Confused - have BoS/Halifax written loan off?

Vickicb

Hi, I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this scenario...

OH had a loan with Halifax taken out mid 2002 for £15K for his business, although stupidly put it in his name as opposed to the name of the Ltd Company. His business went into difficulties soon after and was liquidated, but the loan in his name had to stay with us. After struggling with payments for a while it was defaulted eventually in May 2003 (we think). Mid-2004 OH managed 4 months payments of £200 to Blair Oliver Scott, then nothing since then. Blair have been VERY lenient in not chasing the debt very hard according to OH, due to the fact we had house on market to release equity.

Anyway, now sold house but after secured debts paid and deposit to new house (we could only get 85% mortage) only a couple of £K left over, which I need for improvements to new house. However, I got nearly £5K from reclaiming bank charges and I thought I'd try a F&F offer of 30% to clear this debt.

However, OH has had an annual statement (monthly statements stopped sometime last year) and it says "WRITE OFF - £17K" in May 2006, the balance of the loan reduced to £0 and the loan has been closed. At the same time they had taken around £30 from 2 dormant savings accounts (supposed to be for the kids) and closed them too.

We have not heard from Blair Oliver Scott for months and months, no letters for at least a year (if not longer) and the last contact was around Easter last year when OH called them for a settlement figure (they quoted £10K, but didn't put in writing). Has this really been written off? We have not heard from any other debt agencies, which I assume we would have if the debt had been sold on.

What should we do now, ignore it and put our bank charges into much needed home improvements?

golddigger_3

HI

It does sound like the debt has been written off - your best bet is just to phone them or write to them and get it official in writing.

Hope it has been - let us know how you get on - and well done on reclaiming your bank charges!

CLAPTON

personally... and its only an opinion, i wouldn't pull the dragons tail.

Vickicb

Thanks both for replying, I think I agree Clapton, I wouldn't want to wake them up to this debt, it's a biggie.

I assume if it had been sold on we'd have heard by now as it was "written off" 9 months ago and I thought legally you had to be informed if your debt was sold on?

CLAPTON

no, they have no legal obligation as such to tell you the debt has been sold on as you signed T&Cs (probably without reading them ) agreeing they could do this.

However, there's no guarentee that they might not yet demand payment is a year or so but that's a risk i would take.

Vickicb

OK, I've just dug out T&C booklet from 2002 and read it and it appears they can sell it on without informing us. But then surely the new owner of the debt would have contacted OH by now?

OH having trouble getting into Experian file, but taking a look at that might shed some light. I think ignoring it is best, worse case scenario is that they demand payment and we start making monthly payments - could probably afford that now.

We've moved and not told them new address - a problem if this went to court at a later date do you think? As I am receipt of a statement from them with the account at £0 and with a date the account was closed I guess there is no need to inform them of address change as OH no longer has any business with them (redirection order on for another 11 months if we are contacted in that timeframe).

I guess I better not start bank charges claim against them then!

DontDoDebtKids

Vickicb wrote:

I guess I better not start bank charges claim against them then!

I don't see why not! Most likely a different department anyway.

newmum1

Personally I would make some enquiries, as if you spend what money you have on home improvements then you may have to find the money in the forth coming months. if it has been written off then fair enough.

Broken_hearted

I doubt very much that they will have written it off, we only owe £3,000 and they are chasing us like their life depended on it.

angelavdavis

Vickicb wrote:

What should we do now, ignore it and put our bank charges into much needed home improvements?

I would lock this money up in a high interest notice account - see Martin's pages for recommendations and forget about it. If they chase you, the money will have grown and you can offer them the lower amount (ie minus the interest you have earned) and see what they say.

If you don't hear from them for 6 years, they can't come after you for the money anyway.

I think if you spend the money (even if you feel the home improvements are much needed) and then they come after you, you will regret not having anything available for an offer.

Vickicb

Thanks for advice, I think I'm going to spend half the money and put the rest in a savings account or ISA, and I'm going to also save £300 per month into the same account. That way I get to replace my horrendous bathroom now but still have some put away, and growing, just in case.

OH got his credit report today, account was defaulted in Feb 2003 and when we last looked was still showing as defaulted. The account now shows as having been settled (not satisfied) in March 2003 - really weird.