Statute Barred Debt Scotland

jgibso26

Hi there, looking for some advice please.

I had a student overdraft of around £3000 which I defaulted on in December 2010. It was passed on to a debt collections agency and they have been sending letters and phoning since then. I really want to sort out my credit rating and was worried about court action just as this default is about to fall off my credit file (therefore ruining my rating for another 6 years) so I decided a couple of days ago that I would make them a full and final offer of 20% of the balance to close the account. However, I have just found out that the statute of limitations is 5 years in Scotland and not 6 so I could've taken this route instead. It was an email I sent them with the offer and not a signed letter.

My question is will this email count as acknowledgement of the debt and reset the clock even without my signature? Or does acknowledgement of the debt have to be within the 5 years so this email wouldn't count?

Thanks for your time.

Jay.

fatbelly

The standard letter (sorry, can't access the Scottish version)

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Full-and-final-settlement-offers-%28sole-name%29.aspx#

is headed 'without prejudice' so that it cannot be used as evidence of acknowledgement in the event of a court claim.

If you made the offer after the 5 years since the cause of action the debt was already 'extinguished' under Scottish law and cannot be revived.

An email generally is counted as writing in legal cases.

National_Debtline

Hi

Our Scottish Time Limits factsheet is here if you haven't already found it:

www.nationaldebtline.org/S/factsheets/Pages/23%20SCOT%20Time%20limits%20for%20recovering%20debts/Default.aspx

James
@natdebtline