debt collection SUCKS ... ... the money from my pocket . Who can give me a solution?
Debt collection problems
(1) The courts should enforce the orders for information: as it stands,
according to a solicitor to whom I spoke, a person with a website who
won a judgement but can't enforce it, and the court staff themselves,
nothing is done to check on the stuff debtors say when they give
information. They can and do declare themselves to have no property, no
bank accounts, no anything, when it isn't true. A judgement debtor
should be made to bring in original documentation that supports what he
says about his finances and this should be checked against his tax
records. If a judgement debtor can't support what he says with original
documentation, that should be grounds for arrest. If there isn't enough
room in prisons, then tag the debtor and make him have to report to the
police once a week.
(2) There should be an order that could be made against the debtor's
National Insurance number, that, for a specified length of time, say six
months or even a year, that would allow a creditor to take money from
any bank account that the debtor has. Further, all a debtor's property
should be tied to some identification number so that, say, if he hasn't
any money in the bank, but has a house, the order would allow the
creditor to put a charge against the house. As it is, the creditor has
to find out, by himself, whether the debtor has property and has to find
whether the debtor has a bank account or is owed money. Further, the
third party order only freezes the bank account for a short period of
time and if the creditor guesses the wrong time to use the order, he
won't get any money: this is just an obscene lottery.
(3) There should be a national register which shows the number of
successful claims made against businesses and the number of complaints
made to Trading Standards against businesses. Bad or incompetent
businesses should not be able to hide their deeds behind the Data
Protection Act. Bad management practices in this country will not
change until we stop letting bad managers get away with things.
(4) People should not be allowed to 'max out' their credit cards, etc,
then go bankrupt: from my reading of the new bankruptcy law, the
behaviour of a person right before bankruptcy is now taken into account,
but from what I have seen on uk.legal, the CAB still advises people to
'max out' their credit cards, etc, so I am not certain whether this part
of the law is being enforced. If it isn't, it should be.
(5) Claims involving unfair contract terms or business practices should
automatically be referred to the OFT if the claim is won. As it is, the
OFT only finds out about such claims if someone makes a separate
complaint to the OFT. Further, The OFT should be given much more power
to stop businesses that are using unfair contract terms. As it is, the
OFT can find that almost all of a business' terms are unfair, and the
business sends a letter to the OFT saying the terms will be withdrawn
(an informal undertaking) and then waltzes off and uses exactly the
same business terms with impunity.
(6) Bailiffs have, as I understand it, the power to force access to
business premises but not to individual debtors' homes. Sole traders
who work in their homes should not be able, if the debt is incurred
through their business, to hide behind the individual debtor's home
rule. They must not be able to behave like a business when that's
advantageous compared to being an individual, and also behave like an
individual when *that's* advantageous. If it's a business debt,
business debt recovery rules should apply.
General problems with courts
(1) Courts should also start enforcing the statements of truth on court
forms: those found lying on the court forms should be done for perjury.
As it is, an individual can say anything on a court form and nothing is
done about even obvious lies.
(2) Small claims brought by a consumer against any business, whether or
not it is a limited company, should be heard in the consumer's court. As
it is, a consumer who has a claim against a sole trader has to go to the
sole trader's court, as if that trader were simply an individual and not
running a business. This tends to make it expensive to bring claims
against businesses that are not limited companies, and thus limits the
ability of consumers to redress problems.
(3) The outcome of small claims cases should be published in local
newspapers and on a website.
(4) If an individual, either claimant or defendant, doesn't show up to a
hearing, unless they have provable good cause, they should be fined for
wasting the court's time. Yes, I realise that not showing up almost
always means that the side who does the no show will lose, but given
that the court has much more powers to collect its fines, this power
might concentrate the minds of those who fight a claim all the way and
then just don't show up in court, which wastes everyone's time.
- Ok, that first bit sounds just about ok.
Though I would insist that once information is accepted, the creditor should
stick with it. Not keep badgering people when info has already been supplied
aboout finances.
Any idea how that would affect