Statutory demand help please

[Parksie]

I've been contacted by the person (family friend) who I used to live with a letter from a company called capquest working on behalf of m&s money. Basically the letter states that they sent me a statutory demand for bankruptcy on the 23/8/07 which they've not received positve contact from. It states that an agents from Scotcall will attend the address and personally serve a statutory demand. The problem is that I don't live at or anywhere near that address (no fixed abode at the moment), have no assets etc and no way of paying the debt. I was about to file for bankruptcy myself but am trying to save the money to do this. If I ignore this letter will the bankruptcy just be filed by the company and are the agents they send around bailiffs who can seize items from the homeowner? I really need some advise on this as I don't want to get the other person in trouble for my debts (or should I say debts that my ex wife ran up and left me)

[mdecker]

A Statutory Demand is a rapid route to making someone bankrupt, but the issuer rarely follows through. It appears in this case that they tried to scare you in '97 with an SD but then chose not to proceed to bankruptcy proceedings. Bear in mind that anyone can download the standard Statutory Demand form and 'issue' it; there's no court involved and no fees to pay, so it's a way of scaring a debtor without incurring cost.

 

However - it's very important to give it your fullest attention and take it very seriously, because there's little to stop the creditor then making you bankrupt.

 

There are, however, several safeguards in place - for example a Statutory Demand generally has to be served in person on the debtor (not simply posted), so they can be very difficult instruments for a creditor to use against a debtor who is determined to avoid service.

 

In your case an SD may have been properly served in 1997, but it can't be used to support a bankruptcy petition in 2010. The creditor needs to serve you personally with a new SD for that to happen. It appears they don't have a current address for you, so it's unlikely there's an imminent threat from them. Your former housemate might have bailiffs round trying to get your goods if you have outstanding CCJ's at that address, but as long as you don't live there there's little they can do.

 

If you really want to go bankrupt then you could accelerate the process and contact Scotcall and suggest they make the application (this will save you the fees), but frankly I doubt whether they'd want to expend more money in the hope of extracting some from your bankruptcy - the sums just don't add up for them unless you have equity in your home or have some other easily liquidatable (is that a word?!!) assets. But bankruptcy is a really big step; are you sure you want to do this? How much money are we talking about? Is it mainly to one creditor, or is it a lot of smallish amounts to many creditors? There's lots of people here who can advise on debt issues and the advantages/disadvantages of bankruptcy; see what they say?

 

Hope that's useful and some comfort, but I don't have any special expertise so there may be inaccuracies.