Need some advice please

N1kko

I received a court summons letter from a solicitor regarding an old debt with Cabot Financial. I filled in saying I had never heard of this company and have no knowledge of the debt.

I then received a letter back from the solicitor saying I have sent my defence directly to them and they have forwarded a copy of my defence to the court.

Today I got a letter from the court acknowledging a receipt of my defence and that a copy is being sent to the claimant's solicitor.

What can I do next? The debt as far as I am aware is over 6 years old and I have had no contact up until the summons a few weeks ago. Can I still send off a Statute Barred Letter? But I do not have the account number or anything.

Tixy

If you have no knowledge of the debt then what makes you think it is statute barred?

Or did you recognise the debt and think it was statute barred?
If so then the better defence on the court claim would have been to state that you believe the debt was covered by provisions of the limitation act and is statute barred.

Gaz83

N1kko wrote: »

I received a court summons letter from a solicitor regarding an old debt with Cabot Financial. I filled in saying I had never heard of this company and have no knowledge of the debt.

I then received a letter back from the solicitor saying I have sent my defence directly to them and they have forwarded a copy of my defence to the court.

Today I got a letter from the court acknowledging a receipt of my defence and that a copy is being sent to the claimant's solicitor.

What can I do next? The debt as far as I am aware is over 6 years old and I have had no contact up until the summons a few weeks ago. Can I still send off a Statute Barred Letter? But I do not have the account number or anything.

Have you lied in your court summons?

N1kko

I'm not sure what the debt is as I have seen no letters from Cabot just the court summons from their solicitor which is why I said I had knowledge of the debt.

N1kko

I have another letter from Cabot which has been passed on to Clarity but this is regarding a debt I am aware of and sent a statue barred letter for this

N1kko

Sorry I'm making things a little confusing. After sending off the court summons I pretty sure I know now what it is and yes it's over 6 years. Should I call the court and explain?

Gaz83

Well, it depends on when the debt was defaulted and when you last acknowledged it.

The debt might be over 6 years old, but if they didn't default it until (say) 2010, then it would be 6 years from then it would become statute barred.

N1kko

Default date was October 2008 so it's a couple of months out. Not acknowledged it since before then from what I remember. So do I wait for another reply from the court?

The solicitor is asking me to put forward a proposal to settle within the next 7 days. Do I write back to the solicitor?

Tixy

The default date isn't the relevant date for statute barred purposes. It would be the latest of the date you last paid, last wrote to acknowledge the debt or (if later) the date the debt became due for payment.

But if you are not sure whether this claim relates to that debt anyway then it is hard to speculate whether it may be statute barred or not.

N1kko

Thanks for your help. I'm just trying to avoid a CCJ

Tixy

So potentially they may not be able to provide evidence of this debt.
If they cannot then the court won't award a CCJ.

If it is your debt and they can provide evidence the next step is to consider if it is statute barred. Again if it is and you inform the then they won't award a CCJ.

If it is not statute barred then you could either try to settle before the court date, or if you are able to settle the whole debt within 30days of the judgement then the CCJ would not be recorded on your credit file or the CCJ register.

If they can prove it is your debt, and if it is not statute barred, and if you are not in a position to pay within a month of the judgement - then you would be stuck with a CCJ.