Old debts - can they be re-raised?

bennyhill_2

Hi there, sorry if this has been covered before.

If old debts had been reported previously on but are no longer shown on my credit file/history due to the age of them, if as a debtor my circumstances changed and I was financially better off, if a creditor/DCA at any point in the future chose to go the CCJ route, I presume the CCJ would therefore appear as a current entry on the credit file?

I don't have access to a F&F fund, but am thinking this should be a route to ensure the old debts don't come back to haunt...currently they are being drip fed token payments.

fermi

Yes, a CCJ if awarded and not paid in full within one calendar month would show in the public record section of your credit report for 6 years from the judgement date, whenever that is.

The original account/default in the credit account section of your report cannot be revived, but as a CCJ is separate type of entry as a public record, that can show.

National_Debtline

Hi Bennyhill,

(I agree with Fermi) - Assuming these are credit debts of some sort, they will appear on your credit file for 6 years from the date of default and the date of a county court judgement (if applicable). If the debts are receiving token offers (and therefore are not statute barred) then they are still considered active and a creditor can consider county court action in the future.

If your situation improves you can negotiate a full and final offer. If the default has already dropped off the file then a settlement offer may not improve your credit score (as the debt no longer appears), but it could prevent a future CCJ. I hope that helps to answer your question.

Laura
@natdebtline

Movingon5464

I am on a DMP and also worry about old defaulted payments that have dropped off my file returning as a CCJ but my research on this has shown that if you are making payments and the OC / DCA are satisfied that is all you can afford then there is no benefit in them taking you to court.

bennyhill_2

Thank you, the details are much appreciated.

bennyhill_2

One last set of questions (I hope) - how much risk is their by reducing the token payments to zero?, and continuing this/failing to acknowledge said debts for 6 years? Currently the 10 creditors receive £1 per month each (£10 total) * 12 months * 6 years, they would only receive a combined total of £720 anyway.

Is it feasible (without moving property) to just switch off from the old debts by no longer acknowledging them or making payments against them, even though all token payments are up to date, and CCA requests were put in place March this year?

The debts repayments started off below the minimum contractual to the original creditor, which is how I ended up defaulting, then Stepchange/CCCS, then self managed DMP, then token payments of £5, and now (for the last 3 months) token payments of just £1 each.

Are the DCA's liable to seek CCJ's based on the knowledge that they have of the circumstances? EG: the original debts are circa 12 to 15 years old, some have come back with CCA's whilst others haven't (so I presume the ones that have not - even though they were requested back in March, realistically won't be able to provide CCA's and hence the debt is unenforceable anyway. Plus the history of payments made...

What I'm wondering is, if it's a viable route to try and put these old debts (from the previous me) to bed. Basically there's no way I'd ever be able to pay them back - but could through further borrowing from family (something I really want to avoid!) look to raise some capital in order to go F&F route. To give an idea of scale the total is < £100k, but with failed CCA's factored in it's < £70k.

All the damage has been done, (defaults, living hand to mouth, unable to access credit, sleepless nights, depression and anxiety etc) and I've come started to come out the other side relatively unscathed (still don't sleep well) - and don't ever want to go back to being buried with insurmountable debts. None of it was secured, and there are no properties involved (I rent), but inevitably in years to come there will at some stage be an inheritance (but hopefully not for many, many years).

So confused by it all, and know morally what I'm suggesting is wrong but morals don't appear to get you far in this life! :A

rtho782

If the old debts are gone from your credit file one assumes they are over 6 years since default. As such they may well be statute barred if you have not made payment on them in that time.

bennyhill_2

rtho782 wrote: »

If the old debts are gone from your credit file one assumes they are over 6 years since default. As such they may well be statute barred if you have not made payment on them in that time.

Thanks for the response - yes they are all greater than 6 years old and so have dropped off the credit report (I understand the SB principle), its just that I have been drip feeding the DCA's/creditors to date, so the debts have been continuously acknowledged. I wondered if anyone had been through the same/similar set of circumstances.

Movingon5464

I think it is a big risk but that it just my opinion and not based on experience. Personally I think you have already taken a risk by dropping payments from £5 to £1. If you stop paying they could take you to court and get a court order for payment which would mean a CCJ on your file for another 6 years. I am not 100% sure but think they could probably do this now if they have reason to believe a court could order you to pay more than £1. Did you give them a reason why you reduced the payments ?

100k or even 70k is a lot of money and I can understand how tempting it must be to start ignoring these debts and go for getting them statute barred but I am pretty sure your credit file will get trashed again for another 6 years. You need to ask yourself how important your credit file will be to you during that time. Was you hoping to buy a property ? If not, then maybe just go for it and suffer the CCJ's and be rid of the debt. I bet you wish you had done that from the start. I am in a similar position and have been paying on a DMP for 10 years. Still got another 10 years to go and sometimes I wish I would have either gone bankrupt or just ignored them. It would have all been over now. I really want to buy a house next year though so I need to keep paying as I can't risk getting a CCJ. I am hoping to be able to offer f&f payments later this year with help from a relative but it depends how much the creditors / DCA's are willing to accept. I need to send CCA requests too as I believe those that are unenforceable are likely to accept less to clear the debt.

sourcrates

Movingon5464 wrote: »

I am in a similar position and have been paying on a DMP for 10 years. Still got another 10 years to go and sometimes I wish I would have either gone bankrupt or just ignored them.

20 years on a DMP ?
How much is still outstanding ?

That's just plain mad to be locked in for that amount of time.

sourcrates

bennyhill wrote: »

Thanks for the response - yes they are all greater than 6 years old and so have dropped off the credit report (I understand the SB principle), its just that I have been drip feeding the DCA's/creditors to date, so the debts have been continuously acknowledged. I wondered if anyone had been through the same/similar set of circumstances.

Benny, what's stopping you going bankrupt ?