Debt Collection

lilica

OK - I owe quite a bit of money in form of credit cards, bank overdraft and a loan (I'd like to blame ex fiance but ultimately my debts). I moved a little over four years ago and have been waiting to see whether the companies caught up with me, well today the first one did. I'm a stay at home mum (job market not great since I had my son and nursery £45 a day), we live in rented accomodation with my partner .... so where do I stand as far as offering the company payback ? We are really only just surviving as it is, I grow veg in the garden, there are no fancy tvs, wiis or the like here ... but can they send bailiffs in to our home to remove stuff ? I'm talking about £4000. If I offered them £10 a week do they have to take it ? Please help ...

Sunnylooloo

Hi

I can only speak from my personal experiances. I offered reduced payments to my creditors which all were accepted. I did this with help from National Debline (both on the phone and template letters from their website) I also had help from my local CAB office.

My creditors all accepted reduced payments (they are under no obliagtion to do so) but I found that mine all did. All with reviews after 6 or 12 months and so far all have agreed to carry on. They will want to see a SOA (or income/expenditure sheet). Some I had to pay a little bit more than I offered but all seemed happy to help.

Obv I will say your credit history gets shot to bits but I wasn't too worried about that as I am not looking for any other credit the only thik that worries me is if I do decide to rent a place I may have problems and may have to rent in my partners name.

If the debts you have are not secured or not council tax or utilities I think it would be unlikely that the baliffs would come round (there is some info around about this). The most you will get is door step collections agencies who if you read other threads, you will find out have little or no power.

When all my agreements have been put in place I get no letters or phone calls so for me personally it has worked out well so far.

Good luck
LL
x

bat-out-of-hell

How long exactly is it since you paid anything to these debts or acknowledged in writing your acceptance of liabilaty for them?

lilica

Over four years .... not sure exactly but definately over four years ...

bat-out-of-hell

The thing is, after six years (five in Scotland) the debts would become statute barred, which means the creditor can not demand payment or take any form of legal action against you to recover the debt.

This is assuming none have managed to get a CCJ while you have been 'of the radar'.

So you really need to be sure just how long before acknowledging the debt and/or offering any payment.

Forgetting any moral argument here, the legal protection you get once a debt becomes statute barred would save a lot of grief, but the clock starts again, once you acknowledging the debt in writing or make a payment.

As for bailiffs, they do not get involved until you have been taken to court, a creditor succeeding to get a CCJ, followed by a warrant of seizure, which is normally only given after you have defaulted on any payment schedule the court orders.

So no one can call and take anything, until you have been through all that, even if they claim otherwise.


The only exception to that is council tax arrears, as they can get a court order without you even knowing