Default more information needed

5kDebt

I received a letter from Lowell Group but opened it today 4 weeks after receiving it. The letter stated it was being escalated to County Court. In a bit of a panic I emailed them to ask if I could seek arrangements on my accounts as I want to start paying them off. However I noticed that 2 of the 3/4 accounts they hold have defaults passing the 6 year mark in 2 weeks and 4 months respectively. My question is does the offer of installments affect my chances of getting these wiped off? I have previously had other debts wiped off my report as they passed the 6 year mark but I hadn't contacted them.

Thanks in advance

[Deleted User]

It sounds as if, in making an offer, you have acknowledged the debts, so the debts would still be enforceable for at least another 6 years.

rizla_king

an email can be acknowledgement under some circumstances.

happy_bunny_2

It depends. The defaults could have been placed 3-6 months after the last payment was made. So they may be statute barred already.

Give national debtline a call. Also ask if the email can be counted as acknowledgement as I thought it had to be in writing

solentsusie

As happy_bunny says, the last acknowledgement or payment of the debt could have been 3-6 months before the default. The default that is two weeks away from dropping off your file would most certainly be statute barred. You would get a late payment marker for being two weeks late with a payment not a default.


Lowells have just done this to a friend of mine. They have stuck a default on his account out of the blue for a debt that was not on his credit file before for an old account. The debt will be statute barred as far as the default date is concerned at the beginning of July this year.


He has proof that no payment or acknowledgement of the debt has been made since December 2008, so it is now already in the statute barred time frame as of January 2015 through non payment or acknowledgement of the debt, and would therefore be considered statute barred by a court even though the default date will be six years in July 2015.


Hope that makes sense.


Lowell's are a bunch of chancers from the looks of things. They probably don't even have proof of when you defaulted on the debt so even if you were taken to court and you cited the debt as being statute barred I doubt very much they would be able to contest this.


I would check that the email is not an actual acknowledgement of the debt which restarts the six year clock though.


Good luck.


Sorry to hear that they panicked you. That was there hope I'm afraid.


Just don't make any payments to them or acknowledge anything else in the meantime.