Being taken to court for 18 year old debt.

Rockit

Bit of an odd one... my wife and I got into a load of debt back between 2004-2006 - personal loans, credit cards, etc.

I'm pretty sure that most of the debt ended up as CCJ's. We were burying our heads so have no record of what happened with each debt.

Over this period, my wife and I separated for a few years due to the stress. During this time she used a debt management company to set up a DMP with everyone that hassled her.

Fast forward to 2023... my wife and I are back together and she starts to go through the individual debts in the DMP that she had been paying since 2006. She realised that one debt she had been paying had actually belonged to me and immediately cancelled payment. This original debt had defaulted in 2006 and gone from Barclay Card to multiple other debt businesses over time, then ended up with the PRA group in 2019. My wife stopped payments to them in 2023.

The PRA group who now own this debt have instigated court proceedings against me.

The thing is, I'm certain I never even had an account with Barclay Card, and if I did, I'm sure it would have gone to a CCJ back in 2006. The debt is no longer on my credit record so I can't check either way and I'm really loathed to start giving them anymore payments.

I'm not sure what to do now:
1: go to court and deny all knowledge of the debt.

2:  Aim it down the Statute Barred route (I personally didn't pay or acknowledge the debt, even though my wife did).

3: acknowledge the debt, but suggest that a CCJ was already issued for this and therefore can't be re-issued.

Thoughts?

elsien

Send them a prove it letter? 

fatbelly

Hang on.

If you've had a court claim then you need to respond properly.

First work out the timescale from the date of issue. Let-assume 1 May is the date on the claim

Date of service +5 days = 6 May
14 days to acknowledge service = 20 May
Another 14 days to put in your defence = 3 June

You need to send a cpr request to the solicitor and a cca request to the creditor

All the things I have mentioned so far, including a template defence are at

https://legalbeagles.info/forums/forum/legal-forums/court-claims-and-issues/received-a-court-claim

Personally I don't think you have a statute barred defence as the payments would have acknowledged the debt. You would have to show that your wife was not acting with your knowledge. But by all means put the other arguments in and let the court decide. You can't have a position where you say it's statute barred AND there was an old ccj on it. You need to see if you can dig that up.

The guys over there will give you tailored advice if you ask them. Best of luck