Statute barred debts and the Limitation Acts

baller123

nottoolate wrote: »

a better place to ask for that legalbeagles.info/forums

or consumeractiongroup forum

Thanks for bringing legalbeagles to my attention, they helping a lot on there.

mrsdavison

Hi everyone,

If fairly new here so I apologise if I've put this in the wrong place!

I I have a debt that Lowell are chasing me for. The debt first defaulted in February 2008 which makes it debt statute by English law. The debt was accrued in Scotland and I moved from Scotland to England just after that.

Now they sent me a letter and I replied with the "I believe this is statute barred" (after I sent them the template challenging it and they had sent me info confirming when it was accrued and where when etc)

Next I sent them the I belive it is statute barred template I found on here and they've replied saying

"you are wrong. It is not statute barred. You made a payment of £1 in 2011 which acknowledged the debt so now it's not statute barred. Please pay within 7 working days"

Can anyone give me some advice? I don't remember making the payment of £1 as 2011 I had a mini stroke and finally left an abusive relationship so my head was pretty messed up.

Is it debt statute or have I acknowledged the debt by this payment and now start the 6 years debt statute all over again?

Also if the debt was accrued in Scotland while I lived there is it debt statute under Scottish Law or English law? I believe Scottish is shorter but I don't actually know!!

Many thanks in advance

fatbelly

mrsdavison wrote: »

Hi everyone,

If fairly new here so I apologise if I've put this in the wrong place!

I I have a debt that Lowell are chasing me for. The debt first defaulted in February 2008 which makes it debt statute by English law. The debt was accrued in Scotland and I moved from Scotland to England just after that.

Now they sent me a letter and I replied with the "I believe this is statute barred" (after I sent them the template challenging it and they had sent me info confirming when it was accrued and where when etc)

Next I sent them the I belive it is statute barred template I found on here and they've replied saying

"you are wrong. It is not statute barred. You made a payment of £1 in 2011 which acknowledged the debt so now it's not statute barred. Please pay within 7 working days"

Can anyone give me some advice? I don't remember making the payment of £1 as 2011 I had a mini stroke and finally left an abusive relationship so my head was pretty messed up.

Is it debt statute or have I acknowledged the debt by this payment and now start the 6 years debt statute all over again?


Also if the debt was accrued in Scotland while I lived there is it debt statute under Scottish Law or English law? I believe Scottish is shorter but I don't actually know!!

Many thanks in advance

OK, you're living in England so they could take action under English law.

The key question is whether you did actually make a £1 payment or, as I suspect, they are just doing the usual trick of inventing a payment 3 years ago.

Let's see if they've got the balls to start a court claim. You can send the letter at post#8 here if you wish:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2606811

mrsdavison

fatbelly wrote: »

OK, you're living in England so they could take action under English law.

The key question is whether you did actually make a £1 payment or, as I suspect, they are just doing the usual trick of inventing a payment 3 years ago.

Let's see if they've got the balls to start a court claim. You can send the letter at post#8 here if you wish:

Thank you for that. He gave me an email for all future correspondence so I have printed a copy and posted and emailed a copy.

I can't see why I would've made a payment of £1... I think it's them making it up!!

Thanks

woo069

I have received a letter from a DCA wanting £3,212 of me on behalf of HRMC. I rang them yesterday to find out what it was for and she said it is overpaid tax credits from 2003, 2004 and 2005. I did get a letter from HMRC several years ago which i replied to stating that i couldn't possibly owe this much as it was more than i actually received and enclosed copies of my P60's for the relevant years.
(I do have a copy of this letter but it is on an old pc that i don't use anymore so will have to connect it up etc to retrieve it).
I have never had a response to this letter.
Anyway during the conversation yesterday the person i was speaking to said, "you need to set up a DD for £90 a month, that is the minimum", I laughed and said "yeh right, I cannot afford £90 a month, at present i don't think i can afford £9 a month and i am not acknowledging that i owe this, I have already written to them with copies of P60's but it was years ago and I never had a reply, I had just assumed that it had been dealt with". She says "they might not have received that letter", me "so why haven't they been chasing me for this money, why have they passed it to you after all these years", she said she didn't know why.
Anyway then she went onto say i have till friday (tomorrow) to ring them back with full income and expenditure so they can come up with a payment plan. I said "surely i am not still liable for this debt after all these years", she said "yes HMRC debt is always owed".
I have read some of this and other threads, from what i am understanding Income Tax cannot be statute barred but Tax Credits can be. Should I ring back tomorrow and not give income and expenditure but just say i believe the debt to be statute barred or should i just send them a letter?
Thanks

fatbelly

woo069 wrote: »

I have received a letter from a DCA wanting £3,212 of me on behalf of HRMC. I rang them yesterday to find out what it was for and she said it is overpaid tax credits from 2003, 2004 and 2005. I did get a letter from HMRC several years ago which i replied to stating that i couldn't possibly owe this much as it was more than i actually received and enclosed copies of my P60's for the relevant years.
(I do have a copy of this letter but it is on an old pc that i don't use anymore so will have to connect it up etc to retrieve it).
I have never had a response to this letter.
Anyway during the conversation yesterday the person i was speaking to said, "you need to set up a DD for £90 a month, that is the minimum", I laughed and said "yeh right, I cannot afford £90 a month, at present i don't think i can afford £9 a month and i am not acknowledging that i owe this, I have already written to them with copies of P60's but it was years ago and I never had a reply, I had just assumed that it had been dealt with". She says "they might not have received that letter", me "so why haven't they been chasing me for this money, why have they passed it to you after all these years", she said she didn't know why.
Anyway then she went onto say i have till friday (tomorrow) to ring them back with full income and expenditure so they can come up with a payment plan. I said "surely i am not still liable for this debt after all these years", she said "yes HMRC debt is always owed".
I have read some of this and other threads, from what i am understanding Income Tax cannot be statute barred but Tax Credits can be. Should I ring back tomorrow and not give income and expenditure but just say i believe the debt to be statute barred or should i just send them a letter?
Thanks

I think you are better to keep denying that you owe this sum. Your statute barred defence is something that you could throw in if there was court action, if they go down that route, which is unlikely as they have other options

If the alleged overpayment exceeds the total sum you were paid then that is clearly wrong.

I wouldn't give them any information on your income/expenditure at this stage - you need to challenge this again with HMRC

info here

http://www.revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-to-deal-with-hmrc/dealing-with-debt/

and here

http://www.revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-to-deal-with-hmrc/challenging-overpayments/

poppasmurf_bewdley

woo069 wrote: »

I have received a letter from a DCA wanting £3,212 of me on behalf of HRMC. I rang them yesterday to find out what it was for and she said it is overpaid tax credits from 2003, 2004 and 2005. I did get a letter from HMRC several years ago which i replied to stating that i couldn't possibly owe this much as it was more than i actually received and enclosed copies of my P60's for the relevant years.
(I do have a copy of this letter but it is on an old pc that i don't use anymore so will have to connect it up etc to retrieve it).
I have never had a response to this letter.
Anyway during the conversation yesterday the person i was speaking to said, "you need to set up a DD for £90 a month, that is the minimum", I laughed and said "yeh right, I cannot afford £90 a month, at present i don't think i can afford £9 a month and i am not acknowledging that i owe this, I have already written to them with copies of P60's but it was years ago and I never had a reply, I had just assumed that it had been dealt with". She says "they might not have received that letter", me "so why haven't they been chasing me for this money, why have they passed it to you after all these years", she said she didn't know why.
Anyway then she went onto say i have till friday (tomorrow) to ring them back with full income and expenditure so they can come up with a payment plan. I said "surely i am not still liable for this debt after all these years", she said "yes HMRC debt is always owed".
I have read some of this and other threads, from what i am understanding Income Tax cannot be statute barred but Tax Credits can be. Should I ring back tomorrow and not give income and expenditure but just say i believe the debt to be statute barred or should i just send them a letter?
Thanks

From what I understand, debts to HMRC CAN be statute barred, and cannot go to court, BUT statute barred does not mean the money is not still owed, and HMRC can recover the money by increasing your tax code or even deducting the money from your pension payments when they become payable.

They have you all ways.

maggiecon

I have a question regarding Student Loans.


I graduated in 2006 with £12k of student loans which I have been paying back since then, and I am nearly finished. in 2009 I randomly received a letter for the Education Board saying that I had 5 days to pay back an over payment of £3600 as I didn't fill in a form correctly in 2006 relating to childminding costs! The form related to my childminder confirming that she was looking after my two kids and was receiving £100 per week from me. My childminder was on holidays and in a pure state of panic I filled the form in and sent it back to them. Next thing I know the police are at my door saying that I was fraudulently claiming the money.


Anyhow long story short I got a solicitor and I convinced the police man that I was entitled to over £300 a week towards childminding fees and was only claiming the £100 so if I was going to do it to make money I would have claimed a hell of a lot more. I also got the childminder to confirm she was actually getting paid and in fact did babysit for me whilst I attended college. Any how I had to accept a caution for misrepresentation as I signed the form. Lesson Learned


In roughly 2011/2012 SLC got back on to me again looking for the money. I have never wrote to them about it but have rang them a couple of times to tell them I don't owe them it, I did write to the Education board in 2009, arguing the fact that it was not an overpayment as I was entitled to the money and if they had done their job correctly and sent me the paperwork in 2006 none of this mess would have happened.


Anyhow I was wondering does this debt become statute barred as I have never made any payment towards it?

nottoolate

should not have signed that caution. the 6 years runs from when you did

maggiecon

The caution was signed in April 2009, does that mean the debt will become statute barred in April 2015?


I accepted the caution as my solicitor told me it only stays on record for 5 years and I couldn't afford to go to court to defend myself.