debt from 11 years ago!!!!!

Shell68

I would like to say a big thank you to Rog2 and Redpoison for their help. I will send the letter in the next few days and let you know how I get on.
Kindest regards
Michelle

tildamaimum

Could someone please help me?? I found this thread on google!

I have owed £1,300 for some 10 years now. The debt built up due to many unfair bank charges obviously which now i can no longer challenge. It then went to debt collection and i paid a couple of times some 6 years ago but then found myself as a single parent and could no longer afford to pay and then i moved away. The debt collectors then found me at my new address (i think due to the electoral roll) and started sending me VERY threatening letters and harassing me with phone calls. I had to agree to pay them £5 a week i think it was but i only did so on a couple of occasions before moving again. It has been 3 years. They still had my mobile number and would periodically call me but i would never answer their calls. Recently they have started calling me all hours and yesterday i received a call from someone claiming to be a delivery driver with a package to deliver to me today! As i was awaiting a parcel i assumed it was for that. The chap asked for me to verify my postcode and house number! It was only afterwards it occured to me it might be them! And sure enough it was. I am now living in fear of opening my door. I do not have any money to repay them and i feel as nearly half of what i owe is in these bank charges it is very unfair! The debt collection company has changed several times also.

Can anyone offer me advise, this is making me ill!!

tildamaimum

rog2

tildamaimum wrote: »

Could someone please help me?? I found this thread on google!

I have owed £1,300 for some 10 years now. The debt built up due to many unfair bank charges obviously which now i can no longer challenge. It then went to debt collection and i paid a couple of times some 6 years ago but then found myself as a single parent and could no longer afford to pay and then i moved away. The debt collectors then found me at my new address (i think due to the electoral roll) and started sending me VERY threatening letters and harassing me with phone calls. I had to agree to pay them £5 a week i think it was but i only did so on a couple of occasions before moving again. It has been 3 years. They still had my mobile number and would periodically call me but i would never answer their calls. Recently they have started calling me all hours and yesterday i received a call from someone claiming to be a delivery driver with a package to deliver to me today! As i was awaiting a parcel i assumed it was for that. The chap asked for me to verify my postcode and house number! It was only afterwards it occured to me it might be them! And sure enough it was. I am now living in fear of opening my door. I do not have any money to repay them and i feel as nearly half of what i owe is in these bank charges it is very unfair! The debt collection company has changed several times also.

Can anyone offer me advise, this is making me ill!!

tildamaimum

First of all, try not to worry. We need to establish a couple of points:

1. What was the original debt? Credit Card, Loan, Overdraft?

2. When did you last make any payment towards, or acknowledge this 'debt' in writing?

3. What is the name of the dca that is currently chasing you?

I'm sure we will find a solution.

tildamaimum

Hi there

Ok, the debt was originally a bank loan with HSBC. They kept piling on the charges left right and centre and once when the particular chap i saw there cancelled the loans direct debit for me it wasn't! so i got more charges. I went in to see him and he told me he wasn't after all authorized to cancel direct debits but he had failed to tell me that in the mean time! so yet more charges!! etc etc.... i was pregnant at the time and sadly the insurance i got roped into taking at the time i took out the loan, (and had paid for a couple of years), didn't cover pregnancy. So once no longer working i could not pay the loan!
The bank was VERY unhelpful and i was passed back and forth to several different people. I was forever being told 'someone will call me back' - they never did, it was me doing all the chasing but nothing was ever resolved and one day when yet again i rang them about sorting the unfair charges they told me it was 'no longer their problem' and that it had gone to debt collection. I was disgusted but the debt collection company didn't care about what i had gone through with the bank they just wanted the money.
That was nearly 7 years ago. I took out the loan 2 years before that.
The debt collection company has changed several times! Last time i paid them it was 'Metropolitan' and that was 2 and a half years ago i guess.
I have never to my knowledge written to any of the debt collection companies. I am not sure who it is now as when they call they refuse to tell me who they are until i confirm my name and address. I am sure after the little stunt they pulled the other night that i will soon be finding out who they are!

Robiko

Now the banks have been hit financially over the past year it seems they're trying everything to claw any money back...

Last year, unwittingly, I got caught by a Barclaycard salesman, filled in the application form, got thanked and went on my way, totally forgetting the incident. A month later I got a letter saying sorry but I wasn't accepted (not that I was surprised...), not to worry, didn't want a Barclaycard anyway as I'd had one in the past, over ten years ago and after financial difficulties disappeared without paying...
Last week I got a letter from a company called Lowell, requesting some information from my past. Having researched them and finding them to be a debt collection agency I e-mailed them and asked why they required this information, without offering any information of my own.
This morning I get a letter from this same company demanding £880.49 as payment for a Barclaycard debt...interesting coincidence?

Now thanks to you guys I don't need to worry about it anymore :beer:

rog2

tildamaimum wrote: »

Hi there

Ok, the debt was originally a bank loan with HSBC. They kept piling on the charges left right and centre and once when the particular chap i saw there cancelled the loans direct debit for me it wasn't! so i got more charges. I went in to see him and he told me he wasn't after all authorized to cancel direct debits but he had failed to tell me that in the mean time! so yet more charges!! etc etc.... i was pregnant at the time and sadly the insurance i got roped into taking at the time i took out the loan, (and had paid for a couple of years), didn't cover pregnancy. So once no longer working i could not pay the loan!
The bank was VERY unhelpful and i was passed back and forth to several different people. I was forever being told 'someone will call me back' - they never did, it was me doing all the chasing but nothing was ever resolved and one day when yet again i rang them about sorting the unfair charges they told me it was 'no longer their problem' and that it had gone to debt collection. I was disgusted but the debt collection company didn't care about what i had gone through with the bank they just wanted the money.
That was nearly 7 years ago. I took out the loan 2 years before that.
The debt collection company has changed several times! Last time i paid them it was 'Metropolitan' and that was 2 and a half years ago i guess.
I have never to my knowledge written to any of the debt collection companies. I am not sure who it is now as when they call they refuse to tell me who they are until i confirm my name and address. I am sure after the little stunt they pulled the other night that i will soon be finding out who they are!

Okay - providing that there was a 'gap' of six years, during which you neither made any payments towards, nor acknowledged in writing, the debt, then I would send the 'statute barred' letter as suggested by AGB863 in post 8 on page 1 of this thread.
The onus will now, legally, be upon the dca to prove that the debt is not statute barred.
If you are unsure as to whether or not a six year 'limitation' period had passed (it does not matter if you made any payment after this period), then you may send the letter posted by phatbear, in post 5 of this thread. You will need to enclose a £1.00 postal order, when asking for a cca.
Personally, I would just send the statute barred letter - they would need to provide you with proof of payments, which, if they did, then you could ask for the cca. Hope that's not too confusing - I'm not having a good day.

barrieo

I have just registered and been reading through these excellent help pages and would first like to say many thanks for the help you provide.

My brother received a letter from a company called "Cabot International" based in Kent, telling him he owed the debt of around £9000 and asking him to fill in a Nottingham County Court CCJ form. It asks if he "admits to the debt" "admits to some of the debt" or "does not admit to any of the debt" There is also an expenditure sheet to be filled in, he has filled in neither yet.

The debt is a credit card and bank loan from over 8 years ago and he has had no contact with them for atleast 6 years.

I would be very grateful if someone could check over the letter below for mistakes. Also I'm not sure if this is the correct letter to send as there is 2 on the first page, post 5 and post 8, and I am also not so sure what the £1 PO/Chq is for and whom it should be made payable to?

If someone can answer these questions and check if the letter is correct I would again be very grateful.

Many thanks again.

barrieo

**************

I do NOT acknowledge any debt to your company

Dear Sir/Madam

Acc/Ref No …………………………….

You have contacted me regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself.

I would point out that under the Limitation Act 1980 Section 5 “an action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.”

I would also point out that the OFT say under their Debt Collection Guidance on statute barred debt that “it is unfair to pursue the debt if the debtor has heard nothing from the creditor during the relevant limitation period”.

The last payment of this debt was made over six years ago and no further acknowledgement or payment has been made since that time.

Unless you can provide evidence of payment or written contact from me in the relevant period under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, I suggest that you are no longer able to take any court action against me to recover the alleged amount claimed.

The OFT Debt Collection Guidance states further that “continuing to press for payment after a debtor has stated that they will not be paying a debt because it is statue barred could amount to harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1970”.

I await your written confirmation that no further contact will be made concerning the above account and confirmation that this matter is now closed.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully

*signed

fermi

barrieo wrote: »

My brother received a letter from a company called "Cabot International" based in Kent, telling him he owed the debt of around £9000 and asking him to fill in a Nottingham County Court CCJ form. It asks if he "admits to the debt" "admits to some of the debt" or "does not admit to any of the debt" There is also an expenditure sheet to be filled in, he has filled in neither yet.

Is this a letter from Cabot, or a claim from/via the court?

If it is from the court it should have an official court stamp and a reference number. If in any doubt you can give the court a call to see if it is a genuine claim.

But some Debt Collection Agencies include the claim forms that the court uses in letters from them simply as a "scare tactic" to put pressure on you when in fact they have not issued an official claim. It sounds from your post as if that might be the case.

So, if it is not a genuine claim (as it seems), but simply an attempt to put the "frighteners" on you, then the letter you quoted sent recorded delivery is all you need to do.

If in the unlikely event that the claim is genuine then you would need to defend it on the basis that the debt is now "Statute Barred". That is a complete defence to the claim and it would be entirely up to Cabot to provide prove that it isn't, which from your post they won't be able to do.

barrieo

First I just want to apologise for wasting your time, my brother brought all the paperwork today and I have now found out all the facts about this and as you will see all was not as it seemed, but I would still be very grateful for some info as to what to do next.

The form is an official form from the court and has been made for the Claimant "Cabot Financial UK Limited" There are 4 pages to the form:-

N1 CPC - Claim form
N9 CPC - Response pack
N9A - Admission
N9B - Defence and Counterclaim

The particulars of the claim are for a creditcard and a loan and he has 3 options, Defend all the claim, Defend part of the claim and Contest Jurisdiction. He says he wants to defend all of it so that he can see what they have on file, but I would be grateful for some info on what he should actually do!

Below are the details of this debt.

I will start by saying that the loan was made over 8 years ago by his then partner, they had a joint account and she got a loan without his knowledge, he went into the bank to ask about it and they said as it was a joint account they only needed her signature. He decided to do nothing as they were in a relationship but when they split he was left with this debt!

Now the most annoying thing, back in November 2001 he signed an agreement with the CCCS to start paying back creditors that included these debts and from what I can see, his last payment was April/May 2004! So I think this totally destroys the "Statute Barred" option.

Even though he set up the CCCS agreement, the amount owed now is far greater than the original debt and as the loan debt was not made by him he has decided to see what can be done if anything.

So my questions that I hope to be answered are:-

What can he do? !!

What should he do regarding the court form? He wants to "Defend all the claim" but he does not know what to say when filling in the "Defence" part of the form.

He doesn't know what happens when choosing this option so should he also contact Cabot requesting the details as set out in post 5 of this thread or should he wait for the response from sending the court form back?

Many thanks for your time in this matter and again apologies for wasting your time on my original post, I would be very grateful if someone can help with this.

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

ok well here is my view as an ex in debt person , i paid the majority off ,some were discounted, some written off and told so by letter, and some paid in full. my credit file is clean as defaults etc have all gone off due to the 6 year rule ,now in the early days of debt clearance and a clean file i had a letter for an old debt they can always ask i did reply which was a mistake as they then wrote all the while for around a year i have no intension of paying this debt its been sold around 5/6 times and in my view i do not owe the original person as he sold it on etc etc , i had two others they were debts aroung 10 years old since the default i ignored them and binned the letter that was the best thing to do with unsecured debts that are ancient history. so my view is do not reply to the letters for old debts bin them