Advice please - being chased for full amount

cocopop9

Hi.

Can anyone give me some advice please on how to proceed with DrydensFairfax?

I have a personal loan debt with Sainsbury's for £15000 and was in a reducedpayment plan with them paying roughly 25% of my agreed payment amount. Iarranged the reduced plan myself and have always maintained these payments. Outof the blue I started getting calls from Drydens Fairfax solicitors (which Ididn't answer) and letters from them demanding the full amount of £15k.

I wrote back to them offering to keep my payment amount the same as mypayment plan (despite being now unemployed) and showing them proof of my JSAgoing into my bank account. They have written back with a ‘financial questionnaire’asking personal details about my living arrangements, family situation, incomeand monthly spending. Do I have to givethem this information?

I don’t really know where I stand legally. I don’t want to do anything that might cause them bypass my correspondance and take me straight tocourt.

I have told them; I am unemployedin receipt of JSA, I have no assets, own nothing of any value, there is noequity in my house (97% mortgage). I don’tsee any advantage for them to take me to court but would they?

Due to my personal circumstances, I would rather handle the matter myself asCCCS or Payplan will advise bankruptcy I’m sure. I would be rally grateful for some concrete adviceabout the legal side of this please. I justdon’t know what to do next.

I have read other posts about getting a copy of my CCA and requesting a ‘deedof assignment’, but I don’t really understand whether this applies to me ornot, or indeed whether it is too late to do this with any benefit, as I have already written tothem offering to maintain my payment.

I am also a bit scared as they are calling themselves solicitors rather thana debt collection agency, and might have more clout to go to court as their wayof collecting the debt.

I realise I am not the only one in this situation, so I'm sorry if I amrepeating others' questions, I've never used a forum before.

Thank you in advance for any help.

harrys_dad

Others will be along soon with more knowledge than me, but the first question I would ask is how you think you can keep up the agreed payment when you are on JSA? Do you have other debts? Are you in a relationship with a partner who has an income?

Why not post up a complete SOA and see what people can advise?

What makes you think CCCS or similar will advise bankruptcy? I very much doubt that will happen.

"solicitors" is just a posh word for debt collectors, designed to scare you, which it has.

cocopop9

hi, thanks for the reply

i am currently able to keep up the lower repayments through assistance i receive from family, but in terms of my own income and expenditure, i'm quite sure the cccs et al would consider me to be technically insolvent.

i do have three other debts but they are in agreed arrangements with my creditors and i am maintaining payments ok. it's just this one from drydens fairfax which has started causing me concern regarding possible court action. i don't want my family to get involved with cccs or court proceedings and they have no idea i have such bad debt.

I'm not in a relationship, there's just me and my sorry old mess.

just not sure what to do next...

tattycath

Don't panic. if, as has been said, if you post an soa it maybe people can advise.

harrys_dad

Well to be honest it is important to treat all your creditors the same. I would suggest stopping the payments from family, contacting CCCS or similar charity, and they will offer ALL your creditors £1 a month token payments. This is because by definition you do not have any spare cash on JSA.

They will not take you to court once you have done this as the court will make an order for the same payment.

You cannot pay what you cannot afford, and they cannot expect family to pay it for you.

cocopop9

so sorry to be the stereotypical newbie, but what is SOA please? thanks.

harrys_dad

Statement of affairs (income and expenditure). There is a link at the top of the page but I cannot post it because I am not allowed yet

tattycath

statement of affairs

cocopop9

"They will not take you to court once you have done this as the court will make an order for the same payment."

thanks, that's an interesting avenue to consider, i didn't know this.

however if i offer them £60 for example, which i would rather pay than £1 token, and arrange the payment plan myself, are they still likely to carry on with court proceedings? do i have to send back all my personal financial info on their form?

Prof_Ligate

harrys_dad wrote: »

Well to be honest it is important to treat all your creditors the same. I would suggest stopping the payments from family, contacting CCCS or similar charity, and they will offer ALL your creditors £1 a month token payments. This is because by definition you do not have any spare cash on JSA.

They will not take you to court once you have done this as the court will make an order for the same payment.

You cannot pay what you cannot afford, and they cannot expect family to pay it for you.

Agree that you should only be paying a £1 per month token payment and that CCCS (now called Step Change) or CAB can write a letter for you to that effect.

They may still take you to court though as you have a property (even though it has little equity) in the hope of (eventually) getting a charging order. Its unlikely but the possibility makes it more important to get help from Step Change or CAB and make an ongoing affordable token payment offer.

cocopop9

thanks for the advice.

i would really rather keep cccs as a last resort, i have contacted them in the past but due to very complicated personal reasons, decided to manage the DMP myself which all my creditors agreed to anyway. it was exactly what the cccs advised but i contacted each one directly myself.
while i can make payments, even though its a reduced amount, i'd prefer to do that than pay £1 per month against a £15k debt.
does anyone know if they are likely to accept this or take me straight to court?
as i said, i really want to manage it myself but don't know the likelihood of my offers being accepted in the same way that cccs etc would know.
should i even be contacting drydens fairfax? i had no notification from sainsburys that this company were taking over and i don't know the legal standing of the whole thing.