Bristow & sutor

diggingdude

Hello I wonder if anyone can give me some advice?

This was for training in work. I signed the agreement for 3 years in work may 2015. Due to the nature of the job I left Feb 2017 despite raising concerns etc which weren't addressed or even met about. 

Other than the occasional letter (last in 2019) I heard nothing until a month ago and then received this letter this week. I have never made any payments on this debt and never acknowledged the need to repay in writing. I have spoken to the council a couple of times and asked them questions but they never replied to me. 

My question is, is this a debt that becomes statute Barred after 6 years? It's over 6 years since I've left. I don't believe it's ever been to court (I've had nothing and no ccj etc). 

Apologies I've never had debt other than this before and feel angry about how the employment there ended hence the reluctance to pay them

Thank you for any advice you can offer  

Devongardener

Do I have a copy of the agreement you signed?  If not ask the council you worked for to supply one to see exactly what it said about reimbursing training costs if you left the job voluntarily.

You say you were receiving letters about this up to 2019,  did you contact the sender to dispute the charge and state the issues you had which made you want to leave?  If you ignored the letters the council presumably had no option but to pass the debt to collectors.

I doubt the statute of limitations applies as you have been aware of the debt for several years.

diggingdude

Hi I spoke to them in 2019 when they agreed to get back to me and never did. I never acknowledged it then. I'm guessing I have to pay and will, just seems wrong that they can refuse all the unpaid overtime etc then which forced me to leave (I have the evidence). Oh well 

JCS1

I suspect this is statute barred as not acknowledged in writing or payment made in 6 years.

JCS1

Devongardener said:

Do I have a copy of the agreement you signed?  If not ask the council you worked for to supply one to see exactly what it said about reimbursing training costs if you left the job voluntarily.

You say you were receiving letters about this up to 2019,  did you contact the sender to dispute the charge and state the issues you had which made you want to leave?  If you ignored the letters the council presumably had no option but to pass the debt to collectors.

I doubt the statute of limitations applies as you have been aware of the debt for several years.

Unless the OP had paid anything or acknowledged the debt, statute of limitations will apply.

Unless of course council has got a ccj

fatbelly

Firstly B&S are bailiffs but it is not clear from that letter that they are acting in that capacity, though they would probably be happy to mislead you in that. Without evidence of a court claim we can assume that there never was one.

Secondly the Limitation Act 1980 does apply as a simple debt under contract. Section 5 is clear that they have 6 years to start a claim from the cause of action (we'll come back to that). Any re-starting of the period can only be done by the debtor or their agent acknowledging the debt by payment or in writing.Verbal communication does not count.

Where their legal team will want to wriggle is on what constitutes the cause of action. They may try to claim that they did not demand repayment until 2019 and that was the cause of action.

For now I suggest you continue to ignore this and only react (post here for advice) if you receive a formal 30-day preaction letter that comes with a standard questionnaire.

sourcrates

They do refer to "the client" when mentioning payment, so it looks to me like they are acting as simple debt collectors on this one, they want you to pay them so they get their cut I expect, I do love to see their meaningless time frames for payment, pay within 7 days or we will write to you again lol.

It really is time they came up with some new punchlines for these debt letters, they never change do they.

I would say the cause of action date would have been the date you left employment, so well over 6 years ago, means it would fall under section 5, limitation act quite nicely.

Rob5342

It does read like a typical baseless debt collector letter - saying "further recovery action" and quoting a time period to try and make you think they might take legal action. The last "further recovery action" Ive experienced was just another letter offering a discount.