[bf1942]

The old story of when I was younger and foolish with my credit card story applies here!
I ran a $1000 debt up with a large retail company(eatons) about 12years ago.The company has since then went bankrupt here in Canada in the late 90's.

About 7 years ago I cleaned up my bad credit by searching out any outsanding bills and making good on them but obviously was not able to find this one.

Well to my amaze I received a letter from a lawyers office that they have been retained from the collection agency handling this debt to recover the money.They are asking for full payment to be made out to the collection company.If payment is not made in the next 10 days their next communication states that they will proceed with a "statement of claim" and lawsuit will be commenced against me unless they receive payment in full.

They sent a nice "plaintiffs claim" along with this which is only in draft form.After I contacting the Small claims court they are familiar with the Lawyer and she is basically a onstaff lawyer for the Collection Agency.


Advice on how to handle this would be greatly appreciated.

I am presently on disability and cannot afford to pay this bill and really have no assets for them to go after but I will find a way to pay it if need be.
I do not want my credit affected as it has been cleaned up and is pretty good now.
Is their any way to negotiate lower sum with them then I owe and how would I go about doing this?

thanks

[CaptainForest]

The SOL has most likely run out, meaning that they can not SUE you for the money.

If they do sue you, respond by saying that the SOL has expired.

What province are you in?

In Ontario, you are governed under the 6 yr SOL.

SOL = Statute of Limitations, limits the amount of time you can bring a lawsuit against someone.

You still owe this money, they just can't use the courts to enforce collection, so therefore, you don't have to pay it.

If you make even 1 cent of payment or promise to pay, the SOL starts all over again.

So what they are trying to do most likely is get you to make some payment, to restart the SOL.

[bf1942]

I am in Ontario and glad you let me know about the SOL,I thought about offering a settlement of 10 cents on the dollar to clear it up but may hold back on that offer now.

Is problay likely it wouldn't even make it to court because of the amount and the time that has passed.

[bf1942]

UPDATE****They gave me a quick call today and said "that the file was passed to them in 2000". Which still would fall under the SOL but the original account would have fallen under the SOL before they even passed it on to them.Surprisingly enough their tactic was to tell me to get the money in by Friday or court costs would be added and were eager to get me off the phone before I could even mention SOL... lol...

[CaptainForest]

One other thing I would like to add about SOL.

The SOL starts from you first stop making the payments.

So if you stopped making payments in 1995, the SOL would expire in 2001.

Just because they bought the debt in 2000, does NOT restart the SOL on their part.


Ahh, yes, they hung up quickly, because they are trying to scare you into payment! Collection Agencies are evil. :)

[bf1942]

One other question I have is regarding them making a credit inquiry on my credit even though I know anything 6 years back will not show up as bad credit but they can make a inquiry or statement on my credit regarding this still.

[mr.yet]

Tell them you will agree to pay in a letter if the SOL is current and has not expired, if expired tell them they have no valid claim against you.

[bf1942]

Tell them you will agree to pay in a letter if the SOL is current and has not expired, if expired tell them they have no valid claim against you.

I am sure they will say the SOL is still current... lol...

[bigcowboy1]

Ignore them. They'll go away.