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Canadian Debt, UK Resident


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I am Canadian, but I have been living in the UK for the past year. I have $78,000.00 unsecured Canadian debt, which I have been paying for the last four years (student debt). Over the past four years I have paid over $50,000.00 towards it and it hasn't touched the principle balance.

 

My situation has changed and I am no longer able to pay what I've been paying.

 

I have tried to consolidate within the bank, and they have declined because it is unsecured.

 

I have spoken to debt consolidation agencies, who won't help me because I live out of the country.

 

I have now tried dealing with the public trustee and looked into bankruptcy or a consumer proposal but it looks like those aren't options either.

 

Three professionals who I have dealt with regarding this have advised me that I could just stop paying and can't be tracked down because I live in a foreign country. Obviously this isn't the option I would like to take, but I am not having any success sorting it out the other way.

 

Does anyone know the repercussions for this? Can I be sued or chased by debt collectors in the UK for Canadian debt?

 

Any advice would be much appreciated. I really don't know what to do about this.

 

Thank you.

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Does anyone know the repercussions for this? Can I be sued or chased by

debt collectors in the UK for Canadian debt?

Debt collectors will pursue in the UK if they discover where you are. Have a read through this sticky http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?250889-Can-I-Be-Sued-For-An-Overseas-Debt but basically they would needed to have obtained a judgement in Canada in order to try and enforce here and if the law in Canada is the same as the UK they would not be able to obtain a judgement against a non resident.
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Thanks for getting back to me. I had previously looked at your post, but I find the legislation very confusing, especially between the two countries.

 

This hasn't gone to debt collection yet. I have just defaulted on my first payment, and about to default on my second. It is still in the banks hands.

 

So I have already told them I live in the UK, and given a phone number here (they called my sisters house in Canada). I don't think I gave them my address but I don't remember. I tried to change my address on line, but it won't allow me to give a UK address. So I don't think they have it.

 

If they don't have a UK address for me, how do I prove that I am not a resident of Canada for them to not obtain a judgment? How do I find out if the laws are the same?

 

Thank you so much for your help.

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It's easy enough to prove that you were a UK resident by rent books, utility bills, bank a/cs and even visa stamps etc.

 

Also, will they still be able to sell my Canadian debt to a UK debt collector?
The majority of UK debt collectors will be commission based and work on behalf of the original lender. Although there are some who will purchase the debt if it was low enough & considering in the UK the majority of debts are bought for between 7 & 15% it would probably have to be offered for lower than that.
This hasn't gone to debt collection yet.
It will be several months before they pass it on to a debt collection company.
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15% would be about £7000. If a debt collector came after me here for that, would I be able to settle in on a payment plan (sorry, never done this before!) and any idea how long it would take the Canadian bank/debt collector to sell my debt to one in the UK?

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I have no assets, but don't want to declare bankruptcy in the UK. I have always had a very good credit rating - what is happening now is awful. I'd like to leave it where it is (in Canada) if I can't settle, it and carry forward here - I haven't accrued any debts here. It's not that I haven't tried to pay it. It's just impossible now.

 

Any other thoughts?

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I have actually looked into that...and I can't file it myself from here, I have to be living in Canada or have a Public Trustee there file it for me. I'm trying to go the Consumer Proposal route (it's actually less of a run around than bankruptcy - which is actually very expensive). The problem is, the Public Trustee isn't sure if they can file it for me. I will hopefully know tomorrow.

 

I'm worried that if they can't file it, I'm back to square 1 with no idea what my options are. The last thing I want to happen is to have some debt collector arrive at my door in three years time demanding £50K.

 

I've heard that if it goes to collection, they will often offer you to settle it for less - do you know anything about this?

 

It's really hard to figure out because basically nobody over there will talk to me since I am not a resident, therefore they can't help me. I'm sure I'm not the first person this has happened to living abroad, so I'm just wondering how I can go about sorting this out in the tidiest fashion.

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