Help re Statute Barred

itsdagal

Many years ago I incurred lots of debts some of which I paid off through a debt management company some of which I did not.


One of those I did not was with Nationwide and should be statute barred. However another account with Nationwide was paid off by Gregory Pennington via me and in fact overpaid when I think that Nationwide allocated this overpayment to the account I was not paying off.


Long story short - the debt collection agency are counting this payment as mine and starting the six years again from this date. Is there anything I can do to get out of this?


Any help greatly appreciated.

Tixy

So you had 2 debts both with nationwide?
What sort of account was the one you did pay off? and the one you didn't?

Sounds like they may have used their right of offset.

itsdagal

Hi, they were both current accounts - however I never acknowledged the debt of the second one - hence not paying it off.

Tixy

I would imagine they would argue they used their right to offset any funds in those accounts with any accounts that were in arrears.

It would be down to a court to decide whether this was acceptable or whether the debt was in fact statute barred. (My guess is that a judge would probably say what they have done is allowed and therefore say its not statute barred but that is just my guess).

You may decide to try waiting it out and argue your case in court if they try to obtain a CCJ. If you do that then ideally you want to be in a position to pay the full debt off within a month so that if the judge agrees that it is not statute barred that you don't end up with a CCJ on file for 6years.

itsdagal

Ok thanks for the info. They do not know that this is what the payment was for as I have denied any knowledge of a payment being made citing it is up to them to prove it. I will try continuing down this road for the time being.

itsdagal

A further thought - given that I did not authorise Gregory Pennington to make any payments against this account and it is only a Nationwide transfer once the authorised and acknowledged account was paid off - does this really count as me acknowledging the debt?

Tixy

Your authorised agent (GP) paid money to a nationwide account. Nationwide used the funds in that account to offset against a debt in another account.

In the end you can refuse to pay and stick with your assertion that your believe the debt is statute barred and refuse to respond further.
If they want to be able to prove to you that it isn't then they only way they can do this is if they decide to commence court action.

itsdagal

Ok thank you - do you think it would be worth going down the prove it and cca route as well to give myself more options than just court and to put off court proceedings while I build up the cash?

Tixy

You could send them a prove it letter.

As its for a current account/overdraft that is not covered by the s78 requirements on the consumer credit act to send you a copy of the credit agreement. So a CCA request is not valid/will get you nowhere.

itsdagal

If it was indeed Nationwide chasing this then I would certainly consider setting up a payment plan yes.

itsdagal

Compello are the debt collectors chasing this - does anyone have any experience dealing with these?