Any tips on consumer law and old debts?

hi just spoke to good friend of mine (yes really) he was divorced and let wife keep house and pays child support as good man & for years rented accomadation, now just got small flat back on mortgage after 10 years of working 12 hours day & saving hard. A letter turned up out of blue from a company for a really old debt that was from 3-4 years ago, they have not been in contact with him for 2 years and he said what with divorce, renting & moving around and now finally feeling that he is in better place this has happened and he is concerned. I told him ignore but he said this is his home and he contacted them as he doesn't want bailliffs knocking. The company had charged way over top for the car at the time he had more than paid for it plus interest and he feels like its come back to haunt him , they asked "have you got credit card debit card" they want £3000.00 that's a lot of money. I said CAB but he said couldnt handle patronising? he's very proud man please only serious ansa's THANX

Answer:
Make a reasonable offer to repay the debt even £10 pm. Keep all letters they send to the company money is owed to. If they they refuse and it goes to court the judge will see an offer has been made and nine times out of ten they decide to accept the offer. Keep the monthly payment going until they can get advice from the cab or ask the people to consolidate the debts with a debt managment programme with any other debts ie credit cards etc and make one payment and the company split the monthly payments by eg 5 creditors. I am doing this myself and it works.
Non priorty debts are credit. Priorty debts are anything to do with the governement/ Inland Revenue ie coucil taxes/ mortgages / rent and TV anything else is not compulsory.
Try a solicitor,I think that you can get a free 1/2 hour session from most of them.
I had a similar problem years ago.The solicitor told me how to "act",-I did not have to pay the debt.
I am presuming first of all the the debt is valid and I have just about managed to ascertain that this was for an automobile with very high interest. (No offense but the punctuation is poor).

The debt will have to be paid in order to avoid bailiffs, in addition it would be beneficial for your "friend" not to have to go to court over this as from the little background story there, it seems as if this will just destroy everything he has worked so hard for. He therefore needs to come to an agreement with the company to keep them happy for now.

Without knowing what sort of re-payments he can afford it's difficult to suggest a precise option, however, as an experienced credit controller, if I was the company, I would be looking for the debt to be re-payed within the next 12 months (possibly up to 18 in extreme circumstances). Remeber that there are administration costs involved for the company to use third party debt collection agencies and apply for court orders and they will not be able to reclaim the whole cost in most circumstances. Therefore, as long as the debt is coming down without the need for such action, they will be happy.

In conclusion, agree to a fixed payment plan with the company and make sure you keep strictly to this or make larger payments if and when possible.

Good Luck!

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