Can anyone explain the meaning of "without prejudice"? We have an agreement to repay SOME of the shortfall from voluntary repossesion in 1990 as they found out where we were by posing as the DSS and this was accepted "without prejudice".

However we are now in financial difficulties with our bank and can't afford to pay this anymore.

This is with a collection agency.

What can they REALLY do after all this time anyway?

We stupidly agreed to pay up until the 12 year deadline. I wish I'd known about this website sooner.

We live in a council house so we have nothing that they can take from us.

After all this time we're just so ti9red of it all and just want our life back!

Sincerely Sue Gates

-- SUZANNE GATES (sue.gates@dtn.ntl.com), June 02, 2000

Answers

"Without Prejudice" means that whatever you agree about now, will have no bearing on other issues in that matter at a later date.

For example, if you agree to pay #10,000 of a #30,000 shortfall on a without prejudice basis, then at some point in the future you come into money then the agency basically resserve the right to chase you for the other #20,000 - the fact that you both agreed that you would pay them #10,000 no longer matters.

Lawyers use Without Prejudice a lot, so that they can try to come to arrangements in matters without jeopardising their situations.

You can make it work in your favour too, you've agreed to pay on a Without Prejudice basis, so you can approach them and offer them a lump sum, for example #2,000 on a full and final settlement basis. If the collections agency disagree, it doesn't have any effect on the repayment scheme you have already.

If you've agreed to a large shortfall repayment and you're not sure whether or not the lender is fully entitled to this, then start asking questions - you can see examples on this website.

Depending on the amount owed, they could try taking you to Court, but when chasing shortfall's I see that a lot of collection agencies do try and avoid this. So if you've got other debt problems, sort out a repayment scheme with your main creditors first, and then lessen your payments to the collections agency (you can do this through the CAB) and see what happens next. They can't take what you haven't got!

-- denise (pendle@amun-ra.demon.co.uk), June 04, 2000.