Debt Collectors have found DH after 7 yrs!!!! Help???

[Toothache]

Right. Need some quick advice.
DH defaulted on 2 loans 7 yrs ago (before I met him). One was a Bank Loan, the other a local loans company in Liverpool.
He hasn?t heard a thing from them since I met him in 2000. He spoke to a Solicitor and wrote to them both in 2001 with his address to try to get to encourage them to chase the debt?. That was the only way he could declare himself bankrupt. But they never got back in touch. We moved a year later.

He has been on the Electoral Roll at our current address for 4 years and still has heard nothing.

Until now??. He got a card through the door this morning asking him to contact ?blah blah blah? as a matter of urgency and quote a reference number. I searched the internet on the name of the company and it?s a Debt Collection Agency in Ayrshire!

What legal powers will they have??? The house, bank account etc etc are all in my name. His wages get paid into my account?? after 7 yrs can they still arrest his earnings??????

My gut reaction (having been in this position years ago) is that after that amount of time they can still chase you for the money, but they have no legal powers at all. They can?t take you to court or arrest your earnings as they have had adequate time to chase the debt. I think its 6 yrs?

Can anyone offer any advice or info?

Oh incidentally the thing that came through the post was just a red card from UKPOST saying:

Please contact us urgently before January 4th. This is not a circular.

Then it had an address and phone number for the debt collector..

However as you can seeeeeee the letter arrived in 6th Jan!! Hardly gives us a good chance does it.

I have had a debt collection agency dealing with me while I was pregnant last year, a series of f* ups on the part of the gas company and then the fact that they got taken over landed me with a 400+ bill for 3 different accounts. In the end I phoned the new company and had to ask several times for the debt collections agency to be put 'on hold' while the whole big mess was sorted out. I know I had a final bill after I left the house for somewhere in the teens. However, I'd chucked it out, and had no proof. I paid lots of money to get copies of my most 'likely' cheques to try and prove payment, and found only one.

In the end, I struck a deal and paid about £60. Still a kick in the teeth knowing I owed nothing. But lessons to be learned - keep all your bills and pay by DD!!

Make sure your DH does address this now. Horrible to be hanging over you and not morally right to try and escape paying what is owed. Glad he is trying to get things sorted out.