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urgent advice needed....desperate
memebaby
Posts: 26 Forumite
this is such a long story i cant even start but suffice to say weve got lots of debts from my partnners business which has been doing really badly. Ive worked really really hard negotiating with all the creditors on my own with some success but ive had an awful exprience today which reduced mw to tears and im just so unsure.
one of our creditors issued a statutory demand for 1600. fair enough, we owe it, i tried to negotiate with the solicitors to agree a payment plan but they refused and said they were going to proceed and make us bankrupt, something that i had fought so hard to avoid. i therefor upped our offer which was totally unrealistic but desperate times...etc. I asked to pay 500 frothwith and i would clear the balance within 28days. a fair offer i thought. the sol, who seemed to have a verty aggressive approach said he wasnt goint to agree anything but if we were going to borrow some money to pay 500 we should get on wth it (!) and pay it over as a measure of good will. mmmmmm. Anyway i scraped and scraped and schemed and found the 500 and paid it cash into their account and again asked for 28 days to pay balance. he emailed back a really snotty reply saying 2 1/2 weeks was long enough to sort our affairs out and not only did he now want the balance of the debt he wanted the interest claimed under the statutory demand ( fair enough i guess) and he now wanted another 400 costs, which he was not going to discuss so our 1600 debt was now stood at 2100 even with us having paid over 500. i just didnt get the figures and couldnt understand where the costs had suddenly appeared from, hed never mentioned them before. it just seemed really really sneeky. my copy of the stat demand was at the accountants so i decided to phone the said solicitor and ask him if he wouldnt mind reading out the figures from the stat demand so i could see whether the interest added up and whether there was any claim for costs in there. i cant even begin to tell you howe he spoke to me, he shouted said things like "i dont need to help you people" "i dont have to tell you anything, get your own solicitor" and kept shouting at me and was just so aggressive and rude.during his rant he did say something about not being able to claim any costs under the statutory demand so unless i paid the costs they would issue anyway even if i was prepared to pay the original debt.,I asked him if he would tell me the name of the senior partner who deals with complaints and he said "look on the letter headed paper" he then said "in fact i revoke my ooriginal offer, there is no offer and im going to issue because i have the power to make that decision. he then put the phone down on me. I was not rude, i am softly spoken and very polite. the abuse just came out of nowhere. he talked to me lke i was s...t on his shoe which lets face it when your in debt and trying to sort things out you generaly feel like on a daily basis anyway !!!!!!! ive lodged an immediate complaint with both the senior partner tha tdeals with complaints and also thesenior partner that heads his dept because i just dont think you can do that but guess what.......no one got back to me today. ive put my complaint i writing and emailed it over.
my question ... after all that (PHEW) sorry but ive been so upset all day.....is can they insist you pay their costs for issuing a stat demand if there is no power to claim it on the stat demand and if not can he petiton us for bankruptcy becasue presumably then he can ask for a load of costs within those proceedings even when we are offering to pay the debt. i feel like hes been really underhand and now hes almost saying he wont let us pay the debt. please help me.i dont know what to do. has anyone experience of this
thanks for reading this long post. im gutted today.
one of our creditors issued a statutory demand for 1600. fair enough, we owe it, i tried to negotiate with the solicitors to agree a payment plan but they refused and said they were going to proceed and make us bankrupt, something that i had fought so hard to avoid. i therefor upped our offer which was totally unrealistic but desperate times...etc. I asked to pay 500 frothwith and i would clear the balance within 28days. a fair offer i thought. the sol, who seemed to have a verty aggressive approach said he wasnt goint to agree anything but if we were going to borrow some money to pay 500 we should get on wth it (!) and pay it over as a measure of good will. mmmmmm. Anyway i scraped and scraped and schemed and found the 500 and paid it cash into their account and again asked for 28 days to pay balance. he emailed back a really snotty reply saying 2 1/2 weeks was long enough to sort our affairs out and not only did he now want the balance of the debt he wanted the interest claimed under the statutory demand ( fair enough i guess) and he now wanted another 400 costs, which he was not going to discuss so our 1600 debt was now stood at 2100 even with us having paid over 500. i just didnt get the figures and couldnt understand where the costs had suddenly appeared from, hed never mentioned them before. it just seemed really really sneeky. my copy of the stat demand was at the accountants so i decided to phone the said solicitor and ask him if he wouldnt mind reading out the figures from the stat demand so i could see whether the interest added up and whether there was any claim for costs in there. i cant even begin to tell you howe he spoke to me, he shouted said things like "i dont need to help you people" "i dont have to tell you anything, get your own solicitor" and kept shouting at me and was just so aggressive and rude.during his rant he did say something about not being able to claim any costs under the statutory demand so unless i paid the costs they would issue anyway even if i was prepared to pay the original debt.,I asked him if he would tell me the name of the senior partner who deals with complaints and he said "look on the letter headed paper" he then said "in fact i revoke my ooriginal offer, there is no offer and im going to issue because i have the power to make that decision. he then put the phone down on me. I was not rude, i am softly spoken and very polite. the abuse just came out of nowhere. he talked to me lke i was s...t on his shoe which lets face it when your in debt and trying to sort things out you generaly feel like on a daily basis anyway !!!!!!! ive lodged an immediate complaint with both the senior partner tha tdeals with complaints and also thesenior partner that heads his dept because i just dont think you can do that but guess what.......no one got back to me today. ive put my complaint i writing and emailed it over.
my question ... after all that (PHEW) sorry but ive been so upset all day.....is can they insist you pay their costs for issuing a stat demand if there is no power to claim it on the stat demand and if not can he petiton us for bankruptcy becasue presumably then he can ask for a load of costs within those proceedings even when we are offering to pay the debt. i feel like hes been really underhand and now hes almost saying he wont let us pay the debt. please help me.i dont know what to do. has anyone experience of this
thanks for reading this long post. im gutted today.
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Comments
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I do so wish you had not paid over the £500 but never mind it is done. It will cost them around £1200 to petition for your BR, so do you think they really would have done it? The statutory demand was probably a scare tactic and it worked.
Please ring one of the debt charities in my signature. National Debtline are open to 9pm tonight I think. If they can't advise on business debt then ring Business Debtline first thing tomorrow.
I am sorry that these scum have given you a hard time and hope you have a better day tomorrow. (((hugs)))
Welcome to the board by the way.BSCno.87The only stupid question is an unasked oneLoving life as a Kernow Hippy0 -
My Heart goes out to you Memebaby,
They applied the most pressure and you gave in,as Tiger said I do wish you had not paid up and given in to the scare tactics.
That has been a hard and costly lesson.
Please please pleaSE BEFORE YOU COMMIT TO ANYTHING WHERE CREDITORS ARE CONCERNED ALWAYS SEEK ADVICE.I KNOW ITS TOO LATE FOR YOU ON THIS OCCASSION BUT LET THIS BE AL ESSON TO ALL OUT THERE WHO ARE BEING THREATENED/BULLIED.
DON'T GIVE IN WITHOUT A FIGHT,
THIS BOARD IS HERE TO HELP
THE DEBT IS NOT GOING AWAY
BUT THE ANSWER MAY BE HERE.
YOU ONLY HAVE TO ASK
DEzThe triumph of hope over experience
mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa0 -
im confused. it seems that people think that the bankruptcy petition was a threat and never going to be carried out but my ultimate fear is a petition being presented and all the costs that will be applied for even if we pay the debt. if you are petitoned for bankruptcy by a creditor and you pay their particular debt beofre the date of the hearing is the date cancelled together with the proceedings ? Does anyone have any advice about what to do with the remainder of the debt we owe to this company ? as i said i have made real headway with most of our creditors, i dont want to go down any of the dmp, iva etc routes so im not sure whether a debt counselling charity would be able to help, im not being dismissive of them, anything but but because most of our creditors are trade creditors as opposed to credit cards, loans etc they are much more aggressive. weve had 2 stat demands and 2 ccj applications so far. ths ccjs i managed to pay, the other stat demand i came to an agreement with and then theres this horrible one. are the costs to these companies of issuing bankruptcy proceedings really so high becasue if they are then i cant see how it would be in their interests to petiton us for what i now a £1000 debt but it s a bit like a game of poker knowing whos bluffing and whose not ??/ I feel really weak and stupid now for paying what i did but bankruptcy is a dreaded word for me.0
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If a petition is served and you can come to an agreement before the date then it can be stopped.
Speak to Business Debtline or the business department of CCCS. They are trained to deal with everyting to do with business's and can help you through any muddles and confusions you may have when you are dealing with these companies.
Why is BR such a dreaded word for you?BSCno.87The only stupid question is an unasked oneLoving life as a Kernow Hippy0 -
Memebaby,
Business or personel creditors,
They are all the same,they will harrass and annoy you until you give in,sometimes offerring something you can't give.
That aside irrespective of your views or feelings towards your debt situation do as Tiger says contact 1 or all of the debt charities
You dont have to act on there advice but believe me they do know what they are talking about.
Don't for one second think this is going to go away,the letters,the phone calls etc
BR may not be the route but you have to accept you need help and the first port of call is to contact the links a above.
If that doesnt work out we will still be here to offer a shoulder and some help so you will not be aloneThe triumph of hope over experience
mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa0 -
hi
I don't know if this is any help to you, but thought I'd tell you that I have received two "statutory demand under section 268(1)(a)of the insolvency act 1986. Debt for liquidated sum payable immediately"s from two of my creditors. These say that the sum of ..... is payable immediately and if i don't pay it they can petition for bankruptcy blah blah.
As I am going to go br anyway (once I pluck up courage to ring court) I decided to ignore these demands. They are both dated 12th July.
I have now received two more letters, dated 1st September regarding these debts, but from a different company (Dzimitrowicz York Solicitors).
The letter says that they have been instructed to send this letter before legal proceedings. They are asking for payment for the same debts, but have knocked £1721 off the original amount which was on one demand and £305 off the other (which was only £1100)!! They say I have 10 days to pay or the full balance will be pursued.
I was really worried when I first got the demands as they do look very official and rang debtline, but the lady told me it was just another scare tactic. I'm glad I have ignored them, and whenever I get a phone call from an 0845 number I just tell them they have the wrong number!0 -
(((hugs))) WW.
Now make sure you ring the court tomorrow. The staff will be great, they are professional and treat you with courtesy. Also check how many copies of the forms they will want.BSCno.87The only stupid question is an unasked oneLoving life as a Kernow Hippy0 -
this is such a long story i cant even start but suffice to say weve got lots of debts from my partnners business which has been doing really badly. Ive worked really really hard negotiating with all the creditors on my own with some success but ive had an awful exprience today which reduced mw to tears and im just so unsure.
one of our creditors issued a statutory demand for 1600. fair enough, we owe it, i tried to negotiate with the solicitors to agree a payment plan but they refused and said they were going to proceed and make us bankrupt, something that i had fought so hard to avoid. i therefor upped our offer which was totally unrealistic but desperate times...etc. I asked to pay 500 frothwith and i would clear the balance within 28days. a fair offer i thought. the sol, who seemed to have a verty aggressive approach said he wasnt goint to agree anything but if we were going to borrow some money to pay 500 we should get on wth it (!) and pay it over as a measure of good will. mmmmmm. Anyway i scraped and scraped and schemed and found the 500 and paid it cash into their account and again asked for 28 days to pay balance. he emailed back a really snotty reply saying 2 1/2 weeks was long enough to sort our affairs out and not only did he now want the balance of the debt he wanted the interest claimed under the statutory demand ( fair enough i guess) and he now wanted another 400 costs, which he was not going to discuss so our 1600 debt was now stood at 2100 even with us having paid over 500. i just didnt get the figures and couldnt understand where the costs had suddenly appeared from, hed never mentioned them before. it just seemed really really sneeky. my copy of the stat demand was at the accountants so i decided to phone the said solicitor and ask him if he wouldnt mind reading out the figures from the stat demand so i could see whether the interest added up and whether there was any claim for costs in there. i cant even begin to tell you howe he spoke to me, he shouted said things like "i dont need to help you people" "i dont have to tell you anything, get your own solicitor" and kept shouting at me and was just so aggressive and rude.during his rant he did say something about not being able to claim any costs under the statutory demand so unless i paid the costs they would issue anyway even if i was prepared to pay the original debt.,I asked him if he would tell me the name of the senior partner who deals with complaints and he said "look on the letter headed paper" he then said "in fact i revoke my ooriginal offer, there is no offer and im going to issue because i have the power to make that decision. he then put the phone down on me. I was not rude, i am softly spoken and very polite. the abuse just came out of nowhere. he talked to me lke i was s...t on his shoe which lets face it when your in debt and trying to sort things out you generaly feel like on a daily basis anyway !!!!!!! ive lodged an immediate complaint with both the senior partner tha tdeals with complaints and also thesenior partner that heads his dept because i just dont think you can do that but guess what.......no one got back to me today. ive put my complaint i writing and emailed it over.
my question ... after all that (PHEW) sorry but ive been so upset all day.....is can they insist you pay their costs for issuing a stat demand if there is no power to claim it on the stat demand and if not can he petiton us for bankruptcy becasue presumably then he can ask for a load of costs within those proceedings even when we are offering to pay the debt. i feel like hes been really underhand and now hes almost saying he wont let us pay the debt. please help me.i dont know what to do. has anyone experience of this
thanks for reading this long post. im gutted today.
What is this debt for? and who are you dealing with soliceter wise and who is the creditor? (answer by PM if you would rather not say on the open board)
They are well out of order here for many reasons and are using the stat demand to bully you, but whether they will follow through on it will depend on who you are dealing with.
If you can answer the above it will help to know what where dealing withThats it, i am done, Blind-as-a-Bat has left the forum, for good this time, there is no way I can recover this account, as the password was random, and not recorded, and the email used no longer exits, nor can be recovered to recover the account, goodbye all ………….
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You have a reply to your PM memebabyThats it, i am done, Blind-as-a-Bat has left the forum, for good this time, there is no way I can recover this account, as the password was random, and not recorded, and the email used no longer exits, nor can be recovered to recover the account, goodbye all ………….
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ive lodged an immediate complaint with both the senior partner tha tdeals with complaints and also thesenior partner that heads his dept because i just dont think you can do that but guess what.......no one got back to me today. ive put my complaint i writing and emailed it over.
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Hi memebaby
Firstly <<hugs>> to you & welcome to the board.
I have read your post with interest & you really must call one of the debt charities to discuss & get clarification about your rights in this matter.
Secondly I am shocked by the Solicitors response & attitude. Well done for complaining & I would also send a copy of your complaint letter to the Law Society and advise the Solicitors of this as a matter of courtesy (you`ll be amazed how quickly you will get a response then!!!).
Being in debt does`nt mean that these people have a right to be disrespectful ...after all a Solicitor is a professional person & should maintain that professionalism at all times.
Well done Honey & try not to let it get to you! (easier said than done -I know).
Angiexx0
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