Alleged debt - very old but had CCJ, bailiffs (allegedly!) - Help!

knowyourhistory

Hi,

I have recently been contacted about an alleged debt from what is approximately 1995. I was told I owe £2k and that the debt had a CCJ against it at the time and that bailiffs had gone to my home at the time after I had moved out.

I have no knowledge of this or recollection of this debt. I was a student though at the time and it may be feasible that once upon a time it existed.

I have been sent a rather lame one line letter telling me that I owe the x amount and that is it.

I have read lots of excellent guides on here and seen a number of template letters but I have no idea still what the best initial course of action is.

Do I ask for proof or validation of the debt and it's associated account? What do I say about a CCJ that I know nothing about? How is this likely to play out?

My credit score is near perfect and I have had a mortgage for 8-9 years.

Please help - I'm so panicked that I'm doing nothing at all about this...I have only spoken to them on the phone at the moment after I was duped into calling them.

Kind Regards

Tixy

Hi

Do you think that this could be a debt of yours? Were you aware of any outstanding debt or of a CCJ at all?
Have you been provided with details of the original debt? who the creditor was etc? and/or a copy of the CCJ?
Have you been given an address for the ccj/debt that was indeed actually an old address of yours?

If it is your debt and there is a CCJ then whilst you may owe the money the chance of them being able to do anything about it (other than ask you to pay) are remote. They would not get permission to enforce a CCJ after all this time (by enforcing that would be instructing bailiffs, attempting to obtain an attachment of earnings etc).

But unless you see proof that there ever was a CCJ I wouldn't necessarily believe any debt collector that there is a CCJ. If there wasn't a CCJ then the debt would be statute barred.

This debt cannot reappear on your credit file now - so you don't need to worry regarding that.

The debt would have originally stayed on your credit file for 6years from when you defaulted and the CCJ if there was one for 6years from the CCJ date. By the sounds of it both of these would have been more than 6years before when you obtained your mortgage.

vax2002

Have you recently done any kind of free credit search, they sell stale debts on to sharks once they have details that are live.
I would do a ccj search and check what they are saying, often they make things up to get you in to a dialogue and cream some cash out of you for a statute barred debt.

knowyourhistory

Thank you so much for your prompt responses!

They have stated an old address of mine and I do recognise the alleged creditor which was my bank for a time as a student. Could it be my debt?? Quite possibly but I genuinely have no recollection of it as it was such a long time ago and almost a different life ago. I have received no details of the original debt except to say I owe £x.

I have done a free search recently but it showed nothing up on my file at all that even looked like a debt - my Experian score is 999 I think.

So are my next steps to ask for proof of the debt and see what they can provide? What should I expect / accept?

Thanks so much again - it's wonderful to be able to talk to someone about this.

nottoolate

make them prove it http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/attachment/3rdpartydebtsletter.rtf

RAS

knowyourhistory wrote: »

Thank you so much for your prompt responses!

They have stated an old address of mine and I do recognise the alleged creditor which was my bank for a time as a student. Could it be my debt?? Quite possibly but I genuinely have no recollection of it as it was such a long time ago and almost a different life ago. I have received no details of the original debt except to say I owe £x.

I have done a free search recently but it showed nothing up on my file at all that even looked like a debt - my Experian score is 999 I think.

So are my next steps to ask for proof of the debt and see what they can provide? What should I expect / accept?

Thanks so much again - it's wonderful to be able to talk to someone about this.

Hi

Stop communicating with them at all, unless they send anything that suggests they are going for legal enforcement of the CCJ.

At which point you defend on the grounds that they are out of time.

Are you aware that a mortgage provider was refused permission to reclaim a debt from an errant home owner because they had failed to enforce payment or repossession for 18 years?

This was unsecured debt and even with the CCJ thay have not got a leg to stand on.

However, if they get one whiff that you might be stupid enough to pay, they will pursue you.

They paid tuppence for the debt and you are going to cough up £2000 for no reason. No wonder they would be after you.