Please can you tell me when the six year rule begins, is it from the repo date or sale date. And are the people from EVERSHEDS allowed to be so aggressive?

In September 2000 EVERSHEDs on behalf of ABBEY NATIONAL wrote to me chasing a shortfall of £23,000. The property in question was repossessed in May 1994 and sold in December 1994(for a ridiculously low price). I wrote to EVERSHEDS in October and said that basically they were to late and the six year rule now applies. They wrote back to me and said that the six year rule begins from the date the property was sold. DAMN IT!! I said to myself. But I am still unsure especially as the tactics of these people are very aggessive and dirty, and I dont feel I can take their word for it.

Last week I had a phone call from EVERSHEDS, they wanted the return of the income and expenditure form they sent me by the end of the week. The person I spoke to was extremely aggressive and rude, I was asked personnel questions such as "was I working", "how many children I have" "did I have any other debts" I refused to answer the questions. I was also told that the income and expenditure form needed to been returned by the end of the week or ELSE. I was totally shocked and upset after this conversation. Are these awfull people allowed to due this??

-- zena ecott (zena.ecott@ntlworld.com), December 17, 2000

Answers

They are allowed to be aggressive, but you can help turn their aggressiveness against them by asking them questions as outlined on this site.

In my opinion you should get a tape recorder and tape your calls. There's a commonly held belief that you are not allowed to do this. This is nonsense - just do it. There are many ways you can use this information but your main objective should be to stress that you want Eversheds to put their issues/questions/whatever in writing to you in a letter. You want to get Eversheds' obstructiveness to your reqeusts for proof visible, in writing, in order to help them screw up their client's ability to successfully sue you (see the Do's and Don'ts section of this site for more information about why their refusal to supply proof screws up their own case). If you can't get it in writing, try to get it on tape. You may or may not be able to use the tape in court if they ever sue you but you will probably be able to use it to scare the shit out of them and you can pass the tape to me and I will use it to help damage their client.

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@bigfoot.com), December 17, 2000.

By taping any conversations you can then refer to the content thereof in general terms in any 'Statement of Truth' (formerly an affidavit'), and the repeated denial of the full disclosure of the documented facts and information, (quite legitimately requested by you), from the lender and their solicitors, or whomsoever uis acting for them, now of course in complete contravention of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) which actively encourages the provision of information by the parties.

Hence 'if' they have a claim, prove it - up front! Stand your ground.

With best wishes, Vic

-- Vic Harper (victorcharper@aol.com), December 18, 2000.

I'm not quite sure which '6 year rule' you are referring to here, but in so far as Eversheds told you 'the *6* year rule' started from the date of sale of the property, I am quite sure they were not referring to the Statutory Limitation Period for beginning proceedings for collction of a debt, since they would never concede that this is 6 years but rather 12 years.

I assume therefore that you may have been discussing the announcement last year by CML members that they would refrain from pursuing borrowers 'after 6 years' ' unless they had already begun proceedings against them'. You should bear in mind that this was (doubtless intentionally) very ambiguously worded & in any case purely voluntary, so that when the 6 years started was up to the lender to decide.

With regard to the Statutory Period of Limitation within which Proceedings must begin, it is seriously arguable that this begins from the time the debt 'becomes due' or was 'last acknowledged' by the borrower. In Mortgage cases the former is normally defined in the original Mortgage Deed, & typically is the date of first default of the Mortgage by the borrower.

The latter includes making any payment whatsoever towards the mortgage - if you pay nothing for 6 months then send your lender a tenner, you thereby acknowledge the debt just as if you wrote them a letter or sent them a completed I&E form.

I don't know if that is helpful, but in any case any correspondence with Eversheds should be in writing only, preferably via a 3rd party such as a solicitor. I suggest you change your phone number & make sure you're ex-directory.

regds

Everschitz

-- F U Everschitz (everschitz@hotmail.com), January 11, 2001.