H is now back and I have gained more info. Original lease was with RBS, when RBS was going downhill they were made to sell the leases to another company. H asked for all the details and was sent them but it was so complicated he did an "ostrich job" and assumed the only way he could contest this was paying a solicitor to translate and we couldn't afford that as he was out of work at that point. The original contract actually ran out and H was allowed to keep it on a month by month basis, no agreement to this was ever sent or signed by him. But he is assuming that there is a clause in the lease that says they can do this and carry on the same terms as previously agreed. It then got passed to BW Legal and he agreed a £75 arrangement which he kept to, then BW got our I&E and demanded £500, they had seen that I didn't contribute to a great deal of the household expenses and decided I should so it would free up H's money to pay them. Even though he said that it was my money and he couldn't have the use of it, quite rightly so! This was in a telephone call instigated by them. He offered them £125, rising to £200 which they rejected, mentioning that they "may" do a Statutory Demand. H replied in writing saying we could up the amount to £150 for three months, then rising to £250 for three months then onto £500 thereafter. But the SD Delivery man has appeared before they have even answered this letter, so no "may" at all! We have now ascertain that due to the Tax Bill not being one, we could up it to £350 for six months then onto the £500, and potentially at some point in the two years even more! H phoned Step Change this morning and the advice was useless, H explained everyone else had accepted the offers of payment and it was only BW Legal who were being bullies, SC Man says its now a priority debt and pay them first and ignore the others for the time being. Not very professional, they have been kind enough not to kick up a fuss, why should they lose out? H thinks that the debt has not been bought by BW, and is going to try and phone the company the debt is with and let them know he is offering to pay sensible amounts and BW wont accept it. This may or may not work, as its likely they will send him back to BW. But what the heck it cant hurt they want their money after all and BW are just prolonging them not getting it. I am sure if the SD was accepted, we would have grounds to set it aside. 1. We can pay the bill at a reasonable rate. 2. We have paid up till now the agreed amount 3. H did start to contest the agreement, and got no further! 4. We have a proper plan in place which Step Change originally helped us with so advice was taken. If push comes to shove we can also just about pay £500 and live on beans on toast and spend the next year wiggling money around, something I really do not want to do, I have been doing it for the last three years and don't wish to do it a minute longer! I really do appreciate all the help and advice you guys have given me, just wish in a way it was my debt, I would give the BW Guy a right ear bashing, he is a bully plain and simple!

Will check it out and get back to you Citizen B!

Thanks UncleB We will only be offering them what is affordable as otherwise it will jeopardise the rest of our plan and I am not prepared to do that for anyone. I for one find a 10k bill for over mileage extortionate so will ask H to dig out the lease and any bills he has over the weekend. So from your last sentence have I interpreted that if BW try to bankrupt you they will make a profit out of the debt, how! (sorry to be dim)

Definitely get onto the TCM and get the Safeguarding Officers number, all apprentices should be employment led now, so he would have to be doing a BTEC of some sort in Work Competency and seeing an Assessor in the workplace, believe me passing tools wouldn't get my apprentices through their BTEC's. Very interesting that its more than a year and so far no one has completed this.

Hi Altcr I presume your son is on a years apprenticeship with a Training Provider who has arranged the apprenticeship. Do you know if your son is employed by the company he works for, do they pay his pay cheque or does he claim it via timesheet from the Training Providers ATA. If he is fully employed by the company he works for they have the same responsibilities to follow disciplinary procedures as with any other staff member. The Training Provider should have a "safeguarding" or "wellbeing" officer, his training centre manager should have details of how to contact this person, in fact if he has informed his TCM she/he should have contact them by now. The Training Provider has a duty of care to look after your son and make sure he is not being used as "slave labour" although being in the industry I do know that some young people want to run before they can walk and assume its "slave labour" If the Training Centre Manager has done nothing, ring and ask for the safeguarding officers contact number and phone them. Someone should be able to help him sort it out. For your information he should always contact his Training Centre Manager and/or his Work Placement Assessor, they can both report back information to the appropriate adult. Hope you get it sorted out, not all apprenticeships are like this, but I can understand your concern for your son.

Thanks UncleB Its not the actual lease but H kept the car over the lease time with their agreement, and also did much more mileage than he originally said he was going to, this resulted in a 10k bill, I personally am not sure of the ins and outs of why it came to so much presently but will be asking? Were not insolvent, infact far from it, if we budget carefully and plan ahead we should come through this sad and sorry patch in our financial lives in two years. BW are as you said being bullies, they think they can make us pay more by threatening us. H is not going to accept the SD and go back to them and try to renegotiate, I know its what they want but neither do we want the hassle of a court case just to prove them wrong..

Had a good long think and worry about this over night! Having read a fair bit on here most people have been served their SD. As SD delivery man is wanting to make an appointment to give H the SD, can you not agree to meet him, if we accept the SD before getting a reply from BW Legal arnt we setting it all in motion when there is still a letter outstanding? Spoke with H last night and he had good news that when working on his HMRC Tax Returns it appears that they probably owe us money not the other way around, which again has freed up additional funds which can be paid to BW Legal. So frustrated at the moment, we have finally got H into a good new job, sorted out a plan, and BW Legal are just being bullies, so far everyone else has been helpful.

Perhaps in hindsight sending a joint I&E wasn't a good idea? I did type that we would not default on the mortgage. If they accept our current offering would we still need to set aside the SD? Personally I do not trust them to cancel it of their own accord.

Hi Citizen Our payment plan separates out who pays for what, and currently I do not contribute to the mortgage, H pays it all, I however pay my horses livery bills which amount to approx. £500 a month, BW Legal have seen this on the plan and decided that I should contribute this money to the mortgage allowing H £500 less to pay every month so he can pay that to them. We will not default on the mortgage to pay them any more.

Hi I am new and looking for some advice. My husband has been dealing with BW Legal over a car lease he had with RBS. Due to us being in quite some debt after H being out of work we have already received Debt Advise from Step Change and set out a plan to send to our outstanding creditors. For a period of time we were paying BW Legal £75 as agreed, they then sent us a letter saying that they wanted more from August. H replied saying it would rise to £125 and then £200, they replied asking for £500 pound and stating that it would take four years to pay the debt at £500. They also stated that they would be going for a SD for Bankruptcy if we didn't agree to the £500, as they could see that I could afford to pay more money to the mortgage and free up the £500 for H to pay them. Its not my debt, its totally in his name. H has since replied and informed them that it would be £125 for three months, then £250 for three months and then up to £500 till the debt was repaid, this would be two years not the four they are stating. They wont have received this letter yet, but this evening a gentleman tried to issue H with an SD, but as he is working away H had to phone him and agree to be served the document on Friday. The gentleman would not give me any details what so ever under the Data Protection Act, yet BW Legal expect me to free up money to pay H's debt to them. So you can imagine that makes me quite angry at the cheek of them. He also explained to H that this is only threat tactics to make us pay them more.. He was unusually a genuinely nice man bearing in mind his job choice. He has always kept to the agreement he has made with them, and has a plan in place to pay them more as other debts are cleared, I truly believe they have seen the plan and now just want me to pay the bill via H, total bullying tactics, they wont speak to me as otherwise I'd ask them how they would feel about me shooting the horse the bill is paying for, just to get their money but I really don't expect they would care. As we have stuck to our side of the payment plan, how they can suddenly change the plan and attempt bankruptcy proceedings, surely a judge would say they are doing what was agreed and you are just harassing them. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.