Ignore the letter?

mattnfran

Hi,
I was mis-sold a loan in my late teens (approx. 2005/2006) by Co-Op... I was earning £500 a month part time, paying £200 a month car insurance, another loan at £100 and they sold me a loan one day when I rang to check my balance, that I ended up increasing from £1500 to £7500 with them (it was sold to me in a sense of "If you want to borrow more, you can call us at any time and the money will be in your bank in 15 minutes!) and paying £300 a month. This defaulted a long long time ago and was cleared from my credit file over a year ago now.


I returned home from work yesterday to a letter from a debt collection agency which I immediately threw in the bin, the same place as one I received 6 months ago... I had not been chased for this in years, maybe as far as 5 years ago - maybe more! - but no exact memory. Then I reflected...


I'm now financially sound and in a position where I am (after a lot of hard work clearing my poor credit history) in a situation where I am about to get my first mortgage with my fianc!e. It's now worried me sick... The agency are chasing over £8,000 and I really don't know what to do... I thought this had long gone and I had a new start, and the information I'm getting leaves me torn over whether I should or should not be worried about it.




The last thing I want is bailiffs turning up, or another CCJ coming from a loan that I took out initially over 10 years ago... Is it possible to get any advice on this?




KEY FACTS
I don't know who the DCA is now that the letter is in the bin...
I can't recall exactly when the loan was taken out or for how long - but I know it was in my late teens as I was still only working part time (05/06)
I can't recall how many payments I actually made to the loan (although I remember the monthly repayments were around the £300 figure)
I never received a CCJ for it (I don't think) - although I did receive a CCJ for the other loan I had running simultaneously
The loan was mis-sold to me in a way that would never be done now (I work in the world of estate agency so have become au-faix with lending!)




Thanks!!

sourcrates

Hi,


How long ago since you made the last payment to this account ?


You should not disregard DCA letters out of hand, as that's exactly how you get a County court judgement by default.


Reading the letter will at least tell you who now owns this account.

mattnfran

My last payment was definitely longer than 8 years ago... more likely 9 or 10 years

sourcrates

mattnfran wrote: »

My last payment was definitely longer than 8 years ago... more likely 9 or 10 years

Well then there is a very simple solution to this.

Quote :
"(I work in the world of estate agency so have become au-faix with lending!)"


You work in the world of lending, but have never heard of the Limitations act 1980 ?


In a nutshell, a creditor has 6 years in which to issue proceedings to recover a bad debt, after that time, the account is considered statute barred, and legal action is no longer possible.

If you have not made a payment, or acknowledged the account in writing, and a CCJ has not been granted, then your loan account will now be statute barred, and you do not have to pay it.

What you do have to do, is dig the DCA letter out of the bin, and send them a letter stating the account they are chasing is now statute barred, and to go away basically.

mattnfran

"I work in the world of lending" ... I worded that wrong... it should read that "I work with lenders/brokers and have dealings with mortgages"...


But then even the 3 mortgage advisers I spoke to in my company about this never came out with the Limitations Act... I had heard of it but only through research.


Thanks for your response... Just to summarise though I am definitely not obliged to make a payment anymore? And I definitely won't end up with a CCJ??


Really appreciate your response

sourcrates

mattnfran wrote: »

"I work in the world of lending" ... I worded that wrong... it should read that "I work with lenders/brokers and have dealings with mortgages"...


But then even the 3 mortgage advisers I spoke to in my company about this never came out with the Limitations Act... I had heard of it but only through research.


Thanks for your response... Just to summarise though I am definitely not obliged to make a payment anymore? And I definitely won't end up with a CCJ??


Really appreciate your response

If you have not paid, or made written acknowledgement of this debt, for a period of 6 years or more, and during that time, no legal action has been taken against you, then the debt will be statute barred, you do not have to pay it, and the creditor cannot obtain judgement against you in court.


However, all of the above is meaningless if that DCA is currently preparing to take you to court, because you have to respond to there letters telling them its statute barred first, only then do you have a statute barred defence.


You MUST write and tell them the account been chased is statute barred, they must then prove otherwise, if they want to pursue it, and some will attempt to do this, in the hope you will give in, as long as you are sure of your facts, then you have a watertight SB defence to any claim, but you must write and inform them ASAP.