How we help
If you are the debtor you may need help writing letters, making calls, negotiating and going to court or even dealing with harassment.
If you are the creditor you may need help with statutory demands and winding up to pressurise settlement or get what is possible from court.
What we do
We work out who you owe what and try to reduce it, and we work out who owes you what and try to increase it, eg benefits and tax credits. Then we prioritise debts and deal with them.
We might be able to reduce debts by pointing out that you have paid most of a bill already and the rest can be written off, or arguing that it is so old it is timebarred or maybe the paperwork is defective, maybe it is not even in your name, you were too young, to old, too ill, too conned or maybe they owe you due to some legal infringement we can identify.
If your bank is a creditor we may need to serve an approproation notice on your bank to try to stop them helping themselves, but you may need a new bank account to be on the safe side.
The priority is to keep the roof over your head with power and keep you out of prison, so government, landlord, child maintenance and gas and electric need paying. Others such as water and lenders can join the back of the queue to be frozen or written off. In other words the idea is to slow down priority debts and stop non-priority debts.
Options
If there is too much debt to negotiate you may be looking at bankruptcy (sell your assets and write off the rest) or a debt relief order (mini bankruptcy for under £15,000 debt with under £50 a month disposable income and under £300 assets) to write off what you cannot pay. If you have over £200 a month disposable income we might be able to persuade 75% of your non priority creditors to agree to an individual voluntary arrangement so they get some money over 5 years instead of nothing. If interest is the problem you might be able to consolidate everything into one lower rate but then you have one probably secured more powerful creditor.
Delaying enforcement
Even if a creditor gets a judgment against you we can explore whether deducting money from your bank account would cause hardship, whether deducting money from wages can be delayed or reduced, whether forcing sale of your home would be disproportionate given the equity, occupiers and other solutions.
Harassment & bailiffs
If the creditor harasses you we can suggest writing off the debt in return for dropping your claim for harassment, eg they might have lied, tricked you, sold your debt behind your back or stalked you. If bailiffs turn up we can try to suspend execution or strike out a walking possession agreement. If necessary we may have to apply to strike them off or get your goods back, but ideally you will not let them in unless they are collecting tax or fines or you or a court already let them in.
Student debt
Rocketing course fees, loans, fees and more graduates than jobs have created a student debt mountain, despite the availability of bursaries, benefits, living costs loans and grants. You may worry about the confidentiality or impartiality of debt advice by a college that may even be the creditor.
Course fees may be a priority to avoid withholding of your award or being thrown off a course. Student loans are usually a priority as otherwise they will be taken straight out of wages by government.
Discount cards, bulk buying and using libraries instead of buying books may save a little. We may need to request your overdraft limit to increase to cover the actual overdraft used, or extend student terms beyond graduation. Student loans can no longer be wiped out through bankruptcy or an IVA. There is OFT Guidance that colleges cannot, for example, retaliate in academic services for accommodation debt. We can address harassment through the Freedom of Information Act and Office of the Independent Adjudicator. If a new grant is being withheld to recover overpayment of an old grant we can take any hardship argument to officers and councillors. We can look at council tax discounts and ways to increase income. Income is sometimes wrongly calculated for loans and grants. There are benefits such as disabled students allowance, adults dependants grant, childcare grant, parents learning allowance and special support grant. Colleges can sometimes find money in the Access to Learning Fund as a grant or loan. We check eligibility for normal social security and check for tax refunds.
Case Studies
Loans
Sarah had a car on finance, credit card bills and a bank loan. The car contract was more than half way through so she was able to tell them to come and take it away with no penalty. The credit card bills could have interest added to the capital pending her finding a new job. The bank loan was written off because the bank could not find her signed consumer credit agreement. However she had proof she had paid for payment protection insurance on it so she won a refund of that to pay off the credit cards.
Car park
Jenny received a letter from Shark Parking Control Ltd saying she had overstayed in a supermarket car park and owed a £60 penalty charge. A site visit proved there was no warning sign at the entrance so it was unenforceable. As she ignored the letter they had no admission who the drivwe was anyway.
Prison for hiding assets – 13/03/12 – Mohammed Modhu bankruptcy matter
