Historic Debt

bigdanr

My partner ran up alot of debt before we were together using Creditcards/Loans etc, more than she could ever pay off, and has had a CCJ against her in the last 2 years which never progressed as she was on maternity leave.

Just recently we've done a credit check on her as we are wanting to rent a new house, and this has shown her to have an excellent credit rating, and none of the unpaid debt is recorded. Is this likely to be down to the age of the debt, over 6 years ? What happens to the debt now ? I'm a bit unsure as to what we can see and what others can see ?

Gordon_Hose

Did you check her file with all 3 agencies? Not all lenders record to all 3 agencies so you need to get her £2 reports from Equifax and Experian. And a free report from Noddle.

Morrow1984

The reference to the debt is gone, it will no longer appear on your credit file as it is over 6 years old.

However. The debt still exists. A debt collection company can still contact you to have the debt settled and in some cases they can still take you to court for a CCJ. However if this is the case only the CCJ will then appear on her file and not the original debt.

Has she received contact about the debts? There is something called 'statute barred' by which a debt can no longer be chased after 6 years, however you want to look into the rules of it because i believe there have to have been no attempt from the creditor (or agency) to collect the debt, so it's 6 years from the last letter you got. (throwing them in the bin doesn't count). Worth looking into.

Tixy

Does the 2year old CCJ appear on her file?

If not then I would guess that there is some sort of address mismatch with that particular credit reference agency. That the address the CCJ was obtained at is not showing as a previous address?

It may well be that this appears on the other agencies files and some of her older debts may as well (depending on how long ago default entries were placed on her files).

Tixy

Morrow1984 wrote: »

Has she received contact about the debts? There is something called 'statute barred' by which a debt can no longer be chased after 6 years, however you want to look into the rules of it because i believe there have to have been no attempt from the creditor (or agency) to collect the debt, so it's 6 years from the last letter you got. (throwing them in the bin doesn't count). Worth looking into.

Just to correct/clarify on this - how often the creditor contacts the debtor is irrelevant to a debt becoming statute barred.
A debt is statute barred in England/Wales if there is a period of 6 years with no payment from the debtor and no written acknowledgement from the debtor that they owe the money - and if the creditor doesn't start court action before the end of those 6 years.

Morrow1984

Tixy wrote: »

Just to correct/clarify on this - how often the creditor contacts the debtor is irrelevant to a debt becoming statute barred.
A debt is statute barred in England/Wales if there is a period of 6 years with no payment from the debtor and no written acknowledgement from the debtor that they owe the money - and if the creditor doesn't start court action before the end of those 6 years.

Thanks for clarifying this, I was a bit unsure as I had read different views on here.