Old joint account overdraft debt

stumac1980

I am after a bit of advice from some of you rather fantastic people.

I broke up from my ex about 12/13 years ago now and at the time there was a lot of debt between us. I have managed to pay off all the cards and debt that has been in my name, however there is a debt that is against a old joint bank account for a unpaid overdraft of £1007.68. This has been closed and not showing on my credit report as either being open or in my closed account. This was chased for a number of years by Cabot Financial and then stopped. But recently they have contacted me again regarding this debt. As they say my situation has changed? Firstly what do they mean by that?

We are not on speaking terms and if I was to contact my ex it would turn into a shouting match and I just don't want that.

I have tried to speak to Cabot in the past regarding this and they will not tell me if my ex has made any payments on the account or even acknowledged the debt.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to pay the full debt

born_again

When is the debt from & when did you last acknowledge the debt?

sourcrates

Are you aware of the limitation act 1980?

Lenders/creditors have 6 years in which to pursue simple contract debts, as long as you don`t acknowledge the debt in writing or make any payment towards it within those 6 years, it will become what`s known as "statute barred", and you won`t have to pay it.

The issue will be whether your ex has done any of the above, I would take a wild guess and suggest that Cabot having had no luck with them, have now turned their attention to you.

If they get annoying I would say your best strategy now would be to send the statute barred letter and see how they respond.

Template letter is in the sticky post, top of this forum.

fatbelly

It sounds like it is going to be statute barred. Technically an acknowledgement in writing by him would reset the clock for him but a payment by him resets the clock for both of you. As you can't get info from him, and can't trust info from Cabot, I think the safest thing is to ignore all correspondence unless you get a Letter Before Action. Then you would have to engage but I doubt it would ever get that far

Do you have old correspondence on this? For example, if the debt was £1007.68 six years ago, then clearly no-one has made a payment.

stumac1980

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82024270#Comment_82024270

the debt is showing as closed in 2017 and I haven't acknowledged the debt after that

stumac1980

I have already gone to them and stated that the account is statue barred but I don't know what my partner has done before and acknowledged the debt

sourcrates

On reflection I would go with fatbelly`s advice and ignore them unless they try to get legal with you.

Having had previous experience with Cabot, there`s no point attempting to engage over this, as they will argue the debt may be statute barred, but is still collectable, and you will just go around in circles with it.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82024391#Comment_82024391

Statue Bared does not mean they can not chase the debt, only that they can not go to court for a CCJ.

fatbelly

There is guidance that they should stop collection activity if you tell them that you will not be paying because it's statute barred. Frankly it's easier to ignore, particularly as this is complicated by being a joint debt

Jemma01

On the basis that this is settled and you have made no payment for over 6 years, then if I were you I would send a Right for Erasure Request under the Article 17 of the UK GDPR. There's no legal basis for them to keep your personal data. Ask them to confirm deletion in writing (your request should be in writing too).

If they don't comply, or let you know what legal basis they have to keep your data, report them to ICO (you can do that online, straightforward, but you must have requested deletion and given them 1 month to action your request permanently).