Capquest CCJ in Default

CitizenAccord

On 2nd July 2013 I received a Claim Form from Northampton (CCBC) County Court with an Issue Date of 27th June 2013. Capquest were claiming the value of £299.99 plus costs related to a Shop Direct account I had taken out in 2010 but stopped paying in 2011 as I lost my job and had difficulty making payments. Although I believe the original debt was closer to £450.

I subsequently acknowledged service of the Claim Form through Money Claim Online with the intention of submitting a defence in due course.
I also sent two letters to Capquest, a CCA s.78(1) request and a CPR 31.14 request on the 3rd of July, I subsequently received a response from Capquest dated 12th July which included a copy of a Notice of Assignment from Shop Direct and a Debt Purchased letter from Capquest which were allegedly sent to me on the 8th of February 2012 (I can not find these in my files from Feb 2012), the letter also stated that whilst they liase with Shop Direct to resolve this matter no further legal action will be taken.
Naively, I submitted no defence to the Claim Form and had received no further correspondance until today, 27th December 2013, when I received a Judgement for Claimant (in default) dated 9th December 2013 and with costs of £90, not £65 as stated in the original claim form.

I've been scouring these and other forums all day for some advice, I realise that I could pay £80 and apply to the court to set aside the judgement, but would be grateful for any advice on how to deal with this CCJ and Capquest as I believe that Capquest have misled me to manipulate a judgement by default and hope there is some other way to remedy this especially as Capquest have failed to provide respond fully to my CCA s.78(1) and CPR 31.14 requests.

happy_bunny_2

I'm no expert on this, but Sounds like you need to ring the court to start the set aside process.

I think you also have one month from the 9th Dec to pay it in full to stop it being registered.

If you gave their letter about no legal action then that should help, as should failing to respond to your CCA, CPR requests.

Looks like they are trying to pull a fast one and hope you forget about it over Xmas.

Good luck

HB

fatbelly

You acknowledged service but failed to defend. (Did you have a defence?)

A judgement in default is the correct result.

I suggest that you do not waste £80 but use it towards your payment.

If you pay in full before 9 Jan the ccj is not recorded against you.

CitizenAccord

fatbelly wrote: »

You acknowledged service but failed to defend. (Did you have a defence?)

A judgement in default is the correct result.

I suggest that you do not waste £80 but use it towards your payment.

If you pay in full before 9 Jan the ccj is not recorded against you.

hi fatbelly,

thanks for the advice, the reason I sent the CCA s.78(1) and a CPR 31.14 requests was to find out if they could produce the documents to prove that they own the debt and also that the debt belongs to me. My defence would have been dependant on this, but Capquest didn't even respond to my requests in full.

Isn't it illegal for a company to act in this way to obtain a judgement by default as they did write to me stating that no legal action would be taken?

Unfortunately I can't afford to pay the full amount of the judgement by the 9th of January, could I apply to the court for more time and avoid the judgement being recorded?

CitizenAccord

What about if I call Capquest and explain the situation and that I believe they have made a mistake, could they cancel the judgement?