Nat West Directors Personal Guarantee - request for advice

[bubblesmum]

Dear All,

 

In June 2014, my partner and I arranged an overdraft with our business bank (Nat West)

as match funding for a government loan scheme.

 

 

We were asked to sign a personal directors guarantee and, at the same moment in time,

signed the waiver to legal advice form in the bank's office.

 

Sadly, our business has now been declared insolvent and the bank are now calling in the personal guarantee for £20k.

Originally, we did not believe we had signed a guranatee but the bank have now come up with the evidence

(although that was never originally forwarded to us so we had no copy until now).

 

 

We have also never received a copy of the overdraft agreement signed in June 14

although we have one signed September 14 with a pp signature from the bank.

 

We were also asked to sign a debenture (again, we have no signed copy)

and also a postponement of directors loan account which we definitely didn't sign

as they were still chasing us for that in February last year and I know we never signed this.

 

I recently wrote to the bank asking for copies of ALL signed security documents

and they only sent me the PG and waiver.

I have written to them again today asking for the other security documents.

 

Nether my partner nor I are ones to shirk our responsibilities

but I would like to come to an arrangement/agreement with the bank to either pay a lesser amount

or a small monthly payment.

 

 

I have already lost 200k personally from the business failure and hoped that was the end of it.

I have phoned several companies who state they deal with these types of issues but not one has come back to me.

 

 

My question is

How is it best to start the process of negotiation with Nat West and what should I say initially?

And is it feasible that the guarantee could somehow be unenforceable?

 

I should say that I had another company (Credit4 - beware!) took me to court

re another directors personal guarantee for the same failed company

and got a ccj and a charging order against a property I owned.

 

 

i have had to sell that property (my main income) to satisfy their debt

and have a small sum left over which I really want to keep to buy somewhere else to live now.

 

 

Another £20k will add to my losses even more and will dent that small sum.

I can't get a mortgage now due to this ccj, even though it is settled,

hence why I need to keep as much as I can to buy somewhere to live without a mortgage.

 

My partner now has a new job but has to live away as its not local. We cant afford to buy anything where he is working.

 

Feeling really fed up and just wondered if anyone had some sensible advice on how to get a settlement agreed.

Or to know someone who can help at a reasonable cost.

A little light at the end of this dark tunnel would be so nice.

 

Thank you in advance to anyone who responds to my request

[dx100uk]

why did you not defend the other case?

 

 

send NatWest an SAR.

 

 

have you also sent them a CCA request?

as this is prob covered by that act too.

[bubblesmum]

Hello,

 

At the time,

they issued proceedings against three defendants,

myself, my partner and the company under the same court action.

 

 

We were unable to afford legal advice,

tried hard to find free legal advice (proved hard as a business)

and so we sent in a defence not realising that we had to send three separate ones.

 

 

Consequently, myself and the company were given a ccj by default

and I also received an interim charging order.

 

 

I then took some (poor) legal advice and instead of fighting the ccj and getting that set aside,

I tried to fight the charging order in court but failed.

Once they had the charging order, they went for possession but I managed to find a buyer before they got that.

They graciously gave me 6 weeks (so good of them) for the sale to go through.

 

 

This all happened despite the fact that some (not all) of the papers we didn't receive

as they sent later papers to our old business address.

 

 

I only found out I had a ccj from phone calls I received from companies wanting to 'help' me.

It was from them that we found out what had happened.

 

 

Moral of that story is twofold:

never believe that no news is good news and always get legal advice even if it means you don't eat!

 

I would still like their paperwork to be properly reviewed as they were charging me, as guarantor,

30% interest on the company debt until the day I paid them off.

But then, it was so traumatic that I am now just wanting to put it behind me.

 

And now Nat West have cropped up.

 

With an SAR, will it reveal everything they have on the company, and myself and my partner as directors? Or just the company?

 

ANd would the guarantee we signed by covered by the CCA then? If so, what rights would we have?

 

I want to fight this but don't want it to get to the stage of court proceedings again.

 

Many thanks!