Response to National Home Loans through Allied International Credit are demanding money are they acting legally?

Steve,

As promised I have double checked the acknowledgement issue with a NACAB solicitor, here is what he said:

"Once a limitation period has expired, no subsequent acknowledgment or payment can revive it.

A lender that still pursues the borrower is not necessarily acting unlawfully or illegally, but the OFT has said that where there has been no regular contact from a lender, the borrower states that the debt is statute barred and that s/he will not therefore pay, any further contact may be harassment. It will depend then on the nature of the further contact.

It would almost certainly be harassmant for a lender to say that a statute barred debt could be enforced through the courts.

The OFT are going to publish some debt collection guidelines which should deal with the issue. They are due any time now.

It seems that it is not clear from Steve's posting whether the 12 years is up - it depends on when time started running which, as you know, depends on the history of default and the terms and conditions of the mortgage. It is also possible that one or more of the letters written to the lender could have amounted to an acknowledgment - it depends on what he said."

Steve, it also depends on whether an MJO was issued, if it was, then in theory, they can pursue indefinitely, although I have never heard of a single case where this has happened,yet. Furthermore, if more than 6 years have passed since its original issue the lender would need to go back to court to get leave to enforce, they may not find this easy if a long time has passed I understand.

Hope this clarifies things for you.

Mark.

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