My boyfriends debt

lmachine

My boyfriend has a ton of debts from a time period of roughly the last ten years. These are from things like phone contracts, unpaid overdrafts and unpaid council tax bills. I have sat with him and tried to tally up how much his debt is and I thought it to be around roughly £18,000 although it is hard to tell because he is reluctant to go into great detail. He says things like, "that one doesn't count because its been written off already".

He extended great effort into escaping this debt by doing things like changing his first and last name by deed poll. he even moved from Scotland to the Republic of Ireland last year. I've tried to convince him to start paying it off now that he has a job that pays better but he is absolutely reluctant. he is adamant that a debt gets written off after 5 years as that is Scottish law, and that he can be happy and carefree after this time has passed.

My question is, is it really true that the debt gets written off after this time and that's that? I've done some research and it does say that after 6 years or so you're not legally required to pay it, but there must be some other kind of repercussion. If I continued this relationship with him in the long run as we have been together for a year now, would his debt affect me in any way? Thank you.

Smellyonion

He is referring to statute barred. See below;

For a debt to be statute barred after the five-year timescale in Scotland, the following must also apply during this time period:

The debt has not been acknowledged by the debtor
There are no decrees on the debt
The creditor has not made contact about the amount owed
No repayments have been made

Does this apply to all of his debts?

If he has that attitude to credit, he will always struggle with debt.

Brookside88

I'd hold off moving in with him until you know exactly what the situation is if you haven't already, having him as a linked person on your credit file could be bad for your credit future

Mnd

All credit to you for wanting to help him, but the drive must come from him.
A personal comment, please don't consider a joint account or mortgage or any linked accounts until you are 100% happy he is open about this, you know everything and he wants to sort it.

You sound sensible and hope it all goes OK for you.good luck

Willing2Learn

Mnd wrote: »

All credit to you for wanting to help him, but the drive must come from him.
A personal comment, please don't consider a joint account or mortgage or any linked accounts until you are 100% happy he is open about this, you know everything and he wants to sort it.

Ditto to that

fatbelly

Well, it doesn't sound as if he's had his light bulb moment. With 10 years of ducking and diving, he has learned a bit about debt collection but any credit search will be dire, and any defaults/ccjs will stay for 6 years.

Council Tax debts are different. The local authority will have got a liability order from the magistrates court at an early stage (this in English practice but I assume it's the same in Scotland). This means that the debt does not become time barred and bailiffs can be sent to any location where there is a belief he may have goods.

You write

I've tried to convince him to start paying it off now that he has a job that pays better

That's absolutely not his mindset, as you have discovered.

CIS

Council Tax debts are different. The local authority will have got a liability order from the magistrates court at an early stage (this in English practice but I assume it's the same in Scotland). This means that the debt does not become time barred and bailiffs can be sent to any location where there is a belief he may have goods.

In Scotland it's a Summary Warrant and there is a time limit on collection however it's a rather generous 20 years. At 20 years though it's effectively collectable for as long as the council want to chase it.

sourcrates

Has he checked his credit file to see what that says ?


If the simple contract debts were accrued in Scotland, then he is quite correct, the debt is extinguished after 5 years, so long as no decree has been granted, and he has not written to the creditors saying "about this debt of mine", it does cease to exist.


The council tax debt remains recoverable though, however, thay do need to know where he is, if he has changed his name, then this may be difficult.


All very James Bond.

Debtnomoreplease

Good for you wanting to help, says a lot about you.

However, I would be very wary for your future if this is the way he deals with debt etc. He ran up the debt, therefore he should make the effort to pay it off and put things right.

He clearly has no intention of dealing with things if he has gone to the trouble of changing his name, moving etc.

Just please protect yourself money wise and don't get involved in any joint money situations, as you'll be dragged down with it-you seem to have your head screwed on, so please make sure you look after your money!

Hope he pulls his head out of the sand and deals with this!

Huge respect to you for wanting to help!

Christoph2390

Red flags. If he is so reluctant to pay stuff now, what happens when you buy a house together?

Good that you are willing to help, but I personally, would kick him to the curb haha

Mojisola

lmachine wrote: »

My boyfriend has a ton of debts from a time period of roughly the last ten years.

He extended great effort into escaping this debt by doing things like changing his first and last name by deed poll. he even moved from Scotland to the Republic of Ireland last year.

How can you trust a partner who goes to these lengths to avoid debts?