CCJ Help please

missljm

Hi, to cut a long story short I defaulted on a credit card and the company tried to take me to court for repayment. I completed the forms and accepted i owed the money and offered an amount each month to pay which was accepted without having to appear in court. I have only recently been contacted (monday) on how i make these payments. I came in from work yesterday to find they have applied and been granted a charge on my house!! i thought this only happened if payment had not been made and at that you would be given a date to appear in court to defend the action. Can i fight this? (scottish courts if this helps)

Thanks in advance x

pure_dead_dopey

if you live in Scotland and an English court has given you a CCJ, its not lawful. is it a decree?

missljm

im not sure i have a 1 sided piece of paper headed Form of schedule of inhibition and was issued by a scottish court, basically saying i cant dispose of any property without permission from the courts.

pure_dead_dopey

I would give the court a ring and ask how this happened without your knowledge. When was the court date and who is the solicitor involved? I am fairly certain they would have had to give you an opportunity to defend, has it been a while since the court date? and did the sheriff accept your offer of payment? and do you actually own the house?

missljm

the court date was the 3rd july but i got all my paperwork in on time, but the court did make a mistake and claimed i had denied i owed the money and would be appearing. a few emails sorted this out and like i said my payment amount was accepted well before the date of the hearing so no appearance was required. Im thinking now they might have made another blunder......

missljm

and yeah i own the house and the solicitors involved were optimalegal. i have contacted them about this, but i shall also email the court too.

thanks.

pure_dead_dopey

not surprised about the solicitors being Optima, definitely contact the court, they are not infallible and the forms are a nightmare, so easy to miss something. If they can't fix it, not a bad idea to try to give Govan Law Centre a phone, they seem to be quite good on debt and would at least be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck

missljm

thanks you so much for the advice, i shall give them a call!

Sparklyfairy

I can't believe they've done that to you! Makes me so so angry! What should happen after your ccj is if they're not happy they can apply to the court for a redetermination. Then a judge will see your debt vs what you have agreed to pay - if he thinks it'll take 1,000 months to clear this debt & you own a house, a judge can put in motion the charging order by changing the judgement to "forthwith" - which basically means that all monies are due. This now tends to happen even when payments aren't missed - crazy that this can happen in this day & age...Once the forthwith payment has been missed, the Land Registry should send you & any co owners of your house details of the charging order & the court date - PLEASE ATTEND COURT! Very important - even if it will be extremely hard to stave off the charging order, you can 1. get the monthly fees reverted back to the ccj amount 2. try to get the judge to add conditions to the judgement that may be beneficial to you i.e. so long as you keep up the repayments they cannot go for an order of sale.

Tell me, is this debt your sole debt & is your home jointly owned? Also, was your creditor MBNA by any chance..(mine was - they are sharks!) X

missljm

Hi, it is indeed MBNA and by my calculations with the amount i offered i will have paid it back in 36 months not exactly a long time. I contacted the court and they have agreed the amount was accepted and everything went accordingly but then stated that they then have no further involvement. I have emailed them back asking how this can be true when it was the same court that appproved the charging order..now awaiting a reply. I am still waiting for a reply from Optimalegal.

Sparklyfairy

It is crazy - so when you get to court you must STRESS to the judge NOT to grant a charging order on the basis it'll only take 36 months..I doubt you'll get much help with the court clerks, though. Is this your sole debt & is your house jointly owned?