Oops...finally caught up with me

timbstoke · 28 January 2012 at 11:00AM

For about the last 2 years, I haven't paid my water bill. Not out of malice or anything like that, simply because, as the one utility who can't physically disconnect me, they've always found themselves on the bottom of the pile when it comes to paying bills.

So, fairly inevitably, they've gone and got themselves a CCJ. The court made a demand just before Christmas for a statement of my income/outgoings. I provided this, and offered £50/month towards a £430 bill. Yesterday, I had a letter from the court demanding I pay £100/month. That makes things a bit tight, but with a little belt tightening, it's doable, and it means it's all paid off before I get my bonus in April, which I can then use to completely clear my biggest card. Thankfully, I cleared 2 accounts at the beginning of January, which frees up an extra £50/month to pay them with.

On the plus side, the reason they haven't been getting paid is because I've been dealing with other creditors - I kind of accepted that Severn Trent would probably get a CCJ before I got round to them. I need to check my file, but I'm fairly sure that's now the only debt that isn't under control. So, the plan is:

- Pay the CCJ. That'll be clear by April.
- Sort out repayments of any other arrears they haven't got a CCJ for yet (I'm sure there will be some, but they'll have to wait their turn at the moment!)
- Keep a close eye on my credit rating and watch it hopefully get better
- finally get into a position where I'm debt free :beer:

On that note, does anyone have experience of dealing with Severn Trent for CCJ's? Do I just call their normal payments line and quote the court reference, or what? The court paper only has a mailing address, and I'd prefer to pay online or by standing order since I don't have a cheque book.

amorge · 28 January 2012 at 12:20PM

If you pay within 28 days then the ccj is removed (I believe)... It might be worth trying hard to do that

pauletruth · 28 January 2012 at 12:25PM

i agree if you can crape together the money get it paid off before its on your file for 6 years. sadly water should be treated as a priority debt so pay that before any cards.

timbstoke · 28 January 2012 at 2:28PM

It's already been there for longer than 28 days before they sent me the demand for income/expenditure so that's a non-starter. I've checked my account and there's around £700 in arrears on there, but I need to call them to find out whether that includes the CCJ or is in addition to it.

timbstoke · 29 January 2012 at 11:42AM

This just got interesting. I just checked out my credit file, and the CCJ is actually for a previous address. The thing is, I only lived at that address for 6 months, so I don't think there's any way I can have run up £400+ worth of water bills.

So what do I do now? I assume a 'prove it' letter is no longer any use since they have a judgment, they don't need to prove a thing. The logical next step is to apply to have the judgment set aside, but I have to admit, water is one of the things that I've always neglected (but now want to get on top of). I don't particularly want to pay to have the judgment set aside if it then transpires that the ccj, although registered at a short term address, actually relates to a debt built up before I moved there - if I legitimately owe it, then clearly it needs dealing with. But if it only relates to debt built up at the previous address, there's no way I can possibly have built up that much debt in such a short time.