franchetti19

Hi,

Im looking for some advice regarding UK debt, ill tell my story, just to give a proper insight to how all this came about.

I Purchased my home in Scotland during the boom & when the property market crashed & the value of my home plummeted. I eventually could not afford the payments & was forced to sell up, i had to take out a loan of £15k to cover the outstanding on mortgage & fees etc. I also had to put a new central heating system on my credit card "£7k" as it was classed as condemned a few weeks after i sold the property...Sucks...!!!

I was renting & applied for jobs everywhere & got an offer in NZ. I sold everything i had to get there with my family and notified the Bank & CC company. I arrived in NZ with nothing & its very expensive to live here, i paid the credit card a few times & the loan for 7 months, but just couldn't afford it anymore.i have not paid anything for around 22 months I have been living in NZ for 30 months with my family on the bare minimum, they are all settled now & know we are never going back to Scotland. We are all full permanent residents and just trying to get by. I have had nothing from the banks or credit card company's by mail, I had a few emails at the beginning but nothing after that.

I have now moved to a new rental property in NZ but don't know if i should inform the Bank & credit card Company?. I received a text from my parents informing me that a letter has arrived at there address with my name on it stating "Communication the Law Requires to send to this address". None of my credit details had any affiliation with my parents address & they have no idea of my debt, so i have some questions & now looking for some advice.

1- Will the Debt still chase me to my new address
2 - Will i have someone knocking at my door
3- If i go back for a short holiday will i be found
4 - Will my parents have people knocking on there door demanding payment or repossession.
5- How long before the debt will be crossed off.


Any help would be great, i would hate to be looking over my shoulder for my family's sake & anyone to threaten my parents.

Thanks.

Franchetti19

MrsFychan

Its a debt and you need to pay it, yes if they have your parents details now they will keep going back to them.
They have 6 years to claim against you so don't think it will go away anytime soon and as they have already try make contact that will keep rolling.
Best thing is to contact them and make an offer of payment which you can afford.
As for going back I'm not sure how it stands if they try and make a fraud case out of it, by not paying you have basically obtained money fraudulently, even if you had no intentions of that at the beginning.

I personally would speak to your parents and see if they can help in anyway to clear the debt, better that than them having bailiffs turning up demanding payments.

morpeth

I cant imagine in a thousand years how it can be fraud if one doesn't have the money to pay a debt. There are several elements necessary in a fraud case, don't see any here.

My recommendation is do the best for your family.

However in the UK most credit card agreements I have seen are very specific about informing them of a new address. So technically you could be breaking the agreement if you do not inform them of your current address.

How long until the 6 year timetable is met ? The amount may be another consideration. Maybe call and offer 5 pounds a month, followed up by notarized letter - shows your intent, and also shows them the absurdity of spending time trying to collect something that they wont spend the money to collect in NZ.

franchetti19

I was paying the credit card for about a year before I stopped a payment the same goes for the loan. I have 3 1/2 years before the six year period is over.

Pollyana

If the debt collectors have your parents address they will keep hassling them unless and until they give out your address.
Contact the companies concerned, give them details of your current financial position and make arrangements to pay something if you can, even if its only $5 a month. Its simply not fair on your parents otherwise. Their address will be blacklisted and they will have problems with their own credit ratings.

I don't know how often debt threads come up in the NZ forum but they are very common in the Aus forum, and the advice is always the same - you borrowed the money so pay what you can, in these days of internet banking there's no reason not to. Many of us have walked in your shoes and that really is the best way forward.

MrsFychan

The 6 years is for first contact, which they have made so unfortunately doesn't come into this scenario. Fraud maybe not be the incorrect wording but knowing not paying a debt I would consider to be illegal. There obviously a contract which OP is not adhering to. As you say many people have been in the same situation but hardly the lenders fault.

Pulaski

I thought the six years was from the most recent payment - so sending them. £5/mth would effectively extend the life of the loan almost indefinitely.

At this point, in practice, the lender will likely have given up on getting most of the debt back, and may even have sold it for a few pennies on the pound to a collection agency, so if you are in a position to offer them a small lump sum, and can convince the lender/agency that that is all you really have, then you might be able to negotiate an end to the loan in exchange for whatever you can afford.

Bo-Jangles

The Statute of limitations is six years since you last acknowledged that you owed them money / or made any payment, so effectively from the date you started to default on the loan.

MrsFychan

yes, sorry my way of putting it was unclear. They have 6 years where they can do nothing and still come after you say 5yrs 11 months after the last payment.

escapedtonz

Some friends of ours here were in a similar situation back in Ireland.

They had a house with a mortgage and rented it out when they migrated to NZ. Unfortunately the Irish housing market and economy crashed and virtually overnight their Euro 350 000 house was worth half at best of what they bought it for. They went in to serious negative equity. They did try to keep afloat for a while by sending money back from their NZ earnings and maxing out the credit card etc but they always knew at some point they wouldn't be able to afford it and would have to stop paying so they could live a life here. They were very up front about with their mortgage company in Ireland and after several months just stopped paying even though they still had tenants in who continued to pay the rent. It probably took around 6 months before they received a letter that they had to answer.
Understanding the law and your rights would be a good thing to do at this time. At no time can the finance company or debt collectors harass you or make you pay. They also cannot go after others in your family unless those others have previously declared to take responsibility for a debt that you default on or they are in some way a joint person on the finance agreement.
It is not illegal to be in debt and it is not illegal to not pay debt if you have a good reason why you can't pay so it is not a criminal matter. You can't be arrested if you go back for not paying your credit card or whatever.
After some legal advice on what was likely to happen to them, their house was eventually repossessed. They had to serve notice to the tenants and on agreement of the mortgage company they were able to go in and empty all of their belongings as it was rented out furnished whilst the paperwork was going through the legal process.
The mortgage company then took over the deeds and after further financial and legal advice our friends made an application to declare themselves bankrupt in Ireland which, when granted stopped anyone making any further claim on any debts.
The house was sold at a repossession auction and our friends then became liable for the shortfall which was Euro 150k ish plus fees ???, BUT since they'd declared themselves bankrupt they didn't have to actually pay anything. As far as I know after taking the bankruptcy route all correspondence then gets diverted to their solicitor.
I met up with him last week and they are still getting letters in Ireland, which of course they ignore, or more to the point their solicitor ignores them on their behalf.
They are blacklisted for ANY credit in Ireland for a period of 7 years, but have no plans to return so doesn't really matter and even if they did set foot in Ireland they haven't committed a criminal offence and there isn't a warrant out for their arrest.
Their situation in Ireland has not impacted on anything here. They rented in Upper Hutt without any problems, they've since bought two new cars on finance and are now in their second mortgaged home in NZ.

I wouldn't take most people's advice on here and make contact to offer small payments.....well at least not yet anyways. What I would do is get some proper UK legal and financial advice and understand my options.
I'm sure what you want to do is get rid of the debt and get rid of the stress. Paying £5 a month or whatever is just going to string out the debt for many more years. It may get them off your back for the short term but they'll always be there unless you address the issue properly.

quiltman

A few years ago , we got a letter addressed to our son at our UK property. It said they believed he was the xxxxx who had lived at xx street, Liverpool and owed £7.5k to a CC company.(we have similar initials) I responded on his behalf saying he had lived in Canada for the last 7 years and had never lived in Liverpool. I subsequently discovered the debt agency contacted anyone with the same initials and surname they could find on electoral rolls in the hope of falling lucky! Got phone call from them to apologise and never heard another word.I suggest your parents write to them saying you have not lived at their address (unless you appeared on the electoral register at any time) .
As these are civil debts, it's unlikely they would chase you in NZ unless the debt was very large as it's expensive but your UK credit rating will be zilch for 7 years since you last acknowledged the debt.

Pulaski

That is pretty much how the same situation would work in the UK. ..... So bankruptcy is probably the best solution for Franchetti.

Pollyana

Need to check out the ramifications though, not just in the UK, but being resident in NZ. For instance, declaring bankruptcy in Australia means that you cannot travel outside of the country.

Bo-Jangles

There are other options before bankruptcy and the OP should get some proper advice.

There are places where you can get anonymous advice for free, such as: https://www.stepchange.org/Debtremedy.aspx?hp=400 and here https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...advice-locator

escapedtonz

Yes. I'm not trying to force the OP down that route, just making them aware of other options which may be a much better long term option.
To my knowledge declaring yourself bankrupt in the UK just means you have a zero credit rating for a period of 6 or 7 years. You keep your passport. It is not a criminal offence yada yada.