house valued at £125,000 in 1992,tried to sell for £110,000, reposessed by nhl in sept 1992. sold by nhl in november 1992 for £73950. I was made bankrupt in 1995 and discharged in 1998. the first debt collection company (robinson way & co) wrote to my wife in october 1997 asking for the shortfall of £42296 to be repaid. We contacted CAB who, after the usual,various correspondence, asked for the debt to be written off. Nothing heard from them again until June this year from another debt collection Company (Direct Legal & Collections)Anyone heard of these? We went back to CAB, they advised my wife to go bankrupt, but she doesn't want to as we now have equity in the property we are living in.The other option open to us is to offer a lump sum payment, although CAB have advised this is unlikely to be accepted. She suggested £2-£2,500 (We thought more like £4,000). We would like to know if the debt collectors are working for nhl or if they bought the debt from Robinson Way & Co, is this likely? We have found the advice on this site very helpful, and more importantly we now have hope! We have checked the court papers, at the time of repossesion, and the part where it says monies to be paid to the lender has been crossed out by the court. Is this the MJO that everyone mentions? Also is there a correct way to compose a letter asking for the SARN information? Finally, the latest letter addressed to my wife had her name wrong, when told that my wife was seeking legal advice, they wouldn't say anything to her because the name differed and quoted the data protection act! We haven't heard anything since the 6th July, should we wait, or should we instigate things by asking for the SARN? all replies gratefully recieved.

-- carrot (jasper206@hotmail.com), August 01, 2001

Answers

Sounds like the debt collectors were bullshitting you re the name change//data protection act stuff. You should have kept her name change secret from them and then she could have just denied being that person if/when they went to court. Very funny, and costs them money as the court papers are useless and costs are awarded against them for wasting court time.

You can probably wait on the basis that if they want any money, they have to come back to you. Keep the SARN stuff until they do - no sense in provoking them in action. Come back to Q&A at that point and ask for a SARN format letter. I'm sure you'll get some examples. When you do get round to SARNing, it's important to SARN your original lender as well as both the previous and current bunch of debt collectors.

Viz how the debt ended up with these people, well my guess is that they are one of a number of people who take debt recovery on as a no- recovery, no-fee option. They can be quite difficult to shake-off, but don't tend to know anything about the intricacies of the law in this area.

Next, the advice from CAB. It is possible that a lump sum will be rejected, but offering it is still a good idea. The worst they can do is say no, and provided you word your letter appropriately (full of 'without prejudice' and making clear you don't admit the liability, you could be no worse off. I'd have offered them £1000 though - let them work it up to 2K. If they reject it, ask them how much they do want. I don't know how good the CAB people are that you saw and it might be worthwhile either going seeing a solicitor, or asking for a specialist at CAB. Get them to have a look at this site.

-- (bluemoon@mcfc.co.uk), August 02, 2001.