Default logged after 7 years!

Mental_Mentor

Hi Everyone

Applied for a mortgage a month ago. Was approved initally and gave EA mortgage in prinical. When proceeded to full application was declined.

Reason given was that a default had appeared on my Experian credit report between first application and full application. Had credit report from earlier in month and knew I had not deafulted on anything.

I launched an appeal with lender and rang Experian to find out what went wrong. They told me that an old M& S Card had an outstanding balance of £40 from 1999 and that they had registered a default in Jan 06 - some 7 years later!

I have moved twice since this date. I gave last address but not updated by them and I have no way of proving this. Haven't used the card since.

Default happened in 1999 (unaware). Took M&S until 2003 to log on Equifax and Jan 2006 to log on Experian.

I rang the lender and explained but the appeal was declined.

Have had to go to another lender who can't lend as much , effectively costing me £2000!

Have now contacted M&S and they have insisted I pay the £40 in order to remove default from credit files, even though they said it had been 'written off'. I have done this but still feel very angry. Had I known about the debt I wold have paid it years ago.

Q. Can they demand payment so long after?
Q. Is there a cut-off time when they can log it onto credit files?
Q. Can I get any re-dress from M&S for failing to notify me of the debt & costing me £2k?
Q. When will the default fully disappear from the credit report?

Thanks

file_wizzard

Technically any debt that is not acknowledged for 6 years from the date of default becomes Statute Barred, i.e the creditor has no further claim to the debt;

Also all defaults should naturally expire from your credit files 6 years from the date of default.

However a couple of items are unclear.

1.When was the true default date ? you have mentioned 1999, and then also state that it only appeared on your Experian file recently, but what was the actual date given in the “default date”

2. If it appeared on the Equifax file in 2003 then I take it you must have been aware of it for at least the last 3 years, which begs the question why it wasn’t settled ?

3. With regards to re-dress with M&S the duty is with the debtor to inform the creditor of any changes of address, if this has no been completed then the creditor can not contact you to advise of their actions

Mental_Mentor

file_wizzard wrote:

Technically any debt that is not acknowledged for 6 years from the date of default becomes Statute Barred, i.e the creditor has no further claim to the debt;

Also all defaults should naturally expire from your credit files 6 years from the date of default.

However a couple of items are unclear.

1.When was the true default date ? you have mentioned 1999, and then also state that it only appeared on your Experian file recently, but what was the actual date given in the “default date”

2. If it appeared on the Equifax file in 2003 then I take it you must have been aware of it for at least the last 3 years, which begs the question why it wasn’t settled ?

3. With regards to re-dress with M&S the duty is with the debtor to inform the creditor of any changes of address, if this has no been completed then the creditor can not contact you to advise of their actions

Hi Wizzard

Thanks for your response:

I applied for my Equifax report in Dec last year and saw the default then, listed for 2003. I contacted M&S then and finally got to speak to someone who said they would sort it out. He took my new contact and address details and said he would look into it and sort it out. I offered to pay the debt then but he said that it wasn't poosible to do this on the system as it had been written off.

When I got my Experian Report in Jan 06 it did not appear. However, it has been put on this report since then (presumably because I gave them my new contact and address details! The only other thing I know is that the transaction took place in 1999 but the default wasn't registered with Equifax until 2003.

Can they do this?

Many thanks

Experian_company_representative

By law the default date on your credit report has to reflect the date the account actually defaulted. If the date is incorrectly shown, contact the credit reference agencies and ask them to investigate it for you.

Harassed_2

A default can only be legally issued ONCE on the same debt. It has a 'life-span' of six years and must come off the credit reference agencies files after this time - this is the law under the Consumer Credit Act. However, if they DO re-issue the default, it is NOT consumer credit law being broken, it comes under the Data Protection Act.

Re-issuing a default is 'a breach of the 1st Data Protection Principle' - 'the re-recording of a default is not acceptable'.

Take up your case with the Information Commissioner.

http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/