Old debt - any advice?

cluelessnurse

Hello, I am hoping someone clever out there will be able to answer this.  I am thankfully the "other side" of a terrible credit rating and CCJs etc.  I did a DMP, first with a company then on my own, and then with a challenge my debts thing with a solicitor (yes I know, could have done this myself and probably got stiffed but it helped me manage at the time).  Anyway - there seems to have been one old debt that never accepted my DMP offers or sent the original agreement and then went quiet.  Originally for Aqua for around £700, now with Opos for Capquest. I defaulted on this before 2011 due to personal reasons that I won't go into now. The long and the short of it is I just got a letter after not hearing from them for 5 years with a "final" settlement offer of £181 over 12 months. Now, I know they can't add this to my credit file as the default was over 6 years ago, and they are unlikely to take me to court. Are they just chancing it or keeping the ball in the air, as it is 6 years since they last contacted me? I have not replied to them yet.  Just before Christmas after paying the council a £200 fine today as I apparently I took my bins out at the "wrong time" (in fact the bin men did not come that day but that's a different story). I will struggle even with this small amount. I don't earn masses in the nhs!  Any advice? (and thanks in advance). And one other thing, they had my old address but sent a letter to my one, I was emailing them before.  How did they find that out?

Brie

cluelessnurse said:

The long and the short of it is I just got a letter after not hearing from them for 5 years with a "final" settlement offer of £181 over 12 months. 

Are they just chancing it or keeping the ball in the air, as it is 6 years since they last contacted me? 

And one other thing, they had my old address but sent a letter to my one, I was emailing them before.  How did they find that out?

Personally I think they are chancing it.  When precisely did they last contact you?  5 years & 1 month back or 5 years & 11 months back?  

Are you saying that they have posted a letter to your new address?  That's easy enough for them to find if they have your old one.  Both will be in your credit history.

RAS

Of rather more relevance, when did you

Last pay a penny towards thus debt?
Last make a written acknowledgement of this debt?

And are you in England and Wales? Or Scotland.

fatbelly

Them contacting you does not count as acknowledgement. You contacting them, if in writing, may do. Probably best to ignore.

It's a shame you paid the council* but a bit late to challenge it now

*I'd be interested to know what law they quoted and how they arrived at £200

sourcrates

There must be a six year gap since it defaulted, where you did not acknowledge this debt by payment or in writing.

Them writing to you does not count.

If the above is correct, then the debt will be statute barred under English law, and prescribed under Scottish law, (if you live in Scotland).

Should they write to you again, send them the statute barred letter from the sticky section on this board.

cluelessnurse

Thank you both.  Just checked and actually, the last time I contacted them about this account was in 2014 asking them to comply with the DMP which the never did did.  When I handed over everything to the solicitor plan, I think it may have got missed off the list but if it was on there, they would have contacted them in April 2018.  Just looking at old emails now and it seems there were 2 accounts with Capquest, the second one is for £253.40. I have no idea what this was for but to be honest I was not in a good place in around 2008-11 when everything defaulted. For this account they contact me several times by email and letter in in 2021, and I  contacted them back by  email (maybe I should not have) I  asked to see the original agreement as they were sending links to log into an account that did not work. I never heard back. Then this latest letter. What is your advice?

sourcrates

Where do you live @cluelessnurse ?

England/Wales or Scotland?

I assume the default has long since dropped off your credit file?

Dates and where you live are important here, we need to ascertain whether the debt is statute barred or not, it seems you may have re-set the clock in 2014, and again in 2018.

fatbelly

Ignoring this may be the best strategy. But if you get a formal preaction letter with 30-day reply form (I don't think you will) then you must respond

DisabledDan

It is such a game isn't it, I had a lot of credit and was forced to abandon when life fell apart (rehab, street homeless then social housing eventually).  

I did not do a DMP and the amount was too high for a DRO so I remained off radar and as several years passed I decided to just not engage with any of them.

The debts got sold and I have been passed around, they have all had a go at me and they have all tried it on.

I had all my mail redirected but never opened it, I recently decided to tidy that lot up and it was interesting to see the pattern of mail, how it is all on some sort of pre-prepared pattern.  They get shirty, then threaten to escalate, then make offers (they probably bought the debt at 5p in the pound).

In the end only one credit card company went for a CCJ, it made no difference, but it was interesting to see letters where they sought a warrant or writ or whatever, pretending to be High Court Enforcement which I gather can't be done for consumer credit cards.  Ironically it was the smallest debt, I had multiple cards with over £10k and as much as £15k but they were just written off.

I did have HCEO's come, I did not engage with them, I have seen enough of their episodes on YouTube to know that all they want is to find something you care about and threaten it or get you to let them in so they can add fees.

One debt collector has started sending me letters for a debt that is statute barred, there are many people complaining online how they completely disregard conc rules and say things like "you still owe us the money and we need to come to an arrangement if we are to avoid enforcement" but they can't enforce a debt that is statute barred and they need to be reported to the FCA to put a stop to this.

So if your debt is past it's sell by date, check the details by getting credit reports free (as shown on this site) and forget about these clowns.  If they keep going report them to FCA for breach of conc rules and of the FCA "consumer duty", how can it be in a consumer's interest to pay for a debt that can't be enforced, it can't.

sourcrates

I would echoe the above, although the FCA don`t deal directly with complaints from the public, (that`s the job of the FOS) they do take note of them, and if enough people complain about a particular company/practice etc, they will look into doing something about it.

That`s how 1st Credit and MotorMile Finance had their wings clipped, both companies had to undertake a root and branch re-boot of their operations, new management, new codes of practice, better training, and new company names, so it can be done.

cluelessnurse

Thanks everyone. Sourcrates I live in England, and yes, long since dropped off.  I regularly look at my credit file and it is now fair to good. No defaults, no CCJs. I know they can't add another default and have never sent me the original agreements but I am scared they might get heavy and send me a CCJ.  Can they do that still? Are these debts enforceable? Maybe I should just make the plan with them and pay it, which also scares me as the cost of living atm is so ridiculous...