Urgent advice - can anyone help please ?

julesverne

Hi please can anyone advice me, a company called connells collections is going to take me to court over a debt with barclaycard, the original debt was £4500 but they are saying its £6200, they first contacted me in July and were prepaired to wait while my hubby remortgaged our house (as we have other debts),but we were advised to wait as we are in a fixed rate till 1/01/2008 as we would have to pay penalty of £5000 and when i spoke to someone 5wks ago he said that was ok and a collegue would ring me december .A man came to the house to hand deliver a stautory demand
under section 268(1)(a) of the insolvancy act 1986.Debt for liquidated sum payable immediately. It said i had 18 days to contact connells or 28 days to get the court to overturn it, so i wrote back and explained i was going to pay but would be january they have replied today and it is now with their solicitors and my 28 days is up this Thursday i know now i should have got a solicitor when notice came but now i need to write to court with little time left and dont know how to word it, i dont want to be made bankrupt and i dont want to loose my home.We have other debts and have been paying them and were going to pay them off in january with remortgage too so we would just have mortgage payment to make. Please can anyone help i am at my wits end and i have a teenage son at home and so scared we are about to loose our home. we were sorting debts out and now this is this the end.

pania

Hi there Jules, firstly hon I know it's easy to say, take a deep breath and make a cup of tea, Many many people on these boards have had similar threatening letters designed specifically to scare the wits out of you and get you to pay up. you are in the best place to get the advice you need and you are a very very long way from loosing your property.
If your fixed rate ends on new years day you need to set the ball in motion to get the mortgage offer in placve for this time asap. The average remortgage will take 6 weeks from start to completion thougth it is possible to get it in occasionally faster than this.
If you are truly truly certain that a remortgage to consolidate these debts is the way to go (and many would advise against turning unsecured debt into secured for the very reason of repossession) then set the ball rolling soon as.

Many will be along to give you specific info on your exact question but meanwhile please believe this sounds like a standard letter designed to wig you out and make you pay up.

have you worked out your monthly income and expenditure? It is amazing the amount of ways we can all suggest freeing up a little more spare money. work it out and pop it up here.

Are you claiming everything that you are able in the way of support?
check www.entitledto.com. to be sure.

big hugs honey. xxx

julesverne

Hi Pania, Many thanks for your kind words, the ball has been set for remortgage and have done list of expenditure etc etc, hopefully someone else will be as kind as you to reply with help for next step.
once again my sincere thanks to you.
many Hugs to you
Jules

chevalier

Treat this as what it is a fishing expedition. they are trying to panic you into paying more than you actually can, even if this is at the expense of your other creditors.

It is usually unadviseable to consolidate unsecured debt onto the house, because whereas before all a creditor could do was give you a ccj, if the debt is secured on the house and you can't pay, then they can get a reposession order. So is consolidating this debt the result of careful thought, or is it a panic reaction because you can't get anymore unsecured credit, and this seems like an easy way out?

If the latter then have a look at www.whatthecost.com at their snowball calculator. Put in all of your unsecured debt, the apr, the term etc. It will give you a debt free date for when you will have paid this off. But more importantly it will tell you how much interest you will pay.

Then do the same for your mortgage as it is now.

And then do a run which is the mortgage as it will be with your original mortgage plus the unsecured debt on it. Look at the amount of interest you will pay. I bet that this way the interest you will pay is WAY MORE than if you don't consolidate.

If you can't pay the debts, then rather than remortgage you need to prioritise your debt.

Things that have to be paid are (ie they are either necessary to live or are a legal requirement)
mortgage
council tax
utilities
car insurance
car tax
food

non priority debts are
catalogues
credit cards
overdrafts
store cards.

If you can pay all of the former, but are struggling to pay the latter on top, then I strongly suggest that you give either CCCS or Payplan a call to see if they can set up a Debt Management Plan for you. Their information is at the top of the forum. They offer a FREE service, don't be taken in by the fee paying ones. They will give you impartial advice as to what is the best way forward. If you give them the go ahead, they will do all the leg work for you, ie write to your creditors, offer them pro rata payments etc etc. This will trash your credit rating, and you may well need to set up a new bank accounts for you and OH, in case your current bank takes your OD away.

Please don't think consolidating onto the house is the ONLY thing you can do. There is a better way I am sure.

Have you posted a statement of affairs on here (see southernscousers sticky at the top of the forum), we may be able to find ways to make your money work harder for you, and thus free some of it up to pay off your debts without remortgaging
best of luck
chev

fermi

chevalier wrote: »

Treat this as what it is a fishing expedition. they are trying to panic you into paying more than you actually can, even if this is at the expense of your other creditors.!!

Fishing trip it probably is, but I have now heard of examples where Connaught/1st Credit have followed these through and made people bankrupt.

It is highly advisable to seek some professional advice ASAP so that the legality of any threat can be assessed.

julesverne

Thankyou Fermi and also to chevalor for your posts,
I will seek legal advice Fermi as i am more worried now that you have heard of others were they have followed it through, i have taken all advice onboard and i am going to look into all that i've been told about.
once again many thanks

fermi

julesverne wrote: »

Thankyou Fermi and also to chevalor for your posts,
I will seek legal advice Fermi as i am more worried now that you have heard of others were they have followed it through, i have taken all advice onboard and i am going to look into all that i've been told about.
once again many thanks

Talk to National Debtline first since they will be able go through things with you and assess how real the threat is, and how to deal with it.

I've only heard of the very odd case where the SD has been followed up, but it's best to take no chances.;)

Good luck.

Andy_Edinburgh

I was once on the receiving end of a similar "fishing expedition" from Connaught Collections when they were after a debt of my home's previous owners; I tried to explain to the "person" at CC that I didn't have their details but if they liked I could give them their solicitor's details. but the CC idiot got really stroppy insisting that they "wouldn't deal with solicitors". I told him that if he tried to bring a court case after refusing to deal with the debtor's appointed legal representatives they'd get thrown straight out of court, and this made them EVEN angrier :-)