Would I know if I had a CCJ?

tea_n_toast

Hi everyone,

I managed to get in a mess with my council tax in 2012 and ended up with some letters asking for the money which had eventually gone to the debt collectors team.

For some reason I thought it was a CCJ as it did mention county court *i think* but that may have been a case of if you don't pay ...

I wasn't asked to go to court and have now paid the debt off.

I've checked my credit file and can't see anything on there about it so is there a chance it wasn't a CCJ after all?

Sorry, not much info and don't know why I've not keep the details of it, it's just I've recently opened a joint account with OH and worried his association with me may affect his rating if I do have this CCJ.

Thank you!

jamesd

Council Tax non-payment doesn't result in County Court Judgements (CCJs) because Council Tax is enforced through the magistrates court system, not the county court system. So you will never get a CCJ for non-payment of Council Tax.

Council Tax is also not reported to credit ratings agencies, so being late and chased by the collections team doesn't show up there either.

You can only get a CCJ or magistrates court judgement if the court has contacted you and told you about a court date where you would be able to defend yourself. If you've never been contacted in that way then a CCJ or magistrates court judgement is also impossible, except for rare cases like notices being sent to the wrong address. For those rare cases there are procedures to fix the problem when it's finally noticed.

CKhalvashi

Council tax would not be a CCJ.

Is should show on your credit report, but you can check with registry trust here.

CK

fatbelly

It's a liability order in the Magistrates Court.

Doesn't appear on your credit file.

Registry Trust is a register of ccjs.

tea_n_toast

Fantastic thank you!
What a weigh off my shoulders that is!

CIS

So you will never get a CCJ for non-payment of Council Tax.

In principle they can use a CCJ for council tax arrears - the default route is a liability order via the magistrates court but the council can use a 'court of competent jurisdiction'.

Very few councils will use CCJ's as they give the council less powers and cost a lot more to progress than using a liability order.

jamesd

Thanks CIS. Makes me wonder whether it would be considered an unfair debt collection practice to use the county court route when the only apparent effect is to add more detriment to the debtor than taking the more normal recovery route.

I don't suppose you've any knowledge of why the county court route is chosen when it is used and what happens if unfair debt collection arguments are advanced in response?

Thrugelmir

tea_n_toast wrote: »

Fantastic thank you!
What a weigh off my shoulders that is!

Financial institutions use the Registry Trust though as CKhalvashi pointed out.

rizla_king

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Financial institutions use the Registry Trust though as CKhalvashi pointed out.

Which means naff all, as they don't record liability orders on that.

And any CCJ would show on both the RT and the CRAs, as they automatically receive details of all CCJs on the register.