Advice and Help Please

SilentOne2019

Hi All,

Really desperate for some advice.

I have a debt to a school for non payment of school fees. I have a long history with the school. When we first started struggling with payments we approached the school and asked for help (having previously been there for 3.5 years). Unlike other schools in the area, they at the time did not offer any financial assistance to families who found themselves in financial difficulty and instead suspended payments for a year until full time employment commenced.

When fulltime employment recommenced we discussed ongoing payments with the school £1600per month - £350 each month to the debt and £1250 ongoing fees. At this point we decided to withdraw the children and said we would like to set up a payment plan to pay the debt rather than continue struggling to keep them at the school with no real benefits the their education. Since April I have consistently offered repayment of £600 a month over 5 years which would not put us in financial difficulty.

We do not own our property, my wife’s car is through work. We have no other vehicle we have no other asset. My wife has a few CCJ’s for several years ago but besides that we have no lines of credit.

We have now been served with a statutory demand and are unsure where to go from here. The school has now increased the debt a further £7,000 in addition to adding a further terms fees to the original debt.

Is it best to allow them to make us bankrupt? I don’t dispute the debt, which is why I’ve continued to offer them a payment plan since April which they keep refusing but I can only offer what I can afford to pay. They have even suggested trying to obtain credit to make a lump payment then they would consider a payment plan.

I’ve spoken to citizens advice on the phone and have an appointment on Monday but they’ve said it might be best to allow them to take the bankruptcy route.

SilentOne2019

I just want to add, we are currently paying council tax, gas and electric arrears. But rent and everything else is up to date.

TheGardener

If you have made a reasonable and affordable offer of repayment then the school would be very foolish to take you to court. It would be judged that you are making all reasonable efforts to repay the debt.
I would go back to them with the reasonable offer in writing and offer a commencement date to start the payments. If they decline they may be seen as being unreasonable and it would not go in their favour if they took you to court and cost them more in fees and charges.

If they still decline, seek advice from one of the free debt charities like StepChange, National Debtline or CAB.

If you have other debts then I would recommend the StepChange 'debt remedy tool' on their website as a starting point.

RattyIrk

How much is overall debt?

Going bankrupt is a solution but should be viewed as something to do only if there is no other reasonable alternative. For instance a debt management company may be able to broker an agreement with them.

Bankruptcy wipes out your debts but also comes with a lot of baggage.

silvercar

Why the increase in debt by £7k? Is this interest charges or fees for not giving sufficient notice?

Either way, I would stick to your guns, pay what you can afford and leave any talk of bankruptcy in their hands.

I assume you don't want to use the school in the future, so upsetting them will have no effect on you.

SilentOne2019

Thanks for the replies. The debt started at £16k, 1 years fees, (when they suspended payments due to financial difficulty) they then added £7k, taking the debt to £23k - terms fees for lack of notice although they said that was at their discretion. Further increase I believe are fees etc. Since April all offers have been through their solicitor via email £600 per month I’ve offered and maintained, each time with it being refused. My children have not been at that school since April due to us withdrawing as not wanting to continue struggling financially to pay for something we didn’t feel was any longer benefitting the children. Obviously now they’ve issued a statutory demand which is why I’m unsure what to do. I have no assets, I can contact them again and offer the payment plan again but when it’s already been refused numerous times I expect it will be done again.

sourcrates

With a debt such as this, you cannot have the SD cancelled, as it won`t be statute barred, and the debt is not in dispute, the thing is, a lot of statutory demands are sent out when the creditor has absolutly no intention whatsoever of following through with it, but thats not to say that is the case here.


You may be best served by writing to them stating your financial position, that you don`t have the money to pay in full, nor do you have any assets to realise, and that making you bankrupt will just end up costing them £680 for absolutly nothing.

Reiterate what you can afford to pay monthly, then the ball is in their court, they will either accept the deal, decide to make you bankrupt and have an IPA for the next 3 years, or forget about the whole thing.

silvercar

My children have not been at that school since April due to us withdrawing as not wanting to continue struggling financially to pay for something we didn’t feel was any longer benefitting the children.

I wouldn't be harping on about this to them. It doesn't read true, either you withdrew from the school because you could no longer afford it or because you didn't feel it was benefitting your children. To claim that both things happened at the same time is dubious.

I know that a lot of private schools require you to sign up for number of years as by taking the place you are expected to keep it for either the whole of primary or secondary as they've allocated the place for those number of years.

SilentOne2019

Hi,

My wife has emails to the school voicing concerns over education and at one point even received emails and forms with information about other children where ‘assumptions’ had been made it was about our child.

Which is why we decided to withdraw the children once in fulltime employment and repay just the debt instead of continuing to pay the debt and ongoing school fees. So we withdrew and said we would pay the debt in a payment plan which they have continued to refuse.

silvercar

SilentOne2019 wrote: »

Hi,

My wife has emails to the school voicing concerns over education and at one point even received emails and forms with information about other children where ‘assumptions’ had been made it was about our child.

Which is why we decided to withdraw the children once in fulltime employment and repay just the debt instead of continuing to pay the debt and ongoing school fees. So we withdrew and said we would pay the debt in a payment plan which they have continued to refuse.

That may be why they are refusing your repayment plan. If your previous intention was to repay the debt and pay ongoing school fees, they could well think that you are financially able to repay the debt faster as you no longer have their school fees to pay!

D_M_E

Are they talking about a joint bankruptcy - both of you - or just you alone?

If joint then your partner's CCJ's should also be wiped - trouble is you have offered £600 per month to clear the fees/charges, but that is only one debt - what other debts have you got and are you managing to keep up with payments towards those, particularly council tax which is a prority debt?