Hmm... I need to find out myself. I don't know what is the answer to your question. I'll do some research and get back to you if I got an anything. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably can answer it..

Bill told you right about the SOL's. Just because it has passed your state's SOL doesn't mean it is "no longer legal" as you put it. They can't sue you in court any more is all it is. It is still a LEGAL debt foreverand they can try to collect by other means. And yes, they can pull inq's on you after the SOL and even after the FCRA 7 years. Just because they can't or don't report a debt to the CRA's I see as no reason to prohibit them from doing inq's..

0..

I understand that "SOL expired" is an affirmative defense. The way I understand it, you have to raise that as an argument in court. So, a creditor could sue you for the debt, but if you don't bring up that as a defense, they could conceivably be awarded a judgment?.

Would someone please explain this?..

That is what I have been led to believe...

Jlynn,.

Yep they sure can. The Judges won't do that for you. You have to claim that defense in your answer. I know first hand :(...

A SOL defense is NOT an "absolute" defense, as would be something like proof of payment,or proof that it is not your debt..

The reason is that the SOL may be "tolled" that is the time period put into suspension for various reasons, depending on your State's laws..

So when you raise the SOL defense you must also be able to counter any claims from the plaintiff that any portion of the time was tolled..

That is why it is not "automatic"..

Bill told you right about the SOL's. Just because it has passed your state's SOL doesn't mean it is "no longer legal" as you put it. They can't sue you in court any more is all it is..

1* It is still a LEGAL debt forever and they can try to collect by other means..

2*And yes, they can pull inq's on you after the SOL and even after the FCRA 7 years..

3*Just because they can't or don't report a debt to the CRA's I see as no reason to prohibit them from doing inq's..

Zerodown.

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1*A debt that can not be legally collected isn't legal.

2*in other words they can harass you forever and there is no escape.

3*So they can do this with out regards to the fact they legally you don't have to ever pay them..

The END ************************* LB 59..

Now that could be scary! I'm sure a lot of people will be wondering - so I'll ask; what kinds of things could toll an SOL? I'm wondering about RMA's putting "unable to locate consumer" on everyones' collection items..

0..

Bump - come on Why Chat, don't leave us hangin'..

OK, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV :).

But I would think if they put "unable to locate consumer" on everyone's report they'd soon be in trouble. For example, I've lived at the same address for almost 20 years. So how could they locate me? I would think that if I went to court and showed proof that I've lived at the same address the entire time, they couldn't toll the SOL. Even if they found another address on my CR (there is one, but it's wrong), they would still have to prove that they tried to contact me at ALL my addresses. At least that's my thought..

Any lawyers out there with some insight?..

In general, if your State provides alternate service (and all do) by publication, or by mail to he last known address, or by pasting it on the door of your last known ddress(2 States I have found so far allow this), then there can be NO tolling for being unavailable due to moving..

The most common LEGAL tolling situtions are, active military service (due to the Soldiers and Sailors Act), mental,or physical incompetancy,(confined to a mental institution or in an intensive care unit), incarcerated for a felony conviction, (some States exclude this from tolling) a filed BK, that has been dismissed, and a few others I can't think of right now..

Unless someone has fraudulently evaded service by changing their name and ss#, or is in a witness protection program, just moving around and being unavailable or unlocatable is NOT grounds for tolling...

Thanks for the clarification. It only made sense to me that they couldn't do that, I just didn't know why. But I knew there was a wealth of information out there!..