debt crisis advice

jinny

Hi can some one advise me. I am going to offer my creditors a token payment as I am in debt crisis I have more or less the same outgoings as I have income. I have £840 a month income and shaved down outgoings of about the same. I have a few unsecured debts ranging from 220 to 3900 about 6500 in total. My question is could a company take me to court and make me sell my home to pay off what I owe them? I have 350000 equity in my home which would seem a way out but I can't move away from my adult son who has a severe disability he lives very near to me. Please if you can help I would be most grateful.

10past6

Hi

I was going to suggest you complete your SOA (Statement of Affairs) but the links not working at the moment, however, in answer to this:

jinny wrote: »

could a company take me to court and make me sell my home to pay off what I owe them?.

Yes, and no.

Yes, a creditor can take you to court, but NO, they cannot make you sell your house, it's a long process before you actually get to court anyway.

If you are experiencing financial difficulties, look at my signature.

10past6

If you are thinking about reducing your debt payments, here's a letter you could send:

DCA / Creditor’s Address

Date

Dear Sir/Madam

Re Account No/Reference No:− xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Since making that above agreement with you, my circumstances have changed.

I cannot now afford to agreed monthly payments because ... [your paragraph added here]

I enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows our total income from all sources, and my outgoings.

As you can see I have only £xxx per month left for my creditors.

The offers I have made to my creditors are worked out on a pro−rata basis, and I have written to all my creditors asking them to accept reduced payments.

In view of my circumstances, please would you agree to accept a reduced offer of £xx per month.

If interest or other charges are being added to the account I would be grateful if you would freeze these so that all payments made will reduce what I owe you.

Should my circumstances improve I will contact you again.

I would be grateful if you would send a paying−in book to make it easier to pay you. T

hank you for your assistance.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

jinny

Thank you for your swift reply I have used the imoney manager as endorsed by this site and even got as far as printing off the letters offering each creditor £1 token payment but I'm scared to send them. The thought of losing my home is stressing me hence the hour I'm up worrying about it all. My son really needs me here near him. Thanks for your advice and help.

10past6

jinny wrote: »

The thought of losing my home is stressing me hence the hour I'm up worrying about it all

OK, let me try and ease your mind, the worse scenario that can happen is a creditor could, and I say could obtain a charging order on your home.

This means that should you sell your home, any equity in it, the creditor takes there cut first oi.e what you owe them.

As stressful as it is with debts, don’t allow the creditors to bully / intimidate you, there is legislation laid down to prevent it, although some creditors / DCAs need reminding of the legislation that is there to protect “US”

jinny

Thank you I'll try not to worry about it. I can't pay out what they want anyway so I guess Its true, you can't get blood out of a stone . Thanks for listening.

jinny

Thank you I'll try not to worry about it. I can't pay out what they want anyway so I guess Its true, you can't get blood out of a stone . Thanks for listening.

10past6

jinny wrote: »

Thanks for listening.

Keep this thought in your mind, it will be a bumpy ride for a while with your creditors, re telephone calls, letters of threats, these are just template letters, they are worded to scare / intimidate you, don’t allow them to.

Anything you’re worried about, come back and post.

SpoonyOh

Posting those letters was the best thing I did - it means you're taking a proactive step to get things sorted. The companies are damned unlikely to take you to court as a judge won't be impressed that they've wasted his time if you can't pay. Best of luck to you sir.

jinny

Thanks for the replies and support I would just like to point out an error on my original post where I said the equity on my home was £350000 well I wish! the figure is £35000. A friend has suggested I contact my morgage company Capstone to ask for a payment holiday as I am up to date with them to give myself a breather. Has anyone done this is it something you would recomend? Worth a try I suppose, I could pay off some off the smaller debts with that.