A letter has been received for my boyfriend from Eversheds (Abbey National)regarding the repossession of his flat in 1996. This is the first contact he has had. The letter says contact us and make a lump sum offer and we shall substantially reduce the amount owed. I discovered his flat was sold for #18 000 leaving a short fall of #14 000. He could make an offer of # 5 000 and would like to but is scared to contact with this offer in case it is refused and recognition of his debt is set in motion.If we could establish that this would be acceptable before contact this would be very advantageous. What should he do? HELP is greatly, greatly appreciated.

-- Morag Campbell (mo.music@virgin.net), April 12, 2000

Answers

If he wants to settle for #5K Evers would very likely accept such an offer.( care when concluding matter as payment is coming from him, it would only be binding if completed by a deed of compromise or deed of release)

Difficulties could occur once contact was made and the offer not accepted. To avoid this any proposals should be of the record ie mark your correspondence 'without prejudice' he might even say in the text of the letter that the settlement was only on a commercial basis to avoid wasting time but that no liability was admitted at any time.

The question you have not asked is: is there a liability? the answer to that depends on the full facts of the case but it could well be Yes.

Good Luck

-- (ahmadbutt@talk21.com), April 19, 2000.