Threatened with bankruptcy by HSBC

tigerfeet2006

At the middle of last month we got a SD notice from the HSBS's legal department (not one issued by court.) Today we got a letter from the Debt Collection Agency that have taken over from HSBC (Red) it says.....

The time limit set by the court for responding to the Stututory Demand has now expired.

This is your final opportunity to prevent a bankruptcy petition being presented.

If you are made BR it could result in your property and goods being taken from you.

This is now your final opportunity to stop this action, you must call and arrange repayment of the funds you have already spent.

Up until the last 2 letters we both have been getting demands from them. These last two have been addressed to Alan alone. Does that mean they will only make Alan BR? What is the likelyhood of them going through with the threat? Should I ring them and ask when they intend to do it? Should we make a concerted effort to find the fees to make ourselves BR? Any advice greatfully recieved.

fermi

Hi Tigerfeet I hope you, Alan and the new arrival are doing well.:D

Firstly, a statutory demand does not have to be issued by the court, but it must be completed correctly by the creditor or their representatives and served in such a way that they can swear an affidavit to the court that it was received on a particular date.

If you are in any doubt whether it is correct and has been correctly served (via post or otherwise) I would contact somewhere like National Debtline, who should be able to rapidly go through it and see whether it is a genuine threat.

Did you each receive an SD, or was it just Alan?
If only one has been received in Alan's name then only he will be affected so far.

AS you know, SD's are often used by creditors and DCA's to scare you when they have no intention of going through with it. It is very unusual for this to be a genuine threat from a bank or a DCA as it can cost them up to £1700 in court fees without any guarantee of anything back.

If the only thing holding you back from BR is the fees, then the creditor would be doing you a favour. But as you know the timing would be out of your control, and it is in the creditors interest to make you think that they will go through with it even if the will not.

Personally I would rather get the fees together myself and guarantee the process goes through, but obviously it is a lot of money to find.

Both Richard and rog2 have been through this process so should be able to give you some first hand advice.

Hope that helps a bit.

tigerfeet2006

Cheers for that Fermi. Have already spoken to Richard thanks. At the moment it is only Alan they are threatening. It's for 2 accounts, one is for a tadge over £1800 and one for a tadge over £1900. So it might be unlikely that they file. Not overly worriedif they do just want to know the implications really.

Alan and the baby are doing fine. The baby has put on a lb in 2 weeks and everyone is pleased with him.

fermi

For those amounts I would be astonished if they went through with it.

As far as implications go, there should be nothing different apart from the initial procedural matters resulting from a creditor rather than yourselves presenting the petition. Once the OR has collected all the info that you would have submitted on an SOA yourselves, it would all go along as you would expect if you had done it yourselves.

I'm sure Richard has confirmed this.

In the end if you are planning BR yourselves then these silly games by creditors can't harm you, no matter how much they 'huff and puff'.

Best thing is to continue taking care of you and yours, and let the creditors do their thing. If they decide to save you half your fee's then so be it.

Take care all three of you, and let us know how you get on.

rog2

fermi is quite correct, tf. In my opinion, this is a 'scare tactic' since whilst any creditor can petion for the bankruptcy of a debtor who owes more than £750, the up-front fees, which they will have to pay with no guarantee of getting back, are likely to be over £1,000 - in my case it was £1,700.00.
Niether does the act of petitioning for your bankruptcy give the creditor any preferential status - HSBC would have to take their place in the queue with everyone else.
Personally, I would take this SD to CAB, or a solicitor, to see if it is genuine, as many DCA', contrary to the guidelines as laid down by the OFT, send out 'official' looking forms, with the express intention of frightening the 'debtor' into paying.
Have the DCA (normally HSBC use Metropolitan Collection Services - MCS) made any other attempts to reach an agreement with you?