Response from statute barred letter

2004arron

Hello. I submitted a statute barred letter to a creditor a week ago stating that the debt is unenforceable.
They have responded with, the account is not statute barred as the last payment made was on 26th October 2011.

By my basic maths this would make the debt 6 years old??

No acknowledgement has been made since the payment.

Thanks

cjmillsnun

Write back thanking them for confirming the last payment was over 6 years ago, reaffirming that you don’t acknowledge the debt and that it is statute barred and that further chasing will be considered harassment.

glentoran99

yep that would be right, looks like someone in the office has made a typo with the made up payment and meant to say November :-)

SnowTiger

2004arron wrote: »

Hello. I submitted a statute barred letter to a creditor a week ago stating that the debt is unenforceable.
They have responded with, the account is not statute barred as the last payment made was on 26th October 2011.

By my basic maths this would make the debt 6 years old??

No acknowledgement has been made since the payment.

Thanks

If I were you I'd write back, thanking them for confirming the last payment was made on 26th October 2011 and that the debt is, indeed, statue barred. :rotfl:

Arleen

Why did you send the letter in the first place? Did they start court action against you already? Because if so, they only have to start before the date for it to be perfectly fine and enforceable.

Shakin_Steve

What date did they first communicate with you? Was thar before or after 26th October?

fermi

All that matters would be if the OP acknowledged the debt or made a payment before the 6 years period was up.

"the person liable or accountable for the claim acknowledges the claim or makes any payment in respect of it the right shall be treated as having accrued on and not before the date of the acknowledgment or payment. "

"To be effective for the purposes of section 29 of this Act, an acknowledgment must be in writing and signed by the person making it."

Things that don't count as acknowledgement:

- The creditor writing to you, no matter what it says.
- You talking on the phone to the creditor, no matter what is said.
- Sending a statute barred letter.

What we don't know here is the circumstances surrounding that last payment, as it's not away true that the 6 years starts ticking on the date of the last payment, as it is "fresh accrual" of a right of action that is triggered by that, not the original cause.

e.g. on an account you are contracted to pay monthly, the original cause of action can be argued to accrue when you first miss a payment and the 6 years starts then, and only if you after that make payment or acknowledgement does the six year run from the most recent of those.

The simplest explanation though is that the DCA made a **** up on the dates.

National_Debtline

Hi 2004arron


Fermi is correct, what we need to know here is when the cause of action was. That is the date court action could have been taken to recover the debt, and therefore when the 6 year limitation period starts running from. With many debts the cause of action is after one or two missed payments. You'll find out exactly by checking the terms and conditions of the agreement.


It means there is a possibility this debt is not quite statute barred. Hopefully your statute barred letter was worded so it did not acknowledge the debt and restart the 6 year period. This should be the case with sample letters from any reputable source online.


Did the DCA give any further detail about why they didn't consider the debt to be statute barred? If necessary you can contact them again and ask them for more detail, but be careful not to acknowledge the debt in writing.


Susie
@natdebtline

fermi

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