Statute barred advice please

Moonky

In my misspent youth and during an awful relationship (yadayadayada) I built up a number of debts the main one being a student overdraft with Barclays. I suffered with depression at the time and it got to a point where I didn’t open my post for ages because of all these people chasing me for money. I got some awful phone calls from debt collection agencies… Eventually I started to pay off some of the smaller debts and then moved to Spain for 3 years (I admit partly because I hoped the others would give up eventually which is really bad I know). I returned to the UK in January this year and did half expect my debts to catch up with me. A few weeks after my return I received a letter from Lowell to my mum’s address where I was staying at the time for an old credit card debt of just over £300. I was so horrified that I phoned them immediately (I now know that is a big mistake) and they bullied me into paying it off in 6 monthly instalments even though I was unemployed. So fine, I paid it off – debt cleared. I thought I’d got off lightly but a few weeks ago I got a letter from Lowell chasing the overdraft debt of nearly £6500.

I phoned the national debt line (very helpful indeed). The advice was to try and figure out if it was statute barred. The trouble is I was in such a depressive state all those years ago that I can’t remember when the last time I made a payment/admitted the debt was. I have tried to check my credit report to see if it could shine a light on it but I don’t have a credit or debit card at the moment and they all seem to ask for those details. Just last week I upgraded my bank account and am awaiting a debit card (perhaps naively I thought that perhaps my ability to get a debit card etc meant that this debt had been wiped/barred) but I am keen to get this sorted out asap and get the standard statute barred letter sent out.

My question is – can I essentially call their bluff and say that as far as I am aware it is statute barred and wait for them to prove otherwise or will it go against me if it turns out that it isn’t statute barred?

What I don’t get is why they waited 10 months to chase this debt?!!! Did they want to lure me into a false sense of security?!!!

Brock_and_Roll

Based on what you have written, the debt is highly unlikely to be statute barred not least because you seem to have been talking to your creditors right up to the point you went off to spain i.e. circa 4 years.

Furthermore, if you "disappear", then statute barring is not relevlant - you cannot just hide for 7 years then have your debts written off otherwise we we would all be at it.

Finally, as to why they took 10 months to get back in touch; did you call them when you returned to the UK? - otherwise they would have to be psyhic to know precisely when you arrived back.

Better to face up to it as its unlikley to go away.

fermi

How close is it likely to be to the 6 years?

The time period that counts is how long a period was there when the debt was no acknowledged by YOU in WRITING or by making a payment.

Brock_and_Roll wrote: »

Furthermore, if you "disappear", then statute barring is not relevlant - you cannot just hide for 7 years then have your debts written off otherwise we we would all be at it.

Not correct I'm afraid. That will certainly not prevent the debt becoming statute barred.

What will stop it is if the creditor obtains a CCJ on the debt within the 6 years. If the creditor can't be bothered to do that, then the debt will become barred.

If you are thinking of the old "fraud and concealment" exemption for the start of the Limitation period (as trotted out as a deceptive argument by some debt collectors), then that only applies if the creditor was unaware that they had a right to take legal action as a result. Clearly if someone just dissapears with an unpaid debt, that is not relevant and does not apply.