Debt collection has rules. Make them follow every one. Speak to Kestrel.
A demand is not proof. You are entitled to make any collector show the debt exists, is yours, is correctly calculated and is within the six-year limitation; old debts with no payment or written acknowledgement in six years are usually statute-barred. If the debt is real, structured options beat panic: plans, breathing space and challenge of added charges. If a court claim arrives, the deadlines are short and everything changes: respond, always.
Ask in writing and a collector must substantiate: the agreement, the assignments if the debt was sold, and the account statement. Regulated credit debts carry documentary duties, and enforcement can be barred while paperwork is missing. Debts with no payment or written acknowledgement for six years are generally statute-barred: chaseable in tone, unenforceable in court, and a part-payment restarts the clock, which is why old-debt collectors ask for a small gesture.
Collection conduct is regulated: excessive contact, threats, calls at work and public embarrassment cross into harassment and unfair practice, complainable to the firm and then the Financial Ombudsman for regulated debts. Bailiffs cannot appear out of thin air: for consumer credit, court judgment comes first, and even then enforcement agents operate under strict rules on entry and goods.
If a claim form arrives, the timetable rules everything: acknowledge and respond in time, admit what is true, defend what is not, and challenge inflated fees and interest. Default judgments entered because a claim went to an old address can often be set aside. The statutory breathing space scheme freezes most enforcement and contact for sixty days while advice is taken, and courts routinely order affordable instalments on judgments.
Guide edition: August 2026. General information for England and Wales. Current law and your particular facts require assessment before action.
A written request for the agreement, the assignment chain and the statement of account. Collection often pauses, and sometimes ends, right here.
Last payment date against the six-year rule, and every added fee and interest line against the agreement.
Statute-barred or unproven: a firm letter. Real and unaffordable: breathing space, a budget-based plan. Real and disputed: challenge in writing before it becomes a claim.
Never let a claim default. Acknowledgment buys time, a defence or admission on your terms follows, and set-aside exists for judgments you never saw.
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Speak to Kestrel nowSix years for most consumer debts, twelve for mortgage shortfalls. Court claims give roughly fourteen days to respond, extendable by acknowledgment. Breathing space lasts sixty days. Every one of these dates does work for you if you move first.
This guide concerns Civil disputes. It forms part of our reference library. Kestrel is preparing for SRA authorisation. See practice details for the proposed service and current availability.
If nothing was paid and nothing acknowledged in writing for six years, it is very likely statute-barred: they may ask, courts will not enforce. Do not pay a token pound, which restarts the clock; respond with the statute-barred position in writing.
Dispute it in writing and require the assignment and identity evidence. Fraud and mistaken-identity chains collapse under documentation demands, and credit file errors can be disputed with the agencies in parallel.
For consumer debts, enforcement agents follow judgment, not letters. The threat is theatre until a court order exists. If a real judgment exists that you never knew about, set-aside is the route, quickly.
A budget-based offer, the sixty-day breathing space while advice is taken, and instalment orders on any judgment: the law is structurally sympathetic to honest payers. What it does not forgive is silence.
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