Trying to settle a CCJ for mortgage application

Hannah3105

Hi there

My partner and I are first time buyers and have recently had an offer accepted on our first house. We decided to check our credit reports prior to mortgage application and whilst mine is fine, my partner has a CCJ for £370 dating back to 2007.

The CCJ is due to non payment of solicitors fees when he attempted to buy a house a few years back. The solicitors fees were to be paid upon completion, the sale didn't complete due to issues with the vendor, so my partner did not pay the fees. - hence the CCJ.

He is not disputing the fee and is happy to pay it (at this stage we don't have the time to fight it), we just want to get it paid and obtain a certificate of satisfaction so we can apply for our mortgage. Unfortunately we are not getting anywhere due to his rather unhelpful ex-solicitor.

We have been on the phone to the previous solicitor practically every day and they keep advising us that they need to 'locate my partners file out of archive' before they can then take payment from him. That is acceptable, what isn't acceptable is the time they are taking. Until we manage to pay this, we are unable to progress forward and may lose this house.

Our mortgage advisor has been really good about this and is advising us as best as she can, but we cannot move forward until we get this paid as we will be declined straight away.

Any advice would be appreciated, does his solicitor have a legal obligation to help us within a certain timescale?

Conrad

Hannah3105 wrote: »

That is acceptable, what isn't acceptable is the time they are taking. Until we manage to pay this, we are unable to progress forward and may lose this house.

Jeeze your partner has a cheek, he took years to pay the chaps bill. How would you feel if your boss paid you 5 years late?

If it were me I'd drag it out for months, I cannot abide immoral non payers. You expect to be paid on time, well here's the news, so do the rest of us. He wouldn't have a ccj unless the Solicitors orignal terms were unclear or misleading.

Bad khama comes to those that mistreat others.


The truth hurts, ouch.

Hannah3105

Unfortunately my partner wasn't aware of the non-payment, as I said, the solicitors fees we to be paid upon completion and the sale did not complete.

He does not recall receiving any letters from his solicitor and equally had no idea about the CCJ. It is probably something he will fight eventually, but right now if paying up means we can move forward with our application then this is what we will do.

Thanks for your response, but I would appreciate some guidance and support rather than stating the obvious which we have no control over.

holly_hobby

Find out the issuing court, you should (AFAIK) be able to pay via the court and then obtain a certificate of satisfaction from them.

Now I hope you understand that the CCJ will NOT disappear because it will have been satisfied - albeit a satisfied CCJ is better than a non-satisfied one ! (NB - the CCJ will expire from his credit record with the various CRAs following its 6th anniversary of registration).

Your broker will need to do a bit of ringing round lenders/their BDMs to put the case to them i,e- the reason and the amount of CCJ.

Once placed in principle (ie subject to submission of full application, with NO futher issues), your broker should mark the application FAO the UW whom the case was floated with.

Be warned though, even though the CCJ is 5 yrs old, a placement may still not be easy ... even if satsified ... of course the larger the deposit and an otherwise pristine credit record, will help but still may not give you the result reqd ...... just something to bear in mind and be prepared for.

Hope this helps

Holly

Senior_Paper_Monitor

What loan to value are you applying for - an unsettled (or possibly recently settled) CCJ is almost certainly not going to be accepted at 75% or above, even if it is below £500 as it appears it is.

Your choice of lenders is going to be extremely limited (therefore costs almost inevitably higher).

As regards getting the judgement set aside - I'd bet my pension you can't.

JimmyTheWig

Hannah3105 wrote: »

Unfortunately my partner wasn't aware of the non-payment, as I said, the solicitors fees we to be paid upon completion and the sale did not complete.

He does not recall receiving any letters from his solicitor and equally had no idea about the CCJ. It is probably something he will fight eventually, but right now if paying up means we can move forward with our application then this is what we will do.

Thanks for your response, but I would appreciate some guidance and support rather than stating the obvious which we have no control over.

This wasn't obvious from your first post. Which explains the reply you got.

Has holly hobby says, paying this won't clear the CCJ from the credit report. Probably best to challenge it here and now and get it wiped.

Hannah3105

Senior_Paper_Monitor wrote: »

What loan to value are you applying for - an unsettled (or possibly recently settled) CCJ is almost certainly not going to be accepted at 75% or above, even if it is below £500 as it appears it is.

Your choice of lenders is going to be extremely limited (therefore costs almost inevitably higher).

As regards getting the judgement set aside - I'd bet my pension you can't.

Hello

We are looking at borrowing 90% - our mortgage advisor has said that the CCJ shouldn't be an issue (based on her previous experience) providing we can get it settled. She did say we would struggle at 95% but that 90% should be ok.

Senior_Paper_Monitor

A conveyancing solicitor instructed by his/her client will have details of the client's address and ID by virtue of the KYC/application documents.

The chances that they didn't confirm the liability in their instruction documents, served the notices incorrectly or failed to follow any other processes are slim.

The OP (and/or partner) need to get it paid as soon as possible and start saving/working on their credit profile and eventually the two will meet in the middle.

Dave_Ham

Given the amount of the CCJ and historic nature, you may get a result if put to a sympathetic lender.

Does it show on both Experian and Equifax?

Would worry about getting the mortgage for now and get the CCJ set aside for the future.

The difference between it being settled or not will not be the prevailing factor here.

holly_hobby

Hannah3105 wrote: »

Hello

We are looking at borrowing 90% - our mortgage advisor has said that the CCJ shouldn't be an issue (based on her previous experience) providing we can get it settled. She did say we would struggle at 95% but that 90% should be ok.

Hi Hannah ....

You may want to be prepared that this isn't the case .... bearing in mind this is not a challenged CCJ (ie he admits liability for owing the monies), and the fact it is for an unsettled conveyencing bill ....

I would dearly loved to be proved wrong, but satisfing a CCJ solely to enable you to apply for a mortgage, never gives you brownie points with the UWs (in fact rather the opposite) - of which I don't think the basis of the judgement will do him any favours either ...

Do let us know how you get on with your "advisor" on this....

Holly x

DVardysShadow

holly_hobby wrote: »

You may want to be prepared that this isn't the case .... bearing in mind this is not a challenged CCJ (ie he admits liability for owing the monies), and the fact it is for an unsettled conveyencing bill ....

Although the debt is not challenged, an application for set aside may be appropriate, particularly if the process ofr applying the CCJ was defective - eg notices not sent. I would suggest that it might be appropriate to negotiate a settlement with the CCJ being set aside and payment in full. More chance of a set aside that way than paying up and than trying for set aside

On the other hand - if the CCJ dates from 2007 it would become statute barred next year, 6 years after expiry.

Debt free wannabe forum has most expertise for set aside.