Questions from : Have you received threatening demands for debts older than 6 years?

[diddydicky]

i'm sorry but the responsibility is yours!

 

if you entered into a contract or agreement with someone and you then move or become of no fixed abode, the responsibility for providing a contact address is yours and an e mail address is not acceptable.

 

indeed you are probably in breach of most agreements by not doing so.

 

the other party to the contract, in the absence of a proper address by which they can contact you (your responsibility to provide) is entitled to regard your last known address as sufficient for service

 

the forum is really about giving advice to deal with debt problems- not, with respect, to finding ways to avoid your responsibilities

[ccridersuz]

I would like to respond to the post's on here by my own recent experience. I had a letter asking me to contact the company in respect of a debt for £490. Which I had no idea about and as far as I was concerned was not mine. I wrote to the company concerned and a second letter arrived. This letter stated that the debt was from 1995!! now this happened about six weeks ago. Anyway, as they had obviously not responded to my letter, I phoned them to find out what was going on.

It turned out that a debt had been incurred in my name at an address I was supposed to have lived at, I pointed out that I had never lived at said address, but in fact the address belonged to my sister, I told them firmly that I had never ever used her address to obtain goods and that my sister would never ever have obtained goods in my name either, then I realised my sister had in fact moved from that address the year before.

I then realised that this was the same year, that I had all sorts of debt problems due to a relative (through marriage) who had done a moonlight flit leaving thousands of pounds worth of debt, taken out in my name and other relatives names. I spent about 3 month's clearing my name, she had used my details but had in actual fact used my marriage date as my date of birth, (I married two day's after my 21st birthday). She had left me mail order catalogue debt's to the total of over £6500.oo. She had supplied half the housing estate with white goods and furniture. Anyway, I contacted all the companies concerned and could prove who I was, where I actually lived and my correct date of birth. I was so mad I was ready to shoot her on sight. I was directed to a firm, who for a fee protected my credit rating and would contact me should any other similar credit request's be made, just to make sure it was me who was applying. It also turned out that she had applied for car credit using my cousin's personnal details. This all happened back in 1995/96.

I related these facts to the woman from the debt company and informed her that she should check them out as being correct. I knew this was not my debt and asked for more information and for any proof she had, apparently her company had bought the debt and she would get back to me.

Her call to me later confirmed she had checked out what I told her and due to the fact that no original paperwork existed, she had no alternative but to write off the debt.

I quizzed her on how she was chasing a debt that was 15 years old and was informed of the following.

The company the original debt was with have the 6 years to chase the debt and bring it to court, after the 6 years is up they cannot take you to court. This six years count's from the last recorded payment. The company can sell the debt on to a company such as hers, her company can chase you for the debt and once A PAYMENT is made off this debt, you are liable for it. You cannot at this stage (according to her) be taken to court for the debt, only the originating company can do that. The company can only chase you for the figure owed if they have written signed by you confirmation of the original debt. If this is the case they can only pursue you for it, but as long as it is outstanding it will appear on your credit score. (it is not removed).

She also asked if the fraud by the relative was reported to the police, to which I replied I didn't report it, I assumed the Catalogue companies would have done it, but she informed me that I should have done so.

She gave an honest apology and hoped I wasn't too stressed by the whole affair.

I wonder however, how many people would just be shocked into paying? expecially the older generation.

I hope this post will help on this issue.

Keep up the good work

[The GodMother]

it is your responsibility to keep your creditors informed of your whereabouts, so if you have not informed them of any change of address they are entitled to use your last known address

 

if however you have proof that they were advised of your new address (i guess that would only be acceptable to a court in writing- or perhaps letters from them to you at your new address) then any service to a previous address would clearly not be acceptable and any ccj so obtained could be set aside.

 

in short- moonlight flits can do more harm than good

 

This is unless you are the previous tenants of the house l live in and are having my family and l harrassed by DCA, Doorstep collectors and evry other person because you have failed to register where you are living now and have not done since you moved out in at the latest june 2005.

[The GodMother]

i'm sorry but the responsibility is yours!

 

if you entered into a contract or agreement with someone and you then move or become of no fixed abode, the responsibility for providing a contact address is yours and an e mail address is not acceptable.

 

indeed you are probably in breach of most agreements by not doing so.

 

the other party to the contract, in the absence of a proper address by which they can contact you (your responsibility to provide) is entitled to regard your last known address as sufficient for service

 

the forum is really about giving advice to deal with debt problems- not, with respect, to finding ways to avoid your responsibilites

 

 

This is where l am having issues aswell.

 

I live in a council property and have lived here sinceAugust 2005. The previous tenants left leaving a lot of debt,about £15k l am guessing.

 

This is unpaid water bills, unpaid, loans with shoppacheck, provident, greenwoods u no thenormal doorstop pll. overdrawn banks loans from bank skysubscription etc.

 

I have had doorstep collectors on my door at 6am in my pre cag days and everything. DCAs dont accept they dont live there and OCs claiming they can do nothing as l am not the account holder so my complaint cant be delt with.

 

This is the last known address for them and according to all the dcas doorstep collectors etc they are still electrol roll registered her, this l know is bull, but do they stop harrassing me no.

 

I have made complaint to TS, OFT and the ICO but they cant do much to help me as the people have disappeared. I have asked that the ICO put a note on there Credit files but they cant do that.

 

So now i am mentto be a 40/50 year old woman at the age of 28. Cant do much but send all the letters backto the creditors and l am the one being harrassedl have changed telephone number and had to have my phone cut off cause of these cant wait for them to pop up in 2 years as they cant claim SB.

[straftat]

CCCS being funded by the credit card companies- now why is that a surprise?

 

the real lowdown is that IF you have not made a payment to the account NOR admitted responsibility for the debt for 6 years then it will be SB

 

it makes not a jot of difference how many letters the creditor sends to you or if they tried to find you

 

the ONLY action the creditor can take to stop the clock is to issue a court claim against you

 

as soon as this is filed the clock will stop

 

so they just have to file a claim to stop the clock?

Don't they have to get judgement?

 

In that case they could file a claim and not bother with the process , forcing you to pay and file for a Strike out?

[diddydicky]

so they just have to file a claim to stop the clock?

Don't they have to get judgement?

 

In that case they could file a claim and not bother with the process , forcing you to pay and file for a Strike out?

 

you would not have to pay for a strike out- if they fail to answer your defence within 28 days their claimed would be stayed by the court

 

just think yourself lucky that they have less brain cells than you do!

[straftat]

But if the claim is stayed then it can't go statute barred because the action has frozen the clock?

[diddydicky]

But if the claim is stayed then it can't go statute barred because the action has frozen the clock?

 

as i said - think yourself lucky that their brain cells havent yet worked that one out

 

most of these debts have been bought- they are not too keen on paying out the fees to issue a summons on these debts in any event

Edited March 5, 2010 by diddydicky

[dx100uk]

The company the original debt was with have the 6 years to chase the debt and bring it to court, after the 6 years is up they cannot take you to court. This six years count's from the last recorded payment. The company can sell the debt on to a company such as hers, her company can chase you for the debt and once A PAYMENT is made off this debt, you are liable for it.

 

just to clarify here :

 

once a debt is statute barred NOTHING can unbar it.

 

dx

[diddydicky]

just to clarify here :

 

once a debt is statute barred NOTHING can unbar it.

 

dx

 

nope- not even if you make a payment AFTER it is SB!!

[straftat]

But just to clarify if someone issues a claim against you say 2 weeks before it's statute barred , obviously by the time a hearing dare is set it would be statute barred BUT it won't be because they initiated proceedings against you?

[diddydicky]

correct

[MereCat]

Diddydicky

You offered the heartening advice on 12/2/10 that “given that you are so close to where you want to be I would suggest letting sleeping dogs lie until JUNE”.

It is becoming increasingly clear from reading these threads what SB is all about. However I realise I could be anxiously holding my peace till June, only to find that Halifax or one of its agents could have made me bankrupt without my even knowing about it, at some point before the “clock” reached the six year mark.

If such an unfortunate thing had happened, then where do I look for advice on un-bankrupting myself? This does not appear to be a problem being dealt with on this particular thread?

Whilst I have to accept that this is physically possible, but not having seen anything at all to suggest it could have happened, is it a common practice? Or are the costs time and authentic officialdom involved with CCJ action, a sufficient dis-incentive to your usual bottom feeder DCA to bother? Especially when there easier pickings to be had through harassment and intimidation.

As mentioned in my first posting, I have had difficulties accessing any CRA info about myself online, and am aware that disclosing anything current about myself to them would be highly inadvisable. What if I were to do a credit check on myself as if I had never left that last address – would that reveal a picture? Is it possible to get someone else to do one for you?

 

Thanks as ever for all the terrific work you folks are doing.

[diddydicky]

what makes you think your creditors would bankrupt you?

 

they cannot do so without serving a statutory demand upon you

 

if you know someone at your last address to be able to pick up the results then there is no reason why you cant do a cra check (3 of them) at that address.

 

 

A DCA would not normally commence bankruptcy proceedings and in the ultra rare event that they would- they would want a great deal of information about your personal finances and what assets you had, they would certainly want to know what you paid in tax last year.

 

if you own your present property and they did credit checks to establish that you had equity then they could not issue a SD against you at your previous address because they would now know your new address

 

i would forget all about bankruptcy proceedings if i were you and just sit tight

 

if you do the cra checks (so see if you have ccjs.) then do it snailmail not online

[MereCat]

Thanks alot DiddyDicky. I think I might have got confused between CCJ and bankruptcy. Of course they would have had to have engaged with me in person to have done the latter, but I imagine that CCJs can be obtained 'in absentia'? It is just a suspicion at the moment, but the highly illegitimate and irregular fashion with which I got tossed between Halifax Insurance Ireland and Halifax the 'bank', like sharks playing catch with a half dead seal, might have marked my file as "complicated to pursue" or some such. Anyway thanks as ever. I shall be sitting tight. Oh, and I did find one sole leaflet about the insurance policy, and it seemed only to excluse absence from earning through pregnancy, and I certainly wasn't pregnant at the time!

[MereCat]

I have probably overlooked something, but please could someone advise me how to search these forums by key words, in order to locate particular threads? For example a certain mobile phone network company appears to have been systematically and deliberately overcharging us over a long period of time. I would like to assess how widespread the practice is, and to see if someone has already started a thread on Orange? Cheers.

[diddydicky]

scroll back up the thread to the blue bar above the words

 

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING

 

on the bar - just right of centre you will see a tab named "search"

you can type in your search criteria then either search threads or individual posts

 

if you are worried about action having taken place without your knowledge then google EXPERIAN, EQUIFAX and CALL CREDIT

 

get a £2 fee off in the post to each one asking for a copy of your credit file (don't do it online- even though it can be free)

 

i suggest that whilst you are dealing with debts that you do so every 6 months or a year at most in any event

 

This practice is also a good security measure to help ensure that someone has not stolen your identity

[philr1]

Hi there,

 

I have today recieved a letter from a company called Apex Discovery Solutions. After Googling, I have found out they are a debt recovery agency. A few years ago, back in 2002, I got myself into debt (approx £3000), and ended up having to pay my bills via the court where I was paying around £15 a month. I had a few mental health problems at the time and stopped paying for them. I never heard about any of my debts since then until around 3 years ago when I had a similar letter from a debt recovery agency about an overdraft from my bank at the time of 2002. I paid that off and haven't heard from any of the debts again, until today that is. Just reading the first post of this topic, it seems I do not have to pay anything for a debt that is over 6 years old which this certainly would be. I have had NO debts since because I live with my parents so don't even have a proper bank account.

 

I'd really appreciate any advice on what to do. I was just going to call this Apex company and pay whatever it is they wanted (well a certain amount a month) but if they are not within their rights, I will not.

 

Because I live with my parents I am scared they might find out and I really do not want the hassle to be honest so thought it would be easier just to call this company and be done with it.

 

Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated. This letter from Apex just asks me to call someone and quote a reference number. I'm certain it is from 8 or so years ago as I have no debts whatsoever.

 

Thank you very much for reading anyway.

 

Phil ;o)

[diddydicky]

if you have not made a payment for 6 years AND you have not admitted the debt in writing in that time then it is statute barred

 

BUT

 

if it is the CCJ they are trying to enforce it does not become statute barred

 

however

 

they cannot enforce the ccj if you have not paid it for over 6 years without applying to the court

 

a/ they seem not to be the original claimant

 

b/ they would have to produce the judgement to the court (the court will NOT any longer have a hard copy)

 

c/ in any event it is very rare that a court would grant them permission- the attitude of the court is that they could not have been concerned else they would have done something earlier

 

the court also KNOWS that such applications usually come from the bottom feeders that have bought the debt or a pittance or have offered to collect on the ccj for a split of what is recovered- and the court has little time for them .

 

in a nutshell

 

ignore it

Edited March 11, 2010 by diddydicky

[philr1]

Dickydick you have been very kind and have helped me get peace of mind, for that I thank you ;o)

 

Ok well my debts were controlled by the court but I missed a few payments and went to see a judge and he decided to stop the CCJ. So does that mean that I don't have a CCJ at all and this debt would be part of that 6 years old debt that is statute barred?

 

Someone on a thread I created kindly sent me a template of a letter, so shall I just send them that and be done with it?

 

Thanks again ;o)

[diddydicky]

I am always happy to give people peace of mind...thank you

 

you cant statute bar a debt that has become a CCJ - the ccj lives forever (but any reference to it "drops off" your credit files after 6 years )

 

thats interesting however

 

when you say you went to see the judge- what application did you make and do you have written evidence of what he decided- these things are not done by "having a chat and a cup of tea" it must have been done formally

[philr1]

Hi Diddydicky,

 

Well I missed a few payments for the CCJ and had a letter from the court to say I had to see the judge. I honestly believed it would be a proper court appearance and was petrified because I have never been in trouble in my life! When I saw the judge, he took one look at the fact I missed a few payments and said the CCJ had stopped. Basically I did not have to make any payments for the CCJ again and I just assumed that the debtors would get in touch with me again. I never heard a thing from any of them until I had a letter from a debt recovery agency a few years back about my TSB bank account. That was for around £138 and I paid for that in full. I never heard a thing until yesterday when I got that letter from Apex. I just assumed that the debts were no longer part of a CCJ and had been referred back to the original companies who wanted the money. I thought it was very strange that I never heard anything from them.

 

I have printed off the template that someone else has kindly given me in the topic I created about this (I saw on the first page of this topic that a few others asked for people to create a topic to make it easier to get help) and will send the letter and pray ;o)

 

No I don't think I have the letter anymore from the court, this was around 2003 so it's over 6 years old, that I know for certain.

 

If things work out well and I don't have to pay any money, I will be more than happy to donate to this site. I would have just paid the money if I didn't see this site and I believe that's what these debt companies thrive on don't they?

 

Thank you again diddydicky (oops spelt your name wrong the first time, sorry!)

[MereCat]

Hi Diddydicky

1.) , but in my browser this appears to be a general web search engine (powered by Yahoo) rather than a site specific one? Is it necessary to look from the 'outside' before you can look back in? My first go produced many results including various other consumer forums, but not the subject lines I was looking for on this site.

2.) I notice above, that "if it is the CCJ they are trying to enforce it does not become statute barred". Does this mean that if a DCA has obtained a CCJ within the last six years, even if it might be unlikely that they would bother, that technically they could go on bothering me forever?

3.) is the advice not to approach the CRAs online to do with the risk of exposing one's ID through that of the computer you are using?

4.) Speaking of discretion, I would like to make a donation. Is it safe to use my own debit or credit card? I have not learned how to use PayPal yet, and do not know if it is any more anon.

Thanks again

MereCat

[diddydicky]

as you are reading this post- scroll back up to the top of the page

 

you will see a blue bar running across the screen

 

the tabs |(from left to right) are

 

user cp faq calendar new posts search quick links log out

[MereCat]

aaaah, THAT 'search'! cheers