Statute barred and other debt questions

SD18

fatbelly wrote: »

So that was the pre-action protocol letter I linked about earlier.

They are not obliged to take court action following a lack of response from you, but that hurdle is out of the way for them.

If you now get an actual court claim you just deal with it in the same way as we used to before the pre-action protocol came in, which in our case is to refer you over to legalbeagles in most cases.

It could be that they were trying to scare you into action before the debt went statute barred. A court claim costs money whereas a pre-action protocol letter costs the price of a stamp. If they cannot be sure whether you would ever pay them anything they may well have taken a commercial decision to drop it, or try to sell it onwards.

I am pretty much now certain that it is statue barred as the first repayment date would have been Feb 2012. I didn’t make this, not have made any since.

I guess the letter of claim doesn’t officially mark the start of court proceedings? If it does then it falls within the 6 years which means it’s not statue barred. If it doesn’t, Is it worth me sending the statue barred letter to them? Or should I leave it?

fatbelly

SD18 wrote: »

I am pretty much now certain that it is statue barred as the first repayment date would have been Feb 2012. I didn’t make this, not have made any since.

I guess the letter of claim doesn’t officially mark the start of court proceedings? If it does then it falls within the 6 years which means it’s not statue barred. If it doesn’t, Is it worth me sending the statue barred letter to them? Or should I leave it?

The start of court proceedings would be if they actually start a court claim, which would involve cost. Until then the clock keeps ticking.

I would just leave it ticking if I were you

SD18

fatbelly wrote: »

The start of court proceedings would be if they actually start a court claim, which would involve cost. Until then the clock keeps ticking.

I would just leave it ticking if I were you

Ok. At least if I get to 1/7/18 I know for a fact it's statue barred (which I'm confident it is anyway!)

And I know they have my up to date address as they sent the letter of claim here, so if something does come through I can react promptly.

Thank you (everyone) for your knowledge!

Fordie3866

I received a letter from Lowell saying that they obtained a CCJ in 2015 to do with a unpaid mobile phone contract from 2006 when i lived in rochdale. the letter did not have a court ref number but i have checked and there is a CCJ here is my question i got into an arguement with Vodafone after they demanded i pay £180 for 6 days use of my phone when it was broken and un-usable i refused to pay and have not had any contact since. I moved in 2007 to Kent and then to essex in 2008 and have had zero contact with vodafone since. I have not received any letters from vodafone, Lowell or the courts about this debt until a few days ago how can Lowell get a CCj issued in 2015 when the debt in question was already 9 years old and no contact had been made in those 9 years?

sourcrates

Fordie3866 wrote: »

I received a letter from Lowell saying that they obtained a CCJ in 2015 to do with a unpaid mobile phone contract from 2006 when i lived in rochdale. the letter did not have a court ref number but i have checked and there is a CCJ here is my question i got into an arguement with Vodafone after they demanded i pay £180 for 6 days use of my phone when it was broken and un-usable i refused to pay and have not had any contact since. I moved in 2007 to Kent and then to essex in 2008 and have had zero contact with vodafone since. I have not received any letters from vodafone, Lowell or the courts about this debt until a few days ago how can Lowell get a CCj issued in 2015 when the debt in question was already 9 years old and no contact had been made in those 9 years?

Court paperwork will of gone to the last address they had on file for you that’s why.

If you had received the claim form you could of defended it on the basis it was statute barred, when you didn’t do that, a judgement by default was issued by the court.

How much is the judgement for ?

A set aside will cost £255.00 although remission on the fee is available, that is your only course of action now to get rid of this.

Fordie3866

the judgement is for £594 tho Lowell also want all costs.
The thing is i have received a letter from lowell about a different debt that was sorted out to my current address about 8 years ago so they know where i live i am currently doing a law degree so its not like i would throw away any letters but even still i have not received anything about this debt i was told by my tutor that they could not have got a CCJ as the debt was over 6 years old so not to worry about it to uch as it was just a threating letter the thing i cant understand is if the debt was unenforcable after 6 years how did they get the CCJ i can only think that they lied to the courts im also on benefits so paying £255 is not something i can do.

sourcrates

Fordie3866 wrote: »

i was told by my tutor that they could not have got a CCJ as the debt was over 6 years old so not to worry about it to much as it was just a threatening letter the thing i cant understand is if the debt was unenforceable after 6 years how did they get the CCJ i can only think that they lied to the courts im also on benefits so paying £255 is not something i can do.

I explained above how the process works.


The court will have no knowledge of the debts status, that is not their concern, it is your concern.

Lowell were chancing their arm, and it paid off this time.

A debt may be statute barred, but in England & Wales the onus is on you, the debtor, to inform the creditor of this fact, if you do not do so, (in your case by responding to the court papers) then judgement by default is recorded regardless of any other issue.

They do not have this issue in Scotland as after 5 years, debts become extinguished automatically.


Your defense would of been, that under section 5 of the limitations act 1980, time has run out to collect on this account, and it is therefore statute barred.

Anyway the good news, you can still use the above defense in your case, as you are on benefits, you should qualify for full remission of the fee`s involved, or the majority anyway, which means all you have to do is fill in form N244 (plus the remission form EX160) get them sent off, along with your statute barred defense, and hopefully the court will do its job this time.


N244 available here :


https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/688552/n244-eng.pdf


Form EX160 help with court fee`s :


https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/634329/ex160-eng.pdf

CakeCrusader

Fordie3866 wrote: »

the judgement is for £594 tho Lowell also want all costs.
The thing is i have received a letter from lowell about a different debt that was sorted out to my current address about 8 years ago so they know where i live i am currently doing a law degree so its not like i would throw away any letters but even still i have not received anything about this debt i was told by my tutor that they could not have got a CCJ as the debt was over 6 years old so not to worry about it to uch as it was just a threating letter the thing i cant understand is if the debt was unenforcable after 6 years how did they get the CCJ i can only think that they lied to the courts im also on benefits so paying £255 is not something i can do.

Your tutor has told you the law, but not how to apply it. You needed to have responded to the claim form using this as a defence. You've received some really good, helpful advice from sourcrates above ^^

Jackholly

Hi
New to forum
Can I ask does the statue barred limitations start from last payment made or Default registered date ?
Last payment 3/2012
default registered 5/2013

sourcrates

Jackholly wrote: »

Hi
New to forum
Can I ask does the statue barred limitations start from last payment made or Default registered date ?
Last payment 3/2012
default registered 5/2013

Depends on the type of debt jack.

For most simple contract debts it’s the date of the last missed payment.

But for an overdraft for example, as you do not make regular payments, it would be the default date.