My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Maryland, New York, or Rhode Island
My parents who currently reside in MD are legally responsible for a large, defaulted private loan that was originally in my ex-wife's name many years ago when we lived in Rhode Island. In the early 2000's, when we were married, we borrowed quite a bit of money when she was in school and I was temporarily unemployed. My parents cosigned since my credit had deteriorated. When we divorced, we mutually agreed that I would take responsibility for the majority of loans, so I contacted the loan servicer and requested that my ex-wife's name be removed from most of the loans, thus leaving my parents as the primary responsible party. Various loans were then consolidated into one single loan of over $100,000.
Over the years, I made hefty payments until around 4-5 years ago when my job situation became unstable and I decided to relocate to NY State. We had fallen so far behind, the loan eventually went into default 3 years ago. Per permission from my parents, I was their representative and handled all communications with the loan servicer as we tried to make payment arrangements before the loan officially defaulted. Since the default 3 years ago, interestingly enough, no one has contacted us regarding this loan either by phone or mail. I was waiting for a collections agency to contact me so I could try to work out an arrangement.
But as one year went by then another, I was told by an attorney friend of mine (who is not a debt attorney), that we might as well wait to see if the Statutes of Limitations would come into play, and then at least we couldn't be sued. Of course the debt still remains, but interestingly enough, it hasn't affected my parents' credit yet. It shows up on my mother's credit report as a "charge-off, sent for collections" with $0 value shown. I have several questions that I hope that you might be able to help answer. Here are my questions:
1) Which state's SOL would apply in this situation? My parents moved to MD around 6 years ago from RI, so the loan defaulted while they lived in MD. I have read conflicting statements about which state's statutes applies. Some people say that the state's statutes in which the responsible party currently resides would apply - if so, isn't MD's SOL 3 years? I've also read that the SOL in the state where the loan contract was made would apply, in this case RI where the SOL is 10 years. Also, maybe worth mentioning as I stated above, I became their representative and all correspondences were to me in NY State. The loan servicer also used my NY address as the official address on file.
2) Why hasn't anyone contacted us? Since I was the point of contact (all contact info including address and phone numbers for the loan was my NY home), I expected that I would be contacted first. If the collection agency looked into my parents' credit reports, it shows that they currently reside in MD but no one has contacted them either.
3) Why aren't my parents' credit affected by this default? As I stated above, it is listed as a charge-off and $0. Their credit scores are good.
Thanks in advance.

