Being Chased for Old Debts

scottdonovan

Hi All, was just after some advice and see what anyones knows about certain DCA and where they get there information from.. Got myself into serious amounts of debt going back to 2003/2004 at the time I had to sell the flat I owned and paid off all the debt that I could. Having not heard a thing since probably 2005 from any of these companies and all my credit ratings are back to being good managed to get a mortgage again last year and finally thought all that was behind me! Several weeks ago I receive a letter from Mackensie Hall telling me I owed money for a vodaphone bill, then another letter came through from Robinson Way asking for payment on an outstanding loan..also another DCA is asking for payment on a Barclaycard debt which is strange as I have just applied for and been given a platinum Barclaycard so surely I cant owe them any money!! At the moment I am just ignoring them as they are phoning every other day and have received no more letters.. I would like to know if anyone knows where they get their data from as I they obviously have got my new address, mobile and even home number which is ex directory and not even in name and what the best course of action is to take with these companies? I am worried that after getting myself back to normal and being able to get some credit again these companies will ruin my credit file again can they legally do anything to my credit rating? Should I write the prove it letters to them or shall I just ignore them? Also why have they waited until now to start chasing me it seems they have waited till I was back on my feet and then decided to make my life a misery again is this a tactic they use or would something else triggered them all chasing me?

Culex

Get a cheap folder and keep all the mail in them - you may need it later when you seek redress for their evident harassment.

When the bu[STRIKE]gg[/STRIKE]ers telephone you, what - if anything - have you said to them? It is quite possible (or probable, given the prokaryotic life-forms employed by those DCAs) that the debts were not yours at all.

If there is no sign of the debts on your credit report, it is also possible that you had incurred those debts but that they were removed from the report when six years had elapsed since the demand for full repayment was made or since the last payment was made by the debtor - whether or not that was you.

If you neither made any payment on that alleged debt nor acknowledged it in writing for more than six years, the debt will be statute barred by section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980. This means that it could not be enforced by any court judgement; to state that it is statute barred is a complete defence to any summons - but any attempted court action must be defended, or a judgement could be given for the claimant.

It is not necessary for you to prove that you neither paid nor acknowledged the debt at any time in the last six years - it is up to the debt farmers to prove that you did.

Tixy

As Culex has suggested these debts may well be statute barred - this link Statute barred debts and the Limitation Acts contains factsheets relating to statute barred debts and template letters you could use and the differences in the law depending on which Uk country you live in (and is slightly more friendly reading that the Limitation Act itself!)
You also need to check none of your creditors have already obtained CCJs against you, as if they have then the debt would not become statute barred.

Culex

Tixy wrote: »

As Culex has suggested these debts may well be statute barred - this link Statute barred debts and the Limitation Acts contains factsheets relating to statute barred debts and template letters you could use and the differences in the law depending on which Uk country you live in (and is slightly more friendly reading that the Limitation Act itself!)
You also need to check none of your creditors have already obtained CCJs against you, as if they have then the debt would not become statute barred.

As he claims to have a credit rating of "good", to have obtained a mortgage last year and recently to have been accepted for a platinum Barclaycard, it might seem unlikely that he had any unsatisfied CCJs against him.

Whether there are any against someone else with the same name may be quite another matter. The UK Registry of Court Judgements offers a simple way for him to check.

scottdonovan

Thanks for the advice guys, looks like I will have to send letters to them all and hopefully that will get them off my back, had a letter for the so called Barclaycard Debt yesterday from HFO stating that I need to contact them and settle the debt or it will passed on to their solicitors and court action will be taken. Still wondering how these DCA's have all of sudden decided to start chasing me now? I lived at my last address for 5 years and did not receive a phone call or letter their, I was in this address less than a year and they have started calling and writing? Intrigued as to where they have got their information from? But having read several of these forums and the experiences that people have had with these debt collecters it seems they do not really play by the rules and try any tactic to get money out of people..Well hopefully the letters will work and they will leave me alone...Thanks again

scottdonovan

Hope someone knows what to do now it seems Robinson Way have put a default onto my credit report for a loan that is at least 6 years old this went onto my report 10th April 2011 and they have now ruined my credit rating again... I really dont know what to do as it is my experience that it is extremely difficult to get anything removed from the report once they have put it on there, can they legally do this as someone advised they they could not put a default on my account for something that old? Help and advice needed guys?

fermi

It depends if this is a new fresh default, or just an old one that they have taken over and hasn't been on for 6 years yet?

A few questions...

What is the "default date" for this default?

When did you actually default this account?

Has there been a default on your credit report before regarding this account? If so, what was the recorded default date for that?

scottdonovan

Im not sure whether or not it has always been on my credit report as I have been using Equifax to check and the default was not showing on that report, now just having checked my Experian report it seems to be there with this new date and that I owe Robinson Way, when looking at it the default date is 27/10/2005 so just outside the 6 year time frame, I dont wish to pay these people as I know they have purchased the debt for pennies and want thousands off me that I simply dont have. Not sure where to go now with all this I thought I had seen the back of being worried to pick up the phone and open a letter but it seems they dont go away easily.

fermi

It may have always been there.

Just not on the credit report you have been looking at, or not linked in to your current one as it should be.

If the latter, then Robinson Way taking over the debt and default and updating addresses etc, may have re-established the link t the report you get from the CRAs.

Regardless of the how and why of it only appearing now, the question is:

Does that default date fairly reflect the account history?

In most cases if a default is to be recorded, then it should be dated within 6 of your relationship with the creditor "breaking down". Normally the point when payments cease or when the creditor decides that reduced payments you may have been making are no longer acceptable, but it is open to interpretation.

Gordon_Hose

If the default date is 27/10/2005, then it'll drop off the file 27/10/2011, which isn't so bad in the grand scheme of things, especially if the debt is statute barred. All they've done is ruin your file for 6 months, but they can't enforced it in court, provided it really is SB.

scottdonovan

Thinking about it the default date showing is probably quite late and probably about the last time I acknowleged the debt in anyway, I would say I started having difficulty with payments about a year before the 27/10/2005 date showing on my report. It has like you say probably always been on my report so is it making any difference to my credit score now they have linked it with this address? I still cant quite see how they can do this as I have not replied to any of their letters and only spoke to them once as my partner answered the phone and passed it to me, but I did not tell them anything just that I had never heard of them and did not confirm any details with them. I guess the credit report is the least of my worries and it will drop off in 6 months anyway. As for the debt being SB I am not sure whether it is because of the default date showing. So a little unsure as to what to do now?