Connaught Collections UK

rhowes2000

Good afternoon,

Please would anybody be able to help me, I recently received a statutory demand from Connaught Collections for a debt with HSBC that dates back to 1999. This was unexpected a I had sent letters to try and set up a payment plan! Anyway, I advised Connaught that I could not afford to pay the full loan amount in one payment (£8188.03) and could we discuss a payment plan. I offered £40pcm rising to £100pcm in December this is the most I can reasonably afford. They rejected it saying they wanted £341pcm (which is way above what the repayment was originally). I replied to say the lost I can offer is £50pcm to £110pcm. Today I receive a letter from Connaught saying they are filing for Bankruptcy "As you have chosen to either ignore the statutory demand or demonstrate an ability to pay the sum claimed"

I appreciate my payment offer would mean the loan taking around 81 months to pay off but at least it would be repaid. Are they being unreasonable or am I being unrealistic?

Thanks for reading.

Toto

Was the statutory demand from the court? If not this is probably just DCA scare tactics, they are known to send letters looking like statutory demands when in fact they aren't. I have had simillar rubbish this morning, I even had a letter from a made up privte investigator telling me he knows I reside at the address (which is in fact an old company mailbox we no longer use) and they will be filing for bankruptcy. I would write with the offer of repayment again, stick to your guns, keep copies of all letters and if it does end up in court you can prove you have been making reasonable offers.

rhowes2000

Thanks for your reply Toto, can statutory demands only be made direct from a court then? I got one hand delivered by Connaught and it all looked official to my untrained eye. The only communication I have had is with Connaught, I have got most of the correspondence and I have got receipts for letters I sent to them via recorded delivery.

Can they make me bankrupt despite me offering £110pcm?

donone2020

Hang on if its from 1999, and I assume non -priority and not mortgage related, then why are you looking to pay it. If you have/had not acknowledged the debt then it would be statute-barred. Or have I got the wrong info

rhowes2000

I was thinking that as well,but I didn't have any luck finding out any further info, does anybody know anymore about this please?

Toto

If the debt is over 6 years since any payment was made and there has not been any acknowledemnt of the debt then it is statute barred. This means although the creditor can still chase you for payment they can not enforce it in court. The problem is you have acknowledged the debt by setting up or trying to set up a payment plan.

rhowes2000

Thanks Toto, oh well it was worth looking into!

skylight

Even *if* its a real statutory demand from the court (which is unlikely as its costs Creditors money) then they are still only pulling a fast one.

To make you bankrupt costs them money, although they add this to your bill, of you have no assets then they will never get back what they are owed or the bankruptcy fee anyway.

Besides - *if* they do ever file for bankruptcy, you can argue against it. And frankly I cannot see a judge accepting their arguments when you have made a reasonable offer to pay.

Is the statutory demand actually from a court? Can you scan it (blank out your details and ref numbers etc) so we can look at it if you are not sure?

Dr.Shoe_2

Firstly, they cannot file for bankrupcy because it is more than 6 years since you last had contact until recently (?). Secondly you have made a reasonable offer to pay. Even IF it did come to court, the very worse a judge will do is give you a CCJ because you do have the means to pay it off eventually.

For the reference of anyone else reading this, it is often best to offer an amount that ends in pence like £40.25 or £37.50 so that it looks as if you've carefully worked it out, enclose a full SOA with your offer.

Toto

Thanks Charlotte and Dr Shoe, that was helpful to me too. Although I know a lot of this stuff already it still gets to me when I see this junk come through the door. The DCAs really do know how to make a vunerable person feel like selling their souls in order to get the money to pay. It does really upset me because many like myself and the OP are doing everything we can to pay the debt off but they put up brick walls every time we try and continue to bully and harrass. I keep telling them to either accept my offers or to wait just a few more weeks until my house sells when I will gladly pay them, but oh no, it's now or we will make you bankrupt... we are preparing the papers as we speak. Ugh makes me so mad sometimes and so sad the rest of the time.