Hidden Debts?

EggGal

Where to begin?

2 Years ago my partner split with me so I moved back in with my parents. In the 6 years that we were living together we managed to incrue a larg amount of debts, young and foolish as we were, thought we didn't need to pay anyone anything. Since I have moved out I have kept my head in the sand and figured that now that I was no longer at that address I wouldn't be chased for the debts.

Last Monday I received a letter proving how silly this was. It was addressed to both me and my partner from a DCA working for a water company. As soon as I saw the letter, I phoned them up and agreed a repayment plan. I was very frustrated as it was addressed to the both of us, yet he is not and has never been resident at my parent's address. As it is both our names on the bill, the nice lady at the DCA advised me that we were both fuly ressponsible for the debt. I no longer have any contact with my ex. Is it worth trying to find a way to contact him to ensure half is paid by him or will this end up being more hassle than its worth? I wouldn't say I am rolling in the money but I am certainly happy to pay what I should have paid previously, but then again I don't want him to get away scott-free from the debt.

Moving on to my next question, I have honestly lost track of what other debts may have been built up from my previous address and want to get these sorted and cleared from my poor credit history. By doing a credit report I know that I have a communications debt that defaulted in Mar 2006 (even though I was no longer resident, in the emotional torture of the break-up I never got around to removing my name from the cable bill) Is it worth getting in touch with them and attempting to get that re-paid?

I am sure there must be other bills that went unpaid, and as of this moment they are not showing on my credit rating, but I don't want to hide my head in the sand any longer, how else can I find out what debts I have? For example, I am pretty certain that we built up council tax debts and yet haven't heard anything about it since leaving the property and am worried that when I do finally get my own rented property again that suddenly the council will want the 6 years of unpaid council tax too and would like to get as much of it sorted beforehand as possible.

Sorry to have droned on, I just hope all of what I have said makes sense, I just want to get my financial situation sorted again, and having lurked on this boards a few times now, I decided it was time to sort myself out.

Many thanks in advance.

sparky0107

Morning egggal.
I would certainly contact the council and ask them to check on whether any back payments are due, I have had experience of the council applying directly to my employers to have money taken from my wages, and they don't just take it in dribs & drabs they took about £50 per week from me, so to avoid this contact them & make arrangements to repay the outstanding amount, hard I know! You also need to get the cable bill sorted out, as you don't want your credit rating affected, which will make it difficult to get future credit/mortgage etc.

Hope this helps, once you have worked out how much is outstanding you need to put a SOA on here so the good people on the site can give you some pointers and help to getting it all cleared. I'm afraid I don't know whether you will have to pay off your ex's part of the debt, maybe try to negotiate paying your half?

Take care & Good Luck

Sea78

Hi
I think if you apply for your credit report (eg experian) you can also see what other debts are not paid and are waiting for you. I know it might be hard, but I would find out where your ex is just to try and sort all this out - not really fair that you should have to pay all this off yourself.


Sea xx