can i sue my creditors?!!

peggy4b

Hi there, not sure if i’m posting this correctly! We have debts of around £35,000 – our biggest creditor is RBS – we took out a loan in 2005 for £25,000 – in feb 2007 we entered a DMP and reduced our payment to RBS from £400 to £254. RBS wrote to us in the feb saying they had accepted this reduced payment and would revie it in 6 months time. 6 months later they wrote to us sating the same thing. Before the end of this 6 month period, they served us with a writ and took us to court. They were granted a decree (ccj) against us and subsequently were awarded an inhibition order on our home. We are now paying this loan at £600 per month (my partner has had a few promotions in the last year) we can just about manage this now along with the reduced payments on the other debts and it is also to prevent arrestment of wages which they could do know that they have the decree. Also, when we took out his loan, the interest was added on at the start of the term. Right away, our balance was £33,500. however, now that we have been taken to court, apparently by law, RBS are allowed to charge us 8% interest per annum?? Would I be able to challenge this in any way? Firstly because they seemed to accept our offer but started court proceedings against us before the review period was up, and secondly that they added the interest of the loan on at the start of the term but are now charging us more interest, so are effectively charging us double interest. Any information anyone could give us would be greatly appreciated x apologies if I have posted this incorrectly x

jonesMUFCforever

How do you know they added interest at the begining of the loan - do you have statements to confirm this or is it heresay?

Debt_Free_Chick

What would you sue them for - by that, I mean which civil law/wrong/tort have they committed?

Where would you find the money to sue them - it costs tens of thousands of pounds to sue.

CLAPTON

Without seeing the full financial details its all a bit unclear; but if you have other debts it would seem that you are paying alot to this one creditor.

Which DMP compnay are you with... did they advice you on the CCJ situation?

When the CCJ was awarded..did you challenge the amount due, did you attend the court hearing, did you provide a income and expenditure list, after the CCJ award did you ask for a redetermination of the monthly payments?

MrsTinks

From what I can see then no... You had an agreement with a creditor - you then broke the agreement and they followed the rules. They never HAD to agree to reviewing the arrangement every 6 months and them saying they would is not a written agreement between the 2 parties stating that they CAN'T review it earlier. They obviously felt the debt was at an increased risk and chose to protect their intrests by going through the courts.
My understanding is that 8% is standard for debts that have had a decree granted as artfulldodger has said - but do check that... scottish law isn't my strong point so basically this is the state of play:
You had an agreement with a creditor, you failed to keep the agreement. They gave you nearly a year or getting it sorted and then followed the legal route to protecting their money. Under law they are now allowed to charge you 8% on the remaning debt.

If anything I would stop over paying and instead stick anything spare in a savings account and then make a full and final offer when you have over 50% of the money to pay them with

Robert_Sterling

theartfullodger wrote: »

In answer to your specific question "Can I sue my creditors": Yes, you can sue anyone you like.
Lodger

That may be true in Scotland but in England you are not restricted to sueing people you like.

Debt_Free_Chick

Robert_Sterling wrote: »

That may be true in Scotland but in England you are not restricted to sueing people you like.

:rotfl: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

peggy4b

hiya, thanks for all the replies - yes i am in scotland. artful dodger, i would like nothing more than to pay the taxpayer - which i am one - everything i have borrowed. however, i believe that, although no one held a gun to our head and force fed money to us, RBS were completely irresponsible and negligent in giving us that absurd amount of money in the firest place - beleive me i will pay all £25,000 plus the initital interest back to RBS/treasury/taxpayer/whowever, i just think that it helps no one when they can then take a further 8% per annum from us, pushing us further into debt, risking bankruptcy (when they wll get nothing), and this is what i would like to challenge. our balance is approx now £20,000 (that's down from £33500 in 2005) paying that off at £600 per month would clear off the debt in around 2 and a half years - but we are really stuck in limbo when they charge this interest as it is calculated daily and extremely difficult to work out so i never know how much i owe! when i said i wanted to sue RBS i did just mean could i legally challenge this extra interest in any way. the taxpayer is going to make alot of money off us in interest through this because i will not go bankrupt as long as i have an income and i will never never be sucked in or be as irresponsible again when it comes to the 'easy money' that RBS always offered us on a plate. we kinda have to pay this £600 per month because if we paid less, RBS could go for wages arrestment and get around £500 through this anyway so this prevents embarresment at work etc and hopefully pays if off a little quicker.

peggy4b

also, jonesMUFCforever, yea i asked the lawyer to get RBS to send me out a statement and the interest was added on at the start of the term - it shows money out £25,000 and the balance on the statement was £33,500 x many thanks x

theartfullodger

Well the 8% is lower than it used to be...

It's nor RBoS it is the Scottish Courts system so if you wish to challenge it I fear you will need to take it to Parliament (you choose which of 3..).

I THINK (but I'm no lawyer) that it stems from the...
Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Extracts Act 1892 (c.17)


and in section 9 it states, with amendments passed at various times..
"
9

Where interest is included in a decree or extract, it shall be deemed to be at the rate of eleven per centum per annum, unless otherwise stated.]
Annotations:

Amendments (Textual)

F1S. 9 substituted by S.I. 1975/948, para. 1
Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1S. 9 amended so as to substitute, for the rate of interest specified in that section, the rate of 15 per centum per annum, by S.I. 1985/1179, art. 2; in relation to any decrees pronounced after 1.4.1993 s. 9 is amended by S.I. 1993/769, para.2 so as to substitute, for the rate of interest specified in that section, the rate of eightper centum per annum


"
so, originally 11 per cent (1892), then 15 per cent (1975) now 8 per cent (1993).

The behaviour of debtors puzzles me. I sadly am owed monies by 5 ex-tenants (don't ask..). I have decrees against all 5, all with 8% being added. (I needed to get a decree because the usual methods - asking politely, sending letters, my solicitor sending letters etc. etc. ) failed.

I write, politely, pointing out that the sooner they pay (I know at least 2 have the cash..) the less interest they will pay me. They can't be getting 8% wherever they've squirreled it away. Do they pay me? Nope, and it is costing them even more money then it needs to.. so I usually end up going the earnings arrestment route which I doubt helps their career development prospects and I understands incurs more charges from their employers for handling the £££s..

Ho hum, my debts are at least performing better than some of my other "investments". Wish I didn't have to declare it as income (it's all property rents..).

Cheers & Best wishes to all, including those who don't agree with me...

Lodger

peggy4b

hiya, yea i know it's the courts that stipulate this charge but their lawyers said to me they would ask them if they would freeze it but they said no - so i'm assuming they have to option to?? anyway - i suppose if they can get extra out of me they will eh? i did phone the other day and ask what a settlement figure on the loan would be and they told me £16000 so i might try to save as much as i possibly can and try to pay it off as early as i can and maybe i will recoup the charges that way?? they'll still get all the initial interst on the loan plus any after the decree was granted. many thanks x