Advice needed - debt collection letter re unpaid rent

Becky19

Hi everyone,

Before we met my partner was terrible with money... several defaults and unpaid debts but we eventually managed to pay everything off and have been working on rebuilding his credit score. We're hoping to buy a house together in around 6 months. Today he received a letter from Pastdue Credit Solutions regarding unpaid rent at an old flat and we have no idea what to do about it.

We've just been going through his paperwork and found letters from a different debt collection agency dated November 2019 and January 2020 regarding this debt. I believe we ignored these at the time to focus on the debts showing on his credit report. He thinks he moved out of the property in question around March 2016. 

My questions are:
1. We've checked all 3 credit reference agencies and this debt isn't showing on any of them. Is there a chance it can still appear now it's with a new debt collection agency or is this unlikely? 
2.  As we're getting close to 6 years since he moved out is it possible we can just ignore it until it becomes unenforceable? As it's not of any of the credit reports I'm unsure of the exact date it would have defaulted
3. Is offering to pay a small amount like £20 per month a good idea? Or will this make it worse by acknowledging the debt?

I've never had an debt problems myself so I'm unsure about the best way to deal with this without ruining our chances of getting a mortgage next year. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated. 

Thanks 

JamieJ89

Someone will hopefully provide you with full advice on this shortly but one thing I would say is to be careful he doesn’t end up with a CCJ because of this, if you do purchase a house and the debt collector doesn’t have your new address details, any court letters will continue going to the address they have on file without you being aware of the same. 

fatbelly

You say 'today he received a letter' so presumably they've got his present address should the owner of the debt (and I'm presuming that's not Pastdue - they are just collectors) want to start a court claim.

Before they issue a claim they would have to send a formal pre-action letter giving you 30 days to reply.

They would have to start a claim with 6 years of the 'cause of action.' It's a bit hard to pin down on a non-credit act debt but it's the first point at which they could have issued a claim.

Unlikely to appear on a credit report unless it's sold to a new buyer who reports. I haven't seen these things on credit reports in the past.

I would say to continue to ignore at this stage but respond to the pre-action letter if it comes.

Graham1982

Hello everyone:

This is more a question than a response with advice. As this is not a credit debt in which a credit agreement was signed, wouldn't the only route to secure the funds from this debt be through a small claims court?

Presumably the debt will be offset in part against the deposit that was paid and this was foregone as he moved out of the property?

Thanks

Graham

fatbelly

Actually, what happened to the deposit is not a bad question, if this is private rented. I was sort of assuming this was social housing as they're the ones who tend to use debt collection agencies.

Becky19

Thank you all for the responses.

Yes this was a housing association property so I don't belive there was a deposit.

The letter from Pastdue says "If this balance remains unpaid, we will have no alternative than to commence with further debt collection procedures". So if they did decide to take this to court he would get another letter giving us 30 days notice?

fatbelly

Yes

There is info here

https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/

'further debt collection procedures' probably just means more standard letters

Becky19

fatbelly said:

Yes

There is info here

https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/

'further debt collection procedures' probably just means more standard letters

Thank you for your replies, I feel a lot better about the situation now after the initial worry yesterday! We will ignore it for now unless a pre action letter arrives.

fatbelly

Remember it's not past due that will make these decisions. I once talked to a local housing association employee and she said 'we never take court action for old rent arrears'. 

sourcrates

"further collection procedures" just means we will write to you again next month, and we may call you before that, scary huh.