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The 5th DCA just decided the Bartram case, which has now pushed the statute of limitations on a mortgage in Florida out as far as 35 years. What the case (and its precedents in 2012 and 2004) essentially say is that acceleration does allow the bank to have a judgment for the entire balance on the note if it wins, however if the bank loses, neither the doctrine of res judicata nor the five year statute of limitations are applicable to the future payments, which create a new default soon after the judgment is rendered (unless the debtor pays and the bank accepts payments). The court did certify the question of how the statute of limitations should apply to the state supreme court, which of course could restore the common-sense interpretation rather than the bank-friendly one. http://www.5dca.org/Opinions/Opin2014/042114/5D12-3823%20op.pdf

My husband has recently received a letter from Financial Recovery Services Inc. Which states that a debt from Chase Bank back in 2009 has not been paid. The current creditor is LVNV Funding which now shows on his credit report. He does not remember this debt or has never been notified since 2009 in any way that he has had this debt. I have done some research and found that we have the right to ask for debt validation, however, should I do anything? I ask this as the first bold paragraph on the letter states the following: "WE ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO GIVE YOU THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ABOUT THIS DEBT. The legal time limit (statute of limitations) for suing you to collect this debt has expired. However, if somebody sues you anyway to try to make you pay this debt, court rules REQUIRE YOU to tell the court that the statute of limitations has expired to prevent the creditor from obtaining a judgment. EVEN though the statute of limitations has expired, you may CHOOSE to make payments. However, BE AWARE: if you make a payment, the creditor's right to sue you to make you pay the entire debt may START AGAIN." It states at the bottom to respond within 30 days to either approve or deny the debt. And after that from what I understand then they can chase after my husband to pay this entire debt. My question is, if I'm understanding this correctly, if we do not respond, does this mean they cannot sue us or chase us down for this unexplained debt? If so, would it just disappear from his credit report in 7 years? Or do we start this process to defend that we do not owe this debt? Which could unveil a debt that he may have forgotten about? Any advice on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Chrissy

Written contract: 15 years, (O.R.C. §2305.06). 2305.06 Contract in writing. Amended by 129th General Assembly File No. 135, SB 224, § 1, eff. 9/28/2012. Except as provided in sections 126.301 and 1302.98 of the Revised Code, an action upon a specialty or an agreement, contract, or promise in writing shall be brought within eight years after the cause of action accrued. Section 2. That existing section 2305.06 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed. Section 3. Subject to Section 4 of this act, section 2305.06 of the Revised Code, as amended by this act, applies to actions in which the cause of action accrues on or after the effective date of this act. Section 4. For causes of action that are governed by section 2305.06 of the Revised Code and accrued prior to the effective date of this act, the period of limitations shall be eight years from the effective date of this act or the expiration of the period of limitations in effect prior to the effective date of this act, whichever occurs first. Please note - according to case law that I can find, CC's are not considered written contracts unless they have a copy of the application with your signature on it. and Ohio has a choice of law and borrowing statute also - see the case law forum. The statute of limitations for promissory notes still remains six years pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 1303.16, and four years for contracts for sales of goods under Ohio Revised Code 1302.98.

My brother, who lives in Albany NY has a couple of old charge off accounts approaching the SOL for NY state (6 years). HE showed me his credit report and it read date of first delinquency 9/2008. Most are small under $1000.00 but one from Cap One is 7K. He hasn't been contacted by any of them, but he moved a few times and hasn't worked. HE credit reports have old addresses on them. So what to do? I don't see that the big one has been assigned to any collection agency (not showing on his report). What are the chances that the SOL will pass in 2 months? Anyone have any advice?

I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere but I didn't see it in the FAQs. So I have an old account on my credit report that appears to be well past the statute of limitations (last account activity was 2005). I sent a letter seeking verification from the collection agency and they sent copies of the original contract and all activity on the account. Nothing past 2005 there either. But they seem to think that I should still pay. I can't seem to find any advice online about what to do next and I don't want to reactivate this account by negligence. Thanks in advance.

I got a call from my attorney the other day. He had great news. He said we won a motion to dismiss my foreclosure for lack of prosecution. They filed on me in March, 2008 and had not done a thing since. We also had a backup motion for lack of standing. Chase filed my foreclosure on March 28, 2008 but the assignment of my loan to Chase did not occur until June 21, 2008. One more kicker, the Florida Statute of Limitations expired on my case no later than March 28, 2013 so they cannot re-file the foreclosure even if they want to. Chase has 30 days from May 19th to appeal the dismissal but there are no grounds for an appeal. The Judge's hands were pretty much tied since there was absolutely no activity on the case and he did not make any procedural errors. He also told me that we can file for reimbursement of attorney fees since I was the prevailing party. We are going to file that motion on the 29th day so that we do not call the ticking clock on a potential appeal to anyone's attention. The questions I still have are: 1) Can I use the order from the court to get the foreclosure removed from my credit report? Does the line item get removed or will it now show a delinquent mortgage but without a foreclosure? What is the best way to do this? 2) How do I find out how long the lien will remain on my property? 3) Has anyone successfully filed and won a Quiet Title action? If so, how did you do it? 4) I have a second mortgage also with Chase that I stopped paying when they originally messed up my escrow accounts which was the basis for the whole mess. (I had a good case against them on its merits because of the way they misappropriated my escrow funds, then demanded that I re-fund the account to make up for their errors). I was not going to continue to pay payments on a second mortgage for a property that I might lose. The Date of Last Activity on my second mortgage was October, 2007. They have since sold/transferred that to a collection agency called RealTime Resolutions and they have made settlement offers and harassed me for about 5 years. Does the Statute of Limitations run from the Date of Last Activity on this account or do I need to find out if/when they accelerated that loan? How would I go about finding out the date of acceleration since it is not filed with the Clerk of Court? I would think they would have had to accelerate it to sell it to a collection agency. The second mortgage was fairly small ($25000). The value of the house is around $200K - $250K depending on how the market is doing. Can Chase turn around and foreclose on the second mortgage even though the DOLA is almost six years ago? I want to make sure I do this right. I do not want to go all this way and lose the house due to a stupid slip-up.