13 year old debt!

jellie75

Just hoping for a bit of advice please! My husband received a letter from a debt collection company today. It was addressed to him, so he opened it. The letter inside said it was trying to trace someone by the name of ...(Husbands name) who had lived at ..(husbands address when he was in the forces) if he did not contact them to tell them this wasn't him, they would assume that all future correspondence would be sent to our current address. It doesn't state what the debt is, or for how much. He lived at that address 13/14 years ago. Do we send a statute barred letter straight away?
Hope this makes sense:D
thanks in advance.

Tixy

Hi

If its just a tracing letter and doesn't give an amount for the debt or anything then I would just ignore it for now.

Only if they write again with details of the debt would I consider replying to them (with the SB letter if you are sure its SB once you know what the debt is).

Hannah_10

Don't write back, they're being tricky, it's actually the other way round, if they DO hear from him they will assume he's the one they want. If that address was quarters then it's maybe been vacated and occupied again every couple of years, but if that address was barracks it can have a few hundred people living there, which can change every few months. That he is the man they really want is far from proven yet. For now sit tight and say nothing, if they do really have anything they'll write again.

jellie75

thats great, thanks for the advice. to be honest just assumed it was statute barred as the debt is from an address which is a forces address and he came out of the forces in 1999, and was stationed at that address in 1996-97.

Hannah_10

If it is actually him then yeah it's gonna be statute barred, but there's another possibility...

What if there's another Mr Joe Bloggs who was stationed there in 2008 and somehow or other there's been a crossed wire and the debt is owed by the OTHER bloke? If it's a barracks address (ask him, he'll know what I mean by barracks or quarters) then it's more likely than it sounds because the turnover of people through the same basic address can be enormous. Even other regiments and corps can get mixed up with the currently stationed regiment or corps... It can get very messy.

So don't reply until something comes through the post saying who the debt was owed to (eg Barclaycard) and how much. Then the next thing after that is the prove it letter so you at least get the DATE because the date is everything.

If the date is the late 90's then yep, your next recourse is the SB letter. If however the date is more recent then suspect they've got the wrong man.

Tixy

If it is his debt then its quite likely that it would be SB. But if he moved around quite a bit whilst in the forces then you need to check for example that there hasn't been a CCJ at any point for this debt.

Either way wait for them to get in touch again, if they do and you are still not sure if its his debt or a legitmate debt then you could always go for the prove it letter prior to the SB letter.

jellie75

it is actually a squadron address and he changed squadron in 1998. However our surname is not exactly common so it would be a massive coincidence if it was someone else!! thanks for your help x