In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

[Celestine]

Re: In Court tomorrow!

Technically he should have offered to secure the debt within the 21 day period after service of the demand. But there is no reason it could not be offered, especially on such a low debt.

[jazzhands]

Re: In Court tomorrow!

I will print that link off regarding the disproportionate amount. Thank you. I don;t really want to be rushed into an IVA, but felt I had to show the Judge that I had made some effort to sort out my difficulties. I will let you all know tomoorw what happened. Thank you to those of you who have replied x

[Amethyst]

Re: In Court tomorrow!

Please do let us know how you get on. Fingers crossed the Judge can see that taking your home for a £2.5k overdraft is vastly disproportionate. Best of luck xx

[Crazy council]

Re: In Court tomorrow!

( edited after i re-read )
Hi

I don;t really want to be rushed into an IVA

it looks like that or a DMP is the best option. Both better than bankruptcy.

[wales01man]

Re: In Court tomorrow!

Im rooting for you GOOD LUCK

[jazzhands]

Re: In Court tomorrow!

Hi Everyone again. The hearing well insofar as the Hearing has once again been adjourned for 7 days in order for 1st Credit to produce evidence of their claimed 'attempted phone call' and 'text message' as listed in their chronology of truth, as I had claimed that I never received a phone call or a text message (and in fact their Solicitors did not even have a record of a contactable number for me when I first approached them by phone myself). However, I feel that this was just a stalling attempt by the Judge to bide me more time and it was 'suggested' to me that I offer 1st Credit an "attachment" (?) to my house and offer monthly payments. I felt that although I had done everything I could (i.e: contacted StepChange and initiated an IVA, quoted the rules around portionality etc), that those were not enough for the Judge to enable him to either dismiss the bankruptcy altogther or adjourn generally. (What that means to me is there has to be an actual point in law that stops the bankruptcy and not just what the Judge thinks is fair). Apparently the Court only has the discretion to dismiss the petition if it is satisfied that the Debtor is able to pay all his debts or is satisfied:
a) the Debtor has made an offer to secure or compound doe a debt in respect of which the petition is presents
b) the the acceptance of the offer would have required dismissal of the petition, and
c) the offer has been unreasonably refused

So, I feel that I am left with only 2 decisons now. 1) To try and find enough money from friends and family to pay 1st Credit £1,700 pounds in order to take my debt under the £750:00 threshold so that they cannot take me to Court, or 2) to offer them and 'attachment' to my home and pay monthly instalments to pay them off. I know for a fact, and would swear on bible that 1st Credit did not telephone me or send me a text, but going back to Court in 7 days or more just on a hope and wish that they cannot produce the evidence seems very risky to me. If the IVA had been in place there would not have been a problem, but they take 4 - 6 weeks to arrange and I am not afforded this amount of time. Taking either A or B would not allow me to continue with my IVA application as I would not be able to afford to make both payments. I do intend to report 1st Credit to the FCA after this is all over, whichever way it goes, but in the meantime, what do you wise people suggest I do? How do I know that 1st Credit will accept my offer of 'attachment' to my home and if they do not, will the Judge see that"an offer that has been unreasonably refused" or not? How much is 'reasonabale' for one thing??? Please help x

[Amethyst]

Re: In Court tomorrow!

Well done on today xx You could offer a voluntary charge over your home as security to back up instalment payments, I think that is what the Judge is saying. Then 1st Credit have the back up of being able to enforce the charge if you stop making payments.

We've done this previously with county court claims however I'm unsure of the procedure for bankruptcy petition cases, hopefully others will have a better idea. Normally you'd draft a consent order and agree terms then submit it to the court - so along the lines of they get a voluntary second charge over your home, you make payments of £65 a month to them for XX months and they halt proceedings on bankruptcy.

Do you have any other secured loans / charges on your home?

You have a little bit more of a breathing space now to investigate exactly what an IVA would mean for you and whether it is suitable.

[jazzhands]

Re: In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

No, I do not have any other secured loans or charges on my home. I do not mind tryng to arrange a charge on my house along with regular payments, but what if !st Credit refuse? How can I ensure that my offer has been "unreasonably refused"? My offer of £90:00 to pay the debt off was rejected due to the fact that it would take too long to pay off.

[Amethyst]

Re: In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

No, I do not have any other secured loans or charges on my home. I do not mind tryng to arrange a charge on my house along with regular payments, but what if !st Credit refuse? How can I ensure that my offer has been "unreasonably refused"? My offer of £90:00 to pay the debt off was rejected due to the fact that it would take too long to pay off.

We've had people with offers of £20 a month on £6k debts accepted with voluntary charges. 1st credit are just being utter asswipes on this. It would be beneficial if you could get a solicitor to do the negotiating for you.... let me have a chat with Kate later on and see if there's someone can help you with this.

With regards the debt - it's an old Lloyds Overdraft - mainly made up of charges - do you know when the last acknowlegment of the debt was before February? (could it be over six years?) Have 1st Credit sent you a notice of assignment of the debt (ie prove they are entitled to claim it) - anything you can think of that might be able to be used to twist their arm a bit?

[Amethyst]

Re: In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

£90 a month is just over 2 years for goodness sake. They really need a kick up the ass.

[Amethyst]

Re: In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

Can you just do me a quick list of all your other debts pls.


Also a brief timeline of what happened since Feb - did they send you a Statutory Demand giving 18 days to set aside/ 21 days to pay before bringing the bankruptcy petition ? (I'm still a bit confused how you ended up in court for a bankruptcy order)

[Tools]

Re: In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

If you are able to negotiate a Charging Order and repayment offer, be sure to include a clause that states you are willing to undergo 6 monthly reviews by submitting a Financial Statement and should your income improve you would be willing to increase payments/make overpayments. It shows willing to the courts which goes a long way to swaying the Judges decision.

[jazzhands]

Re: In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

The last activity on the LLoyds account was in March 2010 (on Equifax it just says DEFAULTED in March 2010, but nothing showing for February ot january and it doesn;t go back further than that). The in November 2013 it says SETTLED |(which I presume is when 1sr Credit bought it - although I did get a letter from Conought about this earlier this year). On the 1st Credit listing on Equifax it says Q (Query) in January 2010. February 2010 - NOT UPDATED and then March 2010 - DEFAULTED.

I have not had a notice of assignment of the debt , all I have ever had is 2 demand letters, although they say they sent 7.

[jazzhands]

Re: In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

I owe:
Loan (originally Sainsbury's now with Arrow Global) - £3,190. That defaulted in December 2009
O2 bill - £165:00 - currently paying them £5:00 per month through Moorcroft
Credit Card from LLoys that Defaulted in May 2010 - Nobody has chased me for this yet! - £5,418:00
Credit Crad from HBOS (Handled now by Lowell Finance who are accepting £10:00 per month ~ Defaulted march 2010 and then settled January 2014 which is when I presume Lowell's took it over
And apparently a Argos card (Lowell's handling this too) - £900. ALTHOUGH I HAVE NEVER, EVER HAD AN ARGOS CARD

[jazzhands]

Re: In Court tomorrow! Bankruptcy for a £2.4k Debt 1st Credit

They state that:
4 December 2013 - letter sent
10 December 2013 - Text messages sent
11 December - Letter sent
18 December 2013 - Letter sent
18 December 2013 - Attempted telephone call - no contact made
25 December - Letter sent ( Christmas day too!)
8 January 2014 - Letter sent
Statutory Demand and Statement of Service was apparently served on 22 february (which I don;t remember, but they have a signed truth statement from somebody).
26 February 2014 - They received a letter from me offering £5:00 per month and advising that I had written to LLoys on numerous occasions regarding unfiar charges but I had not received a reply
26 February - letter sent telling me it was on hold until they heard from LLoyds
3 April - Letter sent with a letter from LLoyds saying they did not beleive I was in financial hardship. They also asked me for an expenditure form
15 April 2014 - Expenditure form received offering £5:00 per month
15 April - Letter sent informing me offer not resonable.

30th June - letter sent with Statement of Service of the petition, Income and Expenditure form and invitation to me to settle the debt and costs prior to the Hearing on 18th July.

I only received 2 letters and no text or phone calls