Help required

Stressed_and_Skint

we have recieved the following letter from 1st credit, its slightly different from the usual ones, in that it actually claims they will be trying to force us to sell our house. I have been in debt for 8 years now through divorce and then an accident that left me disabled, through grants our house has been adapted for disabled living, we are not behind on the mortgage and have 1 secured loan which we are also up to date with, these are loans from 8 years ago from mainly credit cards, which this letter is in reference to (Barclaycard 2,100.00 GBP) out of the initial 12 or so debtors back then there are about 5 left ranging from 343 to 6,500.00 pounds this is one that has not shown itself for probably a year, and today has turned up, probably from an audit, however it has us unsettled and worried that we may be at risk from bankruptcy and/or home loss, we are on benefits and i calculate that we are only going to be able to offer them about 4 pounds a month, i know this is a silly amount but initially in the beginning it was only 1 pound per month, the highest i pay at present is 15.00 PCM for a 6,500 debt. Heres the letter any advice or support would be gratefully recieved, i intent to write to them with a current income vs expendature and a current list of debtors and what they are accepting, but i worry is this enough.

Dear Sir

Please note that your case has been passed on to our PRE LEGAL TEAM

The aim of this department is to make every effort to reach an agreement to clear this debt without the need for legal action.

If we are successful in obtaining a County Court Judgement against you and you own/jointly own the freehold/leasehold interest in a property then we could take the appropriate action to secure a Charging order against the property.If 1st credit were succcessful in obtaining a final charging order we would be legally entitled to apply to the court for an order of sale of this property.
Alternatively we may decide to petition for your bankruptcy.
We would of course prefer you to contact this office to discuss how the debt may be cleared within a reasonable period.
If you are considering re-mortgaging your property or taking out a loan to clear your debts please advise us ASAP.
If we do not recieve a reply to this letter within seven days your details will be passed to our legal team for appropriate action.

headinthesand_3

PRE LEGAL TEAM?? That sounds like a posh way of saying admin dept if you ask me, possibly trying to make you think this is a legal letter.

I could really give you much information but I'm sure that the "ones" in the know will be along very soon to help

Di-Dough

Hi - Just want to say dont panic. If your debt is not a secured debt against your house then they can't make you sell it .... If it makes you feel better why dont you get in touch with CAB

Di

Tiglet

Stressed_and_Skint wrote: »

If we are successful in obtaining a County Court Judgement against you and you own/jointly own the freehold/leasehold interest in a property then we could take the appropriate action to secure a Charging order against the property.If 1st credit were succcessful in obtaining a final charging order we would be legally entitled to apply to the court for an order of sale of this property.

I've highlighted the important words in this letter.

This is a perfectly ordinary letter asking for money. As they say, they could apply for a CCJ, which they may or may not get. What happens after that is pure speculation designed to frighten you. Actually it isn't even speculation because you would have to break the terms of a CCJ before they could even apply to do anything else.

Have you heard from 1st Credit before? You could ask them to send you a copy of your credit agreement. By doing this you are technically placing the account into dispute until they provide it. That means that they cannot do anything about the account until they prove that they are entitled to colect the money they are asking for.

Stressed_and_Skint

Great advice from you all, this has eased my mind , but i wonder will asking them for my credit agreement antagonise them and make them less inclined to help me?

bathgatebuyer

Have they been able to provide you with a copy of the CCA? And if you've made that request and they have failed to oblige, they are not entitled to chase you for anything while you await that documentation.

Tiglet

Less inclined to help? Their first letter wasn't exactly helpful, was it? You're legally entitled to be sent this and, if they were to go to court, they would have to have it anyway.

If they are to be entitled to collect the debt, they need to prove that the debt exists, and that it belongs to them. Debts often get passed from one agency to another and the paperwork does sometimes get lost, so it's worth checking it.

Even assuming that everything is correct, then all you can do is pay what you can afford. You're entitled to insist that they deal with a representative, so it would be a good idea to speak to CCCS who can help with the whole situation and save you from having to deal with unpleasant people like this. And, as they're a charity, they're free too.

Stressed_and_Skint

What is CCCS? and where do i find them.

Tiglet

It's the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. It's a charity that helps people with everything to do with debt problems. And it's free.