Is Written Off Debt Still Collectable?

054123

Mods please move if appropriate.

I'm looking for some advice re an accounting debt which I'm now being chased for in a personal capacity by a retired ex businees partner and don't know what to do.

I left a partnership of 3 of us on 31/03/13. All accounts were submitted and signed off in June 2013 and the capital account distributed accordingly. The senior partner then retired on the 31/12/13 and has been finalising their account since. During this process it transpired that our final drawings in March 2013 (which were not paid to us partners until April 2013) had not heen accounted for.

This was an error on the part of our book keeper (the retired partner's wife!).

To account for this, the remaining two partners missed payment was simply accounted for out the capital account of the new partnership after my departure, with my payment simply showing as a a payment to a third party in the accounts.

In order to finalise the accounts when the senior partner retired, they have written off the payment to myself.

Despit this, the senior partner has sent letters and rang me, asking me how I am going tk settle tge debt. He has made veiled threats about 'chasing me down' and 'not wanting to see any marks against my name', but I don't have any money to give.

I have spoken to the remaining partner who has told to not worry and ignore the letters as they have written the debt off. As far as he is concerned it was just a book debt and has moved on and he is not expecting any payment from me at all. The amount involved is a couple of thousand

I am still worried and have the following questions:

1. If the 'debt' has been written off by the new partnership, does it even exist?
2. Does the retired partner have any persinal claim to a written off debt from an old partnership?
3. If the remaining partner has confirmed that the debt has been writren off and won't be collected, does estoppel apply?

Most importantly, am I actually personally liable for a written off debt and should this retired partner be harassing me in a personal capacity?

Thank you for reading. I've been a long time member who spent 10 years getting debt free and now this happens right before Christmas.

sourcrates

Hi,
I am familiar with a consumer debt of this nature, however not sure if it applies to business debts.
Rule of thumb is always to get everything in writing, then no one can quibble what has gone on.
If you have settled a debt, for instance, for less than the outstanding balance, and not got written confirmation, specifically stating that any outstanding balance will not be sold on or chased, then any balance can still be chased by the creditor.


I know the above is not your situation exactly, but the same advice would apply.

katsu

Try contacting business debt line. You should be able to find the details on this site but I don't know them, sorry.

National_Debtline

katsu wrote: »

Try contacting business debt line. You should be able to find the details on this site but I don't know them, sorry.

www.businessdebtline.org

Dennis
@natdebtline

054123

Thanks guys.

I'll give it a go and update you.

Stewart_78

Is he really going to 'chase you down' for a couple grand? My instinct (as a business man of 30 years) would be to tell him to copulate elsewhere.

054123

The man retired a paper millionaire! But yes, he would. Interestingly enough one of the options my solicitor gave me was to do nothing as they weren't convinced anyone would go through the cost and hassle to recover the amount!

The man rings me daily and I want to send a letter to tell him to stop, but don't want to compromise my position.