Help Please - urgent advice required.

ChelleBelle

Hellooo I hope I am putting this thread in the right section.

Basically I am after some advice regarding a loan my husband took out (before we even met). He basically took out a loan to buy out his ex GF from her part of his house. He started to pay it back but then was hit with redundancy and cut a long story short he never paid it back. In 2007 he owed around £9k to this loan company.

Anyway initially he thought that this loan was secured against the house and he has not been chased for it since 2007. We met in 2008 and I usually would take care of all the incoming mail and I have never seen any mention of this debt to date. Anyhow, today we received 2 letters. 1 letter from the initial creditor stating that all 'unsecured' loans such as his with Northern Rock was now being transferred to a new company. The 2nd letter was from the new company (Marlin Europe) introducing themselves and stating that they wanted payment of this debt (now standing at £13.5k) via an appointed solicitor. I then told my husband to check his credit report. This particular loan doesnt appear to be on his file. He has not made a payment in 6+ years due to the fact that he thought it would be settled as and when we sold the house but as the letters recieved today stated the loan was in fact UNSECURED :eek:.

So we then called the mortgage company and asked them was this loan secured against the house and they said no, BUT the plot thickens here because they said there were to charges held against the mortgage in May 2007 and Sept 2007 by the same company. The company was called Synergi Partners and this company is now in Liquidation - but this company was a IVA company and my husband was considering entering into an agreement to consolidate all his debts but then changed his mind when he was advised that sometimes dealing with the creditor directly to pay these off which he did and he has paid off the debts that he had approached the IVA company about. So we are requesting the mortgage company remove these charges held against our mortgage. The mortgage company have said that as there is no sum and no account number that this should be relatively easy - so I am hoping this is the case as we cannot contact the IVA company any longer and have them confirm this.

Anyway, back to the loan.... and its not secured against the house, but we did notice that on his credit file there was a CCJ. When we looked at it, it appeared to be for this first loan that we received the letters about today. It says that the CCJ was issued in 26th Feb 2008 in Gateshead BUT as I said we have never once received any letters about the court case, or about the date of the court case and the amount is £14.5k.

Anyway now you know our life story I wondered if people can advise on the following;

1. The CCJ will drop off the credit file in 4 months BUT what measures can the new creditors take to get us to pay? No payment has been made in over 7 years.
2. Can a debt that has a CCJ be statute barred?
3. How long can this debt be enforced or can they bombard us with letters of demands now this new company has taken over?
4. Why since getting the CCJ have Northern Rock still never chased this debt? Why have they not tried to get it enforced and why did he get no judgment in the post instructing him on what he has to pay and when?
5. Will calling the county courts and querying this raise alarm bells and start the courts chasing him.

Please can anyone advise us. I am the worrier here and he is more laid back. I don't work as I am ill at present but he has the only income in the home and I am worried that the new company will start sending bailiffs etc. Does the same rule apply of no harrassment or chasing of the debt after 6 years for a CCJ??

Thanks guys... I know there are many helpful and knowledgeable people out there who can hopefully help me. xx

Tixy

A debt with a CCJ can never be statute barred.

A beneficiary of a CCJ has 6 years from the date of judgement to take enforcement action. After 6 years they would have to go back to court to try to obtain permission to take enforcement action after that time (and give a good reason to the judge as to why they didn't enforce it sooner).

The courts won't chase him, and he could certainly contact the court to obtain a copy of the judgement.

Is the judgement registered at the address he lived at at the time of the judgement?

ChelleBelle

Tixy wrote: »

A debt with a CCJ can never be statute barred.

A beneficiary of a CCJ has 6 years from the date of judgement to take enforcement action. After 6 years they would have to go back to court to try to obtain permission to take enforcement action after that time (and give a good reason to the judge as to why they didn't enforce it sooner).

The courts won't chase him, and he could certainly contact the court to obtain a copy of the judgement.

Is the judgement registered at the address he lived at at the time of the judgement?

Thanks so much Tixy. This site is always full of helpful people. So almost 6 years ago the CCJ was applied without his knowledge. No court order has been sent to him so he has no idea what the order states so I will contact the courts and find out. In the 6 years the company has not once contacted him or ask him for payments so I assume that the courts would say that the company didnt try hard enough to force him to pay?!

He has lived in the same house for 13 years and still does so thats how I know that no DCA's, enforcement letters, reminders etc.

Thank you for your help. I hate the thought of owing people or them coming for us. Scary thought.

worried48

My advice would be to leave well alone - I had a ccj against me which I never paid (because I couldn't), that was 12 years ago and nothing has happened apaprt from letters from time to time from various DCAs who never ever take it any further.

ChelleBelle

worried48 wrote: »

My advice would be to leave well alone - I had a ccj against me which I never paid (because I couldn't), that was 12 years ago and nothing has happened apaprt from letters from time to time from various DCAs who never ever take it any further.

Thank you. I have spoken to the courts and they have said that after 6 yrs it drops off the registry and will be hard to locate for the new company unless NRAM still hold a copy of it which after almost 6 years is not likely. I think I am going to ride out the storm and wait to see what happens. Thanks for your help xx:T