Question:

Debt collection: any recourse? please help!?

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I have an elderly family member who was recently found to have dementia (doctor diagnosed in July). Recently, debt collectors have obtained his bank information from him and collected sums from his account. He does not recall making such agreements, but the payments were beginning to come out around the time the memory loss started to become severe and noticeable. They claim collection accounts were active from 1994 - 2000, which would have been beyond the statute of limitation in Texas (4 years). We've asked that these payments cease. Does anyone have any advice as to how to stop future collection efforts? I'm assuming he has reactivated these accounts? He really was not competent enough to make these decisions, and the accounts are very old. He still receives frequent phone calls and letters. I appreciate any suggestions as we're not concerned about his credit report/score, but we want to ensure no more money is taken, and he is not caught on the phone while vulnerable.

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  1. Start by following Gordon's advice.

    And you are correct, once you made a payment on the account you re-activated the SOL and it starts over again.  Without discussing this with an attorney I'm not real sure what you can do.

    Possibly a lawsuit accusing them of fraud for collecting on a time barred debt?  Just not sure, this is legal stuff over my head.  Doesn't help when every state has different laws regarding this.

    For now, clean out the bank account so they can not access it again, and at the very least talk to someone about asset protection.


  2. It sounds like your family member is not able to handle his affairs.  The best thing would be to give power of attorney to  trusted member of his family so that they can manage his affairs.  This can be done volunteerly or you can get it done by court action if necessary.  

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