I had a debt in 2001 in Ontario Canada. In Sept of that year I became disabled and spent off an on almost a year in Hospital. I notified vthe company of my illness and explained until I was in health and returned to work That I would not be able to make payments on my debt. The account was bought out by a second company and after having tried to collect a year later were informed of the situation. In ugust of 2007, I was contacted by another company and after explaining the situatiuon, decide to sue me in court. They claim that my last payment on this account was Dec 2001. As I was not working and in ill health, I cannot see how I made such a payment. I feel that this debt is 6 years old and should be dismissed by the court.

Send them a registered letter asking them to prove the amount owed, date of the last payment and that they are authorized to collect the amount owed. This is called Debt Validation, in Quebec they have 10 days to respond to this sort of request or the debt collection is assumed to be illegal as they don't have this information.

I don't know if the same 10 day rule applies in Ontario but perhaps someone else can answer this. Call the number on this site and ask what the reules are in this case to be sure

Ministry of Government Services: Services for Individuals