Landlord trying to enforce a court judgement made in 2001

[LiverpoolTenant]

Dear All,

 

I need some of your wisdom. I was renting an apartment with a colleague in 2000, paying my half of the rent into his account for him to pay it all to the landlord. It was a joint and severably liable tenancy. The long and short of it, he ran off without any payment to the landlord and left us both distraught and the landlor £7k short. The landlord then sought proceedings via the county court to recover lost rent and his solicitors fees. In all the judge asked the landlord to release me from the debt as I was able to prove my payments. However, he held that I was not to be released. The judgement was made in June 2001, that myself and colleague were to repay and we both moved with assurances that my colleague would pay the amount outstanding. He did not pay and I was unaware having moved addresses etc. In all, it is now 2009 and I have just received a letter to my parent's address from the landlord's solicitors threatening enforcement of the debt of the £7k. I am most upset by this. Is this allowed? Is this legal after all this time? What can I do to cease this behaviour? I certainly can not afford the £7k.

 

Pointers very much welcomed.

 

Thanks

 

D.

[Sali]

My first thought was how did the LL not realise that the rent wasn't being paid until the arrears had reached £7K?

 

I think I have read in this forum that such a debt cannot be persued after six years has transpired, so you may be free. However, I will leave someone more knowledgable than me to confirm this.

[Steve__M]

I think that the six year rule may only apply to civil debts, and certainly only applies if there has been no attempt to collect for the 6 year period. For 7K it's worth considering proper legal advice.

[LiverpoolTenant]

Thank you for your pointers, I think I will need to seek legal advice to clarify.l

[Kraken1]

A claimaint has 6 years to bring a claim based on simple contract; this means he has up to 6 years to get a ccj.

 

A ccj can only be enforced after 6 years (I think) with the agreement of the court. It is not automatic.

 

This means that if a claimant pushed it he could be after you for roughly 12 years, depending on the actual dates (there could be a year between the n1 and judgement for eg, which would take it nearer 13 years).

[LiverpoolTenant]

Given that that after 8 years they have still not enforced it, I am tempted to just leave it until they write to me at the correct address and the court have backed the enforcement. At such time, I guess I will have to make an arrangement with them to pay the monies (although morally not in agreement). Is this a recommended approach?

 

Legal stuff heh! I was just worried that a CCJ would be just reapplied to my credit file.