So you pay your entry fee and the cost of a few threatening letters then 'sell' your debt to debt collectors because you cannot enforce it yourself.

The debt collectors, sorry, financial advisers then put a claim into the County Court and you have to pay all the costs of the case which will be substantial if the debtor decides to defend or counterclaim.

If you win you then have additional court and other costs in trying to enforce the order against the debtors property if you can find any

Anything left you get.

Lucky we have these people to help us?

[QUOTE=cardi;10691660]So you pay your entry fee and the cost of a few threatening letters then 'sell' your debt to debt collectors because you cannot enforce it yourself.

The debt collectors, sorry, financial advisers then put a claim into the County Court and you have to pay all the costs of the case which will be substantial if the debtor decides to defend or counterclaim.

If you win you then have additional court and other costs in trying to enforce the order against the debtors property if you can find any

Anything left you get.

Lucky we have these people to help us? [/QUOTE

Nobody said it was cheap, but a good many people and companies must use these services or there wouldn't be so many of them around.

But I just wanted to make it clear that debt incurred in another country CAN and IS being pursued through the UK County Courts, when you were saying it could not happen.

That's for sure.

The Spanish expat community does seem to have more than its fair share of suckers, sorry, financially naive individuals.

LOL also looking at Wellbeck Law's site as mentioned in the sur article, they claim to be the only UK company that offers this service of chasing community fees, they don't mention anything about operating on behalf of Spanish Banks to chase mortgage defaulters at all.

They also say that their 'service' is really on,y suitable for debts up to £5000 ( so cant see how that applies to mortgage default) and it seems to be more or a tracing people service that anything else.

Their big selling point seems to be they can locate people in about 12 months whereas similar company's in Spain take 36 months - that will be because of all these wonderful Spanish computer and admin systems that we have been hearing about on here

They also point out that they can't do attachment of earnings orders if folk dont work of course and that folk will be alerted if they are going for a third party claim i.e. a bank or building society and if the person has cleared out their accounts or closes it there is nothing they can do.

Basically unless the person pays up willingly there is little they can do.

They then go on to point out the limitations of bailiff services and what bailiffs can and can't do. Basically you pay them lots of your money in the vague hope they will trace the debtor, but then in terms of the recovery of the debt, they list loads of waivers.

Have a look at this thread from a UK Legal Questions website which deals specifically with Spanish banks chasing outstanding mortgage debt in the UK. I would imagine the banks have their own in-house legal people to deal with these issues so don't need to go to the no-win no-fee recovery firms.



http://www.justanswer.com/uk-law/3lc...er-s-name.html

The problem with trying to chase any debt, is getting the money out of people who have not got a lot of spare.

I once worked on "collections" and whenever we put pressure on people to pay, the asked for a form to fill in detailing their living expenses and all debts.

A calculation was then made as to how the money would be dished out, it was done on a pro rata basis, with the biggest creditors getting the biggest share.

It sounds a great solution, but in many cases the debtors were assessed as only having about 20 pounds a week to spare and this was shared between all creditors, some getting a little as 25p a month off the debt.

And as long as the payments were regular, there was nothing that the creditors could do about it.

A lot of this was done through the CAB.

If collectors put strong arm tactics, then this may help., and despite the scaremongers who are trying to frighten the defaulting ex-expats to death with tales of debt collection agencies to get back money owed in Spain, just contact a government backed scheme, that is what it is for, and don´t be intimidated by debt collectors who are tracking money down for Spanish debts.

The bit I have pasted in bold, is important, and more importantly it is the law.

So if that is what British creditors are faced with, I can´t see the rights of the debtor being waived to accommodate creditors from Spain.

If there is genuine hardship they cannot get blood out of a stone, no matter what scare tactics they use.

---------------------------------

http://bbcdebts.com/?gclid=CI6BiouK_bYCFVMbtAod1goAjQ

-------------------------------

Government Backed Schemes are now in place to help anyone who is finding it difficult to make their monthly payments, fill in the form with your details to find out what you should realistically be paying each month

There are various Government backed options such as being able to eliminate up to 80% of debts, reduce monthly payments and freeze interest.

If you would like to learn more about the Government Backed Schemes complete the form

When you have completed the form you will be sent an email within 15 minutes regarding the options available to you and your legal rights

Your monthly payments must be reduced to an affordable level allowing you to first pay all of your living expenses. This is the law

The Law Says You Should be paying only what you can genuinely afford. Find out now what you should be paying each month

Debt Help and Debt Advice is available completely free of charge
---------------------------------------

Yes this is very true. You can't get money where none is in the first place. Presumably the friend of the OP is not defaulting on a mortgage as a lifestyle choice, one assumes they have no money.

That was my point about bailiffs there are many things they aren't allowed to take, as there are laws around subsisting, which the scaremongers are happily ignoring to put the fight enters in people ( no idea why they would want to do that)

A decent regime would just take the keys back rather than trying to get blood out of a stone, and I have a feeling from the amount of empty property's about that is what the banks do, although presumably they don't have much luck selling them either the state a lot of places seem to be in now.

You aren't actually a native English speaker, are you?

It costs 35 quid to chase a debt above 300 quid through the Money Online website and any bailiffs that get involved will add their money onto the debt not take it out of your money.


I have said it before on here, I knew someone very well who was chased all the way to Spain for a council tax bill a few years after she had moved out there. Any debt can be chased anywhere, its just the impetus behind the chasing that makes the difference. Pop over to the Australia forum and ask the question about chasing debt aaaaalllllllll the way over there!

Im sorry but I fail to see the relevance of this post to the discussion

+ 1

+3 Do you perhaps have a problem with people who don't speak English as a first language ?

Good post

We fell between a rock and a hard place when the £ fell dramatically in the middle of a partial house build. . Crap about financial naivety aside we'd worked bloody hard and continue to do so, which is more than can be said for the financial sector which caused all this. Anyway, enough background. We were helped by one of these plans and now we are paying our debts ...slowly admittedly, and living very frugally.


The free organisations such as Payplan which we use, are financed by the government and the financial sector themselves in order to stop people just fleeing from their debts. It can be very hard to pay as we actually pay a little more than we can afford and also my income is not at all predictable, so family helps us a bit from time-to time. And even though I don't love the banks to bits I don't mind paying my debts in a way and at a level which slaps us (for accidentally overreaching) and them (for causing the crisis) equally.

I recommend them (Payplan) to anyone who finds themselves getting into trouble. As soon as possible! The longer you leave it the greater your debt. Anyone who needs a bit of moral support in a rough patch can PM me for our experience.

You post will give a bit of a lift to those who are having trouble.

People should be warned to only go for the government backed schemes, as there are plenty waiting to cash in on their troubles.