Help re Statute Barred

A question about : Help re Statute Barred

Many years ago I incurred lots of debts some of which I paid off through a debt management company some of which I did not.

One of those I did not was with Nationwide and should be statute barred. However another account with Nationwide was paid off by Gregory Pennington via me and in fact overpaid when I think that Nationwide allocated this overpayment to the account I was not paying off.

Long story short - the debt collection agency are counting this payment as mine and starting the six years again from this date. Is there anything I can do to get out of this?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Best answers:

• So you had 2 debts both with nationwide?
  What sort of account was the one you did pay off? and the one you didn't?
  Sounds like they may have used their right of offset.
• Hi, they were both current accounts - however I never acknowledged the debt of the second one - hence not paying it off.
• I would imagine they would argue they used their right to offset any funds in those accounts with any accounts that were in arrears.
  It would be down to a court to decide whether this was acceptable or whether the debt was in fact statute barred. (My guess is that a judge would probably say what they have done is allowed and therefore say its not statute barred but that is just my guess).
  You may decide to try waiting it out and argue your case in court if they try to obtain a CCJ. If you do that then ideally you want to be in a position to pay the full debt off within a month so that if the judge agrees that it is not statute barred that you don't end up with a CCJ on file for 6years.
• Ok thanks for the info. They do not know that this is what the payment was for as I have denied any knowledge of a payment being made citing it is up to them to prove it. I will try continuing down this road for the time being.
• A further thought - given that I did not authorise Gregory Pennington to make any payments against this account and it is only a Nationwide transfer once the authorised and acknowledged account was paid off - does this really count as me acknowledging the debt?
• Your authorised agent (GP) paid money to a nationwide account. Nationwide used the funds in that account to offset against a debt in another account.
  In the end you can refuse to pay and stick with your assertion that your believe the debt is statute barred and refuse to respond further.
  If they want to be able to prove to you that it isn't then they only way they can do this is if they decide to commence court action.
• Ok thank you - do you think it would be worth going down the prove it and cca route as well to give myself more options than just court and to put off court proceedings while I build up the cash?
• You could send them a prove it letter.
  As its for a current account/overdraft that is not covered by the s78 requirements on the consumer credit act to send you a copy of the credit agreement. So a CCA request is not valid/will get you nowhere.
• If it was indeed Nationwide chasing this then I would certainly consider setting up a payment plan yes.
• Compello are the debt collectors chasing this - does anyone have any experience dealing with these?
• Having researched this further, as the action of transferring accounts was undertaken by the creditor ie Nationwide - surely this does not affect the statute of limitations as no acknowldgement or payment has been made by me, the debtor - is this correct?
• I don't think anyone on here will really be able to give you a definitive answer.
  You could maybe try calling national debtline and asking for their opinion on your situation.
• I see the national debtline poster is on site - could you maybe post your opinion on this matter please.
  Thanks
• Thank you David - logically this seems like the right way to read the situation.
• Hello again,
  Our understanding is that so long as your payment was specifically appropriated against the other debt it should not affect the running of time. The following is taken from our limitations training notes: Where a debtor makesa payment to a creditor without appropriating (allocating) the money to one of a number of debts, the creditor can appropriate the money to whichever debt it chooses. Where this happens the payment is not a payment by the debtor 'in respect of' the debt to which the creditor appropriates the money (or any other debt).
  You may wish to seek a qualified legal second opinion. The information I have posted up is simply our understanding based around the information you have posted in your thread.
  Best wishes,
  David.
• Thank you very much for the information David. Much appreciated.