statutory Demand / Bancrupcy questions

waveydave

Hi all - New to this part of the forum but may be in need of your help soon...well now actually .

Today i have been sent a statury demand notice on a debt of £2400 - from what i can gather this essentially means that if i have not paid or made an arrangement with the creditor within 18 days they can petition for my bancrupcy.

Obviously i would imagine it would be silly to petition for bancrupcy for a debt of £2400 ( which incidentally i have tried for a year to make arrangements to pay) but saying they do what would happen next ?

At this point in time i own / mortgage my house - but it should be sold within the next 14 - 21 days and as i have no equity in the house i will have no money in the bank after its gone, add to that the fact that my personal possesions equals furniture, beds etc, clothes, a knackered 160k mile bmw some cds blah blah - essentially not a lot - what would they get out of making me bankrupt ?

any info would be greatly appreciated

fermi

Try reading through these two links, and then see what you think.

http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/legal_issues_explained/statutory_demand.htm

http://www.debtquestions.co.uk/legal_statutorydemand.php

They are normally used just as a scare tactic, but if you are still concerned contact some of the agencies in my signature.

rog2

Statutory Demands are not issued by the court, they are issued by the creditor, so they are unlikely to bear a court stamp.
However, WD, as I have said on your other thread - check the authenticity of this 'Statutory Demand' as many DCAs do send out 'lookalike' documents, in total contravention of the OFT guidelines, in order to frighten creditors into paying.
Statutory Demands are, normally, served in person.

fermi

rog2 wrote: »

Statutory Demands are not issued by the court, they are issued by the creditor, so they are unlikely to bear a court stamp.

Yes. This is true. The court only becomes involved later.

If you need to, get advice as to whether the demand uses the correct form, has been filled in properly, and has been served in one of the legally accepted ways.

waveydave

cheers all - ive got a grasp of what will happen if the SD is genuine and if they go ahead with the petition but what m more interested in is the actuall process of being made bankrupt - does it differ from making yourself bankrupt ? How will they raise the cash to pay off debts if i have no savings and no expensive possesions - what would happen to other creditors who i have agreements with etc ?

Im just preparing myself for the worse really

waveydave

fermi wrote: »

Yes. This is true. The court only becomes involved later.

If you need to, get advice as to whether the demand uses the correct form, has been filled in properly, and has been served in one of the legally accepted ways.

Regardng the SD being "served" i dont think it has. It arrived in normal post, didnt need a signature and was in a normal franked envelope. The only way i can see that it has been seen to be served is if i contact first credit regarding the SD - they would then know i have recieved it

Does this make a difference ?

rog2

blind-as-a-bat wrote: »

From something i read i thought a creditor had to go through the court to get a Statutory Demands issued (well a valid one anyway)Rog2 so iether i misunderstood or am thinking of something else:o

In any case i still agree it sounds like a scare tactic:D

Speaking as the recipient of not one, but TWO genuine Statutory Demands, I can assure you that they are not court documents. (Strangely enough, BOTH of my statutory demands were from HMRC - they attempted to serve the second a month after I was declared bankrupt - the poor woman did not know where to put herself, when I asked her how many times HMRC were going to petition for my bankruptcy. :rotfl: :rotfl:

I do think, in Dave's case, this is probably a scare tactic - but it needs checking anyway.

waveydave

fermi wrote: »

That I would take advice from National Debtline or CCCS. See link in my sig.

There is some legal info on the required proof of service towards the bottom of this page if you can decipher it.

http://www.netlawman.co.uk/info/statutory-demand.php

Nope - cant decipher that lol - but i have found this from the government website :

The creditor is bound to do all that is reasonable to ensure that the demand is brought to the debtor’s attention, including personally serving the statutory demand on the debtor if practicable.

Where it is not possible to effect prompt personal service, service may be effected by other means such as first class post or insertion through a letter box (Practice Direction, 18 December 1986, [1987] 1 All ER 604). For this to be acceptable to the court, the creditor must have taken similar steps to those which would persuade the court to grant an order for substituted service of a petition (paragraph 45.121). In Re A Debtor (Nos 234 & 236 of 1991) The Independent 29 June 1992 it was confirmed by Blackett Ord QC that in some cases it may be appropriate to serve the statutory demand upon the Solicitors of the debtor.

So it would appear that first class post is fine ?