Bank has issued proceedings for repayment of joint overdraft against me alone!!

[zookeeper]

I split up with ex dp over a year ago. We had a joint overdraft of some £3000.

Exdp is loaded - has best part of £250,000 in bank and secveral properties but on incapacity benfit. I work part itme and struggle to cope with the £10 a month maintenace he gives me for out three dcs.

I am well aware that I am jointly and severally liable for this debt but until now I have not made any offers to repay it in the hope that ex dp will.

surely as this is a joint debt the bank should have put us both down as defendants?

I am a bloody solcitor (family lol) so know not a lot about debt revovery but i do know that a judgemnt against me as a solicitor may have professional implications re handling of client money etc.

I have phoned the solicitors acting for the bank who tell me they are acting on the bank's instructions. the bank will not confirm if they have issued against my ex or not.

I am prepared to make an offer to repay half if i have to (by very small monthly instalments) but should I be insisting they amend their claim to include my ex dp?

Any thoughts welcome.

I'm a solicitor aswell - but PI so again this is not really my area either! what I would be inclined to do is contact the banks sols & say that they know this is a joint overdraft,that you & your ex are jointly & severally liable, so unless they apply to the court to amend the proceedings & add him as a defendant, you will do so yourself (you should be able to add him as a part 20 defendant, on the basis of the above you would need to file a defence saying essentially that it is not entirely your debt, it is a joint debt & therefore if you are liable to the bank then so is he, so he should be a party to the proceedings) & you will be asking them for any costs incurred in having to add him in - court fee will be about £85 if memory serves correctly.

it could be that they are incompetent & have issued 2 sets of proceedings - 1 against you & 1 against your ex, but if that is the case you should ask the court to consolidate as you dont want to get saddled with a judgment for the full amount against you.

it may also be if they have investigated and found out heis on benefits but you are working that they consider they will have more chance of getting the money out of you.

hope you manage to get it sorted out one way or another

In this climate if you called them and offered half as a full and final settlement I bet they'd snap your hand off.
But that mean your ex wriggles out of his share but by the sounds of it he won't be paying anyway.

I agree with Katie, negotiate, debts only get out of hand when you dont keep contact, at the end of the day they want to drop their bad debt, makes there stats look prettier, you make an offer of payment they will accept. Also if it does go to court and then court is informed that an offer of payment was made they will go bloody bonkers at the bank for wasting their time.

but will they still accept an offer even if theue've issued? can I make an offer for half? It galls me that he's gong to pay nothing.

sorry about typos

Yes they will accept an offer right up until you enter the court room in 99% of cases. I can imagine it's infuriating but just get rid of it if you can, if the outstanding amount is £3,000 write to them offering £1,000 as full and final settlement, they will counter offer £1,500 everyones happy.

You could tell them about your ex dp's £250k - if you tell them which bank it is in then that might look like an attractive debt recovery road to go down - ie/ I think they can freeze the bank account pending payment.

Alternatively you could pay the lot, issue proceedings against your ex for a half share, freeze the bank account yourself and/or put some sort of charge on his properties so that if he ever sells he has to pay you before he can.

[am a med neg solicitor but sit beside the debt recovery team so hear lots of what they are doing - am in Scotland but think it is pretty standard?)

They can't freeze the bank account here unless the accounts with them.

Although you could pay it and then issue a statutory demand, that would shake him into action.

As for ex it will depend on where the 250k came from, for instance my friends ex has 250k in the bank from compensation from an accident, this will not be taken into consideration with any debt or maintainence etc becuse it is to replace future earnings, they will not touch it. I say this with you mentioning your ex p being on a form of benifit I would think this will probably be the case also.
as for your ex and his debtstuff him, look after No 1, if you get angry over his lack of input you may miss out for yourself,make an offer make it low then work up, dont want to have to pay more than you have too, you can always add but you cant take away.

Face them head on, take the emotion out of it and treated it as business, get a good deal.

thank you everyone it is so hard to look at it calmly!

I will phone bank tomorrow and try to do a deal on my half but I am worried that they will press for deal on whole.

the £250 is an inheritance by the way

Have you had any previous correspondence about this debt? Have they followed pre-action protocol by issuing a letter before action? If not, then I think you can challenge them on that.

If they won't confirm whether they have issued against your ex, then apply to have him added as a defendant. That way at least he won't escape his responsibilities and chances are that the bank will be more interested in his assets than yours.

They've followed the the protocol Freckle as far as I can see.
How do I apply to have him added as a defendant?

Contact your local county court office. They can advise on procedure.

Yes I will thanks