Cabot added court fees to "discontinued" debt

[Mrs B]

Hi
I would value your opinions on an issue I have with Cabot.
Briefly, my Aqua Card debt (last payment Feb 2011) was passed to them in 2013. In Oct 2015 they started court action against me via Weightmans. The balance at the time was £1657.05 and court/legal rep fees took this up to £1842.05.
Thanks to information available on this fantastic site I was able to submit a defence (basically no CCA) and the case was discontinued 3 days before the court date of April 2016.
Roll on to Oct 2017 and suddenly the phone calls and letters start again. Letter states that although they are no longer pursuing legal action against me, they require my proposal to repay £1842.05. (I appreciate that although the debt is unenforceable, they are still able to chase) What I wanted to check was:
(a) As the court case was discontinued by Weightmans, does that mean the statute barred clock was not reset? As my last payment was Feb 2011 I am certain this is now statute barred - and:
(b) Am I correct in thinking that they shouldn't have added the court fees to my debt - and - if so, is there any mileage in me raising this with Cabot?
Thanks in advance.

[Amethyst]

Re: Cabot added court fees to "discontinued" debt

The Statute Barred clock continued ticking as if it had never stopped - so your cause of action date is still Feb 2011 ( and it would now be statute barred )

And no they can't add the court fees on - irrelevant really as you are stating the debt is statute barred, and it should no longer appear on your credit file, although it may still just be on there if it didn't default for a few months after your last payment - so may be worth checking that they haven't increased the amount being reported in the same way.

I'd check that and then consider writing to them to tell them a) they've already discontinued at court b) it's stat barred and c) the amount is incorrect ref court fees - and also tell them to stop writing and calling you about the debt as per FCA CONC 7.15

CONC 7.15.8 R 01/04/2014

A firm must not continue to demand payment from a customer after the customer has stated that he will not be paying the debt because it is statute barred.

[Mrs B]

Re: Cabot added court fees to "discontinued" debt

Gosh Amethyst, thank you for such a full and quick response! I will enjoy taking that back to Cabot.
Thanks again.