Can They Take Further Action?

[ThatgirlMolly]

Advise please!

we have been in financial difficulty lately due to my pay at work decreasing - as a result we fell behind with our son's nursery's fee's. We offered to arrange a payment plan with the nursery to clear the balance which they agreed to, but in the end decided to take our son out of the nursery and continue to pay the debt. We received a letter today from a collection agency demanding the money up front, we offered to arrange a payment plan which they are considering. If they say no is there anything we can do? We really can't afford to pay the total amount upfront, so worried that the bailiffs will end up knocking on the door!

[Buenchico]

If the collection agency doesn't accept your payment plan, all they can do is to apply to a court for a CCJ to be issued against you.

If you didn't respond to the court action the CCJ could insist that you repaid the full amount immediately. However, as long as you provided the court with details of your means, the CCJ wouldn't require you to pay at a rate greater than you could afford. (i.e. as long as you cooperated with the court, all that the collection agency could get from going to court would be a court-backed repayment plan which you could afford. For that reason they won't rush to take court action against you; it's far simpler for them to just agree a repayment plan with you in the first place).

If the collection agency did decide to take you to court, and secured a CCJ against you, then you'd still have nothing to worry about as long as you kept up the repayments ordered by the court. (If your income fell even further you'd be entitled to ask the court to reduce your payments).

It's only IF a CCJ was issued against you AND you failed to comply with it that you'd need to really worry. It's at that stage (and NOT before) that the collection agency could apply to the court for an enforcement order (allowing them to send in the bailiff's or to take the money directly from your pay).

In summary then:
(i) it's probably unlikely that the collection agency will take you to court (as they'd only end up with a repayment plan similar to what could be voluntarily agreed to anyway) ; and
(ii) even if they did, you'd still not have to worry about bailiffs (or other enforcement action) unless you failed to comply with the terms of the CCJ (which, as I've said, would enable you to pay at an affordable rate).

[EDDIE51]

If you get a ccj then just send in the income statement and make an offer of repayment. If you are genuinely short of money make a token offer of say £1` a month. They will accept it and there is no interest, as long as you keep up the payments there is nothing more they can do.
I was made redundant at 60 years old, I could not repay a bank overdraft of £6000. It went to a CCJ and I filled in the income form.
My only income is and was pension credit, so I offered £1 a month. The offer was accepted and it is paid by DD. Now as long as I pay the £1 a month no charges or interest can be added .

[Guilbert53]

>>>son's nursery's fee's

Fees is a plural of Fee.

You don't need the apostrophe between the E and the S

[zebo]

Guilbert, I'm sure that your grammar lesson will make them feel better about their perilous situation. Is there not a time to keep one's smugness to oneself? I speak as one for whom a misplaced apostrophe grates, my former butcher used to ask me to check his boards every week!