Lloyds just issued Ultimatium............

squibbs25

Wonder if anyone can offer advice, Lloyds Bank has just issued an ultimatium to my SIL pay £7800 in 7 days or they will take her to court + costs.

Background ifo:
got into debt as partner walked out 5 months after they bought a flat together,
he gained a court order to sell flat with a massive loss. She had given her job up as auxillary nurse to do her nurses training (which he offered to support her when she started it as they were together). He left. She has supported herself for the last 4 years on a nurses bursary. Her training has taken an extra year due to a nervous breakdown at being left in such a mess.
She now rents a flat which her bursary covers but has had to take on part time work to make ends meet. (working sat + sun eves)
A large amount of the debt is through Lloyds boucing dd's and also being left with debt from flat sale as neg equity.

Not sure if in posted in the right board, if not then please feel free to move!

Any ideas on how to handle Lloyds.
SIL will be qualifing at end of May this year, she's thinking of declaring herself bankrupt, she's in a right mess now.
Any ideas.

Thank you for reading.

Squibbs

ajaxgeezer

First thing to do is to try to call Lloyds and make an offer, any offer your SIL can afford. "You" have to be seen to be acting reasonably. I can't imagine that this would not have been building up for some time, Lloyds must have issued many, many letters?

I'd try asking that they in turn are reasonable and reduce the fees for their letters, bounced DD's etc to £12 each, which will (probably) be the 'acceptable' amount , suggested by the Office Of Fair Trading in April 2007. I wouldn't wind them up by asking that they scrap these fees because of other success stories, just agree to be seen to be making concessions to them. Ask for a re-calculation of the amount if they agree to this... it sounds like it may make a considerable difference to the amount? Ask for more time to negotiate before going to court.

They really do not *want* to take you to court. All they want is a viable agreement that they are confident that your SIL will adhere to, and they want the money they are owed. I can't stress enough though how important it is to negotiate with them, plead with m, beg them, do anything with them..... just find common ground somehow.

I'm in no way qualified to give advice, I've just had a million arguments in my time.... and on things like this I've lost the lot. However, when you play fair with them, they generally play fair with you.

Ricardoro

Sorry, but what is a "SIL" please?

squibbs25

Sister in Law

hth

squibbs25

Hi ajaxgeezer,
yes you are correct that this has been going on for some time. Unfortunatley SIL chose to 'bury her head in the sand', and thats how it has come to this.
Lloyds closed the account quite a while ago, but im not too sure as to whether she is paying off any monies to them at present, or how much she has actually paid to date.
I will talk with mum in law later and see if she can shed any more light on this.
Thank you for the advice i will repeat this to MIL as i think she will act on SIL's behalf.

Thanks again,

Squibbs

ajaxgeezer

Squibbs,

Burying one's head in the sand is not necessarily a bad thing. Try to play everything with a positive spin... for instance, if she HAS been sticking her head in the sand but has had a reconsideration, call it an awakening or something similar.... just something that call off that court action.

As I have said before, if you give them a trustworthy way out of it they are very likely to accept it.... after all, it it is the best way of getting (and lets not be too militant about this) money that "you" owe to "them".

Good luck!
Martin