Can anyone advice what to do??

[tjinuk]

Hi

 

I have alot of debt that i cannot afford to pay. 2 accounts with Lloyds tsb, barclaycard, littlewoods, capital one, hsbc, and various others.

I have considerd banckcruptcy but do not have the 400 spare to go through with this. I have been ignoring alot of the calls and letters and those i have spoken to i have been honest and told them i do not have any spare money to offer payment. I did get intouch with an agency and we worked out that i was -90 each month. I have 3 dependants. Private rented house, work part time and obvs get working and child tax credit.

 

Well today i have had a statutory demand under section 268 of the insolvency act 1986. Debt for liquidated sum payable immediately

 

My address and name

 

Served by 1st credit finance

The amount of £3845.98

 

The creditor demands that you pay the above debt or secure or compound for it to the creditors satisfaction.

 

any advice on what i do?? Is it different when a debtor makes you bankcrupt?? Will they or can they remove goods from the house?? I really dont know what to do or expect here and any advice is completely welcome and wanted.

Thankyou

Tjinuk

[Vampyra]

Is this 1st Credit Ltd or Finance? What is their address.

Did it come via the post? Or was it served on you personally by someone?

 

If it was sent by post - IGNORE IT!

Honestly.

Then stop being scared of the debt collectors and be prepared to write some letters and get them squirming for a change!

[tjinuk]

Hi

 

Thanks for replying. It came through the post from 1st credit finance. Their address being, Hill house, 1 little new street, london, ec4a etr.

It says i have 18 days to set it aside or if not in 21 days it will be served and i could be made bankrupt and property taken away.

 

Tjinuk

[rory32]

Wouldn't worry about that one - if you have numerous debts a single creditor can not make you bankrupt. The others would have to agree and its not in their interests as you rent rather than own a property.

Oh and you should read through the sticky on OFT guidelines on debt collection. If you do you will see that they have broken some of these guidelines e.g. using threatening behaviour and sending out documents that look lije court documents (a real statutory demand would have to be served - not posted, and would come from the court, not the DCA). So report them to the OFT. But for now just calm down and try not to lose any sleep over this.

[tjinuk]

Hi

 

Thanks Rory. I have had alook at the OFT thread you advised and it certainly seems that they have tried to make it look like a court paper. Is their a template of a letter i can send to the OFT to let them know about this?

I would say my total debt is in the region of 20,000. I have tried being reasonalbe before and gave them all a breakdown of money coming in and out but it didnt work.

Do you think i should try again and offer all of them a minimum amount?

Thanks for taking the time to repy. I was a little worried but knew it wasnt from the court as had no court stamp or case no...

 

Tjinuk

[rory32]

First thing I would do is send them all a CCA request. It only costs £1 and if after 12 working days from receipt they have not produced it (99.9% of the time they don't/can't produce it) the credit agreement is in default. This means you are not legally obliged to pay them anything until they produce the agreement and as the account has now been placed in dispute (it is placed in dispute when they receive the CCA request) they can't take you to court - well actually they could take you to court but the case would be thrown out within about 2 seconds. Ideally you should send the CCA request recorded delivery (so you can prove they got it), however you have a lot of creditors and probably not a lot of spare cash so if you decide not to send them recorded at the very least get a proof of posting from the Post Office. This is free. I have shown an example CCA request below:

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Account number: xxxx

I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY

 

With reference to the above account, I request that you send me a true copy of this credit agreement before I will correspond further on this matter.

 

This is my right under the legislation contained within section 77 (1) and section 78 (1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and I am entitled to receive a copy of my credit agreement on request.

 

Your obligation also extends to providing me with a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order, which represents payment of the statutory fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act. I understand that a copy of my credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days from the date of this letter.

 

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act, creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

 

Also, since you are a Debt Collection Agency, I would also ask that you supply a signed true copy of the executed deed of assignment for the above referenced agreement. This is an obligation, whether you are the original creditor or not, under section 189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

 

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

 

In summary, I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THIS DEBT AND THEREFORE REQUIRE YOU TO SUBSTANTIATE THIS BY PROVIDING THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTATION BEFORE I CORRESPOND FURTHER :

 

1. True copy of original credit agreement

2. Statement of account

3. Copy of the executed deed of assignment from {Banks Name} and {DCA Name}.

 

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

 

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

 

Further to the above, please ensure that any contact by yourselves is made in writing only to the above address. Telephone calls and personal visits will not be accepted and viewed as harassment.

I look forward to hearing from you within the statutory time limit.

 

Yours faithfully

 

{Insert Name}

[tjinuk]

Hi Rory

 

I really appreciate you taking e time to send me that. I will def be sending that to 1st Credit.

Does it matter that i have in the past sent all my creditors a breakdown of income and expenditure and offer of a token payment??Should i send that letter to all companies asking in writing and phoning for money??

Sorry to keep asking but just wondered. I dont have a great deal of time or money but i shall find the both for this...just to prove to them that im not somebody who does not know what the law is. I have never denied owing them and most of it was due to the breakdown of a relationship. I walked away with kids and cloths and basically started again. Yes i was stupid to get myself into that debt but they dont help or care about that.

So, anyway, thanks again for the info you have provided. This site and the members are truly wonderful...

 

Tracie..x

[rory32]

Yes Tracie, I would send it to all of them. Then when they default you don't have to pay them. I also included a statement of account in the letter because you want to know if they're are any charges on the account (which you can at a later date claim back to reduce your debt). Also you are asking for the deed of assignment because you want to know that the debt has been legally assigned from the bank to the DCA. They don't like producing this - so it is just another string to your bow in terms of disputing the debt.

But the copy of the credit agreement is the really important thing as as I said if they can't produce it they are in default and the debt is unenforceable. It's also worth noting that if after a further 30 days (calendar this time) they don't produce the agreement they have produced a criminal offence, the longer it takes after this to produce the agreement the higher the fine would be. From what you have said you have a lot of debts but none of them are very big (the DCA would be fined £000's for not producing the agreement) so you may find that some of the DCA's after a short struggle decide to write off the debt.

 

And finally to answer the question you asked me, no it doesn't matter that you previously produced a statement of affairs and offerred them token payments.

[tjinuk]

Hi Rory

 

Thanks once again for all that info. Funny you should mention charges as i have requested charges back off lloyds tsb for the sum of £730. I have not heard anything so about to send the LBA out. Even if it costs me £50 and they end up taking it off the debt then at least its some paid off.

Thanks

Tracie..x;)