DEBT LETTERS
Templates of letters to Creditors
1.
Hold on Account letter
2.
Pro Rata Offer Letter
3. Moratorium
4.
Token Payment Offer Letter
5. Reconsider
offer
6. Reconsider
decision to freeze interest
7. Creditor not co-operating- You want them to
take you to court
8. You
don’t want to go to court and the creditor is not co-operating
9. Ex−gratia payment offer in full and final
settlement
10. Debt written off Letter
11. Six Years Limitation Letter
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1.
Hold on Account letter
Date:
Dear
Sir/Madam
Re:
− Account/Reference Number:
We/I
are/am writing to inform you that we/I are/am seeking advice and assistance
regarding our current financial difficulties.
To
this end, we would appreciate if you could hold any action on the above account
for a period of at least 28 days.
Also,
during this period, could you please freeze interest and/or any other charges
accruing on the above account.
We/I
look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Yours
faithfully
2. Pro Rata Offer Letter
Date
Dear
Sir/Madam
Re
Account No/Reference No:
Since
making that above agreement with you, our/my circumstances have changed.
We/I
cannot now afford to agreed monthly payments because ... ………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
We/I
enclose a financial statement which shows our/my total income from all sources,
and our/my outgoings. As you can see we/I have only £…… per month left for
our/my creditors.
The
offers we/I have made to our/my creditors have been worked out on a pro−rata
basis, and we/I have written to all our/my creditors asking them to accept
reduced payments.
In
view of our circumstances, please would you agree to accept a reduced offer of
£…..per month.
If
interest or other charges are being added to the account we/I would be grateful
if you would freeze these so that all payments made will reduce what I owe you.
Should
my circumstances improve we/I will contact you again.
We/I
would be grateful if you would send a paying in book or standing order mandate
to make it easier to pay you.
Thank
you for your assistance. We/I look forward to hearing from you as soon as
possible.
Yours
faithfully
3. Moratorium
Date
Dear
Sir/Madam
Re
Account No/Reference No:
Since
making that above agreement with you, our/my circumstances have changed.
We/I cannot
now afford to agreed monthly payments because
......................................................... ………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………………….………………………………………
We/I
enclose a Financial Statement which shows our/my total income from all sources,
and the total outgoings of our/my household. As you can see we/I have no money
left to make offers of payment to my creditors.
In
view of our circumstances, would you please accept no payment at present to be
reviewed in six months. If interest or other charges are being added to the
account, we would be grateful if you would freeze these so our/my debt does not
increase.
Should
my circumstances improve we will contact you again.
Thank
you for your assistance. We/I look forward to hearing from you as soon as
possible.
Yours
faithfully
4.
Token Payment Offer Letter
Date
Dear
Sir/Madam
Re
Account No/Reference No:
Since
making that above agreement with you, our/my circumstances have changed.
We/I
cannot now afford to agreed monthly payments because
........................................................…………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………….….……………………………………………………………….…………………………………
We/I
enclose a Financial Statement which shows our/my total income from all sources,
and the total outgoings of our/my household. As you can see we/I have no money
left to make offers of payment to my creditors.
As
you can see there is no available income to pay the creditors at the
contractual repayment amounts at present. It would therefore be both sensible
and practical to accept token payments of £1.00 per month until such time as
our/my financial circumstances improve. If interest or other charges are being
added to the account, we would be grateful if you would freeze these so our/my
debt does not increase.
Should
my circumstances improve we will contact you again.
Thank
you for your assistance. We/I look forward to hearing from you as soon as
possible.
Yours
faithfully
5. Reconsider offer
Date:
Dear
Sir/Madam
Acc/Ref
No:
Thank
you for your letter of ……………. concerning the above account.
We/I
are/am are sorry that you feel unable to accept the offer which we/I have made.
The majority of our/my other creditors have accepted the offers made to them
and we/I have commenced payments.
We/I
cannot offer you more because we/I can only afford £…. per month between all
our/my other creditors, and it would be wrong to cease or reduce payments to
our/my other creditors in favour of your company. The offer made to you is on a
pro-rata basis, as used by the county court.
In
the light of the other creditors agreeing to our/my repayment plan, please
would you reconsider our/my offer. We/I will be making the payments in line
with the offer to your company, on a monthly basis, as a gesture of goodwill.
We/I
look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Yours
faithfully
6.
Reconsider decision to freeze interest
Date
Dear
Sir/Madam
Acc/Ref
No:
Thank
you for your letter of ………………. concerning the above account. We/I are/am sorry
that you feel unable to suspend interest charges on the above account. The
majority of our/my other creditors have agreed to the offer of payment and
agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that
to continue to charge interest would not assist us/me in our/my present
financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase our total debt.
As
you are aware, we/I have already paid considerable sums in interest to our/my
account. If interest charges continue, the monthly installments we/I are/am
paying will not even cover that interest. Also the co−operation of our/my other
creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.
We/I
would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze
the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments we/I make would
actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.
We/I
look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully
7. Creditor not
co-operating- You want them top take you to court
Date:
Dear
Sir/Madam
Acc/Ref
No:
Thank
you for your letter of ……………….. We/I are/am very disappointed that we seem
unable to reach a satisfactory compromise in this case. As we/I have already
explained, we/I can only afford £…. per month at the present time, and we/I
feel that it is pointless paying this amount to you only to see the debt
increase.
We/I
invite you therefore to bring a claim against us/me for the debt, when we/I
shall have the opportunity of offering £…. per month through the courts.
In
addition, once judgment is granted we/I understand that further interest will
be suspended in any event. It seems that we/I can only achieve a reasonable
outcome to this matter by allowing the courts to decide, although this will
involve us both in extra expense and time wasted with court proceedings.
The
offer of £…. per month plus suspension of interest is of course still open to
you to accept.
Yours
faithfully
8. You don’t want to go
to court and the creditor is not co-operating
Date
Dear
Sir/Madam
Acc/Ref
No:
Thank
you for your letter of ……………….. We/I are/am very disappointed that we seem
unable to reach a satisfactory compromise in this case. As we/I have already
explained, we/I can only afford £….per month at the present time. This is the
only realistic payment proposal bearing in mind the enclosed Financial
Statement.
You
have stated in correspondence your intention to commence proceedings in the
county court against us/me.
The
commencement of legal proceedings under such circumstances could be counter to
the ‘Overriding Objectives’ of the new Civil Procedure Rules. You will be aware
that the Overriding Objectives underpin everything the court does. Moreover,
paragraph 4 of the Protocols Practice Direction states that in cases not
covered by an approved pre−action protocol, the court will expect the parties
“to act reasonably…….. in trying to avoid the necessity for the start of
proceedings”.
We/I
would suggest that your refusal to accept our/my offer could be viewed as
unreasonable and we/I would ask the court to consider this matter with
reference to the Overriding Objectives.
The
offer of £…. is of course still open to you to accept.
Yours
faithfully
9. Ex−gratia payment
offer in full and final settlement
Date:
WITHOUT PREJUDICE:
Dear
Sir/Madam
Re:
We/I
write with reference to the money which you are claming on the above account.
We/I
can confirm that we/I are/am unable to offer to pay the money which we/I owe in
full. .
However,
I can raise £……. and I want to offer this an ex−gratia payment in full and
final settlement of the account. This offer is made on the clear understanding
that, if accepted, neither you nor any associate company will take any other
action to enforce or pursue this debt in any way whatsoever and that we/I will
be released for any liability.
We/
also request that, if accepted, you will make an entry on a credit reference
agency file relating to the above account as "satisfied" in full.
Payment
can be made within 2 weeks of receiving your written agreement of this offer
and method of payment.
We/I
look forward to receiving your reply.
Yours
faithfully
10.
Debt written off Letter
Date:
Dear
Sir/Madam
Acc/Ref
No:
Further
to our/my recent letter, we/I enclose a copy of our financial statement which
gives details of our/my present financial circumstances.
As
you can see our/my outgoings are more than our/my income and we/I are/am
experiencing extreme financial hardship. We/I would be very grateful if you
would consider writing off the outstanding debt owing.
We/I
have always taken very seriously our/my financial responsibilities but
unfortunately our/my circumstances are so bad that we/I cannot realistically
maintain payments of any kind. Please take the following special information
into account when making your decision.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
As
you can see our/my situation is very unlikely to improve in the future, and
our/my continued high debt level may have a serious effect on our physical and
mental wellbeing.
We/I
would therefore be grateful if you would seriously consider our/my request for
the debt to be written off.
We/I
would appreciate any help you can give us.
Yours
faithfully
11.
Six Years Limitation Letter
Date:
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Dear
Sir/Madam
Acc/Ref
No:
You
have contacted us/me regarding the account with the above reference number,
which you claim is owed by me/ourselves.
We/I
would point out that under the Limitation Act 1980 Section 5 “an action founded
on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from
the date on which the cause of action accrued.”
We/I
would also point out that the OFT say under their Debt Collection Guidance on
statute barred debt that “it is unfair to pursue the debt if the debtor has
heard nothing from the creditor during the relevant limitation period”.
The
last payment of this debt was made over six years ago and no further acknowledgement
or payment has been made since that time. Unless you can provide evidence of
payment or written contact from us/me in the relevant period under Section 5 of
the Limitation Act, we/I suggest that you are no longer able to take any court action
against us/me to recover the alleged amount claimed.
The
OFT Debt Collection Guidance states further that “continuing to press for
payment after a debtor has stated that they will not be paying a debt because
it is statue barred could amount to harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of
the Administration of Justice Act 1970”.
We/I
await your written confirmation that no further contact will be made concerning
the above account and confirmation that this matter is now closed.
We/I
look forward to your reply.
Yours
faithfully
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