unenforcable loan

cezzi

Hello, this is my first post, and I would like to ask the comunity for some advice please.

When I was younger (more than 10 years ago) I took out a bank loan to buy a car. The car turned out to be a lemon, and I lost the car after the engine blew-up...

I also lost my job (and was mentally in a bad place) The loan came with PPI, but for some reason I was not eligable to make a claim when I was made redundant...

Eventually the loan was passed to a collection agancy and my g/f at the time started paying £20 a month off my loan (just to get them to leave me alone - I was in a VERY bad place mentally at the time).

Fast-forward 10+ years, and I recive a series of letters and phonecalls chasing the debt (after all this time).

As the calls and letters where thretening I used a template letter to ask them for a copy of the loan contract (etc....).

I just recived a letter back from the debt collection agancy stating that the debt is un-enforcable (as they can't get a copy of the loan agreement from the bank), but they can still "send the boys around"or "take me to court"...

I was wondering if I could offer them a token payment (say £100) to write the debt off (They claim I owe £9000), but they also wrongly claim that I took the loan out when I was 13 (they have the wrong/no details for the loan).

I really want to end this, any advice would be very gratefully recived.

Cezzi

ineed

Don't send anything. This debt is over six years old and therefore statue barred. They can do nothing to you. Ignore them, if they keep calling and sending letters it's harassment and you can report them. Take a look at this link about your rights.

Le_Pip

The fact the debt is over 6 years old doesn't mean it is statute barred.

In order for the debt to be statute barred you need to not have acknowledged it for 6 years, you have made no payments, engaged in correspondance about the debtand the lender hasn't obtained a CCJ. If you meet these criteria the the lender is barred from pursuing recovery. I note you say you girlfriend made token payments, if these stopped over 6 years ago then no need to worry. If these have been made in the last 6 years I do not know if this would hamper your claim to a statute barred debt,

If the creditor has previously taken you to court and you have received a CCJ, you will be unable to use the Limitations Act 1980 to dispute the debt. If the judgement is over 6 years old the creditor may need the permission of the Court to enforce the debt.

As an aside you have to question the intelligence of the the person at the agency who wrote to you. This loan is unenforcable but we will chase you for payments.

Bravehearted_2

ineed wrote: »

Don't send anything. This debt is over six years old and therefore statue barred. They can do nothing to you. Ignore them, if they keep calling and sending letters it's harassment and you can report them. Take a look at this link about your rights.

This is incorrect - just because the date the loan was taken is over 6 years doesn't mean its SB.

He said his GF made token payments - need to find out how long ago this was. Or how long ago since a written acknowledgement was made.

People really need to get basic stuff like this right when advising.

cezzi

Thanks for your posts, my g/f at the time is now my wonderful wife, we'd forgoten all about it untill these letters started arriving last year...

So the payments where made up-to last year.

Yes I know I can't get it written off due to this, but I wanted a copy of the agreement to at-least dispute the PPI charge (since I was uneligable to claim when I lost my job). The responce that the debt was un-enforcable caught me completly off-gaurd.

I was just wondering if they would take a token payment to end this (as I don't really want to spend the next 10 years trying to get a hold of the document to dispute the PPI).

Has anybody ever been in this position before (ie collection agancy has admitted that debt is un-enforcable).

At the end of the day I guess they are a business and need to make a proffit. Is my account worth more to them sitting on it/ selling to another agancy/ persuing or accepting a token payment to write off?

And would £100 be a reasonable token payment (I'm not exactly rich and £100 is a fortnights food shopping for my family).

PS before I recived this letter I was contemplating Bankruptsy just to end this pursuit. (most of the aleged debt I belive is due to charges on missed payments when I lost my job). I think originally the loan was just a fraction of the amount they say I now owe and I paid much more than that back before losing my job, and by paying this £20 a month for the past 10 years...

Thanks for all your responces so far though..

Cezzi

PS I hope you understand that I can't get into too much detail (I worry about fake documents turning up based on details I supply in this public forum).

nottoolate

they could take you to court. but if its uneneforceable and you defended it properly then they would likely get spanked and fail.

basically they know they are fooked. so they are trying to blag payments from now on with empty threats

DevCoder

So the payments where made up-to last year.

So the last payment made (ie acknowledging the debt) was last year?

Full & Final Settlements normally go for 30-50% of the amount owed by the looks of it.

endora

OK, so the debt is not SBd as you've been paying, however, you have a DCA telling you the debt is unenforceable as they can't get a copy of the agreement. Yes, they can send the boys round but you don't have to open the door or talk to them, if they did send someone (and that's a big IF), if wouldn't be a bailiff, it would be a trained monkey (a.k.a. doorstep collector or field agent). There's no law that says you have to give them the time of day!

As for taking you to court, they can't obtain judgment against you without an agreement (provided you defend, of course) so what would be the point?

geoffky

Do not pay a thing as they will see this as a sign of weakness and hassle you to the end of the earth...just ignore all apart from court papers that are stamped and passed as genuine on here by someone who deals with court papers..

cezzi

Thank you all for your advice. I'll try my best to ignore the letters for now (and the telephone calls have stoped for the past week).

Cezzi

ineed

Bravehearted wrote: »

This is incorrect - just because the date the loan was taken is over 6 years doesn't mean its SB.

He said his GF made token payments - need to find out how long ago this was. Or how long ago since a written acknowledgement was made.

People really need to get basic stuff like this right when advising.

But he said his GF at the time made payments and it was ten + years ago, "fast forward 10+ years."

Edit: just read down to his other post saying payments were made up until sat year. When I first posted i didn't know this.