Uk Debts in Namibia

[Mik Ildo]

I left the UK in September 2013 with CC debts and a loan and moved to Namibia, with my Namibian wife, where I had a job lined up.

 

I continued to pay my debts from Namibia when I arrived there until January 2014.

 

The reason I stopped paying, the job never materialised and by January all our savings were gone.

 

I spoke to my UK bank LLoyds TSB at the time, and CC companies, Capital One and Asda Money to tell them what happened and they kept in touch via email with me until around April of 2014, then suddenly nothing.

 

Could it mean they have stopped chasing these debts I owe?

 

My intention is to claim Bankruptcy in the UK, as I have no way of paying these debts off completely, but living in a third world country it's difficult to save the £750 to pay for this. I hate the fact that I have to resort to this as a solution.

 

I have been told by the CAB in the UK there is no reciprocal agreement between the UK and Namibia, but I don't know what this implies.

 

Any advice would be welcome....

[unclebulgaria67]

No reciprocal agreement means that even if they got a court judgement in the UK against you, they could not enforce this in Namibia. I think they would struggle to even chase the debt in Namibia. All that will happen is that Lloyds TSB, Cap1, Asda etc will continue to apply defaults to your credit record in the UK, they will continue applying charges plus higher interest. They may also be sending letters to your last UK address in the hope these are being forwarded to you.

 

After a period of time, these creditors will sell your debts on to Debt Collection Agencies who will write to your last UK address, to which they won't get a response. I doubt they would be informed of you living in Namibia. They may obtain a UK court judgement in your absence and hope that at some point they trace you in the UK to gain payment.

 

So what can you do. All that you should do at this stage, is to confirm that you are a permanent resident of Namibia and are not in a position to service the accounts. Then say that you hope your position will improve and you will be back in contact when it does.

 

If you are never likely to be able to pay the debts, then yes it does make sense to return to the UK to file for bankruptcy.

[Mik Ildo]

Thanks for the info unclebulgaria67

 

It would appear a DCA has managed to contact my wife, I guess they saw her Linkedin profile, and they are attempting to set up an agreement with her, they even suggested that our combined wages should have enough funds to be able to set up an agreement. They have no idea what it's like paying N$17.5 to the pound.

 

The DCA is from the UK and when it was mentioned that the plan was to declare Bankruptcy, they paused, and then suggested a re-payment plan. I guess they will be looking to offload this account pretty quickly if they operate like most DCA's appear to.

 

The creditors all know we moved to Namibia, so I guess they sold on the debts.

 

It looks like bankruptcy is the only option for us.

[unclebulgaria67]

Thanks for the info unclebulgaria67

 

It would appear a DCA has managed to contact my wife, I guess they saw her Linkedin profile, and they are attempting to set up an agreement with her, they even suggested that our combined wages should have enough funds to be able to set up an agreement. They have no idea what it's like paying N$17.5 to the pound.

 

The DCA is from the UK and when it was mentioned that the plan was to declare Bankruptcy, they paused, and then suggested a re-payment plan. I guess they will be looking to offload this account pretty quickly if they operate like most DCA's appear to.

 

The creditors all know we moved to Namibia, so I guess they sold on the debts.

 

It looks like bankruptcy is the only option for us.

 

If the debts are in your name and not in your wifes name they should not have contacted her. It would be a breach of your Data Protection rights.

 

If you & your wife are resident in Namibia there is nothing that you need to do at this stage, if you have no assets in the UK. Entering into a repayment arrangement when you are struggling financially would not be a sensible thing to do. Any money that you paid would probably not even cover the charges and interest being added to the acccounts.

 

Just wait until you are able to go bankrupt in the UK and come back to the UK to apply for this. If you are not likely to return to the UK to live at any point, you may opt to do nothing.

 

If these debts are fairly recent, the debt collection agency who contacted your wife may be part of the Bank you had the account with.

[Mik Ildo]

Thank you again for your advice, it is very much appreciated.

 

We have no plans to return to the UK other than for Holidays and Family visits, however, I am not sure what the consequences would be if we simply did nothing.

 

Does a debt such as this ever get 'written off' by the creditor? Would I be looking over my shoulder for the next however many years.....

 

I have read somewhere that debts may be written off after a period of 6 years, or become Statue Barred, but I'm not sure this is enitirely true, if at all.

[oleg]

Tell creditors your new permanent address if not done already. Prevents legal action in UK succeeding.

 

Stop writing after that. No more contact at all.

 

After 6 years all default markers disappear from your credit file and debts become statute barred, except mortgages 12 years.

 

Banks sell to debt purchasers when they've given up hope but you simply have to ride out the 6 years as above from date of last written contact to original creditors.

[unclebulgaria67]

Thank you again for your advice, it is very much appreciated.

 

We have no plans to return to the UK other than for Holidays and Family visits, however, I am not sure what the consequences would be if we simply did nothing.

 

Does a debt such as this ever get 'written off' by the creditor? Would I be looking over my shoulder for the next however many years.....

 

I have read somewhere that debts may be written off after a period of 6 years, or become Statue Barred, but I'm not sure this is enitirely true, if at all.

 

They can't do much when you are in Namibia. Would have no impact on you, unless a Bank or employer in Namibia wanted you to provide details of your UK credit record. You can visit the UK without any issues, as debt is purely a civil issue.

 

What tends to happen is that creditors conveniently don't notice that a debtor has moved abroad and then at some point they may apply for a court judgement using your last known UK address. You would obviously not know anything about this. But the important thing is to get your creditors to confirm in writing that they have noted that you are a resident in Namibia. Getting such confirmation is gold dust, as you can use it if necessary in the future, if you needed to get a court judgement set side. Set aside in your situation means to ask a court to remove their judgement because the creditor obtained the judgement knowing you were resident abroad.

 

If a creditor did say obtain a court judgement after 5 years of you not paying the debt, they would then have 6 years from the date of the judgement to collect the debt. So you would have a period of 11 years when the debt could be enforced in the UK. If you never intend to come back to the UK or not for a long time, then you might choose to not bother with bankruptcy. If you are likely to come back to the UK within the next 10 years you might decide that bankruptcy is the best option for a clean start.

[aburobert]

Personally I would write to each creditor using Registered mail informing them you are now permanently living in Namibia and do not currently have the means to service your debts. Inform them that if you should, at some time in the future, return to the UK you will contact them to negotiate the repayment of your liabilities.

 

After about three to four weeks fill in the forms Namib Post will give you to trace lost/missing Registered mail and you will eventually (after several more weeks) get proof the item was signed for, when and by whom - which is then your proof that they knew you were permanently resident in Namibia. This should prevent any unknown CCJ's being registered in your name - and if they are getting them set aside should not be a problem.