Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

[fxr]

Hullo.

I recently received a Staturory Demand from an old friend / business partner who also happens to be a solictor, at his fathers law firm.

It claims, what i feel is, wildly far from the truth that i received a 'personal loan' of £4000.

This claim is drawn from a business venture I entered into with the claimant. He spent £2k+ on what turned out to be a scam trading system and put £1500 into a spreadbetting account. He came to me with the offer of using this system to trade this account. The money was lost as the system was a scam. The trading account is in his name, and that account statement is easily obtainable detailing exact monies invested. The purchase of the trading system & the funding of the spreadbetting account will appear on his bank statements. There was never no loan, no agreement of a loan, signed or otherwise.

There is another £1000 claim for unpaid utility bills at our old shared house. This is also factually incorrect. I agreed to pay £600 of a total shared bill of £1100. I paid £300 of this before our relationship completely broke down.

He has pursued me for this alleged 'debt' on and off using various methods of applying pressure for a month or so around a year ago. Today, 1 year later, presumably just having heard of my recent announced my engagement, i recieved this Statuory Demand for £5000.

The debt has always been dispute, I even have an email thread of our last contact about this from last January, pretty much proving that dispute. I also received no 'letters of action'.

I am going to apply for the Stat Dem to be set aside. I am just trying to decide if i should get a solicitor to help me with filling out the forms? and representation at the any potential court hearing?

I dont want to waste money i dont have. I was told Legal Aid wasn't available to bankruptcy proceeding. I am on benefits.

I visited a solicitor yesterday and he said the judges ruling may come down to a 'credibility' issue. does anyone know what he meant by that?

Where would i get help drafting a set aside statement/affidavit, if i did decide to do it myself?

[Guest]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

You can do it yourself and we can offer advice here, although it will be informal advice which you follow at your own risk.

That said, a demand for a debt that is disputed is bound to fail. Search the forum for more detail on this.

[fxr]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

OK thanks Cetelco.

I am going to draft an Affidavit in Support of Application to Set Aside, tomorrow and over the weekend, for eventual submittal to court on Monday; Tuesday at the latest. Having already done some research here and around the web, I have a rough mental sketch as to what it should contain.

I will post a written draft here and ask, for anyone kind enough to offer comments good and bad.

[Guest]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

Have you seen this thread? Threat - Legal Beagles Consumer Forum post #7.

A Statutory Demand issued for a debt as tenuous as yours appears to be is going to cost him dearly and I suspect he knows that, but hopes that you do not.

[fxr]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

Yes. I read that thread and am aware I will be able to claim for all costs, and even a possible indemnity award.

I believe he is aware of the risks involved for himself, as when i sent a draft letter , erroneously to his email address ( dont ask how i managed that! ) detailing my dispute of the debt. He then sent me back another letter threatening a bankruptcy petition, he even went as far as sending a FAO: Occupier letter to my parents house containing that same letter with that threat of bankruptcy.

To me, his actions are getting ever more desperate and he is digging himself a deeper and deeper hole.

I have pretty much drafted my set aside affidavit, now. I will hopefully post it here tomorrow, i will be attaching this latest correspondence to it as further evidence of his attempts to abuse process in attempting to use the insolvency courts as a means to collect an alledged debt.


I also notice there is no court mentioned on the SD, is this normal? i dont even know what court to bring my set aside to.

[CYNthesys]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

Hi
Spreadbetting jumped out at me, dont know anything at all about spreadbetting but imagine its a form of gambling.
I might be right off track here, but I always believed that gambling debts were unenforceable

[righty]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

When you say it was a scam was he scammed also or do you suspect he was in on it?

[fxr]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

When you say it was a scam was he scammed also or do you suspect he was in on it?

No he wouldnt would have been aware the product was a scam when he purchased it. The purchase of that product was entirely his idea, I merely agreed to trade his money based on the methods that product proposed.

[fxr]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

I have a first draft of my affidivit in support of my aside. All comments are welcome and much appreciated.

The defendant states that the debt is totally disputed.

The defendant can categorically state that no personal loan was ever recieved.

Details of the dispute are outlined as:

- The alleged debt is seemingly derived from a business venture the defendant entered into with the alleged creditor. The alleged creditor came to the defendant in or about 03/04/06 with a proposal of purchasing a trading system and asked the alleged creditor to trade the alleged creditors’ money, based on the methodologies outlined in the system. The defendant accepted this offer.

The alleged creditor then spent £2000+ on the 'Pxxx' trading system. The alleged creditor invested around £1500 into a spread betting account at cxxx.com. The money was lost as the 'Pxxx' system turned out to be a scam. The trading account at cxxx.com is in the alleged creditors’ name, and that account statement is easily obtained by the alleged creditor detailing exact monies invested. The purchase of the trading system and the funding of the spread betting account will appear on the alleged creditor bank statements. With respect of this, the defendant states that he received no money from the alleged creditor; there was no 'personal' loan, and no agreement of a loan, signed or otherwise.

***


The defendant states that the alleged creditor has been fully aware of this dispute, and provides evidence in the form of an email exchange at the end of January 2010 (exhibit A). The defendant confirms that this was the last correspondence between claimant & defendant before the Statutory Demand was served.

There is another £1000 claim for unpaid utility bills at a shared residence at Street , Town. This is also factually incorrect. The defendant agreed to pay £600 of a total shared bill of £1100. The defendant paid £300 of this before the relationship completely broke down. The defendant would also like to take this opportunity, to state that he asked the claimant on a number of occasions during the length of the occupancy at Street, Town for the utility bills to be addressed rather than be left for 'a nasty surprise' when utility providers forced the tenants' hands by cutting off service. Mr P chose to repeatedly ignore this advice. The defendant also made an offer to pay his share of the bills off on an instalment basis. Mr P refused this offer.

The defendant states that he has never received any proof that the debt exists, no paperwork of why the debt is said to exist, no valid default notice and was provided no proper means to dispute the debt.

The defendant states that upon receipt, of a draft response to the Statutory Demand in an email (11/11/10) (exhibit B), in which the defendant again makes clear his total dispute of the existence of any debt. The claimant saw fit to once again ignore the dispute, and proceed with threats of petitioning for bankruptcy, both to the defendant personally (exhibit C) and made sure the defendants’ parents were aware of the bankruptcy threat (exhibit D). The claimant also asked for the defendant to not contact the claimant, marked as point of contact on the Stat Demand again.

The defendant would like it be known that he will pursuing legal costs, indemnity costs and travel expenses as he believes the alleged creditors claim to be vexatious and unlawful. It is in the defendant’s eyes a clear and gross abuse of process.

[fxr]

Re: Advice on being served Statutory Demand please.

Hullo.

OK so , i stupidly, in hindsight, didn't submit the set aside to court (wasting all the good advice given on this thread, I am sorry for that), i did have the sudden illness & death of a close family relative to deal with at the time.

I did however, have a C.A.B person, send a letter to the claimant saying that the debt was in dispute (again) and asked for the claimant to prove the debt. This request was ignored.

I have now been served a bankruptcy petition.

I am preparing a response to this. I have a few quick questions, i hope someone can answer.

I have filled out form 6.19. (i can post a draft of this if anyone cares to look at it) At the time of filing this (on friday) i am going to ask if my request to set aside stat demand can be filed along with it.

Is it likely to be accepted? can i get the affidavit witness at court at time of filing?

if it is, do i include my evidence with it? e.g emails, letter correspondence?

do i have to include a written defence separately when filing the set aside, and intention to oppose BP ?

I am away out on a limb here now, and any advice to clarify what the court will be expecting of me when i give notice of my intention to oppose the BP.

thanks.