After how many years can debt be written off?

Bec611

I unfortunately had debt of £11k when my husband got made redundant we could no longer afford to repay debts,he was out of work and I was pregnant...buried head in sand..tried to juggle everything but missed payments and creditors added charges/interest pushing debt to £19k. Went to Citizens Advice finally,they were wonderful,got reduced payments of £1 or £1.50 per month to 5 different creditors. Been paying them for almost 10 years. I heard that after 6 or 10 years the debts can be written off...is there any truth in this? Thanks!

HappyMJ

No...If you had not been making any payments and they had failed to take you to court to enforce the debts within 6 years then they become unenforcable but you still owe the money. You have an option to offer a full and final settlement. You could start by offering 10% of the amount owing in return for them to be written off and see what they come back with. Tell them a friend is willing to lend you the money for this.

GeorgeUK

If you had not made any payments towards teh debts for 6 years, they would be statute barred and they could not enforce the debts. As you have been making payments, thsi si not possible.

Have you been able to save any money? You may be able to offer a reduced Full and Final Settlement for a low % of the remaining debt. They may accept this instead of years more of £1 payments. The original creditor has probably sold the debts by now for a few pence in the pound to Debt Collection Agencies so it may be worth looking at.

Just make sure not to send any payment unless you get written confirmation that you will not be liable for the remainder of the debt. Partial and Short settlements are not what you want to agree to.

Something else you may wish to look at is whether the credit agreements for the accounts were properly executed. If they weren't, then it is possible that the debts are not enforcable. (They would need to provide a court with a copy of a proerly executed agreement to enforce the debt - if one doesn't exist, then they can't). There a re a few threads on the board for CCA requests that you may wish to look through.

Bec611

Ok thanks everyone...I will look into the full/final settlement as I would rather be clear of these debts. I did offer £5k (parents help) split between them about 8 years ago but they turned me down,might be worth having another go x