Full and final offer for debts I do not acknowledge

UxorialDuck

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to fix my credit report and have cleared most of the stuff up but I have 4 accounts on my report that I have no knowledge of, all 4 are marked as defaulted with two defaulted in 2012 and two defaulted in 2014.

I have no knowledge of the accounts so will not acknowledge them at all. In fact the only reason I know of these accounts is because I have a creditexpert.co.uk account. and they are showing up on there.

As I do not acknowledge the accounts, is there any up side in contacting the companies and explaining that whilst I do not acknowledge the accounts are mine I would still like to offer a full and final payment, so that they stop being listed as "defaulted" and are listed as "settled".

Would such a letter reset the clock when it comes to statue-baring the alleged debts? If not what would be a reasonable amount to offer, I have read elsewhere, I can not remember where sorry, that offering between 10 and 20% is a reasonable amount, should I go that low or aim somewhere in the 50% area?

I also have a CCJ, again that I have no knowledge of, I assume that I am stuck with that until the 6 years is up?

The reason I have no knowledge is that I used to live in shared accommodation, and my dropout ex house mates had access to everyones mail, I have spoken to a couple of my other ex house mates who have the same issue with their credit reports, so we are assuming that the dropout ex house mates took out accounts in our names and bolted. We have no concrete evidence that this is the case, but it seems the most likely cause.

Many thanks for your advice

glentoran99

Offering a full and final settlement would be acknowledging it, send them a 'prove it' letter

AReeves

The House of Lords case of Bradford & Bingley Plc v Rashid (2006) stated that privilege may apply to an acknowledgement for the purpose of s 29 (5) of the Limitation Act provided there was a dispute of liability and when the acknowledgement was written with the view to compromise the disputed liability.

What this means is that if you say "Without Prejudice" that you dispute the debt but in an effort to compromise you will offer the sum of £X, that would not be an acknowledgement in respect of the limitation period. So what is clear is that there has to be an admission of liability.

There would be no privilege to letters written merely to negotiate terms of repayment of an undisputed debt.