Can someone give me advice please

shezzy

Hi,

Can't seem to get an answer about what's going to happen next, at the moment i have phoned payplan and they worked out that we had no money to pay none priority debts left so they have told us to pay them £1 only and send them our budget and outgoings plan to prove it. Well we have done that, they either ignore the problems we're having and demand payment (with all the threats) or just say they can't accept only £1. What happens next, i'm really worried. We are not behind with priority debts.
Help please

Sea78

hi

What did Payplan say would happen? I am not sure really - sure someone else has been in this position though and will help out shortly

Sea xx

Snaggles

Hi Shezzy - I haven't been in your position, but from what I have heard from others on here, the reason Payplan tell you to cover the priority debts and not really worry about the rest is because there is very little the rest can do to you if you can't afford to pay. Yes, they could send the bailiffs round, but you don't have to let them in. Yes, they could take you to court, but the judge will see you can't afford to pay them, and will only ask you to pay what you can afford. Yes, they can write nasty letters and make nasty phone calls to you, but you have a rubbish bin, and maybe an answerphone?

I will have a look and see if I can find some letter templates for you that you can send to your creditors, advising them of your current situation etc, but in the meantime, try not to panic - as long as you can cover council tax, rent, and your utilities (so you don't get cut off), plus a bit of money for food, you WILL be okay.

Might take me a while to find the templates but I'll be back soon.

Snaggles

Right, this is a template for requesting a signed copy of your credit agreement (if they can't provide this, the debt is unenforceable I think). Obviously you don't need the last paragraph if they haven't threatened you with doorstep collectors:


Dear Sirs

Re:−
Your Ref:

I do not acknowledge ANY debt to your company. I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond further on this matter.

1. You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit) - your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose £1 in payment of the statutory fee.

2. A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists.

3. You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not under S189 of the CCA 1974.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities, therefore if I do not receive evidence that I owe your company any monies by (enter date) , I will have no hesitation in passing your details to the Office of Fair Trading.

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

Regarding your threat that a Doorstep Collector will call the owner of this property is denying you or anybody working on your behalf access onto their estate or grounds in relation to this disputed debt, should you or any agent acting for you attempt to gain access to the estate or its grounds, then you will be ignoring your denial of access and the owner of (enter address) will take legal steps to sue both you and or your agents for trespass, please also note that having a letterbox on the property gives you or anyone working on your behalf neither implied nor expressed rights to enter the properties boundaries, again any instances of trespass WILL lead the property owner to sue both yourselves or any agents working on your behalf.


Yours faithfully

Snaggles

Template for asking them to stop ringing you, if you get a lot of harrassing phone calls:

Dear Mr Horrible DCA.

I am writing to express my serious concerns regarding the telephone calls that I have received from your company.

I am now formally requesting that all further correspondence be made in writing only.

I demand that these phone calls stop immediately. I am familiar with the terms of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1970 and I believe your harassment places you in breach of these acts.

If you continue to call, you will also be in breach of the Wireless Telegraphy Act (1949) and, as such, I will report you to both Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading.

Take further note that continued telephone calls after the receipt of a request not to call may constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

You will be deemed to have been served notice of my request and I will deem it served by (FULL DATE), I am advising you that any calls received after this date will be recorded with the intention of them being used as evidence.


Yours faithfully

Snaggles

If the letter asking them to stop calling you doesn't work, you could try this:

By Recorded Delivery

Dear Sir,

Ref. XXXXX

Despite my letters regarding ANY communication from your company, which stated that I require ALL communications in writing, your telephone calls continue.

This behaviour constitutes harassment; the letters stated quite clearly to you that I require ALL communications in writing for future Court use. Do not telephone me again - remove any telephone numbers you hold for me from your systems.

Your telephone calls are in breach of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines. If you continue with them after the receipt of this letter an official complaint, together with a log recording the times and frequency of the calls will be passed both to that office and to the Trading Standards office. For your information note that ALL telephone calls are taped.

This type of debt collection method is contrary to the ‘Administration of Justice Act 1970’ in that it is intended to cause alarm and distress to the recipient. Your methods will not be tolerated. A formal complaint, containing copies of all correspondence including yours, has now been submitted to the relevant authorities. This will be relevant to questions of your fitness to hold a licence under the Consumer Credit Act, whether or not it results in a prosecution.

Take further note that continued telephone calls after the receipt of a request not to call may constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

Communicate in writing and ONLY in writing, your telephone calls will NOT be answered.

HOWEVER, CALLS WILL TRIGGER COMPLAINTS TO THE REGULATORY BODIES.

I trust that I have made myself understood on this matter,

Yours faithfully

Snaggles

Dear Sir/Madam
Re Account No/Reference No:− 4563210025897412

Since making that above agreement with you, our circumstances have changed.

We cannot now afford to agreed monthly payments because ... [your paragraph added here]

We enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows our total income from all sources, and the total outgoings of our household. As you can see we have no money left to make offers of payment to my creditors.

In view of our circumstances, would you please accept no payment/a reduced payment of £xx at present to be reviewed in six months.

If interest or other charges are being added to the account, we would be grateful if you would freeze these so our
debt does not increase.

Should my circumstances improve we will contact you again.
Thank you for your assistance. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

Snaggles

And finally, here is a much stronger letter that you *might* wish to use if they continue to refuse your offer, although obviously you would need to take proper advice before using this, as you are inviting them to take you to court:

Dear Sir/Madam

Acc/Ref No 4563210025897412

Thank you for your letter of xx−xx−2007. We are very disappointed that we seem unable to reach a satisfactory compromise in this case. As we have already explained, we can only afford £xx per month at the present time, and we feel that it is pointless paying this amount to you only to see the debt increase.

We invite you therefore to sue us for the debt, when we shall have the opportunity of offering £xx per month through the courts.

In addition, once judgment is granted we understand that further interest will be suspended in any event. It seems that we can only achieve a reasonable outcome to this matter by allowing the courts to decide, although this will involve us both in extra expense and time wasted with court proceedings.

The offer of £xx per month plus suspension of interest is of course still open to you to accept.

Yours faithfully

Snaggles

Right, I think that's it for now, but if you need any more, give me a shout!

Thanks to Weller and Crown for some of the above letters - they are superstars and I pinch these letters from them all the time...lol!

Robflh

Hi shezzy

I have just checked on the number of posts you have started and every time you have a new question, you start a new thread. It is better to start one thread in a forum and keep to that one thread.

As people come across that thread and make posts on it, they will mark it so that they will get an email when a new post has been made to that thread.

Therefore, posting a new question on an old thread will get an instant response and posting a new question on a new thread will only get a response when someone comes across it.

The other reason for sticking to one thread in a forum is that people will ask you for information in your new thread that you have already given in a previous thread. That means you have to answer the same questions time and time again.

With that in mind, please can you post your SOA Schedule of Affairs? State what each of your incomes are (wages, tax credits, benefits) and what your total income is.

Then underneath that, list every thing you are paying out for each month. Food, petrol, gas, electric and so on can be an approximate amount.

Divide by twelve, anything that you pay for once a year and put that as the monthly amount. Anything that is paid for every six months is divided by six and put down as a monthly amount. Do not forget to put the total out each month.

Now put each of your loans or credit cards. For credit cards put the Name of the card company, the minimum payment, the outstanding balance, the credit limit and the APR.

For loans put the Company name, how much you have to pay, the outstanding debt, how much the loan was for and the APR. If you have a mortgage, the first loan will be the mortgage.

You never know what someone may come up with that could help you, so the sooner you can post your SOA the sooner you may get a surprise.

shezzy

Has anyone got an example letter for when you've sent a letter asking a company for a copy of the original agreement, and they have'nt got it? Don't know what letter to send after that? This is behalf of my brother that has been paying a store debt card since 1984 and has paid it 10 times over and still they hound him.

ta
shezzy