Trying to get my head above th water

Majestic

Recently, after realising my life wasn't much fun living out of the red and pretty much owing charges on anything i'd borrowed from, decided I needed to take a grip of my finances, be grown up and all that tosh. The main reason for this was signing up to Equifax and seeing my shockingly low Credit Report.

Over the last 3 to 4 months i've managed to get back into the Black, payed off my overdraft (whilst also persuing my bank charges) and managed to sort realistic payments to my Credit Card (to actually pay it off) I also re-registerd for the Electoral Roll via my parents address with the intention of boosting my flagging Credit Score.

The only problem is I recently found out (via equifax) I have a CCJ! I was shocked to say the least. On closer inspection it was revealed that it was through H&M Customs for £156 (or thereabouts) for unpaid taxes. The funny thing is i've been under employment for over 5 years, it seems a small guvvy job I did for someone as a teenager, had led to 5 years worth of tax charges, I actually remember being persued by the Tax Office and sorting this in about 2002, at my old address, obviously after moving house they had started to chase me up again, even though I was no longer able to recieve their letters.

After paying the tax office a visit and turning the air slightly blue they accepted the mistake but said unfortunatley due to the fact it had taken so long to reply the CCJ was likely to stand(!), apparently when i'd sorted the problem the first time round it was for tax payments and since then the office had split into 2 departments - National Issurance and the actual Tax Office. (dont ask me, honestly, i'm confused just writing about it!) and although I'd argued i'd never missed TAX or NI payments they stated the fact I didn't reply quick enough was the reason for the resulting CCJ! Even though I was at a different address! How could I sort the bloody problem!

Anyway, the lady helping me said she had sorted the oustanding balance and a fee of £20 would settle court costs for the CCJ and although cleared would still be on my Credit Report.

I'm obviously not happy. Although, I am terrible with money I would never allow myself to slip into CCJ territory.

Does anybody have any advice on how I may clear this from my record, or if not tell me were I can purchase a gun.

Thanks in advance

Majestic.

fermi

My reply to the OP in this thread might be of use:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=472021

Hope that helps.

EDIT: That was lazy. I said:

You may be able to get the CCJ set aside.

This factsheet explains the grounds that allow you to do this, and how to go about it:

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=12_how_to_set_aside_a_judgment_in_the_county_court

But in brief valid grounds are:

WHEN WILL THE COURT AGREE TO SET ASIDE A JUDGMENT

The county court rules set out when you can apply to set aside a judgment. For example:

• you may not have received the original claim form;
• you may have moved house and not had post from your previous address;
• an order was made against you in your absence in certain circumstances;
• there may be an error in the judgment;
• you want to put in a defence and did not have the opportunity to do this;
• the proceedings did not follow the court rules.

and the status of default judgements are:

DEFAULT JUDGMENT

You may have a default judgment made against you where there was no hearing and you have not sent back the 'Acknowledgement of Service' form to say you intend to put in a defence. You may also have a default judgment made against you if you have not sent in the reply form asking for time to pay within the time limits.
You should not have a default judgment if you:

• paid off the whole amount owed.

The court must set aside the default judgment if you either:

• sent back the acknowledgement of service form with the time limit; or
• put in a defence within the time limit; or
• sent in the reply form asking for time to pay within the time limit.

The court may agree to set aside the default judgment if you did not send in a reply form within the time limit if it thinks:

• you have a real chance of a successful defence to the claim; or
• the court thinks you have a 'good reason' to set aside the judgment e.g. where you did not get the papers through the post.

Please read through the whole link.

Hope that helps.

Majestic

Thankyou very much, Fermi