Connaught Collections/Bishop Investigations

jeanette_james

Hi there , my other half has recently recieved a letter from Connaughts collections , with the same wording as I have just read in the above posts,
I quote .
We have been instructed by Conn Collections UK Ltd , to arrange service of a Statutory Demand issued under the Insolvency Act 1986 ( Bankrupcy)
In normal circumstances one of our agents would attend your address to prove your residence prior to sending an appointment letter. However, we have been informed that you continue to reside at this address and to avoid any embarressment or difficulty that an unsolicited visit may cause, we strongly urge you contact our offices between 9.00am-500pm , Monday to friday , to arrange appointment.
It is our duty to inform you that should you fail to attend any appointment, or any other made in leiu thereof , substitued service of the said demand shall be effected by insertion of the same through your letter box or a solicitor may accept service on your behalf.
If we do not hear from you in the next 7 days the matter will progress in accordance with the said act.
PLEASE DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE SEROISNESS OF THIS MATTER.

What do we do about this, any advise?????

May

Hi there everyone.

I received a statutory demand from Connaught Collections for the amount of 1275.00.

I know i owe an amount to the client in question, however not to this amount. But as i panicked and to stop further action i made an agreement with them to stop further action and made a couple of payments to them. Then i relapse and they sent another demand - but this time for 1075.00. i know for definite that the repayments did not cover the difference. So now i am unsure to how much the actual debt is!?!

Can anyone help as to how i can sort out the amount i do owe? I do not really want to contact Connaught directly as they are rude and not very helpful at all.

many thanks!

MCBIRNIE25

Hello May,
simply write to the original creditor and send them a SAR request. I have put up a thread on this somewhere before. Whilst awaiting the information then all action has to be put on hold.
PM Me if you need me to talk you through it.

LLB

This is easy to sort out.:j

First, the company will not do anything if you file an affidavid to
set aside the statutory demand.

You need to download form 6.4 and 6.5 fill them out and take them
to a county court that deals with bankruptcy (ie Croydon County Court)

Legal reasons for your defense to have the demand set aside

1. No agreement with the Applicant (the nice people who put their name on the demand)
2. You dispute the debt.
3. You dispute the amount

... and request the Demand be Set Aside

Then go to the court and hand in all the paperwork and serve the info is true.

You will see that this company will now back down.

Why?:rolleyes:

They have not spent any money to issue you a demand
A server to serve the papers is the usual way to go.
They will not spend any money

They sent out Demands like they as Birthday Cards ... everyone gets one

They will write to the court and say they want to set aside the demand and
close the file

They will write you and say the same thing

The Court will order the Demand set aside
Case closed:T :T :T

LLB

Oh .... one more thing

DO NOT CONTACT THIS WONDERFUL COMPANY THAT SENT YOU THE STATUTORY DEMAND

let the court order it to be set aside

and you guys can give me a big thanks for all the good info:A

rog2

The 'Statutory Demands' that 'Connaught' send out are, in effect, rarely more than 'scare tactics'. One recent poster actually rang Connaught and the 'adviser' on the other end of the phone did not have a clue about the implications of a 'Statutory Demand'.
A 'Statutory Demand' is normally the precursor to Bankruptcy and must be served in a manner that will convince a court that it has been served correctly - in exactly the same way that Connaught would need to convince a Court that the 'alleged debt' to which the SD refers was, legally, the responsibility of the person to whom they had served the SD.
An SD can be served by ANY creditor to whom a 'debtor' owes more than £750.00 and the service of a SD should be taken very seriously indeed.
Most people, on receipt of an SD, will do everything possible to avoid the 'inevitability' of bankruptcy, including borrowing more money to pay the 'alleged debt', before even checking whether the 'alleged debt' is either genuine or even enforceable.
Connaught know this, yet literally play on the 'alleged debtor's' ignorance of his/her rights.
Although they send out more of these 'SD's than any other creditor, they rarely, if ever, follow through to the next stage, because they would have to stump up £590 Court Fees, plus Solicitor costs, in the knowledge that not only may they not see one penny of the 'debt' but that they would have absolutely no preferential status over any other creditor to whom the 'debtor' owes money.
To anyone who receives such a letter - from either Connaught or Bishop - do not respond directly. Check the 'alleged debt' first - it is highly probable that it is unenforceable, and take advice from a Debt Counselling Charity.

Dunstall

I have read these messages this week and i too have had problems with this compnay but unlie everyone else i WANT then to follow tho and declare me bankrupt. This si due to the fact i diont have the funds to do it myself and my life has changed so i can longer afford to pay the rip off charges my bank etc has slapped on. to cut a long story short,

1st letter ever off con was an SD, never heard of them b4, this was in November 2007 giving me 21 days which expired on Dec 2nd. came via normal post, no letter b4hand to see if i lived there or not.

2nd letter week b4 xmas.. u have failed to contact us, a note will be given to the judge about this,

January nothing,

Feb 1st 2 letters arrive same day

you have failed to reply to our demands, u do live at that address according to public records, u have the following options, 1 ignore letter, 2 we may send u an SD and declare u bust,(funny i thought they already had!) 3 send somebody to ur house for the DAZ doorstep challenge, 4 get our solicitor to sue u

feb 14

letter from solicitor, dzimitrowicz york, based also in croydon telling me they will reduce my dept by £364. (still not a patch on tha rip off charges in this bill) a copy of this letter will be saved to show they have doen everything to try an help me pay....hang a mo didnt they send me a SD first BEFORE any offers to pay.

It appears that if u hold back they will reduce ur dept but so far have failed to follow tho with the threat of sendin me bust, amount owed is only £1495 not alot as far as sendin me bust but as they threatened me with it, i intend to go as far as i can push them.

I will let u know how i get on and if they r all talk, i ignore there calls on fone by looking at my caller id. They should not send out sd's if they have no intention of using them that is pure fear tactics.

i wait with baited breath to see if this compnay will go tho with it or if they simply break existing oft rules by demanding money via terror tactics

RAS

keep us posted.

Has your correspondence been from Connaught or Bishops?

bank_of_slate

I think a lot of these debts are passed around various collections companies purely to confuse you as to what the original debt was!
They are trying to scare you into paying, follow the excellent advice above and stick with it!
...Linda xx

rog2

Dunstall wrote: »

I have read these messages this week and i too have had problems with this compnay but unlie everyone else i WANT then to follow tho and declare me bankrupt. This si due to the fact i diont have the funds to do it myself and my life has changed so i can longer afford to pay the rip off charges my bank etc has slapped on. to cut a long story short,

Hi Dunstal - I sympathise with you. Should Connaught go ahead with their 'threat' of Bankruptcy, then yes you would save the court fees and costs, of around £500, that you would, otherwise, have to pay in order to petition for your own bankruptcy.

The reality, however, is that Connaught are most unlikely to carry through their threat of 'bankruptcy'. Why? - Simple, the cost to Connaught, for petitioning for your Bankruptcy, would be £590 (Court Fees) plus associated solicitors' fees, probably totalling around £1500 - £2000. Connaught would have to pay these fees 'up front' and, although they would be added to your 'estate in bankruptcy' there would be absolutely no guarantee that Connaught would ever see any of this money back. Equally, by petitioning for your bankruptcy, Connaught would have absolutely no preferential status whatsoever, when it came to 'sharing out' any proceeds raised by the Official Receiver, from your assetts. Any such proceeds would be distributed equally among all of your creditors and Connaught would be more than likely to end up seriously 'out of pocket' - and Debt Collectors don't like that.
Connaught seem to have a virtual monopoly (possibly superceded only by HMRC) in the issue of so called 'Statutory Demands'. Whilst I have no figures for the number of bankruptcies that Connaught have 'Creditor Petitioned' a quick look through the Insolvency Service website would indicate that this figure is 'very few if any'.
So, Dunstal, I wouldn't hold your breath if you are waiting for Connaught to 'do you a favour' - they are most unlikely to.
In your case, why not have a look at the 'Bankruptcy and Living With It' sub-board of this forum. You will find lots of advice, including names of organisations that can help with the cost of 'debtor petitioned bankruptcy'.

Good Luck