Time Limit on Mobile Phone Debt

bigtoddy

I have just received a letter from a Debt Recovery Agency demanding payment of an outstanding bill due to Orange. This is the first time I have heard anything about this, and when I phoned the DRA, they advised that the debt was from 2002.

Does anyone know what the time limit is for payment of this kind of debt? I have no paperwork and I am 100% positive that my bill was paid off when I ended the contract.

I live in Scotland, so don't know if that makes any difference, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Bigtoddy

Kimitatsu

The statute of limitations is 6 years so if they have not successfully contacted you or you can prove that you did not live at the address to which they have been sending your mail then they are out of time.

Many debt agencies will try it on just to see if they can get anything out of you, it would be worth asking them for the date of the debt and all paperwork pertaining to it. You can also cross reference this with your bank statement to prove that it has been paid.

philnicandamy

Forum on scottish debt/laws/etc Scotland here:
http://www.debtquestions.co.uk/debt_forum/

bigtoddy

I moved address in March last year, and only received this correspondence yesterday. Nothing at all has been received from Orange, certainly at this address, and nothing at my old address for at least five years. So would that mean that the debt has technically expired?

Pagan98

Yes.

The Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 Part 1 Prescription
Section 6:

"If after an appropriate date, an obligation (an appropriate debt) has subsided for a continuous period of five
years:
(a) without any relevant claim having been made in relation to the obligation, and
(b) without the subsistence of the obligation having been relevantly acknowledged;
then as from the expiration of that period the obligation shall be extinguished.

Example letter here: http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/scotland/debt_advice.php#6

bigtoddy

Thanks Pagan98, that is exactly what I spent all day looking for! I know I certainly haven't had any correspondence in the last five years, and have checked all my paperwork again just to make sure.

Will be sending the letter off first class tomorrow.

Thanks again for all your help!