A question about : 6 Year Debt Dispute still ongoing
Can anyone please offer some advice on the following matter. I had a dispute with vodafone back in 2007 when my phone was stolen and within 24 hours and the time it took me to realise and cancel my phone, a bill had been accumulated for over Ј1200. I was insured and despite my efforts, vodafone insisted I was liable to pay this. I seeked legal advice and tried for 2-3 years to resolve this matter. It then seemed to disappear but have recently had threats from Hamptons Legal saying that they are going to file me for bankruptcy and reclaim 'their' debt from my house. They are making offers such as pay 50% now and it will be settled.
The debt should be removed from my credit report in April 2013 so I assume this is why they are making such threats now. I also noticed they have updated the report to say 8 missed payments as of last year so I am unsure if this means that it will be on my credit report for another 5 years. Can anyone help me? I do not know where I stand and what I can do? How can they update my report to say this when its clearly not true?
I have contacted them to try to resolve and put forward my case but they are still making threats.
Can they really apply for a CCJ, bankruptcy or sell my house as threatened?
Best answers:
- What happened to your insurance claim for this theft?
- I was told that my insurance didn't cover this and my account would be frozen until paid. I sorted out another mobile phone and tried to resolve this dispute with letters back and forth etc. I assumed this dispute was ended after a few years as I had heard nothing back and accepted this would mark my credit rating. It wasn't until last year when I learned that they had sold the debt to Hamptons that this has become a problem.
The advice I was given was simply to try to resolve with Vodafone which I did but nothing came of it.
I just wanted advice on whether they can actually change my credit rating to 8 missed payments as this is untrue. I never missed any payments, just disputed the Ј1200 charges. I also want to know if they can legally apply to make me bankrupt or use my property to claim the debt. I also want to know if this will still be removed 6 years after default or if I now have to wait another 5 years as Hamptons have recently falsely updated my credit file.
Look forward to your responses. - Hi 22visual, thank you for your query regarding 6 year old debt
Firstly it is not clear from your post if you ever had a final response to your complaint, if you did you are probably too late now to go to the Communications Ombudsman but if you have never received a final response then I would suggest you take your complaint to the Ombudsman but you need to be aware that even if the phone handset is stolen you are still liable for the standing charge on the phone for the rest of the contract period unless they have agreed in writing to cancel the contract which they very rarely do.
If no action is taken in the court to enforce this debt and you make no payments then it will become statute barred after 6 years from the date payment was due or from when you made the last payment and the creditor will not be able to pursue the debt through the courts so you have the option at this point of continuing to dispute the debt or ignoring it in the hope the creditor will not initiate court action between now and when the 6 years has expired.
Regarding your credit rating the whole account should drop off your credit report after the 6 years. You can find more information about disputing debts and credit references at www.adviceguide.org.uk
Hope this is of assistance
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