Check if you have to pay a debt

This advice applies to England. See advice for See advice for Northern Ireland, See advice for Scotland, See advice for Wales

You’ll be responsible for a debt if it’s something that the law says you have to pay, like council tax or water charges.

You’ll also probably have to pay a debt if you’ve signed a contract to say you agree to give money to someone. This could be something like a:

credit agreement, for example if you’ve bought a washing machine or taken out a credit card
tenancy agreement, if you rent

If you’re responsible for a debt it’s called ‘being liable’. It means you’ll have a legal duty to pay it. If you’re not liable you should be able to challenge the creditor. A creditor is any person or organisation you owe money to.

Debts you’re not responsible for

You might not have to pay a debt if:

it’s been six years or more since you made a payment or were in contact with the creditor
there was a problem when you signed the agreement, for example if you were pressured into signing it or the agreement wasn’t clear
the creditor didn’t check properly that you could afford the repayments when you signed the agreement

If you were an additional cardholder

If you were an authorised additional cardholder on someone else’s credit card account, for example a spouse or partner, the credit card company can't ask you to repay any debts on the card. These are always the responsibility of the main cardholder.

Debt if you're under 18

If you’re under 18 you can only be responsible for a debt if it’s for something you need day-to-day. This could include a mobile phone contract, clothes or food. If you’re under 18 and not sure if you’re liable for a debt, contact your nearest Citizens Advice.

Check if your debt is covered by Payment Protection Insurance

If you have a mortgage, loan or credit debt, you might have Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). If you do, the insurance company might cover your debt repayments if you fall ill, become unemployed or have an accident. Check your credit agreement or mortgage documents to see if you have PPI.

PPI will only cover your payments for a fixed amount of time. Your PPI policy will tell you what you’re covered for and how and when you should make a claim.

If you think you should be covered by PPI but the insurance company says you’re not, check if you can complain about mis-sold PPI.

Check if the time limit on a debt has passed

For most debts, if you’re liable your creditor has to take action against you within a certain time limit. Taking action means they send you court papers telling you they’re going to take you to court.

The time limit is sometimes called the limitation period.

For most debts, the time limit is 6 years since you last wrote to them or made a payment.

The time limit is longer for mortgage debts. If your home is repossessed and you still owe money on your mortgage, the time limit is 6 years for the interest on the mortgage and 12 years on the main amount.

If you’ve already been given a court order for a debt

There’s no time limit for the creditor to enforce the order.

If the court order was made more than 6 years ago, the creditor has to get court permission before they can use bailiffs.

If you’re in a breathing space when the time limit ends

While you’re in the Breathing Space scheme, your creditors can’t contact you or try to make you pay.

The time limit for your creditor to take action against you is automatically extended. It will end 8 weeks after your breathing space period ends.

After the time limit has passed, the debt might be ‘statute barred’ – this means you don’t have to pay it.

Your debt could be statute barred if, during the time limit:

you (or if it’s a joint debt, anyone you owe the money with), haven’t made any payments towards the debt
you, or someone representing you, haven’t written to the creditor saying the debt’s yours
the creditor hasn’t gone to court for the debt

Check the date that you last made a payment to find out if your debt is within the time limit.

If you know your debt is still well within the time limit and isn’t statute barred, you should make sure you've collected information about all of your debts.

If your debt is outside of the time limit and statute barred, you should use this as a defence if you have to go to court. If you don’t defend your case the court will make a judgement. A judgement will stay on your credit file for 6 years and might make it harder for you to get credit.

You can find out more about what to do if you're being taken to court for debt.

Contacting your creditors

If you need to check the details of a debt, you can phone your creditor. It’s important you don’t contact a creditor in writing if you think the debt might be statute barred. This includes sending a text or an email, or talking to them on online chat.

Writing to them could make it look like you’re agreeing you owe the money. This might reset the time limit - this means it will be another 6 years before the debt is statute barred.

If you’re not sure if your debt is statute barred, or you think your debt will soon be statute barred, contact your nearest Citizens Advice.

If you haven’t reached the time limit yet, making a payment to your creditor will always reset the time limit. Even if it’s just a small payment, or if someone else makes a payment on your behalf.

If your debt is in joint names

Check if the other person has admitted in writing that the debt is theirs and when they last made a payment.

The 6 year time limit is reset just for that person if one of you writes to the creditor. The time limit is reset for both of you if one of you makes a payment.

If the time limit has passed and your creditors are still contacting you

If you know your debt is statute barred, you can write to the creditor to stop them contacting you about it. Include a statement saying, ‘I don’t admit any liability for your claim’. Don’t say that you’re not sure what you owe, or that you think the amount is wrong.

You can use National Debtline’s sample letter to write to your creditor.

Ask the Post Office for free proof of postage - you might need to show when you sent the letter to your creditor.

You could also send the letter by recorded delivery - you’ll have to pay if you do this.

If your creditor still argues that the debt isn’t statute barred, they’ll have to go to court to prove it. If your creditor sends you court papers for a debt you think is statute barred, you should get help from your nearest Citizens Advice.

If a creditor keeps contacting you about a statute barred debt after you’ve sent them the letter, you can complain to the creditor. If you’re not satisfied with their response, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman.

Financial Ombudsman Service

Telephone: 0800 023 4567

Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm

Saturday, 9am to 1pm

Calls are free from mobiles and landlines.

If you're sent court papers

If your creditor wants to start court action against you, you’ll get court papers in the post. It’s important you respond by the deadline written on the court papers.

If you get court papers for a debt you think is statute barred, you need to explain this when you fill out the papers. Get help from your nearest Citizens Advice.

If you’re sent a court order

If a creditor has taken court action against you, you’ll get a court order in the post. Once you have a court order, it’s too late to claim the debt is statute barred.

If you think the debt was already statute barred when the creditor applied for the court order, you might be able to get the court order changed.

The court order will tell you to pay the money back to the creditor, and explain how you have to pay. It might tell you to pay the whole amount straight away, or in monthly instalments. It’s important you keep to the terms of the order. If you can’t afford what the court has ordered you to pay, you might be able to get the court order changed.

Checking and challenging debts

It’s important to check if you’re liable for a debt so you know if you should make arrangements to pay it back. How you check depends on what type of debt it is.

If you don’t think you’re liable for a debt, you might be able to challenge it.

If you have council tax arrears

If you’re liable for a council tax bill and you’ve missed a payment it’s important you contact your local authority as soon as possible. Get more help with dealing with council tax arrears.

You’ll usually have to pay the council tax for the property you live in. It’s worth checking if the owner of the property is liable to pay, even if they don’t live there. For example, the owner will be liable if everyone living in the house is:

living in their own, separate parts of the building
there temporarily, for example in some hostels
an asylum seeker

If you live with other people, for example another tenant or a partner, you’ll usually be jointly liable for paying the council tax and any arrears.

If you're jointly liable, each person is responsible for the whole bill, not just part of it. This means if someone moves out without paying, you’ll still be liable for all of the bill. The council can ask any of the liable people to pay the full amount of the bill.

Challenging council tax arrears

You might be able to challenge a council tax bill if you:

don’t think you're liable for it
think the property is permanently exempt from council tax, for example if it’s a student halls of residence or armed forces accommodation
think the property is temporarily exempt, for example if it’s been left empty because it’s been repossessed, or someone has died or is in hospital

Find out more about who has to pay council tax and council tax exemptions.

If you think you need to challenge a council tax bill you should contact your local council. You can check who your local council is on GOV.UK if you need to.

If you’re not sure if you’re liable for a council tax bill, contact your nearest Citizens Advice.

If you have rent arrears

If you signed a tenancy agreement you'll be responsible for any rent arrears.

If you don’t have a tenancy agreement, you might have agreed with your landlord who was liable when you moved in. Check if you have any evidence of what was agreed - this could include emails, letters, text messages or records of payments in a rent book.

If you have rent arrears you should talk to your landlord as soon as possible. Pay what you can and ask for more time to pay the rent back. Your landlord could evict you if you don’t. Get more help with dealing with rent arrears.

If you challenge your rent arrears

Depending on your tenancy, there’s a risk your landlord could try to evict you if you challenge your rent arrears. You’ll usually get a section 8 or section 21 notice if your landlord wants to evict you.

Check what to do if you get a section 8 notice.

Check what to do if you get a section 21 notice.

If you don’t think you’re liable for rent arrears and want to challenge your landlord, you should contact your nearest Citizens Advice.

If you signed a joint tenancy agreement, everyone who signed will be jointly liable for any rent arrears. If one person leaves without paying their rent, the landlord can hold the other tenants responsible for paying their rent arrears.

If you’re a guarantor

If you agreed to be a guarantor for someone and they don’t pay their rent, their landlord can ask you to pay.

If you agreed to be a guarantor for someone who is jointly liable for rent with other people, you could also be liable for the other tenants’ rent if they don’t pay it.

If you’re a guarantor you should have a signed, written guarantee agreement that explains when you might be liable. You should also have been given a copy of the tenancy agreement.

If you haven't paid your gas or electricity bills

If you signed the contract with the gas or electricity company or requested the supply, you'll usually be responsible for paying the energy bill.

If you’re not sure, find out if you’re responsible for paying an energy bill.

To make sure you’re not being asked to pay too much, it’s worth checking that your bill is right.

If you haven’t had a bill recently

If you haven’t received a bill for over a year, you might not have to pay for all the energy you’ve used. Get help if you haven’t received an energy bill for a while.

If you haven't paid your water bill

You’ll be responsible for the water bill where you live. Everyone who lives with you will be jointly liable, even if their name isn’t on the bill.

Your water won’t be disconnected if you don’t pay your bill unless you run a business at the property. Check what can happen if you don’t pay your water bill.

If you’re struggling to pay you can get help with paying your water bills.

Paying water bills if you’re renting

You might pay for water as part of your rent. Check your tenancy agreement if you’re not sure.

If you don’t have a tenancy agreement, check if you have any evidence of what was agreed when you moved in. This could include emails, letters or text messages.

If water is included, there are rules to make sure you don’t pay too much for your water. Find out more about paying your water bill if you’re a tenant.

If you’re moving out

Make sure you tell your water company if you’re moving out. If you give 2 or more working days’ notice before you move, you’ll be liable until the date you move out.

If you don’t give 2 days’ notice, you’ll be liable until the earliest date out of:

the 28th day after you told them you were moving
when a new occupier tells the water company they’ve moved in
the date the meter would normally be read or is read (if there is a meter)

Read more about moving home and water bills.

Challenging a water bill

If you think your bill is wrong, you should contact your water company and explain why you think it’s wrong. You should be able to find their contact details on your bill.

If you’re not happy with your water company’s response, you can complain about your water company.

If you think you’re not liable for a water bill, or if your bill is too high, check:

when you moved into and out of the property, if the bill is for somewhere you used to live
if and when you told your water company you were moving, if the bill is for somewhere you used to live
for any leaks, inside your property or outside, if you have a water meter

If you've been contacted about a benefit or tax credit overpayment

You might have been told you’ve been overpaid because of a mistake, or because some information about you was wrong when the benefit decision was made.

Find out what to do if you’ve been told:

If you have mortgage arrears

If you signed the mortgage agreement you'll be liable for any mortgage arrears. If you signed the agreement with someone else you'll be jointly liable for any arrears.

If you know you’re going to miss a mortgage payment, you should talk to your mortgage company as soon as possible. You could lose your home if you miss mortgage repayments.

If you contact your mortgage company they might let you reduce your repayments or take a break from payments for a while. Speak to them as soon as you can to start dealing with mortgage arrears.

If your property was repossessed and you still have mortgage arrears

Check the date the property was sold, and the date you last made a payment to the mortgage company.

Your mortgage company has to contact you within 6 years of the house being sold to ask you to repay any arrears. If they don’t, you might not have to pay. If you’ve been contacted about mortgage arrears from a property sold more than 6 years ago, you should contact your nearest Citizens Advice.

If you’ve been contacted about mortgage arrears from a property sold in the last 6 years, it will usually be because you owe money on the main sum of the mortgage (the capital).

Talk to the mortgage lender to arrange to pay the arrears. If you don’t, they have 12 years from the date you missed a payment to take you to court.

If they contact you about interest you owe and you don’t arrange to pay, they only have 6 years to take you to court.

If they don’t take action within the time limit, your mortgage company can’t take you to court to pay the money back.

If you have a credit debt

If you signed a credit agreement you'll usually be responsible for paying back the credit debt. You’re not responsible for a debt if you’re not mentioned on the credit agreement or you didn’t sign the agreement. For example, you might be an authorised additional cardholder on a credit card but because you aren’t the main cardholder and didn’t sign the credit agreement, you’re not responsible for the debt.

Credit debt, or ‘borrowed money’, includes:

credit cards
bank loans and payday loans
overdrafts
store cards
goods bought on hire purchase

If you borrow money or goods this way, the law that protects your rights is called the Consumer Credit Act.

If a creditor hasn’t contacted you about a credit debt within the 6 year time limit they can’t force you to pay it back. They also can’t force you to pay if there were problems with the original agreement, for example if they didn’t include the right information about how the money would be paid back.

If you’re a guarantor for someone else

If you agreed to be a guarantor for someone else and they don’t make the payments, the creditor can ask you to make the payments.

If you’re a guarantor you should have a signed guarantee agreement that explains when you might be liable.

If you borrowed goods on hire purchase

If you’ve bought something on a hire purchase agreement, for example a car or a washing machine, you don’t own it until you’ve paid for it in full. If you fall behind with your payments the lender might be able to take back the goods.

You have the right to end the hire purchase agreement at any time, for example if you can no longer afford the payments. If you want to end the agreement early you should do this in writing. You can use our sample letter.

If you end the agreement early you’ll be liable for half the amount you agreed to pay for the goods. The lender will take off the amount you’ve already paid them, but might add on extra costs for ending the agreement.

If your lender says you have to pay more than half the whole amount you owe before you can end the agreement, you should contact your nearest Citizens Advice.

If you’re struggling to pay, it’s better to end the agreement yourself. If your lender ends the agreement you might have to pay extra costs. Whoever ends the agreement, you’ll have to give back the goods.

If you borrowed money with someone else

If you signed a credit agreement with someone else, you'll be jointly responsible for paying back the debt. If the other person stops paying, the creditor can make you pay the full amount of the debt, not just your share.

Challenging credit debts

There are laws to protect you when you borrow money. The creditor might not be able to take action to make you pay if:

they didn’t give you a written agreement saying how much you were borrowing, how it should be repaid and your rights to cancel it
they didn’t check properly that you could afford the repayments
they treated you unfairly, for example they sold you PPI when they shouldn’t have
they didn’t send you regular updates about your account and the amount you owe them
you didn’t borrow the money
you were pressured into signing the credit agreement or guarantor agreement
you couldn’t understand what you were signing
you were under 18 when you signed the agreement

Get help if you’re not liable for a credit debt

In these situations the debt might be ‘unenforceable’. This means the creditor might not be able to make you pay the debt.

Get help from your nearest Citizens Advice if you think a credit debt might be unenforceable.

You should also get help if a creditor keeps contacting you about a debt you think you’re not responsible for.

If you’re not happy with how your creditor is dealing with your situation, you should contact them to complain. If you’re not satisfied with their response, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman: