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SHOULD I ACCEPT THE STATUTORY DEMAND, OR INGORE THIS... PLEASE READ ON - ALL ADVICE WELCOME...
I received a letter from WalkerLove/Sheriff Officer - Wed 29th January, stating that they wish to serve me with a statutory demand, and stating when they will return to do so (Friday 31st January). There is NO information that tells me what this relates to on their 'appointment letter for statutory demand'.
I've read some other threads on WalkerLove and statutory demands in different forums, but I really need some help with this directly please!
Little bit of background on my situation.
I'm self employed, business is fair, but is operating with an RBS 25K overdraft and this will, generally, be sitting at around £15-20K overdrawn most of the time. I also have 3 x different RBS credit cards, totalling around £15K, which I pay faithfully to every month.
I am married, with kids, and have a mortgage in my name only, which is probably for the amount the house is worth - so no equity (or even slightly negative).
I was shafted terribly some years ago for a massive amount, buy a couple of limited companies going out of business owing me a fortune, and ended up using numerous credit cards to get by - running up massive debts, including a sizeable personal loan to consolidate 2 cards, which had mis-sold PPI, worth approx 7K (never claimed - will explain later). For the past few years business has ticked by and I've managed to pay the mortgage etc, but simply cannot get out of the hole that I ended up in due to being ripped off in business.
I was introduced to Credit Issues 3-4 years ago - a company promising to write off all your credit cards due to missing signed agreements, or flaws in their wording etc. And, as a result, I ended up stopping payment to all cards/loans that were deemed as 'unenforceable', apart from the RBS ones (even thought these were all deemed as unenforceable), as this would have affected the running of my business. The card/loan debt that I am no longer servicing is very considerable - £60-70K at least, without doing a proper count.
For around 3 years, I've not acknowledged any of the debts - never having answered the phone, or replied to the numerous letters. And the debts have been passed round and round between all the usual DCA culprits, and many have now been reassigned/bought. I've learned to ignore some of the very threatening language in some of these letters, but this appointment to serve a statutory demand is the first of its kind, and very serious. However, from what I have read, I tend to think that it comes from Lowells, and that they are simply hoping to scare me into a dialogue with them and for me to acknowledge the debt.
In this time, apart from receiving various threatening letters, offers of discounts, and with the debts having been passed from DCA to DCA and back to original lender in some cases, not one DCA has taken the 'next step', apart from sending a couple of doorstep collectors, who I simply ignored. Surely, if in over 3 years, nobody has tried to enforce these debts, and discount offers are abundant, is this not some indication as to the weak case for enforceability - whether because the debt is unenforceable, or whether my financial situation indicates that they wound be on a 'hiding to nothing'...?
I've a couple of questions here on how to deal with this statutory demand and also my situation in general. PLEASE HELP!
1... should I call the Sheriff Officers and arrange to collect the papers from them? Is this, in any way, 'acknowledging the debt', if I've no idea who this refers to until I actually receive the papers, but in doing so, can this be classed as acknowledging the debt?
2... once received, what is my next step? Seek to have the Demand set aside? or CCA the creditor? Isn't it the case that nothing can be enforced whilst in dispute? And, if not a reassigned debt, should this be with the DCA or original creditor? If they cannot provide a satisfactory copy of the original agreement, in the time provided (14 days??) what is the situation/outcome? If this isn't forthcoming within the deadline, does that then make their statutory demand void?
3... should this go to court, and I can show income and expenses, and show all other debts etc... I think whoever the creditor is (I'm guessing Lowell) would be stupid to force sequestration - but who makes this decision? the Sheriff? And will he only make decisions based on this case, or will he want to know about all the other debts - presumably, he cannot make a judgement on these???
4... I was hoping to just ride out the storm until 5 years had passed so all these debts became statue barred (Scotland). I know that seems a bit dishonest and not meeting my responsibilities, blah, blah, but I was hugely shafted in business and ripped off by credit card companies who kept increasing interest rates (some to as high as 40%) and at a time when I NEVER missed a single payment, and with Egg who added PPI to a consolidation loan, telling me I had to accept it - deemed to be worth around £7K. So once, where I would have been very upset at not paying off these debts, I am now very bitter at the situation, and feel that these greedy parasites have enough money. However, final, question here is, should I make a claim for the £7k PPI? The debt has been sold to someone else now - I think maybe even twice. By claiming for the PPI, is this acknowledging the debt??
I received a letter from WalkerLove/Sheriff Officer - Wed 29th January, stating that they wish to serve me with a statutory demand, and stating when they will return to do so (Friday 31st January). There is NO information that tells me what this relates to on their 'appointment letter for statutory demand'.
I've read some other threads on WalkerLove and statutory demands in different forums, but I really need some help with this directly please!
Little bit of background on my situation.
I'm self employed, business is fair, but is operating with an RBS 25K overdraft and this will, generally, be sitting at around £15-20K overdrawn most of the time. I also have 3 x different RBS credit cards, totalling around £15K, which I pay faithfully to every month.
I am married, with kids, and have a mortgage in my name only, which is probably for the amount the house is worth - so no equity (or even slightly negative).
I was shafted terribly some years ago for a massive amount, buy a couple of limited companies going out of business owing me a fortune, and ended up using numerous credit cards to get by - running up massive debts, including a sizeable personal loan to consolidate 2 cards, which had mis-sold PPI, worth approx 7K (never claimed - will explain later). For the past few years business has ticked by and I've managed to pay the mortgage etc, but simply cannot get out of the hole that I ended up in due to being ripped off in business.
I was introduced to Credit Issues 3-4 years ago - a company promising to write off all your credit cards due to missing signed agreements, or flaws in their wording etc. And, as a result, I ended up stopping payment to all cards/loans that were deemed as 'unenforceable', apart from the RBS ones (even thought these were all deemed as unenforceable), as this would have affected the running of my business. The card/loan debt that I am no longer servicing is very considerable - £60-70K at least, without doing a proper count.
For around 3 years, I've not acknowledged any of the debts - never having answered the phone, or replied to the numerous letters. And the debts have been passed round and round between all the usual DCA culprits, and many have now been reassigned/bought. I've learned to ignore some of the very threatening language in some of these letters, but this appointment to serve a statutory demand is the first of its kind, and very serious. However, from what I have read, I tend to think that it comes from Lowells, and that they are simply hoping to scare me into a dialogue with them and for me to acknowledge the debt.
In this time, apart from receiving various threatening letters, offers of discounts, and with the debts having been passed from DCA to DCA and back to original lender in some cases, not one DCA has taken the 'next step', apart from sending a couple of doorstep collectors, who I simply ignored. Surely, if in over 3 years, nobody has tried to enforce these debts, and discount offers are abundant, is this not some indication as to the weak case for enforceability - whether because the debt is unenforceable, or whether my financial situation indicates that they wound be on a 'hiding to nothing'...?
I've a couple of questions here on how to deal with this statutory demand and also my situation in general. PLEASE HELP!
1... should I call the Sheriff Officers and arrange to collect the papers from them? Is this, in any way, 'acknowledging the debt', if I've no idea who this refers to until I actually receive the papers, but in doing so, can this be classed as acknowledging the debt?
2... once received, what is my next step? Seek to have the Demand set aside? or CCA the creditor? Isn't it the case that nothing can be enforced whilst in dispute? And, if not a reassigned debt, should this be with the DCA or original creditor? If they cannot provide a satisfactory copy of the original agreement, in the time provided (14 days??) what is the situation/outcome? If this isn't forthcoming within the deadline, does that then make their statutory demand void?
3... should this go to court, and I can show income and expenses, and show all other debts etc... I think whoever the creditor is (I'm guessing Lowell) would be stupid to force sequestration - but who makes this decision? the Sheriff? And will he only make decisions based on this case, or will he want to know about all the other debts - presumably, he cannot make a judgement on these???
4... I was hoping to just ride out the storm until 5 years had passed so all these debts became statue barred (Scotland). I know that seems a bit dishonest and not meeting my responsibilities, blah, blah, but I was hugely shafted in business and ripped off by credit card companies who kept increasing interest rates (some to as high as 40%) and at a time when I NEVER missed a single payment, and with Egg who added PPI to a consolidation loan, telling me I had to accept it - deemed to be worth around £7K. So once, where I would have been very upset at not paying off these debts, I am now very bitter at the situation, and feel that these greedy parasites have enough money. However, final, question here is, should I make a claim for the £7k PPI? The debt has been sold to someone else now - I think maybe even twice. By claiming for the PPI, is this acknowledging the debt??
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