Questions about statute of limitations

hiya cdollar--

welcome to the forum!

OK, the SOL can only be legally restarted by you making a payment on the account. Asking for validation cannot legally restart the clock. I am guessing that you are looking at your credit report when you say they are reporting it from 2005--still, I would clarify that with them just to make sure that they arent illegally reaging it.

You are correct in that the SOL woudl have expired in December 2007. I would contact the OC and see if they can provide you with documentation that shows the last activity on this account.

According to my credit reports, the original account was closed by the company in Feb of 2003 and the CA is scheduled to be removed in Sept of 2009.

ok, date of last activity is what affects the SOL. Keep this in mind--the date of removal on your credit report has nothing to do with SOL on the debt. Debts are allowed by federal law to remain on your credit report for a maximum of 7 years....thats what that number is about. But you are looking for the date of last activity---the date of the last payment you sent them, or the date it was charged off, whichever one is most recent. If you made a payment at the end of 2002 and they are showing the last activity as 2/2003 then by the end of this month the SOL will have expired for this debt. Also, keep this in mind--when the SOL is past, they can still try to collect the debt and you still legally owe it(if it is legitimately yours, that is). The only thing the SOL does for you is that they are not able to sue you after the SOL expires. Well, let me be more specific there--they can still sue you, but if they do you need to state expired SOL as your affirmative defense. If you do that and the SOL is really expired then they cannot proceed and the court will throw out their lawsuit against you. But you must bring it up as your affirmative defense--the court will not automatically do it for you.

If the SOL is expired, you can then send them a cease and desist letter. That letter requires them to stop all contact with you about this debt. If they continue to call you after they get it, then you can turn around and sue them for violating the fdcpa....

The reason I am wondering is because I am trying to buy a home sometime late next year. When I went in to try to get a loan, the lender indicated this balance and said that it was old and falling off pretty soon. I don't mind paying what I legally owe but I also don't want to open something up that has been dormant. They haven't contacted me about it in a long time--maybe two years--and I assumed it would be better to let it get close to expiring than to reage it by makin a payment.