25 year old debt - letter out of the blue

[Woahbodyforrrrm]

I'm trying to get some advice for one of my best friends who has got herself really stressed out about a financial situation, I've told her to call CAB tomorrow but in the meantime I thought I'd see if anyone had encountered anything similar.

She took out a loan with a high street bank around 25 years ago. She was doing up her house at the time, where she lived with her DH who was actually an abusive twat. She spent the money on renovations as they were expecting a baby. Not long after the baby arrived, she finally left. She didn't have the means to continue paying the debt so got herself into financial difficulty and was chased by the bank for some years and had poor credit for a long time. Eventually she stopped hearing from them and for around 15 years, hasn't had a letter or call from the lender. Her credit file is now up in the good section so she had long put the debt behind her (rightly or wrongly).

On Saturday she received a letter from an agency called Resolvecall who have been instructed by a company called Intrum to collect the debt. The letter names the bank who lent her the money and states a figure but there are no more details relating to it, eg date of the loan etc. Just to clarify, neither letter are from the bank, presumably they've sold the debt to an agency. She doesn't have paperwork for the loan anymore and can't remember the figure that she was loaned. She got the loan through going into the bank and asking the bank manager for X amount of money as it was back when it was a lot easier to access bank loans and pre-email and electronic documentation.

She's got herself into a state and isn't sure where she stands. Has anyone got experience of a debt collection agency contacting someone after so many years have passed? Her partner of 18 years has always been aware there was an outstanding debt (and poor credit) but she hasn't told them about this letter yet as she doesn't want to stress them out.

I know she'll get good info from CAB but I'm just unable to sleep for hearing her so upset this evening so thought I'd see if I could turn up any info/advice.

For anyone who has made it this far!

take a look at debtcamel
https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-from-intrum-resolvecall-about-lloyds-debt/

I’ve added a Google search image.

I’m fairly certain that after 25 years there is nothing the debt collection can do.

I think, but don't know for certain that if a debt hasn't been acknowledged by her for 6 years they will struggle to legally enforce it. They can still send letters etc but if she doesn't now and hasn't acknowledged the debt in the previous 6 years they can't get a CCN for example.

How much of this is correct I don't know and she should definitely call CAB.

*CCJ

Is the debt still showing on her credit file online?

She should do a credit check on herself. If the debt is showing she might want to pay it off just to keep her good credit rating. If it isn't showing on her credit report she could write back to them pointing out it is 18 years old.

After such a length of time the debt will be time barred and unenforceable as long as she doesn't acknowledge it. They are chancers trying it on. Have a look at this link.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6027755/statute-barred-debts-and-the-limitation-act#latest

Ignore it. She will keep getting letters but just ignore.

The debt should be statute barred after 6 years. If she, or anyone else named on the account if it's a joint debt, has not been in contact with them in that time then the debt collectors are trying it on. It's very important that she doesn't call them to find out more as this could be construed as acknowledging the debt.

Maybe the best course of action will be to write to them and say that she does not acknowledge the debt but is aware that it is statute barred so she has no legal obligation to pay it.

Hopefully that will make them go away and not waste any more time on someone that it's unlikely they're going to frighten into paying up without question, which will be the tactic in these cases - they will buy the debts for pennies in the pound so will be in profit if only a minority of people pay up.

Doesn't seem fair that people can just walk away from their own debts .

Thank you to all of you who offered such helpful advice! She contacted the national debt helpline today and it seems this company must have recently purchased thousands of old debts as they've had lots of calls about them. As many of you said, they cannot legally chase someone after 6 years of no contact/payment so she used the template to create the letter to send to them. They have 21 days to reply according to helpline.
All in all she's feeling much better today and hopefully this will be put to bed before long.

Thank you again for all the advice 

@flutterby1 I'm not entirely sure why you would decide to open this post which is pretty clear from the title, just to make a useless comment like that. Your opinion is just that and you're entitled to it but I didn't ask for opinions on here.
My friend left her abusive ex-DH with a tiny baby, leaving her home (which ironically was where the loan money was spent) and virtually all the contents behind. As I'm sure you can imagine he never paid a penny towards his child's upkeep and she's built her life from the ground up again. What would you have liked her to do in this position? I'm sure those fleeing domestic abuse who have debts they're struggling to pay would love to be enlightened by you!

Whatever she does, your friend must NOT acknowledge this debt.

@flutterby1 the company have had 25 years to chase the debt but haven't bothered. If their systems are so rubbish that it takes this long then that's on them. They know the statute of limitations applies so could have made efforts all those years ago. More fool them.