"Action at law" advice

jbindebt

Hello there,
It's taken us a while but we have all our debts arranged and despite some terrifying procedures managed to have the courts on our side who actually helped us from losing our home. Long story but thankfully sorted now. We've been carrying on ok for a few years now and unfortunately two companies rocked the boat a little and started to make more demands/threats. As a result they claimed the minimum payment was no longer sufficient and despite explaining others with even higher amounts to repay were accepting the situation which the courts and citizens advice helped us with they didn't want to know. In a strange turn of events they refused any further payments and so for the last two years have received nothing because "they couldn't accept such a low offer". So now in the last few weeks communication has ramped up again and we have a preliminary notice of legal proceedings and that an "action of law" will commence demanding all payment in full plus expenses.
I totally accept I owe them money but they have acted rather strangely and I'm thinking that this is either rather serious or some bizarre attempt to threaten us again. The debt hasn't been on my credit file ever and was taken out almost ten years ago. Can anyone advise me please?

National_Debtline

Hello there,

Do you know what type of debt they are chasing payment for?

Any offer of payment, no matter how low, should be considered by a creditor - so long as it's fair and reasonable. These offers would usually be supported by a financial statement. If you've had help from the CAB then I it's very likely that this is the process that was followed; as such the behaviour of these companies sounds very unfair.

It's incredibly common for creditors to use the threat of legal action. Whilst some do proceed to take action many do not. Would you be able to tell us the amounts being chased?

Legal action should only be used as a last resort, it's generally county court action that would be taken. To find out more about the process here's a copy of our fact sheet, please click here to see it.

Hope you find this information useful,

David @ National Debtline.

jbindebt

Thank you for the prompt response.
The two debts are a loan £3000 (aprx) and a catalogue bill £1200(aprx). We do have other ones of much higher value and with CAB support during the court home repossession case years ago we arranged minimum payments to get us through the worst period so that everyone were "happy" to a certain extent. We fully understood this was never set forever but through routine discussion payment could be increased regularly when possible. We started everyone off at a token payment of a pound and for another debt being over £15000 to accept that was beyond belief but such a relief. Everyone has moved up to five pounds per month and that's where it was all going well until two companies didn't want to play anymore. I understand that they don't have to agree to that at all and so when we tried to explain we couldn't jump up to almost triple that per month they just fell into a stalemate of nonsense. e.g "I can only afford five pounds, well that's not enough, well what am I supposed to do just carry on paying, no that's not enough, so what do I do, that's up to you etc..." Hence years have gone by with not a word and clearly someone new has come in and decided to chase things up. If you think the letter is worth replying to then I will try to explain things again but if this is just some desperate attempt of legal action threatening then they can get lost as other debts we have are getting cleared without all that nonsense happening. We have had CCJ's in the past so I understand how that works and want to avoid them again but this "Action at Law" proceeding is a new one on me. Just checking the internet it seems to be an old fashioned term rarely used and I'm therefore thinking this is like those threatening solicitors letters the banks used that actually were just a veiled threat to see what you do. As such a long period of time has passed without communication do I not have the ability to ask them to leave me alone now?

FireWyrm

I'm not sure about 'action at law' but it does sound like a bit of legalese to try and frighten you. I would be inclined to sent them back a latter saying that you acknowledge their communication and that you find it odd to be threatened with legal action despite making attempts to pay them at the agreed amount x years ago and they refused.

They will be in a very weak position if this ever did get to court because not only did everyone else not throw their toys out of the pram, but they actually refused to accept your payment. I doubt any court would find in their favour under those circumstances.

I'd just watch points, send that letter and get on with your life.

jbindebt

UPDATE-Well its been a month and no further interesting "legal" correspondence. I'm not one for burying my head in the sand but lets see how this goes...

sourcrates

jbindebt wrote: »

UPDATE-Well its been a month and no further interesting "legal" correspondence. I'm not one for burying my head in the sand but lets see how this goes...

If I was you, I would be tempted to make CCA requests to both of these accounts, as after 10 years, producing the correct paperwork might be a problem for them, especially the catalogue.
Should they not be able to produce what they are required to produce under sec 78, it would put you in a much better position, and they may disappear completely.

happy_bunny_2

sourcrates wrote: »

If I was you, I would be tempted to make CCA requests to both of these accounts, as after 10 years, producing the correct paperwork might be a problem for them, especially the catalogue.
Should they not be able to produce what they are required to produce under sec 78, it would put you in a much better position, and they may disappear completely.

Yep. Agree. And if they did ever try court, tell the judge they refused payment and see how that gives down.

jbindebt

Another update on this.
The last letter on the 8th of August 2014 claimed an "Action at law" would commence if the debt was not cleared in fourteen days.
Two months later (!?) on the 16th of October I now have a "Pre-action Protocol letter". This claims that I have another (!?) fourteen days to make full payment and 21 days to respond before they begin County Court Judgement proceedings. Expenses for correspondence and court costs will of course be added to the debt and I can already see almost one hundred pounds has been added.
Now the interesting thing is that this ALREADY is a CCJ debt which was processed back in June 2006. The original loan was taken out in 2005 and so here we are again almost ten years later-is it just me or does this seem more and more like a "fishing exercise" in relation to statute barred?
Once again, I don't condone running away from debts but we had this loan in Feb 2005, in 2006 got into trouble with it which resulted in a CCJ and agreed regular payments, in 2008 things got tougher for everyone and so we asked them for a reduction, one year later they replied(I have the letter) apologising for the delay and agreed a six month reduction. When that ran out I was told the amount had to increase and so began the "I cant take that little" stalemate in Oct 2009. No formal communication has occurred between then and July 2014. This isn't on any credit report of ours which I have checked.

happy_bunny_2

Best give national debtline a bell.

Can only have one CCJ per debt as far as I am aware.

Do they know it had a CCJ?

Keep the original CCJ details to hand as when it goes to court show that to the judge. I think they are a bit stuffed.

They had 6 years to enforce the original CCJ and failed. They would need to ask a judge to enforce after 6 years and from what I read on here that is rarely granted.

Once a CCJ is granted, it can never be statute barred.

Lensman_2

I suspect your are indeed in for a claim. Or enforcement action.

No point in doing a CCA request on this. The 2006 judgement established a new debt in law that is not relevant to the Consumer Credit Act or the previous history of the debt. Or the Statute of Limitations (i.e. a "statute bar").

Per Sourcrates most recent advice, I would phone National Debtline.

jbindebt

Thank you I'll give debtline a call tomorrow. Just to answer your query, yes they "should" know about the previous CCJ as they instigated it.