Statute barred?

schmois1

Hello!

I have received a letter this morning from PRA Group regarding a debt of just over £700 for a previous Orange account. I don't have any recollection of the debt - I do remember having an account with them 5+ years ago but I thought I had settled it before I moved. I haven't been with them for at least the last 4 years.

The date they have stated on the letter is 2/12/2013 and they are saying this is when they took over the file from Orange. This is the first letter I have had about the debt and its offering me a settlement offer? I have moved house twice since 2013 so they must have only just located me haha!

What do I do? It seems very close to being statute barred if we go by the date they have provided. Do I go from this date or when I last spoke to Orange which one could assume would have been at least few months before they took over?

Should I just send them a letter saying its statute barred and hope for the best? Help would be much apreciated

sourcrates

Hi,


In the case of a mobile service contract, the time clock runs from the date of the last missed contractual payment.

This is commonly referred to as the "cause of action" date.

This date can vary dependent on the type of account or debt we are talking about.
Does the account still show on your credit file ?

Orange tend to hang on to bad debt accounts for quite some months after they have defaulted, and usually at least until the end of the original contract date, after that they usually sell them on to companies such as Lowell.

It could very well be statute barred, the choice is yours, either send the provit letter to hear there side of the story, or go straight in with the statute barred one instead.

National_Debtline

Hi there and welcome to the forum


The date a debt collection agency (DCA) started dealing with a debt will have no effect on whether it is statute barred. In fact for this to be the case there must have been a 6 year period since the phone bill fell due, where no payments were made towards it, you did not acknowledge it in writing and county court papers were not issued.


If you have doubts the debt is statute barred, and you are not even sure if you owe the money, start with a Prove It letter. This is worded so you do not acknowledge the debt and you do not have to worry about restarting the 6 year clock. If they can prove the debt is yours and you then think it is statute barred, you can follow up with the statute barred sample letter.


Good luck with it all


Susie
@natdebtline

Willing2Learn

sourcrates wrote: »

It could very well be statute barred, the choice is yours, either send the provit letter to hear there side of the story, or go straight in with the statute barred one instead.

Or amalgamate the proveit and statute barred letters in to one and see what happens...

Edit: And welcome to the forum schmois1

schmois1

Hello to all!

Thank you for all your words of advice. The debt does not appear on my credit file which confuses me even more as all other previous debt has been until I cleared it.

I have decided to send the statute barred letter and see what happens! I am pretty sure if the debt is mine I would have stopped paying for it a long time before they took ownership as a debt of £700+ seems to be the amount a full 12 - 24 month contract would be if added up?

My ex partner back in 2011 - 2013 ran up a lot of debts in my name and its taken me a long time to clear them all off. I finally thought I had done it and this reared its ugly head!.

fatbelly

I'd go with a prove-it first to get more info.

If you're in England or Wales the period is 6 years and that must mean the cause of action is before September 2012 for the debt to be SB - something that is not clear from your first post.

schmois1

Update!

I have since my last post found out that the account may not be statue barred until next year. I have sent PRA group a letter asking for evidence that the debt is actually mine and they have responded that the account is on hold until further notice.

Do I give them a timescale in which to do this or just sit and wait? I am hoping it will take them long enough so that it creeps into 2019 and the debt does become SB or that they cant provide evidence and they close the account.

schmois1

Further update!

I checked my credit file and they have added themselves to it - it says the account was opened on 20/03/2012 and the default date is 22/12/2012 - does then mean if i wait just less than a month from now i can send them a SB letter and they can't chase me?

Willing2Learn

So the debt will be SBd for Christmas. What a nice way to start the holiday season.

fatbelly

schmois1 wrote: »

Further update!

I checked my credit file and they have added themselves to it - it says the account was opened on 20/03/2012 and the default date is 22/12/2012 - does then mean if i wait just less than a month from now i can send them a SB letter and they can't chase me?

Yes - if you wait till the new year they should not have any argument.

Or if they do, it will be something that you can post here and we'll all laugh at it.