Old debt after bankruptcy

heljay2007

Hi,

I went bankrupt in July 2007 after the death of my husband left me with a lot of debt. I have now received a letter from the council saying that I owe them £600 in over paid housing benefit from April 2007. I have no way of disproving this as I do not have the same bank accounts or any records of what they paid me. They even took me to court over this in 2008 without my knowledge. I wrote them a letter asking them to show me proof of what I owed but all they sent me was the court letter dated 2008. I then wrote back to them saying that as I could not disprove it it was too much hassle to fight it but that I would not pay the £50 a month they were asking for but offered £5 per month. I did not receive a reply to this letter but then on Friday I received a court order demanding I pay back the money in full or I would receive an attachment of earnings to my employer and even 14 days in prison!

I do not know if I do owe this money or not as I cannot remember that far back but does that fact that I have gone bankrupt since then mean that I should not have to pay it or should I just pay up?
Thanks in advance for any advice

tigerfeet2006

Just bumping this for someone more knowledgeable to look at it but I would have thought the debt would fall into your BR and you are not liable.

Please wait for some one like Debt Doctor to reply as they will be able to give you a more definitive answer.

heljay2007

Thank you.

fermi

In theory it should all depend on exactly when they first wrote to you formally notifying you of the overpayment and that it should be repaid.

If that notification was issued before you went BR in 2007, then the debt is one covered by the bankruptcy.

If the notification was after your bankruptcy date then the BR doesn't cover it.

I don't suppose you still have such a letter?

heljay2007

I'm not sure when the letter was sent originally as I didnt receive anything until November 2011. The debt was from before my bankruptcy but not sure about the correspondance.

debt_doctor

Yes, it's a tricky one because as fermi mentioned you do need to know when you were first asked to pay the debt back / notified of the o/p. You should put a formal request to the council asking for when the became aware and demanded repayment - if this is before your BR date then thats good news - it's part of your BR.
It has been suggested that you could make a subject access request, which is indeed a good back up to the formal request.

You can't be imprisoned for non payment of a benefit overpayment.

DD

heljay2007

Thank you for your reply. I dont think they actually tried to take me to court until 2008 so maybe this wont go into my bankruptcy then. I will pay this if I do owe it but it is the horrible way they deal with it. The letters they send are demanding and rude and I didnt even get a reply to the letter I sent offering a lesser monthly payment, just a letter from the court threatening to do an attachment of earnings and if i didnt reply within 8 days I could be sent to prison for 14 days.

what is a subject access request of you dont mind me asking?

debt_doctor

heljay2007 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply. I dont think they actually tried to take me to court until 2008 so maybe this wont go into my bankruptcy then. I will pay this if I do owe it but it is the horrible way they deal with it. The letters they send are demanding and rude and I didnt even get a reply to the letter I sent offering a lesser monthly payment, just a letter from the court threatening to do an attachment of earnings and if i didnt reply within 8 days I could be sent to prison for 14 days.

what is a subject access request of you dont mind me asking?

A subject A R is a method of requiring information held about you being supplied via the data protection act.

It is not about the date they went to court it is about the date they first asked for repayment, that is the date that matters here.

DD

heljay2007

Do i contact the council or the court that wrote to me for that? Also how do I keep the court off my back while I do this? is it worth ringing them and explaining the situation and see if they can give me more time to seek advice on this

Thank you

tigerfeet2006

You would ask the council for the SAR. Send the letter recorded so you know it has got there. You may have to pay around £10 for the information.

Have a look at the National Debtline website for a template.
Go to section 5: Sample Letters, click on the drop down box and select Ask an organisation to send you personal information they hold about you under the Data Protection Act. Click on Preview letter and a PDF file will pop up for you to copy and adjust to your needs. Just add in the bit about your arrears etc.

When you have sent this I would send a letter to court explaining you dispute the debt, you have sent them a SAR (enclose a copy of the letter for reference) and explain you have been BR (send a copy of your Bankruptcy Order for reference.) Also send this recorded.