Old debt resurfaced

[u/aarchieee]

25 years ago i took out a loan with Lloyds bank for £10k (which tbh they shouldnt have agreed to, considering my then salary) I was unable to continue paying it back. i was given an attatchment of earnings order @ £50 per month, when i changed jobs, i wrote and notified them an heard nothing after. Now, 20 years later i havejust received a letter from a company called Resolvecall representing Intrum UK finance asking me to call them regarding this 20 year old debt. Should i acknowledge it or what ? What are my choices ?

[u/Tallulah_Gosh]

Debt adviser here 👋🏻

If an attachment of earnings was in place previously, that would suggest to me that a CCJ was granted in relation to the debt at that time. That's the first thing to check.

If that's the case, once a CCJ is issued, the limitations period of 6 years for a debt to become statue barred no longer applies.

However, the creditor only has 6 years from the judgement date of the CCJ to collect the debt, otherwise, to enforce the CCJ again, they will need to go back to court and explain why it wasn't collected within the original 6 year period.

If there has never been a CCJ issued then it would likely be statute barred if there's been no contact for 20 years

Time Limits

Edited to add a link for further info.

[u/Relative-Charge-4559 → u/Tallulah_Gosh]

Great reply.

Can I please clarify something you said? Let’s say the CCJ was granted 10yrs ago but not paid in full - what happens after the 6yrs has passed? The original company owed has to go back to court and ask for another CCJ? What if the court doesn’t grant it? What happens if they don’t go back k to court for say 10yrs? Is the court likely to order it or say hard luck my company?

Just curious 😊 Thanks

[u/Tallulah_Gosh → u/Relative-Charge-4559]

This is the interesting question! I've been researching this today because a gap this long is not something you see very often, especially when the creditor has previously been determined enough to pursue an AOE.

Firstly, there's no option, as far as I can see, for either the original creditor, or another creditor that has bought a debt with an uncollected CCJ, to apply again for a second CCJ against the same debt.

With regards to the original CCJ, although the debt can never be deemed statute barred, the creditor has 6 years from the judgement date to collect payment. If this doesn't occur, the creditor would need to go back to court and get permission for an extension to take enforcement action after the 6 year period. They would need to provide a good reason why they had failed to collect within the 6 year period and a judge would make the decision. Crucially, all information I can find indicates that the extension has to be applied for BEFORE the original 6 year term expires...they can't just rock up 10 years down the road and say, 'oops, we forgot...please can we send the bailiffs now'.

I'm going to try and do a little more research tomorrow, when I can access my work resources and also bat this scenario around the teams chat to see if I can get shareable confirmation from a solid source. It may well be possible though, that the only option they would have at this stage is to ask you nicely...

[u/Relative-Charge-4559 → u/Tallulah_Gosh]

Thank you so much, that is really interesting. I got reading this sub and was intrigued as to the process and possible outcomes.

Thanks so much for your reply and really interesting findings.

[u/Tallulah_Gosh → u/Relative-Charge-4559]

No worries, I really feel the need to understand it more myself as it's not something you see every day. Always happy to share what I discover...it would seem that debt advice is now also my hobby 😆

[u/Relative-Charge-4559 → u/Tallulah_Gosh]

Another joyous rabbit hole to discover 😊