Advice requested re DMP and unenforceable debts

Maybe_Tomorrow

Hi everyone,

I’d be really grateful for your advice on (at last) clearing my DMP.

I started my DMP over seven years ago. I’ve been religiously making my payments via Stepchange and my defaults have now fallen off. I’m in a much better position financially and my credit score is now pretty darn good. I have a bit of spare cash and am now in a position to hopefully draw a line under the whole thing.

Last June I sent CCA requests to my four creditors. Capital One, the only original creditor (the others debts were sold on), sent me a copy so I paid the amount owing in full. This is the current situation with my other three creditors:

PRA – (amount still owing £2385.14) – PRA responded to my request 23/07/2020 stating that ‘we are awaiting further documents in order to complete your request. We have currently deemed this debt as unenforceable which means we are not able too take court or further action against you… we are still legally entitled to: contact you and ask you to repay what you owe; pass your details onto a third party collection agency; continue to report your account with the credit reference bureaux’. Nothing received since on this matter.

Moorcroft (amount still owing £1492.38) – Responded 30/06/2020 stating ‘we can confirm that your request has been referred to our client for processing’. I assume they mean Arrow as I think they have some kind of processing arrangement. Nothing received since.

Link (amount still owing £126.10) – Responded 20/07/2020 stating ‘Unfortunately the original creditor has been unable to comply with your request. Although the account is currently unenforceable… the outstanding balance remains collectable and it is acceptable for creditors to register and continue the reporting of a default.’

I have two main questions:

1. Should I re-contact my creditors with renewed CCA requests? In the case of Moorcroft it would be good to chase up a confirmation that the debt is unenforceable.

1. I have done some research into unenforceable debts, and it looks like if I so choose I could just stop making payments. However, there is the option of making very low settlement offers just to close the matter. I am particularly concerned by the statement that notes/defaults could be made against my credit report if I stop making payments. As the original defaults have fallen off my record is this still the case?

I would really appreciate your thoughts on the best way to approach this. 

Many thanks in advance.

fatbelly

Once the default is six years old, the whole entry drops off.

The only way anything could re-emerge is if they got a ccj against you, which in your case they could not do as all three are unenforceable. Although Moorcroft have not confirmed that, they are in breach of a s77-9 request and the debt is unenforceable until they comply.

Often people have a collection of enforceable and unenforceable debts and so our advice would be to concentrate on the enforceable ones. In your case, you don't appear to have any enforceable debts at all. I would definitely stop the DMP but it's up to you what you do from here with those three.

sourcrates

Just to clarify, you only make the CCA request once, if they don`t or can`t respond, then the debt is unenforceable until they do, however long that may be.

You do not need to send multiple requests, just once is fine.

You can chase these up if you wish, but sometimes its best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Maybe_Tomorrow

Thank you - this puts my mind at ease.

Suseka97

What you'll probably find will happen now is that you'll hear nothing more from Moorcroft until they find the paperwork, or not - as the case may be.  So just leave that one be.

As for PRA and Link, they will send you letters and/or statements from time to time requesting you contact them to make arrangements to pay the outstanding balances.  They don't tend to just walk away, but as has been said, they will not escalate collection procedures.  I had 3 UE's with PRA for the last 3 years or so and I still get letters which are clearly marked 'this is not a demand for payment' but go on to suggest ways I can settle my account

Over time they (PRA) have offered me various settlement amounts at a reduced rate and I've held out until the discount has reached an amount I'm happy to pay - the last two were cleared with a 60 - 70% discount.  The final one is still sitting with only around a 20% discount and its actually the lowest amount of all three, so makes no sense really and that one is still in my 'pending' pile and will remain so until I get offered a much better discount.  I don't write or acknowledge their letters, so eventually it may well fall into the 'statute barred' territory and never get paid.

Some would just walk away completely, its a personal choice.

Maybe_Tomorrow

Thank you for your advice