Advice needed!

PauloLP

Hi All,

Long time reader, first time poster. Not sure this is even the right place to post but here goes!

Silly actions in my younger years led me to burying my head in the sand over a debt to littlewoods which was subsequently passed to capquest. I recently received a letter from Northampton county court saying that drydensfairfax solicitors acting on behalf of capquest were applying for a ccj. I sent my defence to the court believing the debt to be statute barred but have since received a reply from drydensfairfax stating that it is not as the last payment I made was in November 2009.

The question I have now is as I am out of work and claiming JSA what is the best course of action? Try to deal with Drydensfairfax informing them of my situation or just allow them to push through the ccj? I have no assets or anything which could be seized in payment of said debt and I'm aware that what little income I do have is protected by law as the amount on which I need to live.

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated, at my wits end and wish this could all just be sorted.

Thanks in advance.

National_Debtline

Hello there,

Do you know when you made the last payment? When you raise a limitation defence, the onus would be on Drydens to prove that the 2009 payment was made by you - or someone acting on your behalf as your agent. When did you originally breach the agreement?

If there isn't a limitations defence you may wish to consider making an arrangement to pay the debt via instalments. As the debt is likely to become subject to a county court judgment you can arrange for your instalment to be agreed as part of the court order, the benefit of this is that the other party will not be able to easily take further enforcement action against you unless you breach your payments. They could, however, try and secure the debt against property if you own your own home.

Is this the only debt you have?

You can learn more about replying to a county court claim form here.

More information on limitations can be found here.

Best wishes,

David @natdebtline

PauloLP

Hi David,

Many thanks for your prompt and helpful response, the last payment was made by me on or around November 26th 2009. In regard to the original breach with the creditor this was probably at best guestimate circa 2006. I do not dispute owing the money and guess the best course of action would be to offer drydensfairfax an offer of payment and if they do not accept it would simply have to follow the CCJ route. I do not own a home so that would not be a factor. This is not the only problem I will encounter though as I have recently lost my job so any credit I have at the moment which is in good stead, will now fall into default so it's very much the vicious circle!

Thanks again

National_Debtline

Hello again,

If you're sure that your last payment was November 2009 you won't (sadly) have a limitations defence. Instead, you can reply to the claim with an offer of payment, this can be as low as £1 per month. You would need to complete the N9 Admission form - which needs to be send back to the claimant rather than the court.

Is this the only debt that you have?

David.