# I haven't paid my car loan in 6 years - no action from the lender?



## lorrainet

Bought a car brand new in 2004. Paid it each month till late 2006 when lost job and have never paid anything since. Still have car but it is not drivable. The finance company have only contacted me twice in relation to the car, once in 2007 and once last year asking for a financial statement which I sent them. have heard nothing since. Any idea what will happen with this? I am pretty sure the debt cannot be written off and the car is worth nothing now but I have a mortgage and wonder can anything happen with that? 

I have the same scenario with an old credit card.


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## Brendan Burgess

They can get a judgment against you and ask the court for an instalment order and the court will tell you to pay x€ per month until it is cleared. 

If you have a mortgage, presumably you have a house? 

They can register the judgment against the house. If the house is in negative equity, it won't have much practical effect. 

It's odd that they have done nothing. The car loan company has not forgotten about it, but the credit card company may have.


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## vandriver

I believe there is a limitation period of 6 years,after which they can't seek a judgement.Does the fact that there was correspondence within the 6 years "reset the clock"?


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## lorrainet

Brendan Burgess said:


> They can get a judgment against you and ask the court for an instalment order and the court will tell you to pay x€ per month until it is cleared.
> 
> If you have a mortgage, presumably you have a house?
> 
> They can register the judgment against the house. If the house is in negative equity, it won't have much practical effect.
> 
> It's odd that they have done nothing. The car loan company has not forgotten about it, but the credit card company may have.



I have a house and it, like everyone elses, is in negative equity. Have had such a bad few years but finally working again etc and need to clear other loans before even considering contacting bank of scotland regarding the car one. 

Is there any benefit in keeping the car? I have paid more than half the repayments but don't think the half rule applies in this case as car is 2004 and with a blown head gasket. Economical write off so I have been told. Shame because it still looks perfect! Would I be as well to sell the car to somewhere and keep the cash in an account for when they do come back looking for the repayment???


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## lorrainet

vandriver said:


> I believe there is a limitation period of 6 years,after which they can't seek a judgement.Does the fact that there was correspondence within the 6 years "reset the clock"?



This is interesting but I doubt they are going to write off 9k in debt! Maybe that is why they contacted me again about it?? It is showing as moratorium on a recently ICB check which I purchased to see what was going on.


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## vandriver

No,by "reset the clock",I meant have the car finance company given themselves 6 years from the last correspondence,(ie up to 2017) to initiate judgement proceedings.


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## lorrainet

If they did that it would actually be good for us all as I would be in a position to even get a CU loan to pay them back. Currently paying one back and it has another few years on it. I am afraid to contact them in case they start trying to push me for payments and I really have not anything spare to be paying them at this stage. Too many bill built up when I was unemployed unfortunately.


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## Time

The clock only resets if you acknowledge the debt or make a payment. Them sending you letters that you have ignored does not help their situation.

If they initiate proceedings you have an absolute statute barred defence.


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## oldnick

So sorry for my stupid question...

The way you describe events in your OP would make one believe that you deliberately avoided repaying the loan but continued to use the car until it became worthless.

I must have misunderstood you as it is clear that if you had already paid half the loan by 2006 then you could have easily paid off the other half by selling the two-year old car.


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## Jim2007

vandriver said:


> I believe there is a limitation period of 6 years,after which they can't seek a judgement.Does the fact that there was correspondence within the 6 years "reset the clock"?



Yes, I believe it does get reset to the run from the last interaction - in this case last year.  That is unless they changed the law since I was dealing with this kind of stuff.


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## lorrainet

oldnick said:


> I must have misunderstood you as it is clear that if you had already paid half the loan by 2006 then you could have easily paid off the other half by selling the two-year old car.



I was hoping to get a job and have some income much sooner than happened to be honest and things just snowballed after my ex left and I became depressed. Mabs did speak to the bank on my behalf so they must have agreed to let it go moratorium at that stage but nothing else was ever discussed. Never dawned on me to sell the car back then.


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## lorrainet

Jim2007 said:


> Yes, I believe it does get reset to the run from the last interaction - in this case last year.  That is unless they changed the law since I was dealing with this kind of stuff.




Does that mean they won't get in touch for another few years?? I did send them back a financial statement but I heard nothing since then. Obviously they could see that I still was unable to afford any kind of repayment but not so much as a letter to confirm they had received the statement or anything was sent to me.


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## Time

You sent back the statement thus acknowledging the debt.


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## lorrainet

Yeah. I have always acknowledged that I owe them, just have not had the means to pay them. I am not looking for debt forgiveness on it, just advice on what may happen at this point


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## Time

They may take you to court. Then again they may do nothing.


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## lorrainet

Ok.. thank you for the advice - all of you! Am just going to sit tight for now and hope I have enough time to get some cash saved up for if and when I am contacted again!


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## SarahMc

I'd sit tight for now. BoS are very lax, some arrears just don't seem to be flagged on their computer system.
Rebuild your cash reserves, as sooner or later this will probably bite you, but in the meantime just buy yourself time by doing nothing.


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## lorrainet

So they finally got in touch. I got a call from some debt collection agency the other day about it and kinda fobbed them off but they are going to call me back in July. I still have no means to pay so no idea what I am going to do when they call...


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## Time

Did you acknowledge the debt?


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## lorrainet

Yes. I know it is mine, I am not looking for it to disappear but they just said they would call back in July and talk to me again.


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## Negotiator

If you owe them €9k then offer them about €1500 as full and final settlement and hold very tight on that. They will probably eventually counter offer €5k or €6k and then settle on about €3k to €4k. Perhaps you would get a CU loan to sort this out but there is definitely a deal to be done there.

Good luck!


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## lorrainet

That could be a runner actually as I am further now into my CU repayments so I will do exactly that! Thanks so much


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## Dr.Debt

Yes I think you have a good chance of resolving this for around 1500.


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## Gerry Canning

lorrainet said:


> Yes. I know it is mine, I am not looking for it to disappear but they just said they would call back in July and talk to me again.


..........................................................................................
Have been following the thread;;;Bank of Scotland , have I am sure onward sold your debt for circa 15% of the outstanding amount. From experience I just cannot see them putting judgment etc for this amount.
You dealt with Bank of Scot NOT a Debt Company, they need to show they actually HAVE, not just say they have your debt.
At this stage Do not VERBALLY respond to anyone. If anyone phones you DO Not give them your date of birth.Get everything in writing and DO NOT assume anything. 
Take your OWN time to decide.
It is PURE MONEY incompetence from BOS !!!

Do not be BULLIED by anyone , some Debt companies are @ best (thugs)


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