Statutory Demand

[smallbutmighty]

I have just had through the post a Stat Demand, however I have some questions in regards to this - I have spoken to our county court about this and they are slightly confused as well so any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

The demand is for rental arrears for the sum of £1234.78 - firstly when I spoke to our local court they have stated that it will go to the appropriate court where the debt occured however on this demand it states [the High Court of Justice] [Northampton. . . .] and below it states that any application to set aside this demand should be made to that court - the debt occured in surrey?? It was delivered by post which I received yesterday but the date on the demand is the 12th.

 

At the bottom of part A on this form it says that a - you have only 18 days to apply to the court to have it set aside which has been striked through which leaves me with b you only have 21 days before the creditor may present a bankruptcy petition. Firstly can I get this set aside and secondly given that reading are slightly confused as to why it says northampton but have told me to apply to them being reading is this correct?

 

Secondly I want to have this set aside for the reasons that follow:

We took on x rental property and had to redecorate which they agreed to pay for but haven't done so so far and we are owed an outstanding sum of £1200 - it states on the checkin that walls etc need painting and was agreed along with the cost which was either to be paid in full or offset against our monthly rental.

 

They entered the property illegally whilst we were in the process of moving out and several items of value have gone missing - they had admitted to entering the property without our consent and whilst we still had personal items in there. We have written to them on numerous occassions regarding this as there were several items of value that have disappeared but had no correspondance from them.

 

Finally we have not received our deposit back and the landlord sent us a letter clearly stating that our deposit is for damages and can not be set off against any arrears, yet we still have not had this returned to us.

 

I am now at my wits end with this, however I do not see why they should get away with this and that my partner and I be made bankrupt.

 

Any help would be appreciated

[silverfox1961]

Hi

I'm not going to be much help but at least your post will now appear on todays posts

 

Unless you have property, I cannot see the reason behind a SD

 

IMO you should at the very least try to get this set aside. This should then be transferred to your local court.

 

There has been a few threads on DCA's using the SD as a debt collection tool where they had no real reason to follow through in the hope it scared the debtor into paying. This may be similar but hold fire till the experts arrive

[smallbutmighty]

Thanks, I have to say I am very worried about this to say the least and I have not been in this position before and have no idea what to do about it

[steampowered]

You have been given incorrect advice by your local court. Statutory Demands are not court documents. They are prepared by the Creditor. There is nothing yet anywhere in the court system.

 

To get a SD set aside you would apply to the court where you would have to make your own bankruptcy petition. This will most likely be the closest court to you. The SD form has square brackets which the creditor is supposed to remove to tell you what that court is. The fact that the square-brackets were not removed suggests that the landlord did not know how to fill in the form property and that he did not get professional help. The landlord probably does not know what he is doing. Issuing an SD is free but issuing a bankruptcy petition or a court claim costs money, so most likely it is just a scare tactic for the moment.

 

I'm afraid the landlord may well be in the right here. Most leases contain a clause stating that you cannot off-set damages against rent. I note what it says on the check-in inventory, but you should still check your lease agreement. You basically have two options: first option is to try and get the SD set aside, second option is to wait and see if he will issue a bankruptcy petition. If he does bring a BP, you should be ready to bring the rental arrears below £750 to bring the debt below £750 which would mean he can no longer pursue bankruptcy through the statutory demand route.

 

In an ideal world, you would write to the landlord setting out exactly what you are claiming for, what the arrears are and reach a sensible agreement. Otherwise, the issue of missing personal items and redecoration costs is ultimately something you could deal with through small claims court. The issue of the deposit is something you should resolve through the deposit protection scheme, why not get the ball rolling with this.