Help the in-laws!! Moorcroft causing trouble

josmidge

Hi,

My mother and father in law are both disabled and are getting state pension credit. They recieved a pre court letter from Moorcroft today saying they owe £120, for a catalogue they had a while ago.

Firstly my mother in law called them to make an offer of £5 per month as she has other debts to pay as well as still being in a 3 bed house (they're on a waiting list for a bugalow) so the gas and electric bills are big for 2 of them. The lady she spoke to was rude and intrusive and made coments about every bill she quoted and got her quite flustered and upset. I called them on their behalf to make an offer of payment after doing her a SoE, i worked out that she had £11 per month available for them. I went through this with Moorcroft and he said "on my screen she has £60 per month defersit and we wont £30 per month" i mentioned that they were considering banckruptsy and he laughed at me and said a load of rubbish about bankrupsy that i know is not true as i've been there. (tried to tell me it costs over £500 to go bankrupt when i already told him they are on benefit and things like that scare tactics). He said they're passing it on to the courts. I have today printed the SoE for them and a covering letter stating that this is the 3rd offer of payment and i have sent it recorded delivery and taken photocopies of the letter. When i told the man what i was going to do he said it doesn't matter the computer will throw it out and that they will take it to court and it will cost her double.

Just want to know:

What are their rights now?
I thought that they couldn't take you to court if you have made an offer of payment is that right?
Have i done the right thing they're both worried to death and i dont feel like i've fixed anything, mother in law has diabetis is blind and facing surgery to remove her foot, father in law has had a stroke and cant use his left side and is deaf so they're not in the position to do very much.
there selves

I look forward to hearing from you guys and thanks in advance

Jo

immoral_angeluk

Sounds like you to spoke to a really lovely person... quite typical for them to be on commission sadly so the more you can do in writing the better. If you don't have any luck with them in writing send your in laws down the the CAB who'll take it over and usually have more luck in negotiating with creditors.

gonzo127

hi first off send of the prove it letter, this should put the account into dispute and so stop all contact and any charges being added for a little while,

once you have the details you can look at moving forward from there, depending on the age of the debt it could quite easily be statute barred, if the last payment or written acknowlegement of the debt is over 6 years ago.

to be honest i think they are trying to ruffle some feathers as £120 with their demands of £30 a month would have it paid in 4 months which is a studpid % of the overall debt, a minimum payment of 25% a month!

the other thing to do is to send the only contact me by letter-letter at least it will stop any threatening calls,

in the mean time you can also (bluff or go through with it if you can) tell them that you will be recording the conversatiosn with them for your records if they phone you - this sometimes puts them on the back foot as their usual bully tactics cant be used since you would have evidence of inproper conduct on their behalf