Equita debt

Clouds88

Hello,

I had a question on reducing payments further on a debt or what can happen.

basically in 2018 my husband had a mental breakdown, was sacked from job and never went back to un. Uni chased him for £2250 which we had to ‘pay’ to resist a module even tho he told uni he wasn’t going back before the start of the new term and they said they would get back to us about not paying it they never did. 

Anyway life was really tricky, we just ignored the debt collectors letters, tried to challenge it with the uni when it went for court case but they said they were still going ahead to collect the money. 

Anyway, he got a CCJ but he’s unemployed and on PIP/ESA. I must have missed an action letter or something as we had ballifs at our door last year but ended up setting up a payment plan to get rid of them which is at £25 per month.

 On a whole I am furious with situation, nothing I can do about it now I seems but didn’t have the strength to fight it properly at the time, I was working split nights, caring for my husband then we ended up having an accidental third child. Anyway a lot went on, but because of the balif situation I’m worried to reduce it down further for now.

sourcrates

Was this payment plan just an informal agreement between yourselves and the bailiff company, or was it a court ordered monthly sum ?

If it was the former, then write and tell them the current payments are unaffordable, present them with a copy of your budget to back this up, tell them what you intend to pay going forward, and that`s it basically.

On the other hand if it was the latter, you would have to fill in court form N-245, and apply for an order to vary payments, for which there may be a fee payable.

Clouds88

The balliif got cancelled I think, because my husband is classed as ‘vulnerable’ it went back to Equita and the payment arrangement was set up with them it wasn’t anything to do with the courts. So I’ll get back in contact with Equita to see if we can reduce it. If that’s the case and the debt is at around 3 K with fees added ect now would it just be a case of continuing to pay the £10 a month for the next 30 years then it will be gone. 

sourcrates

Clouds88 said:

The balliif got cancelled I think, because my husband is classed as ‘vulnerable’ it went back to Equita and the payment arrangement was set up with them it wasn’t anything to do with the courts. So I’ll get back in contact with Equita to see if we can reduce it. If that’s the case and the debt is at around 3 K with fees added ect now would it just be a case of continuing to pay the £10 a month for the next 30 years then it will be gone. 

30 years is an unrealistic target for most people, as they know your husband is vulnerable, and on a limited benefits based income, its not a massive step forward for them to realise this debt may never be paid back.

If I was you, I would be pushing them to not necessarily write this debt off, as legal action has been taken, but to cease collection of the debt from you on the grounds of your husbands circumstances, that paying this debt is causing you hardship, and at the amount you can realistically afford, will take far too long to ever repay.

That would be my approach to this, affordability is everything these days, so stress that point to them, put it all in a letter and see what comes of it, paying small amounts of money over long periods of time costs them more to process the payments, than the payments are actually worth, so they should take a commercial decision here, cut their losses, and cease collection of the debt.