PLEASE HELP - DO I HAVE TO PAY???

[looneytune]

I'll make this as short as I can.

Basically, I live in Shared Ownership house so pay part rent, part mortgage. When I first took over the house, I tried and tried to get a standing order set up (as this is how it works best) to pay the rent and due to total idiot who deals with all the shared ownership properties here, this was never done. Long story. When, after a year of getting no money, he finally wrote to me asking for this money, I wrote a long letter explaining how I tried numerous times to get it sorted and detailed the history of all our calls. It's a long story but it really affected me stress wise and I got ill again (IBS) and I put at the end of this letter that I was unsure how I would be able to pay back the £720 owed. I sent this letter 6½ years ago and never heard back and to be honest, after all this time I'd forgotten all about it (enough other stuff happened in my life).

ANYWAY..........as some of you know, dh lost his job on xmas eve and until very recently, had no job and we've struggled to say the least. Now dh finally has a permanent job and things are on the up but we still have accumlated a lot of debt as a result so we're not all hunky dory just yet. Well, I set up a new standing order for the rent (had cancelled all DD's etc. when he lost job and benefits helped a tiny bit with the rent) the other week but on Monday, I received a letter about the fact that the benefit payments have stopped but they haven't received payment since. I gave confirmation that this is all set up but I queried the arrears on the rent as it should only be between £300-400 and the sheet said £1185. Today got letter confirming the rest of the arrears is due to the problem over 7 years ago.

Soooo..........very worried now. Can't afford to pay the whole lot. Am very very p'd off that they don't bother asking for it after my letter 6½ years ago and then BANG, want the whole lot.

What can I do? Surely they can't just get it back like that when the bloke didn't do his job and chase it all these years ago. Now we're in a mess and can't afford this big lump.

Any advice please???

bump

I'm not sure that they can chase you for this amount as it has been so long.
I seem to remember something about a 5yr rule,that if a creditor has not contacted you for 5yrs then they cannot come and reclaim that debt.
I would get in touch with CAB,even if you did have to pay it back I'm sure they would be able help.

heavensis i thought it was a 7yr rule

I think that after 6 years they can still write you and say you still owe them but you can say you don't owe them anything, it is outside the 6 year limit and that if they chase you it is harrasment (or something).

If you say yes I owe you this then the 6 years starts again from the date you agree to the debt.

Not a legal bod though so check it out (-:

It's still over 7 years ago - the letter I wrote 6½ years ago was at least a year after the debt.

So CAB it is then Never have much luck getting hold of them. Will try but in the meantime, if anyone knows for sure about this, it would put my mind at rest!

Thanks

I think this rule may apply to unsecured debt. I've just had a quick look on National Debt lines web site. (6yrs)

cheers, on phone now trying to get advice

Fingers crossed.

Any luck

Thanks. Sorry for not coming back earlier - got off the phone to find that the pc had been shutdown (does with windows updates sometimes) and we were sort of late for going to the park so I decided to log on when I got back. Back now

Got some advice from 'Community Legal Service Direct' who we very good. Was going to call CAB but they were so rubbish with the whole dh thing, I decided to search the net instead and came across these people. They were very helpful, have confirmed that yes, they are 99.9% sure it comes under the Limition Act 1980, section 19 that says they can't demand the money after 6+ years has passed since we last had contact about the arrears. She is sending something in the post today that I can read.

Hopefully I'll just put a letter together and mention the act, section 19, they will realise I've done my homework and then just drop it as it's not worth fighting for. That's what I'm hoping anyway

Thanks for your help people, I'd never heard of this 6 year thing, just didn't seem right that they should be able to leave it all these years then BANG, demand it just like that when we've been through the worst year to date! Plus, it's all their own fault the money wasn't paid in the first place - IDIOTS!!!

Thanks agian

Hope you get this sorted,I'm glad you got some good help from a Professional.

where it is rent there may be a problem with the 6 years Limitation rule
because rent is due under a running account, ie another payment is due every week/month
so if you miss payment on a date - say for argument's sake, 1st january 2000 - but you then pay on 1st february 2000, the landlord can apply your payment made on 1st february to the 'missed' one on 1st january and can then treat the payment on 1st february as being missing instead.
that carries on and carries on, so the 'missing' payment is always within the 6 years for claiming an unpaid debt, IYSWIM.

But if you make a reasonable proposal for paying off the money, the housing association would be likely to accept it, wouldn't they? Even if they took you to court, if you could show that you had made an offer, of a reasonable amount, and had stuck to it regularly, it is unimaginable that the court would order anything different. So even if the HA don't agree, you should make a regular payment anyway of whatever amount you can sensibly afford on top of the rent as due.

I meant to say, if they don't back off when you write your letter, which they might do, then would be the time to make an offer and start making payments.
didn't mean to imply that you should not try to argue the limitation defence, just that sometimes it is unsuccessful.

Thanks for that, I had actually learnt this may be a problem earlier but I'm going to say exactly what the legal rep said and if they don't write it off, I will then try and come to some arrangement for paying off.

Thanks for your help!