Enforcement Notice

livinginhope

Hi All,can anyone tell me what an enforcement notice is
Just got 2 this morning from Lloyds Tsb,looked up on justsbank,but nothing about them on there.Is is just another Default notice or is it worse?
Can't phone Payplan today as they are closed,and don't want to worry until Monday.
Also got to send solicitors letter (again from Lloyds) to Payplan today so should I send them these letters too?
Thanks.

Thriftylady

An enforcement notice is what the bank/lender issues you as your 'final warning' before moving to formal debt recovery proceedings. They usually give you a final date (say 14 days from now or whatever) and say that they are calling on you for payment of the full sum on that date.

As far as I know, they are legally obliged to issue this letter before taking any further steps. They are strongly worded letters, usually saying that if necessary they will take legal action to recover the debt.

livinginhope

Thanks thriftylady,this account seems to have been handled differently from all the others ,I have default notices from all other creditors,but not for this account,what is the likely outcome of this letter? it is as you say quite threatening.Payplan told me that the offer of payment and interest/charges had been stopped on this account,but this letter says different.Thought we were finally on a smoother road,now will have to go down cobbles again!

Thriftylady

Please don't hate me for this, I'm going to have to come clean, but the reason I know a bit about these is from the other side, from having worked in a bank. My understanding of it, from my experience, is that 'default' notices would refer more to structured borrowing (e.g. a loan) and 'enforcement' is basically the same thing, but with say an overdraft where there would be no set repayment schedule.

The one thing I would say, although I know its easier said than done, is not to panic. I know this is not the position that the people on this board are in, but you'd be amazed how many people borrow money from a bank and just don't want to repay it. So sometimes when these things are issued, the person does actually just pay up and close their account. Thats one of the reasons its worded so strongly.

However, obviously the majority of people have no desire to be in such a situation and genuinely can't pay, and the banks are obviously aware of this. Again, I can only tell you of my own experiece, but where I worked the debt recovery department had much more scope to come to an agreement about repaying which suited the borrower and obviously the bank as well. e.g. they could restructure over a longer term, or allow payments to be made weekly instead of monthly, whereas the local branch manager, or whoever, would not have been allowed to agree to such a thing. It was pretty scary for customers to be told they were being passed to debt recovery, but probably a bit of a weight off their shoulders in the long run.

I hope this is of some help, and hope you are able to get everything sorted out.