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Hi,
I am new to the forum so please forgive me if this question is in the wrong section or is too long! This morning I received "Petition to Creditor - Warrant to cite" from a company I had not heard of until this morning requesting the sequestration of my estate (I assume this means bankruptcy?). I will explain the timeline of events as best I can from my documents without revealing personally identifiable information:
Now yesterday I received the citation that contains a lot of documents mostly confirming the above timeline of the estate but also additional information I was unaware of:
I vaguely recall speaking to a company a few years ago who said that a debt would be cleared due to my mother passing when I informed them, it may have been this company, but I have no way to tell this now.
So now that is out the way I have a few questions and I would appreciate the advice:
there is a good chance this debt will run me into the ground anyway in the long term so depending on the risk involved I would prefer to try and fight this in the court.
Thanks for your time, I know the post is quite long but I didn't want to miss any small bits of information that could be relevant.
I am new to the forum so please forgive me if this question is in the wrong section or is too long! This morning I received "Petition to Creditor - Warrant to cite" from a company I had not heard of until this morning requesting the sequestration of my estate (I assume this means bankruptcy?). I will explain the timeline of events as best I can from my documents without revealing personally identifiable information:
July 2011 - Death certificate issued for my mother
Deed of assumption and resignation issued from previous executors naming myself as the new executor (this was due to a problem with the new will my mum had written after a divorce that meant her old one was still in effect)
All letters received and found at the property passed to my solicitor
list of all debts and assets collated - 25k remaining on mortgage to be paid and 18k debts to be paid in order to prevent the house being sold (I still resided at the property)
March 2012 - Confirmation signed by sheriff
May 2012 - New mortgage granted to me to purchase the house, pay off all my mothers estates debts and title deeds under my name
The only company at this point I still had agreements with regarding my mother was a council tax bill to pay off and the electric company
All letters received and found at the property passed to my solicitor
list of all debts and assets collated - 25k remaining on mortgage to be paid and 18k debts to be paid in order to prevent the house being sold (I still resided at the property)
March 2012 - Confirmation signed by sheriff
May 2012 - New mortgage granted to me to purchase the house, pay off all my mothers estates debts and title deeds under my name
The only company at this point I still had agreements with regarding my mother was a council tax bill to pay off and the electric company
Now yesterday I received the citation that contains a lot of documents mostly confirming the above timeline of the estate but also additional information I was unaware of:
Nov 2004 - the debt collection firm started taking payments from my mother for a balance of 5k after a decree was granted against her
April 2006 - These payments stop suddenly at a balance of 4k
2006 - Sept 2012 - interest accrued to 6.5k
May 2012 - late mothers estate was confirmed and settled
November 2012 - letter sent to me by the firm requesting 6.5k from the estate, no proof of delivery, and I am unable to find this letter anywhere, it is not included in the documents that my solicitors returned to me, so presumably they were also unaware.
1 July 2016 - A letter with recorded delivery sent to the Accountant in bankruptcy with the petition being sent to court, I have difficulty understanding if this is supposed to be a copy of one also sent to me but again I cant find a letter from this firm stating any such thing, and by this point we are only talking a number of weeks ago anyway!
today - received the petition and quoting the sum of 7K to(seems to have had some more interest and expenses added) to go to court at the end of this month
there is no supplied correspondence between the firm and my mother about why the payments stopped, the only proof they have included in the petition is that I was contacted is a letter from 2012 and possibly one from 2016 that has no proof I received them, no information about any phone calls to me or any attempt to contact me as far as I can see apart from mainly this single 2012 letter. April 2006 - These payments stop suddenly at a balance of 4k
2006 - Sept 2012 - interest accrued to 6.5k
May 2012 - late mothers estate was confirmed and settled
November 2012 - letter sent to me by the firm requesting 6.5k from the estate, no proof of delivery, and I am unable to find this letter anywhere, it is not included in the documents that my solicitors returned to me, so presumably they were also unaware.
1 July 2016 - A letter with recorded delivery sent to the Accountant in bankruptcy with the petition being sent to court, I have difficulty understanding if this is supposed to be a copy of one also sent to me but again I cant find a letter from this firm stating any such thing, and by this point we are only talking a number of weeks ago anyway!
today - received the petition and quoting the sum of 7K to(seems to have had some more interest and expenses added) to go to court at the end of this month
I vaguely recall speaking to a company a few years ago who said that a debt would be cleared due to my mother passing when I informed them, it may have been this company, but I have no way to tell this now.
So now that is out the way I have a few questions and I would appreciate the advice:
- what would happen were the judge to grant sequestration? is that the only outcome they can grant, or can they just force repayments?
- what is the risk I will lose my property over this?
- do I have a realistic chance of having this dropped by the judge, what would be required on my part?
- should I seek legal advice or will I just be throwing more money away?
- should I call the firm and try to arrange some payment plan, would this prevent this court action?
- what reasonable actions are solicitors/executors expected to take to find out all the creditors someone has when they die? How could this have been missed? Was it incompetency of my solicitors in 2011/12?
there is a good chance this debt will run me into the ground anyway in the long term so depending on the risk involved I would prefer to try and fight this in the court.
Thanks for your time, I know the post is quite long but I didn't want to miss any small bits of information that could be relevant.
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