Got a Statutory Demand for Bankruptcy from CapQuest today - advice please!

Blahah

Afraid not, I'm in England. However, I'll avoid accepting the debt for as long as possible - who knows it may take me past 6 years

fermi

marthamaismummy wrote: »

hi there,

please could you help me,

i am new to this and not sure how to post, i have a query similar to this one you helped with.

my parents have lived in spain since 2002 and have a couple of debts with capquest for egg and citi bank.
both are over 6 years old but they have been sent a letter stating they will start procedings for a statutory demand in 2 weeks.

Can they do this still and they do not even have the right address. They have never replied to any letters sent previous either.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks

I'll move this into it's own thread for you.

New thread is here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2595441

Blahah

Just an update for those following. Yesterday I sent both a C.C.A request (to test enforceability) and a S.A.R (so that I can know the true amount of the alleged debt, and work out how much of it is charges, interest, etc). Then today I sent the following letter to the person named on the SD:

Barry Davies
CapQuest Debt Recovery Ltd
PO Box No: 413
Fleet
GU51 9AR

Mr Davies,
REF:
I write in reference to your letter dated the 24th June 2010, which was hand delivered to my address on the 7th July 2010.
As you will be aware, this letter is the first written correspondence I have ever received from your company. I was surprised to find a statutory demand in the first letter I received from you. I have been keen and willing to enter into a dialogue in order to have this matter resolved. Your company have previously harassed me by telephone, and on each occasion I asked to be contacted by mail as well as providing my correct address. I have recently contacted your complaints department about this behaviour. Until the 7th July you have failed to accede to my request for contact. I am glad to see that you have begun to communicate by mail, although I consider the content of your first letter to be deliberately intimidating. I must stress once again that all future communications with me must be sent by mail.
I have received a letter from the compaints department of CapQuest dated the 12th July, which states that this account (REF #######) is now on hold. I consider this account to be in dispute. I also consider your threat of pursuing bankruptcy through the courts to be erroneous and ill-advised for several reasons:
1. I have no knowledge of the alleged debt, and await your compliance with my recent request for a full breakdown of the account in question.
2. I have recently requested a true copy of the credit agreement for the alleged debt, pursuant to s.77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. I have not received any such document and consider the account to be in dispute until such a time as it may be produced. If the document cannot be produced, as you are aware, the alleged debt would be unenforceable.
3. If such a debt does exist, I have put you to strict proof of assignment. Again, the account is considered in dispute until such proof is provided.
4. Since the statutory demand was the first written communication I have received from you regarding this matter, your threat of legal recourse to bankruptcy proceedings is frivolous, intimidatory, and an abuse of process. As you know, both the Office of Fair Trading and the courts take a dim view of debt collection agencies abusing the bankruptcy process. I refer you to the OFT press release regarding the restrictions placed on 1st Credit: http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2009/20-09.
5. Continuing to pursue debt collecton activity, including not withdrawing the empty threat of bankruptcy proceedings, whilst investigating a dispute of the account is in contravention of various parts of the OFT Debt Collection Guidance (July 2003, updated 2006), including sections 2.2 (e) & (g), 2.6 (h) and 2.8 (i) & (k). I must stress that if you do not withdraw your statutory demand I will make appropriate complaints to both the OFT and the Financial Services Authority.
6. Since I have no assets, in particular no house, car or savings, and am a full-time university student, you would gain nothing from my bankruptcy. In fact, you would lose the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with me to resolve the matter. At the same time you would incur considerable costs, in the form of court fees and the cost of court attendance by your own legal representative(s).
Your intimidatory approach, for example by making an empty threat of bankruptcy proceedings without any prior contact regarding a debt which I do not admit, has necessitated my spending in excess of 22 hours to date, researching the relevant laws and guidelines. If the matter proceeds to court, I will claim all costs including loss of earnings for attendance and the preparation of my research.
To summarise, you are put to proof on the existance, enforcability and assignment of the alleged debt. You are invited to formally withdraw your statutory demand. If you decline to do so, this letter and any response will be relied upon in the issue of costs and conduct in general when I submit my application for set aside to the courts. If no response is received by the 23rd July, I will submit my application for set-aside to the courts. I would like to make it very clear that if you can prove existance, enforcability and assignment of the alleged debt then I am willing to discuss the matter with the aim of a resolution.
I await a swift response. Any delay will only increase the inconvenience and costs for both of us. Let's work together on this without the need for further action.
Yours sincerely,

The last line is taken directly from their letter to me. I thought it appropriately snide.

Blahah

Today I wrote my application for set aside, which I will submit tomorrow morning.

The application asked for set aside based on two main points:
- The alleged debt is in dispute (reason 1 on the set aside form)
- The Statutory Demand did not comply with the Insolvency Rules section 6.2 which states that accurate contact details must be provided so that the alleged debtor may enter a dialogue with the person filing the SD. My SD gave the details of a Mr Barry Davies, who wasn't available when I called CapQuest. I also wrote to him (see previous post) and he didn't respond.

I'll post the full text of my application in a few days, to help others going through the same thing.

Wish me luck at court tomorrow!

RAS

Good luck.

Blahah

Well, the County Court was closed on Saturday except for special hearings, so I couldn't submit my application. My 18 days runs out today, so I'll have to submit it on Monday and hope they accept it. I think they will, since it was impossible for me to submit the application on days 17 and 18 because they were closed.

Not the end of the world if it doesn't get accepted, I'll just wait and see if they apply for bankruptcy and if they do I'll win the hearing. A judge would have to be stupid to make me bankrupt.

FrayBentos_2

Many thanks for your reply. I'll see if I can delete my entry in this thread and then post a separate one.

I just tried the Registry Trust, but I don't have the £30.00 to pay for it yet. I'll check that out on Wednesday.

Blahah

I've been moving house and had various other things going on, so I haven't had a chance to update the thread for a while. Here's the news:

- My application for set aside was received by the court even though it was past the deadline - they didn't seem to care about the deadline at all.
- CapQuest have defaulted on the CCA request - it's been 31 days since they signed for the CCA request and they have failed to produce it so far. This means the account is officially in dispute and means I will certainly get set aside (I also had other grounds for set aside). I'll send them follow up letters to confirm the account in now unenforceable.
- I got a response to my S.A.R to CapQuest which doesn't contain the CCA or any notice of default, which means I can put my default in dispute with the credit agencies.
- The courts were very understanding of the fact that I moved house last week and have transferred my hearing for set aside to my new local court, where the case will be heard on the 15th November.

All in all, the debt is unenforceable at the moment and I expect to be awarded my costs from CapQuest by the court when I go to the set aside hearing. I intend to take the amount I receive in costs and offer it to CapQuest as a full and final settlement, with the condition that my default be removed.

Blahah

I attended court this afternoon and the statutory demand was set aside. The Judge would not award me my full costs because CapQuest had sent a letter saying they did not oppose the set aside as long as costs were not awarded. However, I pointed out how much of my time and the courts time they had wasted and the judge consented to award me £87, much less than my actual costs but still not bad. It at least covered my loss of wages and travel costs.

I also received a letter from CapQuest admitting that the debt is unenforceable and saying they will not take any further action against me until my various complaints against them have been dealt with.

I intend to offer them a very small final settlement figure, with the condition that the default is removed from my credit history. If they refuse, I'll try to force them to remove it through the courts.

I'll update with any further developments.

hara

ha,i've benn receiveing calls from capquest in last 3 weeks everyday,stating that i owe vodafone £114.when i called vodafone ,they said i dont owe any money.its such a harrassmet:mad: