Unknown 12yr old debt now being claimed

roakes

Hi,

Hoping you can help with this to see where I stand regarding some outstanding debt.

For 13 years I have been using the OneBill service operated by Secure Trust Bank (http://www.moneyway.co.uk/onebill)

Essentially they pay all bills then charge you a lump sum monthly which aids in bill management and they spread out any debt from unexpected high bills (water bills, car tax etc.) over subsequent months.

I have been happily using them for 13 years but decided recently to stop using them as all bills can now be paid by monthly direct debit with the individual companies and so there will be no further large quarterly/annual shock bills.

Having requested to close my account with them they have identified a £510 debt on my account, one that came as a surprise to both myself and the advisor I was talking to as I have always paid them on time.

After 5 days of investigation on their side they have concluded that the debt is genuine as back in 2003 I changed the date my mortgage payment was due, this caused something to go wrong at their side and the payments weren't subsequently charged onto me meaning they have remained unpaid.

So essentially they are saying I have a debt that has been outstanding for 12 years which I was not aware of until today.

The question is, where do I stand on refusing to pay this debt? Is there a statute of limitations on these sorts of things especially considering I had no knowledge of the debt?

Thanks in Advance

Russ

nottoolate

yes its a particular debt due a particular thing so should be able to be treated separately and be subject to 6 years statute barring. doesnt matter if youve been paying other things or even other instalments as this debt stands on its own. youve not made a payment or acknowledged this particular debt for over 6 or even 12 years. they cant even fall back on the fact that they just discovered it as they should reasonably have been able to do so before now so cant say the time did not start until then

roakes

That's encouraging! I'm awaiting a call back once the advisor has spoken to her manager, can you expand on the statute barring part so I can confidently make my case?

FireWyrm

nottoolate wrote: »

yes its a particular debt due a particular thing so should be able to be treated separately and be subject to 6 years statute barring.

Hold on, not so fast there. This debt relates to a mortgage and the rules are very different. The 6 year statute barred situation only applies to simple contracts and debt which is non-secured. A mortgage is neither. Usually, mortgage arrears can be collected for up to 20 years as can forced-sale shortfalls.

You need to establish exactly what has happened here and what kind of debt it is. I would be requiring printouts from this OneBill company showing every transaction that has ever been made and to whom. I would then find out from the initial creditor (whoever that is) whether this is a genuine debt or whether it is an accounting error on the part of OneBill. If you havnt been chased for this until now and it is a mortgage debt, this is highly suspicious I am afraid. I cannot see a mortgage company deciding to just ignore a debt of this size for over a decade.

Essentially, it is critical to establish who has not been paid. If your mortgage payments were made and this is for another utility, you also have issues. Even more so if it is council tax or similar. If this was for a TV subscription for instance, you can legitimately treat it as an unsecured debt and ignore it as statute barred. If it is a mortgage payment, you are not so fortunate.

KirstyO

In brief, certain debts over 6 years can be covered by statue barring. this means that in those 6 years you have not made any part or full payment or even acknowledged with the original creditor or subsequent agencies that the debt is yours.


If the debt is something that you genuinely owe, then the debt will remain in your name. However, you cannot be pursued for the money in the same way that a younger debt might be.


Whether you pay or not is up to you but its worth remembering that if it is your debt it will stay on your credit record as unpaid.

roakes

FireWyrm wrote: »

Hold on, not so fast there. This debt relates to a mortgage and the rules are very different. The 6 year statute barred situation only applies to simple contracts and debt which is non-secured. A mortgage is neither. Usually, mortgage arrears can be collected for up to 20 years as can forced-sale shortfalls.

You need to establish exactly what has happened here and what kind of debt it is. I would be requiring printouts from this OneBill company showing every transaction that has ever been made and to whom. I would then find out from the initial creditor (whoever that is) whether this is a genuine debt or whether it is an accounting error on the part of OneBill. If you havnt been chased for this until now and it is a mortgage debt, this is highly suspicious I am afraid. I cannot see a mortgage company deciding to just ignore a debt of this size for over a decade.

Hi,

To clarify the debt is not with the mortgage company, it is with Secure Trust Bank. They paid my mortgage payment on time to the lender but then neglected to pass that charge onto me. So it is not a mortgage debt, it is essentially an overdraft that I was unaware of and has stagnated for 12 years.

Kind Regards

Russell

nottoolate

FireWyrm wrote: »

Hold on, not so fast there. This debt relates to a mortgage and the rules are very different. The 6 year statute barred situation only applies to simple contracts and debt which is non-secured.

no. read the post again

this is a debt owed to moneyway due to the fact they paid the mortgage for roakes and didnt charge it properly to their OneBill account.

its a unsecured debt owed to moneyway under a simple contract

nottoolate

read this then call them 4 advise

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/25%20EW%20Time%20limits%20for%20recovering%20debts/Default.aspx

roakes

Thanks, hopefully this will be enough ammunition to get them to clear it! Otherwise I'll ask for a written statement with evidence as to why it shouldn't be counted as debt barred.

FireWyrm

roakes wrote: »

Hi,

To clarify the debt is not with the mortgage company, it is with Secure Trust Bank. They paid my mortgage payment on time to the lender but then neglected to pass that charge onto me. So it is not a mortgage debt, it is essentially an overdraft that I was unaware of and has stagnated for 12 years.

Kind Regards

Russell

OK, so they unintentionally extended you a loan without your approval or consent and it is unsecured? All your creditors have been paid?

If that is the case, by all means, tell them to swivel. They should be swallowing their error, not you.

National_Debtline

Hi Roakes

If the debt is for some stand-alone charges to Secure Trust Bank rather than for the actual mortgage payment it can be statute barred under the 6 year Limitation Act law if you’re living in England or Wales.

I’m not familiar with how the OneBill account works but you described it as being like an overdraft. With an overdraft the limitation period actually starts running when the creditor calls the overdraft debt in and asks for it to be repaid.

I suspect this might be a particular payment which Secure Trust forgot to bill for though, so it’s certainly worth using the statute barred angle.

There is a sample letter at the end of the factsheet nottoolate linked to which can be used to send to Secure Trust Bank.

James
@natdebtline