Stirring a Hornets nest - Well, trying not to..

Cobant

Hi all,

First time posting, but I have browsed this site quite a bit in the past and there seems to be some sterling advice going around, so I wondered if anyone would be kind enough to offer some pearls of wisdom from their expertise/past experience.

I have outstanding debts relating from a period of self employment when my business went under during the recession (first one). In an attempt to stay afloat, I took out everything I could against my name to keep funds flowing and rescue what I had worked so hard to create, but ultimately had to give up.

It took a number of months to find a job in a horrible job market at the time, and when I did, it was a bottom rung job. This was in contrast financially to my previous full-time employment and period of self employment and so I was in no place to pay all my recently acquired debt outgoings with other obligations.

As a result, I have made no payments, made no communication (written, telephone or in person) with any of these creditors since April 2009. In the mean time, the original creditors pursued the debt through mail before selling the debt to a DCA. In the last 4.5 years, the same loop of threats, followed by period of silence, followed by selling to another DCA has repeated with no court action at all and no visits from agents or otherwise.

My original objective with this was to buy some time until I was on sounder financial footing.. I was going to arrange repayment the second the courts were brought into it. Since this has not happened, I have started to consider the possibility of them becoming statute barred, and also them falling off my file.

I have moved house twice since the debt was defaulted. they obviously found me at the new address as I was on the ER, but the same loop of threats and no action continued. Last October I moved again, and recently, for the first time since the default, I applied for credit in the form of a mobile phone - I had been using a work phone previously. To my surprise, it was approved, however this sparked a flurry of activity as there was obviously a new confirmation of my address on my credit file.

I expected this, and I await to see if this instance will follow the same loop of hollow threats.

My questions are thus:

1) Would you presume they have no way of enforcing the debt through court? I have read on here about the 'prove it' letters, and my brother has had success with these. I'm not going to risk trying to find out as I would be communicating with them, but would this explain why they have not attempted to obtain a CCJ? these are not insignificant debts - 3 x £3k - £4k.. surely the original banks would have looked to recoup this through the courts should they have been able to?

2) Assuming a default was applied in April 2009 (I'm aware it may be three months after the first missed payment), can I assume this will cease to appear on credit files from May 2015?

3) Assuming again the defaults were in April 2009, I could legitimately assume them to be statute barred in May 2015, and can have them stop perusing me for repayment as a result?

Final question 4) I have steered well clear of my credit files during this whole period, however if the above is true regarding statute barring and default removal from credit files, I'm desperate to get hold of them and work out a golden date. I worry that registering with the credit agencies is just about as good a way of 'stirring the hornets nest' as any as surely this alerts all DCAs to a 100% confirmed address of their mortal enemy. I say stirring the hornets nest, as such a cast iron confirmation of address may shuffle your file to the top of their pile and them go at it hammer and tongs. anyone had experience of this?

Sorry for the length of this, I just wanted to be clear in my explanation of the situation.

this amongst other things has been a tremendous weight on my shoulders for such a long time, I can't begin to explain how good it would be to get a target date to look to in ending this.

I really appreciate you taking the time to read this far, and further appreciate anyone taking the time to offer their input.

Many thanks.

patman99

I believe the '6 year rule' is regarding them not contacting you, rather than you not contacting them.

rizla_king

patman99 wrote: »

I believe the '6 year rule' is regarding them not contacting you, rather than you not contacting them.

You believe wrongly. The clock is only reset if YOU acknowledge the debt or make a payment.

Stewart_78

I would suspect that if they haven't taken legal action yet it's because they know they can't ie. they don't have the correct paperwork to enforce. The 6 year rule applies unless you acknowledge the debt or make a payment, it matters not how many times they write to you or all you. So, if they don't take you to court before May 2015 or whenever then the debts will be SB. It might pay you to look into enforce-ability a bit. Were the accounts opened before 2007? If so, they have to work much harder to get a judgement against you.

Prothet_of_Doom

on a related point, but slightly off topic, this is why ltd companies are a good idea. Limited liability.

Cobant

Stewart_78 wrote: »

I would suspect that if they haven't taken legal action yet it's because they know they can't ie. they don't have the correct paperwork to enforce. The 6 year rule applies unless you acknowledge the debt or make a payment, it matters not how many times they write to you or all you. So, if they don't take you to court before May 2015 or whenever then the debts will be SB. It might pay you to look into enforce-ability a bit. Were the accounts opened before 2007? If so, they have to work much harder to get a judgement against you.

They were indeed taken out before 2007.. I've just received letters today offering to contribute 30% to ANY direct debit I am willing to set up.

I think this proves beyond reasonable doubt they have just hoovered up an unenforceable debt on the cheap if they are doing this in their just 3rd communication and after only a month.

The communication black out shall continue.

Cobant

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

on a related point, but slightly off topic, this is why ltd companies are a good idea. Limited liability.

You're absolutely right, and that's why I had one. But a small company with no tangible assets is only ever likely to attract a small overdraft until a very healthy balance sheet can be produced.

Hence why obtaining credit in the beginning usually involves signing up to mandatory directors liability.

To be honest, this wasn't really the issue for me.. as I said in the original post, my problem was trying to fight to stop the ship sinking.. so no bank is going to lend to a failing ltd company.. hence why I used every ounce of personal credit i could get to try and get back on an even keel.

Seems a stupid thing to do when you look at it like that, but when it's something you have invested so many years of your life building up, you do whatever you can to try and rescue it. You don't know its actually a recession kicking in.

Hindsight, eh?

Stewart_78

Cobant wrote: »

You're absolutely right, and that's why I had one. But a small company with no tangible assets is only ever likely to attract a small overdraft until a very healthy balance sheet can be produced.

Hence why obtaining credit in the beginning usually involves signing up to mandatory directors liability.

To be honest, this wasn't really the issue for me.. as I said in the original post, my problem was trying to fight to stop the ship sinking.. so no bank is going to lend to a failing ltd company.. hence why I used every ounce of personal credit i could get to try and get back on an even keel.

Seems a stupid thing to do when you look at it like that, but when it's something you have invested so many years of your life building up, you do whatever you can to try and rescue it. You don't know its actually a recession kicking in.

Hindsight, eh?

Cobant, I did exactly the same thing, hence where I am now. Seems crazy when you look back doesn't it. I bailed out my Ltd and got rate jacked almost immediately after HSBC pulled our company overdraft. I would be smarter next time but more people would suffer.

Not quite as cut and dried when you put real people and situations into it. Unless you behave like a bank of course. Then you just rape and pillage and take what you can get.