UPS moment, aka tuition fees CCJ for wrong amount served to wrong address!

NavyWalrus

Hello!

I've had a somewhat major shock upon doing a credit check and finding out there's a CCJ held against me some time ago.

I have contacted the relevant court and received a copy of the court papers - two key issues emerged:

1. The papers were served to my old address and I had no way of finding out about the proceedings until it was already too late.

2. The amount I was sued for was wrong. I had started my course back in the good old days of £1,225.00 tuition fees, yet, I was sued for £3,600.00 (price relevant for new students in said academic year, not to continuing students).

There was a mix-up with my Student Finance, and, effectively, I had been under the impression that my fees were paid. I have emails from the faculty admissions officer confirming my fees for the year in question, and, I would like to pay them.

The obvious question is how should I go about doing that, so as to remove the CCJ from my credit file? Yes, I could have been more thorough and responsible, but, this in general can apply to many of us back in our student days.

I have read that one could possibly set aside a CCJ if any of the above circumstances occur, thus, I would hope it would be possible in my case.

Any help would be potentially life-saving! Thank you!

Tixy

A creditor only has to serve paperwork to your last known address.
Did you inform the creditor of your new address?

If the CCJ was for the wrong amount then you should be able to get the judgement set aside. National debtline website has a factsheet to explain the process of trying to do this.

Some people recommend paying the creditor what you owe them before starting the set aside procedure - that way they are less likely to contest it.

Angry_Bear

Tixy wrote: »

Some people recommend paying the creditor what you owe them before starting the set aside procedure - that way they are less likely to contest it.

On the other hand, advice I've read strongly suggests that paying them is an admission that you owed them the full amount and will often result in your set-aside claim being rejected.

Unfortunately I don't know which is more accurate.

DVardysShadow

Tixy wrote: »

A creditor only has to serve paperwork to your last known address.
Did you inform the creditor of your new address?

Important question. But if there was no reason to think that money was being chased, then it should not be a show stopper for set aside.

In this case, because the amount is wrong, I think that the correct action is to go for an overall settlement involving paying the correct amount in exchange for an uncontested set aside.

OP I suggest that you hold off following this up too vigourously until you are able to settle the correct amount in full.

NavyWalrus

Thank you for your replies, guys.

With regards to the address situation - can't say that I have been giving them updates on where I live, however, I had not anticipated problems of such nature to arise.

In hindsight, I wish I kept the college updated. Though, I can think of two other mitigating factors which can work to my advantage:

1. They have always held my family home address on file and no correspondence was issued there.
2. The have always had my email, one would hope that in the XXI century UK it would be common courtesy to notify your alumni of impending desire to sue them.

Anyhow, I plan to write the college finance department something along the following lines:

1. Expressed regret for the unfortunate situation we are now parties to.
2. Details of circumstances which prevented me from finding out about the debt and further proceedings.
3. Inform (and include copies of relevant correspondence) them of my actual fees.
4. Make an offer to settle the amount in full in exchange for an uncontested set aside (as per DVardysShadow's suggestion).

Any comments on the overarching tone of the letter? On one hand I genuinely regret the fact they had to chase me up for tuition fees (seeing as I effectively benefited from a service I did not pay for), on the other, I am annoyed with how easy they would have been able to contact me had they bothered a. emailing be or b. writing to my family home address (negative effects of this negligence are quite palpable).

I am also thinking of calling somebody from the college first, if only to get personal details of a person who is likely to be dealing with my case, and, perhaps build some rapport.

Am I making much sense thus far?:)