Can anyone advise please?

deejay248

I wonder if any of you could help me out with a bit of advise.

When i was younger i stupidly got myself into a lot of debt, about 8 grand. I eventually took out a trust deed which i paid the first installment of then heard nothing. This was back in 2002/2003.

I had a few letters after that from the actual people i owed the money to and not the people i had taken the trust deed from and as i was in a trust deed i ignored them.

To this day i have never heard anything since. No phone calls, no letters, nothing. I did have a time abroad for 4 years but even at my correspondance address there was nothing. The people that i set the trust deed up with didnt even contact me after the initial payment.

Im now a bit wiser and wondering what has happened to that debt. Im hoping i guess that seeing as it was so long ago, its now non pursuable and i have thought about checking my credit history but dont want to trigger anything and i am also not on the voters roll so not sure if it would make any difference.

I had applied for a mobile contract this year and was refused but im not sure if thats because my credit history will be really bad or there will be nothing on it because it was so long ago.

If anyone could offer any advice i would appreciate it.

deejay248

Anyone?

GeorgeUK

If you have made no payment towards a debt or acknowledged it in writing for 5 years, then under Scots law the debt is statute barred. I'm not sure if a Trust Deed would be considered an agreement under seal which may mean it is time barred after 20 years - i would check that one with the national debtline, but my guess would be a 5 year limit.

If there has been a decree (equivalent of a CCJ), where a court has ruled on the debt, then it may not be statute barred. You may need to check this out.

If you were to do a credit check, then your address would be updated and if you had any outstanding debts, debt collection agencies may come out of the woodwork to collect it. I am not sure if registering on the electoral roll has the same effect, but i do know that not being on the roll has a large impact on your credit score - this alone could be why you were turned down from having a mobile.

You may be able to check if you have any decrees through the registry trust website. I can't remember how much it costs to do a search, but this way you shouldn't flag up your whereabouts to any DCA's.

I would first check whether a trust deed can become statute barred after 5 years, then go to the registry trust site to see if there have been any court rulings for any of your debts. If both of these show that the debts are statute barred then you could probably try looking at your credit file (bearing in mind that any other debts not over 5 years may have creditors request payment) and also go on the electoral roll to boost your credit rating.

If creditors do get in touch requesting payment of a statute barred debt, they are allowed to do this as the debt still exists. The debt is not enforcable however so all you need to do is send them a copy of one of the template letters available here stating that the debt is statute barred and you will not be paying.

deejay248

Thanks v.much for the reply. I phoned the debtline and the advisor i spoke to said they didnt know if a trust deed was automatically barred after 5 years. Looked on the registry trust site, cost £8 for the search and it said there was no results at all.

Im still at a loss to what has actually happened to the debt.

GeorgeUK

Got a keyboard malfunction, so not been around much lately.

As there is nothing with the registry trust, this means none of your creditors have gone through the courts to try to enforce the debts. This leaves the question of whether a trust deed can become statute barred. If it can be SB, then you have nothing to worry about.

If nationaldebtline can't tell you if it can be SB, i'm not sure if CAB would be able to assist. Possibly also trying payplan or CCCS incase they can say for certain.

If it can;t be made SB, you may be able to make reduced F&F offers - there are templates on the board for this if you need them.

deejay248

Thanks for getting back to me. Checked with CAB and they couldnt advise either. Looks like no-one knows :eek:

SmudgeUK

What happens if I just stop paying into the Trust Deed?
The repayment cost is calculated on what you can afford, you must stick to this or you could have your bank account frozen or face sequestration.

What am I committing myself to if I sign a Trust Deed?
You are entering into a contract to repay your debts, usually at a reduced rate. As such you agree to:
Fully co-operate with the Trustee
Pay the agreed monthly contribution
Not take any further credit
Advise the Trustee if you receive any unexpected windfalls in excess of £100.

GeorgeUK

A Trust deed is a voluntary agreement - there has been no court action involved.

Excerpt from Statute and Limitations Act 1973

Negative Prescription
6 Extinction of obligations by prescriptive periods of five years

(1)If, after the appropriate date, an obligation to which this section applies has subsisted 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:

I read this as meaning that there is no obligation to pay 5 years after the last acknowledgement of the debt. Setting up the Trust Deed would be a relevant claim and your payment or stating in writing that you owe the debt would be considered acknowledgement.

Provided that in its application to an obligation under a bill of exchange or a promissory note this subsection shall have effect as if paragraph (b) thereof were omitted.
(2)Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect for defining the obligations to which this section applies.
(3)In subsection (1) above the reference to the appropriate date, in relation to an obligation of any kind specified in Schedule 2 to this Act is a reference to the date specified in that Schedule in relation to obligations of that kind, and in relation to an obligation of any other kind is a reference to the date when the obligation became enforceable.
(4)In the computation of a prescriptive period in relation to any obligation for the purposes of this section—
(a)any period during which by reason of—
(i)fraud on the part of the debtor or any person acting on his behalf, or
(ii)error induced by words or conduct of the debtor or any person acting on his behalf,
the creditor was induced to refrain from making a relevant claim in relation to the obligation, and
(b)any period during which the original creditor (while he is the creditor) was under legal disability,
shall not be reckoned as, or as part of, the prescriptive period:
Provided that any period such as is mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection shall not include any time occurring after the creditor could with reasonable diligence have discovered the fraud or error, as the case may be, referred to in that paragraph.
(5)Any period such as is mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (4) of this section shall not be regarded as separating the time immediately before it from the time immediately after it.

So from this, i would assume that the debt is statute barred and let any creditors provide the legal argument as to why it would not be.

For legal queries like this i usually look to the forum on consumeractiongroup.com but couldn't see anything mentioned there. Might be worth posting there too.

deejay248

Thanks George for all your advice, was much appreciated. I have been told by someone at Citizens Advice now that the debt is statute barred but if im being honest the look on his face didnt convince me. I've decided to leave it for now incase i stir anything. Cheers again.

:beer: