Old court cases.

[bemore]

My friend has a dillema.

9 years ago my friend got a court summons because he didnt pay his rent, a summons because he got caught without a tv license and a summons for none payment of council tax.

He didnt attend any of them.

Then more recently about 3 years ago hes states that he had a loan from a bank for approx �2.300 which he stopped paying and had a court summons which again he didnt attend.

Ive told him to sort it out but he seems to think that if he keeps low for long enough then they will be wiped off whatever system holds the info.

I can tell it bothers him though caus he needed the police once and he couldnt ring them for fear of getting arrested himself.

So basicly my question is is it true what he says??? About his debts getting writen off after a certain time? And what would happen if either the police or whoever caught up with him.

Thanks in advance.

[sara3]

I work for a government dept and can only tell you how we do things.

if someone doesn't turn up in court an arrest warrant is issued, with or without bail. the police (in theory) try to execute the warrant (by knocking on said persons door on a few occasions), and will arrest said person who can be held ("without bail") until an initial hearing in a court, or released ("with bail") to return to court.

if your friend is stopped by the police for anything and they run any basic checks, he will be arrested for the outstanding warrants.

in my world, if a warrant is outstanding (un-executed) for over 2 years and the offence isn't too huge, I can apply to get the warrant withdrawn.. and that's the end of the matter.

sorry, not too positive for your friend.. but that's the chance he has chosen to take!

[themas]

These are not all the same type of debt. The rent arrears and bank loan are entirely civil matters, & he could not be arrested in connection with them. However, he is wrong to say they will eventually be written off. It may be that the creditor will do this, but he can have no certainty about it. He is probably thinking of the limitation provisions, under which a creditor for a civil debt cannot take Court action to enforce the debt if 6 years have passed without payment or acknowledgment. However, this does not mean that the debt is written off - it still exists unless the creditor chooses to write it off. More importantly, this law does not apply if the creditor has obtained a Court judgement before the 6 years are up - which is what has happened to both these debts.

For Council Tax it is possible that an arrest warrant may have been issued, because imprisonment can occur for non-payment. I believe the same can happen for TV license, but am not certain. These things do not get automatically written off/cancelled after a set period but - as sara implies - it may be that they have effectively been "lost" because they were so long ago.

If he is in a position to make payments, the best thing would be for him to sort it all out.

[Verix]

Though i can't neccissarily speak for the others, his council tax summons would (probably) only be so his local goverment could obtain a liability order, allowing them to deduct monies from his wages/benefits.

Although the other debts may get wiped off they may just as well jump up and bite him i the ass in years to come.

About 20 years ago my aunt lived in London and had a small flat. She fell behind on her mortgage payments so scarpered down to Cornwall where hse felt she was safe. Unfortunatly for her the baliffs caught up with her earlier this year and she now owes them about �40,000. Luckily he's done okay for herself in Cornwall and owns two pubs so she is going to sell one off to pay her debts but it just goes to show that there is no guarantee you can get away from your debts.

[danchip]

i got a fine 4 years ago paid part of it off and forgot about the rest as did the fines dept at the court until earlier this year when i got a letter saying they had been reviewing old files and discovered my outstanding amount so i wqouldn't be confident that your friends will just go away

[chris1933]

First of all, not all "summons" are summons. I'll explain in a moment.

3 of the above are deffinately civil not criminal with the execption of the TV Licence. You're friend needs to worry about the baliffs not the police.

If, and thats a big IF, these went to court and he didn't file a defence then the claimant would have applied for a judgement by default, which they would have got.

I would imagine that all your friend recieved were "official looking" letters from debt collection agencies. These do not normally carry out their threats and take you to court!!!! If the claimant did get a judgement by default then all your friend needs to do if the bailiffs turn up is fill a N245 form out or better than that apply to the court for the judgement to be set aside NOW.

I doubt very much your friend recieved a "real summons" and if he has not acknoledged the debt for over six years then it WILL be statue barred and not enforcable.

Be careful with the council tax though, if they can prove he willfully didn't pay then this is a inprisonable offence. Note the wilfully "didn't" and not "couldn't" pay.

As for the TV, tecnically it is a criminal offence but they are not that keen, normally if he just pays what owed he will be ok or at worst most likely a �1000 fine.

Summary

Tell him to sort TV and Tax out as a priority, but dont worry about rent and loan until he hears different, and. . . the police are NOT an issue - watch out for bailiffs though.