ACI chasing for a statute barred payment from 2004

[Iano1970]

I've recently had letters from a company called ACI threatening a debt collector to visit my home regards a catalogue company I allegedly owe money to from 2004 for £285.
It was a ccj debt but never acknowledged since 2005.
Ive sent them the template letter saying that it's statute barred and don't acknowledge the debt and to provide evidence.
Today, I've had a reply saying it was assigned to perch capital who instructed ACI to manage the debt.
Although the account is statute barred we are unable to litigate, the balance is still outstanding and collectable.
Unfortunately we are unable to provide the original credit agreement, please contact capquest.
Basically, if they are unable to agree a resolution or I don't engage with them the best course of action will be to instruct a company called verify who will visit me.
They've given me 7 days?

I've not had anything on my credit file for 15 years maybe or more?
What's my next move? Any help much appreciated.

[PallasAthena]

I'm confused because you say "It was a ccj debt but never acknowledged since 2005" but the rest of the post is about it being statute barred, which can't happen to a CCJ judgement debt. So have you ever been taken to court and had a County Court Judgement issued against you? If not it isn't a CCJ debt.

If it's not a CCJ debt it seems it is statute barred, and ACI appear to acknowledge that.

What template did you use for the SB letter? It doesn't sound like it was ours as we don't suggest that ask for the original credit agreement or any other documents. Not necessary. Just to tell them you aren't paying or acknowledging the debt and they mustn't contact you. Statute Barred Debt Letter - LegalBeagles Forum

BTW ACI and Verify are both part of the Perch Group. Essentially they are just passing your file around different departments of the same organisation. I've no idea what Verify do but their website description of their business should win an award for its impenetrable b*llsh*t. Services - Verify (verify-connect.co.uk)

Verify seem to specialise in tracing people but ACI know where you are, don't they? Did they write to you at your current address, and you replied to them from there?

[Iano1970]

Sorry, I may be confused in what I've done and said here.
I allegedly had a debt from about 2005 which was a ccj for £285 and have never heard from anyone until now recently to ask for payment in full.
I wrote a template letter presuming it was statute barred asking not to contact me, and not acknowledging the debt.

Is it not statute barred then as I've not had anyone chase me for payment since the ccj was issued in 2005?

Sorry for the confusion.

[PallasAthena]

If a CCJ was issued against you then statute barring does not apply.

The issue is a different one. A creditor cannot enforce a CCJ against you if it was issued more than 6 years ago without going back to court and getting the permission of a judge. They would have to show why they did not enforce it earlier, and unless they have good reason why it wasn't enforced they are unlikely to get permission to enforce it now if they have done nothing about enforcing it for nearly 20 years.

Nor can they go back to court and bring a new claim for the same debt.

Perch/ACI/Verify are just chancers. They've bought your debt from someone, as part of big portfolio of very old debts, and paid virtually nothing for it, pennies in the £. Then they start sending out letters to try to frighten people into paying something. They know full well they are unenforceable. But they only need a couple of people to be sufficently unnerved that they cough up some cash for Perch to have got back what they paid for the portfolio. After that every debtor they can harass any money out of is just profit for them.

I would be inclined just to ignore them. They can't enforce so they can't send bailiffs round. They could send one of their debt collectors aka 'field agents' round but you probably know that they have zero powers and can't do anything. You don't have to speak to them or engage with them in any way at all, just tell them to leave your property.

Just make sure they have your current address so they can't do any sneaky back-door stuff.

If you really feel like engaging in letter tennis with them ask them for a copy of the CCJ. I bet they haven't got it! No point in debating the original debt, that's ancient history now.

[Iano1970]

Thank you so much. I'll just ignore them then. That's a relief as I'm going for a mortgage and my Mrs is panicking. Cheers

[PallasAthena]

The CCJ disappeared from your credit records and from the official court lists long ago, they went after 6 years. So there should be no public record of it. No public record = mortgage lenders have no way of knowing it ever existed.

For peace of mind if about to apply for a mortgage check your(*) credit reference agency records to make sure there are no surprises there (either this debt or anything else). Search all the CRAs, plenty of instructions online if you are not familiar with the procedure. It's free but you have to jump through proof of ID hoops.

The official court records of CCJs etc can be searched here but there is a £10 fee for doing it. Home (trustonline.org.uk)

(*) and your wife should check hers too if a joint mortgage application!

[Iano1970]

So the latest on this is I had someone knock on my door yesterday and post a letter by hand to say that they had visited and to contact them. Quite threatening. Unfortunately I've taken the letter out with me earlier and have left it in the gym I think.
Any ideas what I should do next. Thanks for any advice.

[PallasAthena]

If you can recover the letter please post it up on here (after covering up all personal information that could ID you including the sender's reference numbers). Otherwise summarise it as best you can remember.

Who was the letter from?