Help Please.......Feeling of dread! Drydens

lyndseyb2009 · 29 April 2016 at 8:02PM

Hi All,

I've posted on here a few times before but I am still a bit of a newbie so please be gentle - I'm all over the place at the moment (and on meds which have a pretty strong depression side effect - it's all roses in my house tonight!)

So - long story short, i was about aged 21 with about 20k worth of debt (taken to help my parents not lose their home and pay some of their bills etc - see my other posts if you want more details), debt management plan for the last 5 and a half years and finally managed to pay it all off bar 1 debt last September. My final debt was barclaycard - set up a payment plan and that finished last month. So this payday was supposed to be my first totally debt free. I am ecstatic at the strides I have made and how far I have come - knowing after my bills and rent , all the left over would be mine and my OH's to save for our wedding in 2018.

My OH has had a sketchy history with credit. He lived with his ex fiance 8 or 9 years ago, bought a house, took out a 15k loan and had a few credit cards. Long story short - she got pregnant, then announced she had cheated (twice) and that the baby wasn't his. Turns out she was never pregnant to begin with. He left promptly and moved back to London (their place was in Leeds). The agreement at the time was she would continue to live there and pay the mortgage with her friend. He knows he shouldn't have done it but he wasn't in any frame of mind to think straight. He ended up being off work for a year with depression afterwards.

By the time we had met and moved in together he was getting letters from all sorts of creditors - she didn't pay the mortgage but equally he didn't pay the loan or any of the cards. He well and truly buried his head in the sand.

He was given a CCJ for one of the debts, but it went unpaid (you see a pattern here). It dropped off his file last year.

This afternoon he came home to a letter from Drydens Solicitors asking him to call them about a personal business matter and that they where trying to locate this person (Him). They didn't leave any details as to what the debt was, who they where acting on behalf of - so he has no idea which of the creditors have finally caught up with him.

I really don't know how to advise him here - I fear if he ignores the letter, they will start sending more and more aggressive ones and before you know it there will be bailiffs at my door (we live in a secure building but you never know!). We don't have a car parked outside but even if we did its communal parking so I guess they would never know if we did (neither of us drive).

I also fear if he even responds slightly they will just start harassing him again and again and again. I'm aware he needs to deal with it - but I just don't know how. The debt overall with the negative mortgage equity ( the house was eventually reprocessed and a sale was forced) is probably close to £50k. We are due to get married in just over 2 years time - it's all booked but not yet 100% paid for - as we are supposed to be saving currently for this.

Anyways - is it possible that Drydens are just fishing? What is the liklihood they will go away or get worse etc? If this debt is linked to the unpaid CCJ - What happens with this? Will he be forced to pay up asap?

I'm all for him paying it back but I just need to get my head around it all first. He doesn't have any of the original paperwork so he has no idea what this even could be for. I guess I'm asking - what should we do next?

Help please?

x

sourcrates · 30 April 2016 at 10:58AM

Hi,

It's always impossible to tell what debt collectors will do, one thing though, they will be debt collectors, not bayliffs, bayliffs are not usually used to collect consumer credit act debts.

They can chase the mortgage shortfall for 12 years before it will become statute barred, if it's been 6 years or longer since he paid any of the other accounts, then they may be statute barred by now (Google limitations act 1980 for info).

The debt with the CCJ also sounds like 6 years have elapsed, and although CCJ's don't themselves become statute barred, creditors are expected to enforce them within 6 years, otherwise they have to go back to court in order to do so, and this, again, is rare.

So to my mind, if we're correct on dates, only the shortfall from the old mortgage may be enforcable by now, you could respond with the provit letter, or you could just ignore it and see what happens, only you or he, can make that choice.

fatbelly · 30 April 2016 at 11:47AM

The limitation period (how long a creditor has to start court action) is 12 years for the capital of a secured debt, 6 years for any interest. This is the rule for England/Wales

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/25%20EW%20Time%20limits%20for%20recovering%20debts/Default.aspx

However there is a further tweak for mortgage shortfalls in that “anyone whose property was taken into possession and sold more than six years ago, and who has not been contacted by their lender for recovery of the outstanding debt, will not now be asked to pay the shortfall”.

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/11%20EW%20Mortgage%20shortfalls/Default.aspx

However, you don't know what the drydens letter is for so the choice is between a prove-it letter and 'do nothing'. My usual advice is not to engage with a debt collector (even a dressed-up one like drydens) until they make a definite allegation (you owe us £X for a debt to Y).

Until then it's just a fishing exercise - could be anything.

Sazzie23 · 1 May 2016 at 9:39AM

I suspect a some of the debt is approaching at statute barred and they are fishing to see if they can elicit a response.

What happens next is unknown, but a wait and see attitude will probably be possible. Just make sure you do open any letters to see if anything else appears.

Saz

lyndseyb2009 · 1 May 2016 at 2:04PM

Sorry for my delayed response all - I wasn't online yesterday ( I guess my way of avoiding googling all sorts of scenarios - generalised anxiety disorder at its best).

Thank you so much for the responses - you've really helped put my mind at ease. I'm almost certain the two credit card debts (just over £2k each) are well and truely statute barred now, as it's been about 8 or 9 years since he paid anything (2008 I believe). He's never responded to any letters or accepted any calls from any of the collectors and from my knowledge ( I remember seeing his credit file a few years ago ) these where not granted CCJ status.

I'm pretty certain the mortgage and the loan as they where substantial amounts where both given a CCJ - now probably in the region of 8-9 ish years old. So the loan I'm guessing would be "statute barred" but in a worst case they could try to reapply the CCJ and the mortgage shortfall has another few years before it would become SB.

I've said for now - as we don't even know who the company is representing , we are not going to respond. We will however keep the letter and of course read any subsequent ones - I'm not a fan of ignoring mail ( I'm too nosey!) and if and when the time comes that they write with the debt, amount and all the relevant details and next steps then we will decide how to deal with it.

I think panic set in on Friday - after nearly 6 years of paying back debt and finally being free I felt so happy - to come home to that letter just left me utterly deflated. But well find a way to manage it as and when we need to.

Guess just a waiting game now to see what happens next....

Thanks again all!

X

Help Please.......Feeling of dread! Drydens

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