CCJ problem - IF

JCR1987

Hi,

I've been on before and had some good advice so i figured it's worth another go. Apologies in advance for the length of this, but I need to explain so you can get the gist of the problem.

Myself and wife have been paying via Payplan around £25k in debts for the last 3 or so years. We're now at a point where our income has increased enough to come out of payplan and settle full and final with 8 of our 10 creditors (and I highly recommend offering creditors as little as you dare and let them "see what the system will accept"), most of which were relatively small, but annoying amounts. All that remains now is a my wife's graduate account, which is manageable and a CCJ i have from Intelligent Finance for defaulting on a c/c, o/d and loan.

Now, the CCJ was ordered in July 2002 for £7,000. I have been paying this at the rate of £145 per month (for 40 months), missing only 1 payment due to a family bereavement. All but a couple of the payments were made through payplan and by my calculations i have paid off just under £6,000. This is great, or so I thought. This is where it gets complicated.

Without my knowledge, the solicitors who were initially administering the CCJ, Walker Morris solicitors, passed the CCJ back to Intelligent Finance, for what reason, I don't know. This I only found out by mistake due to the 1 missed payment. On speaking with Intelligent Finance (which I have done a lot over the last 6 months), they inform me that since the CCJ was passed back to them they have been applying charges and interest to the accounts as they are unable to amend their system until after the balance owing has been paid. They acknowledge they have been receiving the payments of £145 and have been applying it to the accounts one at a time, so the loan account has been cleared. It's now going on a pro rata basis to the other two accounts as their system wouldn't allow no payments to be made on an account.

However, last month when I tried to make the £145 payment over the phone to the 2 accounts they informed me the the credit card had been farmed out to Halifax Card Services, as have all IF credit card accounts. On phoning Halifax Card Services they told me they had no record of my account and that it may well have gone to a third party, possibly someone like Blair Oliver. So I phoned Blair Oliver and indeed, they had conduct of my account. Thanks for letting me know IF. Anyway, I called to make a payment and asked them what the remaining balance was, to which they told me £3500. As you would expect, I was stunned, as I work it out to be at most £750. Blair Oliver have been told to collect this amount, which includes the charges and interest applied by IF which were meant to be taken off once I paid my CCJ amount. They have not been told this is the case and expect £3500.

I have tried to get IF to acknowledge the amount I believe I have left to repay, even if it means them totting up every payment they have received from me, yet they refuse to confirm anything. I've asked them how they will know what and when the final amount has been paid, but to date they haven't been able to give me an answer. I've even written to them but with no reply. It's a little frustrating not being able to go into a branch and speak with someone but I suppose that's modern day banking for you.

Any advice on how to get IF to acknowledge what I owe them and whether they can make me pay the amount they say I owe them/Blair Oliver?

Thanks in advance.

mattp_3

Hiya,

So is the CCJ still active or have you defaulted? Because they are not allowed to charge interest on a CCJ?

The main issue here is that IF had a responsibility to inform you that the debt had been:

a.) moved to Halifax Card Services;
b.) passed to a third party collection agency.

So they should have sent a letter of assignment?

The best thing to do is contact the County Court from where the CCJ was issued and speak to them about it.

Sounds as though you have reasonable case to dispute all that interest!

Good Luck
Matt

JCR1987

Hi Matt,

I’m under the impression that the CCJ is still active, I’ve not defaulted on it as far as I’m aware. Every time I speak to IF they say they have no notes on their system that the accounts are subject to a CCJ, just that I’m in arrears for the amount showing. When I explain about the CCJ they say that’s fine and they’ll just credit any extra interest and charges off after the full amount has been paid. This then leads me to ask how will they know when I’ve paid enough and we just end up going round in circles.

I’m in the process of trying to get Payplan to forward me details of all the payments I have made to IF so I can send those to them as proof along with a copy of the CCJ.

The only thing about the CCJ that concerns me is that there’s a paragraph at the bottom that says:

“If judgment is for £5,000 or more, or is in respect of a debt which attracts contractual or statutory interest for late payment, the claimant may be entitled to further interest.”

My judgment was for £7,000, so will this mean IF are justified in claiming all this interest and charges?

I will be contacting the court to see what their view is on the matter.

Thanks,
JR

earthboundboy

I think they *can* charge interest still. I am just trying to get a statement out of Egg. The Interim charging order arrived yesterday and it says:

"The interest of the judgment debtor (my wife's name) in the asset described in the schedule below stand charged with payment of £xx TOGETHER WITH ANY FURTHER INTEREST BECOMING DUE AND THE COSTS OF APPLICATION" (my caps)

I've taken this to mean they have licence to apply whatever charges they want to, with apparently no obligation to let me know.

If anyone can advise me otherwise I'd be most grateful!