Pie chart explained at the end.
It feels like most of this year has been taken up trying to deal with 2 very big problems that have occurred as a consequence of my Bankruptcy. Which is dealing with legal and financial “debt” actions for bills and charges relating to one of the flats I used to rent out. In Motherwell.
Both the council for the area and the factors that manage the property want me to pay for things that have arisen or been charged after I went bankrupt in Sep 2014. This is why I referred to “debt” in inverted commas – as it is debts I haven’t run up myself. And no reasonable person would expect to be liable for these – as the properties had all been handed over to a Trustee In Bankruptcy in 2014.
My Trustee In Bankruptcy (say) they have repeatedly explained my situation to these 2 organisations (particularly the factors) over the last few years – ie, I am bankrupt, went bankrupt because of health, gave all assets away on becoming Bankrupt, have no income or savings now. And can hardly manage to deal with anything because of my health. Which is WHY I opted for Bankruptcy.
Sorry, I know this is the 1000th time I‘ve mentioned this . . . . !
I have also made (been forced to make) some efforts at explaining all this myself to these organisations – usually in long emails. At great cost to my health every time, as even small exertions usually make me more ill. And can cause me to crash/relapse even further for days, weeks, etc.
Trying to think and type out an email will usually take me hours and is a very big exertion with my level of health and ability (or disability).
Again, this is why I went Bankrupt.
But these 2 particular organisations don’t care a jot about this. They seem determined to push on for their pound of flesh.
Some of this stuff I’ve probably written about in earlier posts – sorry about this. And for maybe repeating stuff.
But I desperately need to try and pour some of this out – as it is all keeping me very ill indeed. It feels like it has consumed most of this year. And it is consuming me. My physical health and my mental and emotional health too. Nightmares all the time, increasing this year – with all this worry.
Oh, and the Bankruptcy itself is still ongoing.
Still being administered.
Still dragging on.
Some other flats still to be sold.
So for me, being “discharged” from Bankruptcy in Sep 2015 has meant absolutely nothing. I have no idea what benefits there are from saying a person is discharged. Not that I expected any “benefits” as such. I just mean what is that actual point of the statement saying you are “discharged” when you were a landlord with various properties ? Because they don’t get disposed of overnight. And it is also pretty unlikely they will be disposed of within 12 months either. (By “disposed of”, I mean sold or repossessed.)
Given that one mortgage lender has taken almost 3 years to repossess an empty flat. A flat that was not tenanted, was unoccupied, ie. vacant – in Sep 2014. And well before that too I believe.
Yes, you read that correctly – 3 years . . . .
This of course, is the flat that has produced the bills I am now having to “fight” these legal and financial battles for.
I put “fight” in commas too, because I have so little ability to fight this.
As well as all the pages of physical symptoms I have with Severe ME, the awful cognitive dysfunction (AKA brain fog) prevents me being able to express myself or remember things when I most need to. Well, it causes problems for me all the time of course. Its very frustrating not to be able to remember stuff I have just read in a book, or having to re-read an email 5 times, or cannot digest something just heard on TV perhaps. It is miserable actually – but not essential in the way it will be in a court case.
The legal battle the firm of property factors are waging against me – is now in the 2nd part.
This firm (I will call them Apollo Property – not their real name) are suing me in 3 stages for factors bills, charges and “estimated” bills for communal maintenance/repairs. The total I think, adds up to somewhere between £9000 and £10000.
I think the reason they are doing it in 3 parts is so it comes under what is called the Simple Procedure in Scotland. It used to be called something like Small Claims. Either way, it is dealt with by the Sherriff Court. And I think the legal charges for the person bringing the action are cheaper than a normal court case. And the top limit for these types of cases I’m told are £5000.
So I am assuming that is why Apollo are doing it in this way.
It makes no difference to me really – as I have no funds with which to pay any of this. And would never have expected to be liable to pay these things. No reasonable person would surely ?
As I mentioned in this post, IF the flat had still been tenanted – the tenant’s rents would have been taken over by the Trustee. But I would still be liable to pay bills like these factors bills – from fresh air .
No reasonable person would expect this to be the position.
And I still don’t know for sure if this actually IS the legal position.
The previous solicitor I had requested to send or email me the specific legislation relating to this, ie. The Act and section, paragraph etc, where this is stated and detailed. So I could read it myself – as it seems so unbelievable.
He hasn’t replied.
But then he has been paid.
You have to pay the legal fees in advance and ongoing for this type of legal assistance. You do not get a bill at the end. In the way you usually do when buying or selling a property.
For this 2nd Stage – Apollo are claiming approx £5000.
For “estimated” bills for communal repairs and maintenance.
I don’t understand how it can be estimated – you would think they must know what they have paid out exactly ?
And is legal detail not meant to be accurate and specific ? I thought that the whole essence of legal stuff was the preciseness of the detail ?
So I am baffled by this.
Ironically, the whole communal area where this flat in Motherwell is located had, as I understood, been allowed to go downhill. And this was probably a result of the previous factors failing to carry out any maintenance or repairs over a period of a few years. (They eventually went into Administration and the current factors Apollo took over.) And of course, this would be why the letting agent I used said they just couldn’t get any decent tenants for the flat. And it had sat empty for quite some time before 2014.
No landlord would just choose to have a property sitting empty. Just saying . . .
At this particular scheme where my flat was – there are 3 small blocks of flats. Each with 11 flats in them.
They would all have needed similar work to mine I am pretty sure. So anything I am being charged for can be multiplied by 11 for definite. And then by 3, as 3 blocks.
Very recently it also came to light these factors Apollo are also charging the mortgage lender a sum of £16280 which they want paid to them from the sale of the flat.
(The lender finally repossessed it in March this year, and it was sold in July. )
The only detail Apollo seem to have given the bank’s solicitors is vague descriptions like “essential maintenance” and “charges”.
So that means the total of these repairs for my flat = £5000 + £16280
= £21280
And for the full block (as communal works)
X 11 flats = £234,080
And for the scheme of 3 blocks :
An absolutely whopping £702,240 . . . . !!
These figures seem astronomical.
I didn’t mean to type so much detail and make this into such a long post. But my head is spinning with all of this . . . .
And how to fight it with so little energy.
The pie chart in the picture at the top is a screen shot I took from an app called ME/CFS App. I try to record my daily energy use on it – in the hope of it helping me in the future. In doing things like tracking my level of activity to try to prevent the damaging crashes after activity. And maybe as a visual aid perhaps to show a GP of how my life is.
I’ve been doing this off and on for a few years.
The dark blue is the amount of time I am either sleeping – or completely disabled.
Possibly resting or recovering from doing stuff, but certainly unable to “do” anything at all. Not even listen to soft music, certainly not read.
Just totally non-functional.
And this is at least 80% of my life.
Probably more actually – as you fill in the areas of “activity” in 30 min boxes. Nearly everything is a high or medium energy activity for me. A low energy activity may be listening to meditation music lying down. Or maybe eating food.
A simple text message might take me 20 mins to type out – but I would probably fill a 30 mins box for this on the App. So I tend to overstate my time being active.
I imagine my actual level of functioning is around 10 % .
Which is a pretty shit life – lets be honest.
10% is the figure the App keeps telling me is my baseline. I don’t even know what “baseline” means, as haven’t had enough spare energy to read all the instructions in 2 or 3 years.
So anyway – I’m probably trying to fight this legal battle with Apollo Factors while being functional only 10% of the time.
Not to mention the firm of Debt Collectors now employed by the Council for Motherwell as well.
I don’t feel very hopeful.
But its good to vent . . . .
And if the sheer effort of typing all this gets some of this horror out of my head, and reduces the number of nights a week I have exhausting nightmares – then it has been worthwhile for me.
Sorry its such a long read.
Your Jaw Never Gets Tired 