to what is involved.

 

your local trading standards might have a money advice service and you can make an appointment with them ad they can go over everything with you and help you file the BK if thats what you choose to do.

 

Ida x

[Moonlighter]

Well done for taking the bull by the horns since you've realised the debt management plan is barely reducing your total debt. Did Payplan manage to get your creditors to stop adding on interest and charges? I presume not if the debt's hardly going down.

 

There's also a DAS scheme in Scotland (Debt Arrangement Scheme) which can be done through your local CAB or Trading Standards Department which does freeze interest and charges and I wonder if you've considered this.

 

Sequestration (and possibly even Trust Deeds if you live in Aberdeen) will cut down any wages arrestments even if Stirling Park do know where you work so that would be the end of that concern. Which bank(s) do you have current accounts with, and are they in overdraft? It may be worth opening a new basic bank account with an insolvency-friendly bank such as Clydesdale or Co-operative who do not freeze or close bank accounts upon their customers' insolvency.

 

http://www.aib.gov.uk/MainNav/Services/debtorportal

 

I would also suggest calling one of your local Insolvency Practitioners or money advice teams who will give you impartial, confidential advice which is best suited to your individual circumstances. Try googling DEBT ADVICE in your area and go to see someone in your area who can give you best advice.

 

If Trust Deed or sequestration turns out to be the best option for you, then this is certainly not the end of the world. The legislation is there to help people like yourself who have got into difficulty to give you a fresh start.

 

Good luck.

[Qohldrs]

Thanks for all the replies. We'll be making an appointment with our CAB asap and discuss with them the way forward.

 

Payplan advisor phoned me after I emailed telling him what was going on and he was less than helpful "we don't deal with this, I can't help you". He did say though that it looked like the best thing to do.

 

Council Tax is a major pain, we pay what we can when we can but its never enough. We earn too much to qualify for CTB but don't earn enough to pay the bill and eat, pay rent etc.

[IdaInFife]

Council Tax is a major pain, we pay what we can when we can but its never enough. We earn too much to qualify for CTB but don't earn enough to pay the bill and eat, pay rent etc.

 

I think many of us are in exactly the same position

 

Ida x