CCJ - three years on!

Sparks09 · 13 September 2017 at 1:42PM

Hi all,

Hoping someone may be able to help. I owe Lloyds TSB roughly £1000 which was debt I got myself into in 2012. I didn't pay any back and it got sent to Cabot Financial. i agreed a payment plan with them in 2013 but they applied for a CCJ. When I received the claim, I submitted a defence admitting that I owed the money but I wasn't happy about the extra charges they'd applied, the fact that they ignored my payment plan I had agreed with them and all correspondence had previously been sent to an address that wasn't mine. I also offered a payment of £1 a month. I never heard anything back from the court so I spoke to Cabot again who refused to share any information with me. Fast forward four years and a CCJ has been put on my credit file dated May this year for this debt. Surely it can't take three years to put it on my file?

I spoke to county court business centre today and asked why it's not dated from 2013 however they asked me complete a form and send £255 to apply for court. Cabot financial have logged a complaint. I also spoke to stepchange who said that if a judgement isn't sorted within 6 months then it's expires and they'd have to apply again, which they haven't, it's just been applied to my credit report for £1 a month!

Does anyone know where I stand?

I want to pay it off but I don't want it on my credit report for six years from May!

StopIt · 13 September 2017 at 2:07PM

If a CCJ has been applied it wont be by Cabot, but by the court reporting to the CRA.

You can't just lie and say you've got a CCJ to a CRA! The advice from Stepchange seems completely wrong here.

You need to find the reference of the CCJ and get the details from the issuing court.

If you have a defence and a valid reason why you didn't defend the claim, you can apply for a Set Aside. It costs £255 and resets the claim to the start. That's what the court was talking about when you spoke to them.

Sparks09 · 13 September 2017 at 2:50PM

im confused by your response - where have I lied?

I'm accepting the CCJ but surely it should be dated from 2014 not 2017? I also don't want to lose £255 on court fee's when the inaccurate information isn't my fault.

StopIt · 13 September 2017 at 3:48PM

Sparks09 wrote: »

im confused by your response - where have I lied?

I'm accepting the CCJ but surely it should be dated from 2014 not 2017? I also don't want to lose £255 on court fee's when the inaccurate information isn't my fault.

No, I meant Cabot can't lie about putting a CCJ on your files. They can't put them on, only the courts can. I wasn't saying you were lying, sorry.

The date of the CCJ should be on your credit files, but the courts will have the date the CCJ was granted also.

It looks like they didn't proceed with the CCJ back in 2014 but re-applied and won by default in May of this year. In which case you should file for a set aside based on the previous defence and start again.

Sparks09 · 13 September 2017 at 4:31PM

Ah ok that makes sense.

The CCJ relates to the information provided in 2014. Everyone I've spoken to is confused by it.

What happens if I apply for a set aside? Will I still have the CCJ on my report?

Thanks

National_Debtline · 13 September 2017 at 6:24PM

Hi Sparks09

The credit agency will have got their information about the CCJ from the Register of Judgment, Orders and Fines. I think StopIt could be right, Cabot may have decided not to proceed with the court action in 2014 but reissued a new claim in 2017.

Unfortunately not receiving paperwork or being unhappy that a payment plan was not agreed will not be a defence that you do not owe the debt. If you think the balance of the debt is wrong you could partially defend the claim, but if the charges were added as per the terms and conditions of your credit agreement you would not be able to dispute them.

A set aside asks the court to let the court action begin again, giving you the chance to defend the claim. It costs £255 (if you’re on a low income you may not have to pay all of it) but you could incur extra costs if you are not successful. I’d certainly advise you to seek legal advice because you may not have any grounds to defend the claim that would stand up in court.

Susie
@natdebtline

boo_star · 13 September 2017 at 10:22PM

Sparks09 wrote: »

Ah ok that makes sense.

The CCJ relates to the information provided in 2014. Everyone I've spoken to is confused by it.

What happens if I apply for a set aside? Will I still have the CCJ on my report?

Thanks

Having it set aside could result in the amount owed being lowered but you're still open to them getting the CCJ again for the revised amount.

If you were hoping to have it removed from your files then that probably won't happen.

Sparks09 · 16 September 2017 at 7:59PM

Hi,

Thanks for the advice.

When I spoke to the court, they said it had been agreed at £1 per month as per my offer. This was what I'd offered in 2014. When I spoke to cabot, they said this is still the same CCJ they applied for in 2014 but it's just 'taken time' to process and apparently it isn't unusual for it to take three years.

Everyone I've spoken to so far hasn't heard of this happening before. I spoke to a couple of debt lines last week who all advised to complain to Cabot financial to find out why it has taken three years and if this is definitely the case, the CCJ date shouldn't be on my report from May 2017 as it would be classed as unfair under some kind of credit act!

I've sent a letter of complaint so i suppose it's just a waiting game now to see what they say and if it's worth applying to have it set aside!

Sophie

nic_c · 16 September 2017 at 8:25PM

Does sound highly unusual. The claims would have become stayed after six months so they would have had additional costs. You say you had done a defence, but it looks like then you did an admission with them to pay £1 per month.
You say it wasn't your address, was it an old address?
Why wouldn't cabot give you any details? Was it because you didn't answer Data Protection? Seems strange how they would accept your £1pm offer but not talk to you about it.

CCJ - three years on!

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free