Arrow Global Shop Direct (Carval) - Mail Order

VeryAnnoyed61

This company is chasing "Unenforceable debts" - Do not send them anything at all.  
After 6 years, according to the Limitations Act 1980, a debt becomes unenforceable or statute-barred. But, there are strict criteria for a debt to become statute-barred, and there are some important exceptions.   
Just like everything else in our lives, debts also have a certain life after which they become ‘unenforceable’.  But does that mean that you no longer owe that amount? Or is there some way that your creditors can still enforce it?  If you want to know more about the life of a debt and the courses of action available in such a situation, keep on reading.

What Does it Mean for a Debt to be Unenforceable?

If a creditor waits too long to take court action to recover a debt, under the limitations act 1980, after a certain time the debt becomes ‘unenforceable’ or ‘statute barred’. This means that the debt still exists, but the law can be used to stop the creditor from getting a court judgment in order to recover it. The exact time before a debt becomes ‘statute barred’ is different depending upon where you are.

How to Tell if a Debt has Become Unenforceable?

When six years have passed since the first default notice or since the first ‘cause of action’, the debt becomes unenforceable and according to the law, it does not exist and cannot be recovered through a court order. If your debt is in joint names and you have not made a payment during the last six years, that usually means that the debt has become unenforceable. 

One important debt advice is that during or after the time limit, never acknowledge that a debt was owed to your creditor. If you do that in writing, the time limit of six years restarts for you from that minute on and you’ll have to wait for your debt to become unenforceable.

fatbelly

That's pretty good. I only noticed 3 mistakes

1. The relevant law is the Limitation Act 1980

2. It does indeed depend on where you live because the LA1980 does not apply in Scotland - they have equivalent law that means the debt is 'extinguished' after 5 years. In the rest of the UK it is 6 years for most debts and the debt still exists but is unenforceable. Technically it's not that a court claim cannot be started on a statute barred debt but that you have a full defence to any claim. You would still have to go through the process and ultimately it is only a court that could decide if a debt was statute barred.

3. s29(7) of LA1980 says that any debt, once barred by the Act, cannot be revived. So 'once barred, always barred'

There are some useful template letters in the stickies that are quite informative

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

sourcrates

Thanks for posting, but all this info is readily available on the link provided by fatbelly, above.