Drydensfairfax financial review letter

40yearoldFTB

This morning I received a letter from Drydensfairfax stating that I am required to have a financial review as my repayment arrangement has “expired”. Firstly, I do not recall receiving correspondence or agreeing to an end date or review date. 

How my relationship with Drydensfairfax began:
A letter arrived approximately 2 years ago stating that I owed this money. It arrived amongst other crisis and I opted for acceptance rather fight or challenge. So proceed with an offer. 

I do recall having an Egg credit card and defaulting on this at some point between 2006-8 so thought at the time I’ll just get on and pay. I moved house quite a bit in the years that followed and in around 2017 I settled in the place where I’ve now lived for nearly 5 years and call home. 

The letter received today talks about Drydensfairfax‘s need to “reassess” my financial situation and then provides a very long (5 pages) financial review form which ends with space to collect bank details for a direct debit (and a direct debit guarantee). 

Since entering into the arrangement, I have been paying £50 per month, I haven’t missed a payment and I have a standing order set up to end in 2025. 

The current outstanding debt is £1,900.00. 

While I have a decent salary, it is severely stretched with a dependant spouse who suffers with severe poor mental health, plenty of other debts accumulated from years of having to substitute my husband’s income, a child now at university, I’m also a non-home-owner with high and rising rental costs and just about getting by. I’ll get off my soapbox now. I know everyone out there has their struggles. 

So, I have a few questions:

1. Could I explore any routes under  statute barred rules?

a. Ask for a copy of the default notice sent to me?
b. Ask for a copy of the original credit agreement?
c. Stop paying as I am certain 6 or even 12 years has passed since the default and the first time I responded to any communication about the debt was in March 2020? 

2. I estimate the debt was state barred by means of the time limit in around 2014-2015. They write to me in 2020 and I made a payment arrangement.

a. If I continue paying £50 (which is affordable) and write a statement as such, can they pursue further legal action? 

b. I cannot recall or remember if this was a CCJ or not. Is there anyway I can find out, as I cannot see any record of this debt on my credit file?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can provide. 

RAS

This debt might have been statute barred when you were contacted 2 years ago.

Even if there was a CCJ, if that had been issued more than 6 years previously, they needed to go back to court to get permission to enforce the CCJ.

You might have to start with a CCA letter and go from there. And cancel the SO meantime.

sourcrates

In your position, I would go straight for the jugular, and send the statute barred letter, it makes no difference that you have been paying this debt recently, as long as there was a period of at least 6 years of no payments or written acknowledgement by you, then it would have been statute barred long before they wrote to you originally.

That would be my stance on this.

40yearoldFTB

Many thanks - can anyone direct me to any templates for statute barred letters?

SusieT

40yearoldFTB said:

Many thanks - can anyone direct me to any templates for statute barred letters?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6027755/statute-barred-debts-and-the-limitation-act#latest

It is the sort of situation where it would be fun (so do not actually do it), to send a letter saying thank you for your letter requiring a financial review, due to receiving this I have looked more closely into this debt and have discovered that at the time I started paying you it was already statute barred, therefore please return all the payments I have made 

sourcrates

SusieT said:

40yearoldFTB said:

Many thanks - can anyone direct me to any templates for statute barred letters?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6027755/statute-barred-debts-and-the-limitation-act#latest

It is the sort of situation where it would be fun (so do not actually do it), to send a letter saying thank you for your letter requiring a financial review, due to receiving this I have looked more closely into this debt and have discovered that at the time I started paying you it was already statute barred, therefore please return all the payments I have made 

I`d actually go with this idea, after all, what`s the worst that can happen.