Additional card holder issued CCJ by Ex partner

gavandcarly

Hello everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on this.

My ex partner had a credit card in her name, and she added me as an additional card holder.

When we split she kept stating that I need to pay her back half of the balance of the card.

We had a joint mortgage together, and I really wanted my name taken off the mortgage to cut all ties with her as she kept trying to contact me and using the house as an excuse.

She was living in the house and I was renting a property and still paying mortgage and ground rent for the property.

I asked her lots of times to remove my name off the mortgage but she refused.

In 2010 her solicitor sent me a letter demanding half of her credit card balance.

I replied with the following on 24/08/10: I am unreservedly prepared to accept point (1) of your clients proposed settlement on the condition that I am indemnified and released from the mortgage first; should this criterion be satisfied, I will happily pay the whole sum of the credit card liabilities of £1200, as a sign of my goodwill.

I received no response what so ever from my ex partner, nor her solicitors.

On 24/03/11 (7 months later), I received an email from my ex partner stating: Would you please be able to give me a call today and I will explain the next steps to you, this is an extremely painful and express process- just want give you heads up. Also need to talk about getting me the £1200 to pay off that credit card.

My name in the end was removed from the mortgage roughly 7-8 months ago. I did not pay my ex the £1200, as firstly she never replied to the letter that i sent to her solicitor agreeing to the deal, and she did not reply to me at all for 7 months!

She has now taken me to a small claims court over this.

I now live in Dubai therefore was not aware of the hearing and the hearing went ahead on 13/02/12 without me being aware or being able to submit evidence or attend and I now apparently owe:
1. Judgment for the Claimant in the sum of £1450.00 together with interest of £393.99 (a total of £1843.99).

2. Defendant to pay Claimant's court costs of £245.00 (being £80.00 of the claim form and £125.00 hearing fee)

I am going to get the judgement set aside due to me being unaware of the hearing, however I would like peoples advice on the whole situation and if you think I have a chance of winning the case, and what sort of evidence I need to take with me?

Due to me only being an additional card holder, I am not even allowed to view the card statements, so god knows what has been bought on the card, I also found info on the Halifax website stating: Please note that additional cardholders will not be able to view the credit card online.
As principal cardholder, you are responsible for all transactions made on any additional cards. If the additional card is withdrawn, you must retrieve and destroy the card, during which time you are still liable for all transactions made using that card.

Any help/advice good or bad is much appreciated. :-)

bris

Why would you win, you agreed to pay the £1200 when you were removed from the mortgage, this was done and you reneged from the deal.
Even though she was the principal card holder I assume you contributed to the debt, so it is also right you pay half it back.
The smoking gun for you though is your reply to her solicitors acceping the liability on the conditions that have now been met.

gavandcarly

The debt on the credit card is hers not mine....

I stated that I would pay the £1200 as a goodwill gesture, I did not state that I was liable for the balance.

She never agreed to the deal, and did not contact me back for 7 months... Surely she should have agreed to the deal, and not waited 7 months?

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

IANAL but I didn't think the Small Claims Court could issue a CCJ.

Edit: apparently they can.

creditcardhelp11

Ccj will be issued from small claims just means the claim is less than £5000. You wrote to a solicitor stating you would pay the debt regardless of original liability the terms you wanted were given. Think you'll have to pay.

Miss_Spendalot_2

I have noticed that on my credit card it gives me the choice to add another cardholder too, not sure how they go about it as I do not need it, but surely that does not mean the added cardholder should be liable for any outstanding debt, If i decided to put somebody on my car insurance and they had an accident I would be liable for the costs not them, isn't this the same principal ?

gavandcarly

Thats exactly what I thought. I cant even view the statement of the credit card to see what has been bought with it...

I signed over the house to her by removing my name off the mortgage and didn't claim one penny off her, and I only offered to give her £1200 as a gesture of goodwill to remove my name off the mortgage so that I had no further contact with her.

She never accepted the deal, her solicitors never replied to me, no formal agreement was made, therefore I don't see why it is ok for her 7 months down the line to request the money off me....

Tixy

You are not liable for the credit card debt, as in the credit card company can do nothing to you to obtain the money from you. They cannot affect your credit file or take you to court.

However your girlfriend has written documentation that you agreed to pay her £1200, and that is the basis on what she has obtained a CCJ against you. I suspect that the wording of your reply to the solicitor will not help your case, the term 'unreservedly' won't help at all, nor will not having set a deadline by which you required removing from the mortgage. As it stands to a judge she has complied, you have not kept to your part of the agreement as evidenced by the letter to the solicitor.

You could apply to get the judgement set aside based on you not being aware of the court case.

However you may find that if she tries again that the judgement would still be granted again, though of course you would then have the opportunity to pay within 30days which would then meanthat the CCJ is not recorded against you with the registery trust or on your credit file.
Of course its possible that the judge would find in your favour, but I'd think she stands a reasonable chance from the information provided.

gavandcarly

Tixy very helpful reply, thank you.

I really don't want to have to pay her this money, its her credit card... and her debt... I have already given her the house in which I invested money in.

I already have a CCJ on my credit file from 2010, so I doubt it will make much difference if I get another one right?

Tixy

Do you intend to live in dubai permanently? or for longer than 6years? do you have any assets in the UK? If not then perhaps another CCJ won't make much difference - obviously if you have assets in the UK or are employed by a UK employer, or if you return to live in the UK she could try to enforce the CCJ against you.

gavandcarly

I intend to live in Dubai for the next few years.. My employer is not a UK employer. I don't have any assets in the UK.

If I returned to the UK before 6 years what would happen?