UAE debt, what can they do?

[dubaigal]

Hi there, sorry if this has been covered a million times before.

 

We left the UAE four years ago after living there for three years. My husband's company often left him unpaid for weeks or months at a time, making it impossible to keep up rent/school fees etc so in the end we left.

 

At the time we had a couple of credit cards and made offers to them to pay them at a rate of 1000 dirhams a month until we were in a position to repay the debt in full and requesting they freeze the interest. They flat refused, insisting on immediate repayment or a travel ban. When I explained we were already out of the country, they threatened my husband with interpol.

 

We moved to Australia and the emails went back and forth for a while, with them threatening hm but never agreeing to our offer.

 

In the end they went quiet but recently it seems the debt has been handed over to a debt collection agency in Dubai and we're back to square one. Again I've offered 1000 dirhams a month, even though we can't honestly afford it, but we do want to resolve the issue. Again they've refused and have now said they will be getting legal with him...threatening to contact his employer (even though they think he's still in Australia).

 

As we're in the UK, I want to know what they can do. Can they insist on having the debt repaid in entirety immediately? I know from experience with the other credit card that they can get very dirty (they phoned and emailed my husband's friends on Facebook telling them about the debt as well as emailing and phoning his employer about it).

 

Like I said, we want to resolve this and really don't want this haunting us for the rest of our lives...

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes this has been the subject of many threads on here.

 

Unfortunately the UK is one of the easiest countries in the world for a foreign debt to be enforced. This is because of a court cases more than 40 years ago that set a precedent. UK courts like to be helpful to creditors, which is probably down to the UK Banking industry being very powerful and with relationships with Banks worldwide.

 

So you should keep quiet about being in the UK. If you made payments from the UK, it may be possible for them to trace where the payments are coming from. If you send them emails or communications, again possible you could be traced.

 

If they are not behaving in a decent way, then you should probably just ignore them. As soon as you make any payments or contact them from the UK, they will be all over you like a rash. I believe there are some UK court cases ongoing at the moment. It is important that if you ever receive a court claim from a UK court that you deal with it. You need to stop them gaining a default judgement because you did not defend.

 

Not much to add. Ignore them and wait to see if they manage to trace you in the UK and then deal with it. With Dubai debts being dealt with in the way that they are, I cannot think of another option.

[dubaigal]

Thank you Uncle Bulgaria, sound advice. We had a uk debt collection company contact us last year in Australia regarding another debt (not proud, the whole leaving the UAE was messy) and it was a relief to deal with someone who was willing to compromise and meet us half way. We paid off the debt over the course of a few months and at the end of it we requested confirmation that it was paid off and we never heard another word, was very disappointing so I don't even think that debt has been cleared in the eyes of the bank. Very frustrating to deal with.

[unclebulgaria67]

Thank you Uncle Bulgaria, sound advice. We had a uk debt collection company contact us last year in Australia regarding another debt (not proud, the whole leaving the UAE was messy) and it was a relief to deal with someone who was willing to compromise and meet us half way. We paid off the debt over the course of a few months and at the end of it we requested confirmation that it was paid off and we never heard another word, was very disappointing so I don't even think that debt has been cleared in the eyes of the bank. Very frustrating to deal with.

 

If you paid the UK debt agency the agreed amount to pay off the debt, then that is the end of that matter. Keep the evidence just in case.

 

Stop worrying about it, as you have tried to deal with it and the debt agency in Dubai does not seem interested in coming to any agreement.