A good demand is brief. It states who is owed what, on what basis, by when, and what follows if it is not paid — and it stops. A long letter reads as uncertainty, and an aggressive one creates both a defensive debtor and, potentially, a legal problem for the creditor who sent it.
Five Things In, and One Thing Out
In: the creditor, correctly named. The debt — the sum and the basis, referring to the invoices, contract or account rather than asserting a bare figure. The requirement: payment of a stated amount, to a stated destination, within a stated and reasonable period. The consequence if it is not paid, stated accurately — and only what the creditor is genuinely willing and able to do. And an invitation to make contact if there is a dispute or a difficulty, which is not softness but sense: it is frequently the step that surfaces the information determining whether proceedings are worth issuing at all. Out: everything else. The history of the relationship, the creditor’s frustration, moral commentary, and above all any threat the creditor will not carry out. A deadline that passes without consequence teaches a debtor that the next one can be ignored too, so the period should be one you will actually hold to. And where a limitation deadline is approaching, the demand period must not be allowed to consume it — only issuing proceedings stops the clock, and correspondence never does.
The Statutory Limits Every Creditor Should Know
Section 11 of the Consumer Credit Act 1995 makes it an offence to make a demand for payment by means calculated to cause alarm, distress or humiliation; falsely to represent that legal proceedings have been or will be issued; or falsely to imply official sanction or authority. In practice that rules out threatening proceedings the creditor does not intend to bring, implying criminal consequences for a civil debt, documents dressed up to resemble court papers, repeated contact designed to wear a person down, approaching an employer or family member about someone’s debt, and language intended to shame. It is worth every creditor knowing this, because a good deal of template material in circulation online would sit uncomfortably with it, and because the consequences of getting it wrong are not merely reputational. Beyond the criminal provision there is a straightforward tactical point: a demand that overstates the position damages the creditor’s own case. If proceedings follow, that letter is read by a court, and an inaccurate or intemperate one shapes the view formed of the party who sent it. Accuracy is not politeness; it is self-interest. Consumer debt carries additional considerations, and mortgage arrears fall under a separate framework entirely.
Internal Chasing Has Stopped Working?
Send the sum, the basis, what has been said so far and the debtor's correct legal name. A demand can usually issue within days - but the limitation and dispute questions get checked first.
Call 01 5827148