moved to Scotland, ccj issued after move but statute barred?

dimmented

Hi,

I have a credit card debt which I have been avoiding for the past 5 years. Looking at my credit record the debt got passed to Lowell portfolio a couple of years ago. I have never received any correspondence from Lowell concerning the debt and around 8 months ago I moved to Scotland. I have read that under Scottish law after 5 years the debt gets extinguished. A few days ago I looked at my credit file to see that Lowell has raised a ccj against me (2 weeks ago). It was raised with Nottingham county court. As I do not live in England/Wales any more so am I liable for this ccj? Also as the debt is over 5 years old now (and I live in Scotland) is it classed as statute barred? Thanks in advance for advice.

antonic

First of all are you sure they issued the CCJ before the 6 years statute barred time limit expired ? - if they did see below

I will let other more experienced people than me comment, but my gut feeling is that the CCJ is valid - why you may ask ?.

As you admit yourself you have been avoiding this debt and not told the CC provider where you are living.

Therefore for Lowell`s to get a CCJ against you (in England) all they had to do was :

1) issue a claim form N1 to the last known address they have for you - as you never got the form OR replied after 30 days then

2) They can ask for Judgment in default and payment forthwith (immediately).

Now comes the difficult bit for you - to get rid of the CCJ you are going to have to apply to the court to get the judgment set aside and give your current address - this information will be supplied to Lowells`s as well.

Lowell`s then can restart proceedings against you at the correct address *I think* because the debt was incurred in England and NOT Scotland where you are living now.

dimmented

Hi antonic,

The ccj was issued after the 5 (not 6 as in Scotland) years had passed. And - as far as i have read - in Scotland that means that it is extinguished. I was not living in England when the ccj was issued and so if I understand it hasn't got any ground. The credit card was from lloydstsb and whilst going through credit counseling Lloyd's were bullying me telling me that the service (I used cccs) only lasts for 6 months and that I would have to get a loan out with them to pay one the 6 months were up. When I came out of the service due to being in a position where I could pay normally I just stopped paying them, and paid more to everyone else and eventually paid them off. Lloyds stopped calling, writing letters and anything else and that was it. I moved plenty of times after that and haven't heard anything since. If Lowell tried to find me they could have easily as I have always kept my electoral registry up to date but they haven't. I haven't and still haven't heard anything from them. The only reason I know about the ccj is because I looked on my credit file. I have written an email to Nottingham crown court and will call on Monday to find out for sure. If the ccj is not valid then I have a template letter to send to Lowell for them to go away!!

happy_bunny_2

Worth giving national debtline a call. I'm sure I've seen them advise on something similar.

dimmented

Yeah I might just do that, thanks bunny.

fatbelly

You could also try the Govan Law Centre who are used to this sort of thing

http://www.govanlc.com/advice.htm

Meatloaf1981

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

We don't know the OP's circumstances or the reasons why he has been avoiding the debt.

OP, my gut feeling is that despite now living in Scotland, because you accrued the debt in England and all of the relevant details relate to an English debt, then English law will apply and you will still be liable for the CCJ.

I would be interested to hear what National Debtline inform you, however.

dimmented

DM,
I more than paid them everything I owed them several times over trust me! The were charging interest and charges whilst I was in a debt management plan (which they aren't allowed to do) and then for an age after, not to mention 'admin charges'and the such for missing payments in the first place. These were nasty pieces of work!!
Like I said I took the debts back on from the debt management company when I got a decent job working away in 2008. Around the same time I decided to spend a bit of time away in new Zealand as I could fly from anywhere to work. My partner came with me and got a job there. Plan was to carry on payments as normal. Then the downturn happened. I lost the job and was effectively stuck in new Zealand. Not such a bad place to be stuck but it meant that with a menial job and living expenses over there I couldn't afford to send anything back to debts. Anyway I spent a few years there and then came back. After 6 months of doing rubbish jobs I found a decent one and started passing off my debtors. One by one in lump sums. I left Lloyd's till last as they had annoyed me so much throughout the whole process. Anyway I split up with partner a while later and moved away. It was a bad break and I left with nothing. At this point I had 2 more debts to pay off. I managed to pay one of them and I tried to pay the Lloyd's one but with no details I just couldn't, I spent a while trying to pay them and they weren't being very helpful so I said sod it! Everything was done over the phone so without any details they cannot access your account and as mine had been passed from pillar to post it was difficult anyway. So I left it and moved to Scotland and here we are! I have never received anything from this Lowell's company and the only reason I know it is Lowell's that the ccj has come from is they are the only one left I owe money to! The only reason I know I have accj is because it says so on my credit file, I also haven't received anything about that. Life story over!

glentoran99

dimmented wrote: »

DM,
I more than paid them everything I owed them several times over trust me! The were charging interest and charges whilst I was in a debt management plan (which they aren't allowed to do) and then for an age after, not to mention 'admin charges'and the such for missing payments in the first place. These were nasty pieces of work!!
Like I said I took the debts back on from the debt management company when I got a decent job working away in 2008. Around the same time I decided to spend a bit of time away in new Zealand as I could fly from anywhere to work. My partner came with me and got a job there. Plan was to carry on payments as normal. Then the downturn happened. I lost the job and was effectively stuck in new Zealand. Not such a bad place to be stuck but it meant that with a menial job and living expenses over there I couldn't afford to send anything back to debts. Anyway I spent a few years there and then came back. After 6 months of doing rubbish jobs I found a decent one and started passing off my debtors. One by one in lump sums. I left Lloyd's till last as they had annoyed me so much throughout the whole process. Anyway I split up with partner a while later and moved away. It was a bad break and I left with nothing. At this point I had 2 more debts to pay off. I managed to pay one of them and I tried to pay the Lloyd's one but with no details I just couldn't, I spent a while trying to pay them and they weren't being very helpful so I said sod it! Everything was done over the phone so without any details they cannot access your account and as mine had been passed from pillar to post it was difficult anyway. So I left it and moved to Scotland and here we are! I have never received anything from this Lowell's company and the only reason I know it is Lowell's that the ccj has come from is they are the only one left I owe money to! The only reason I know I have accj is because it says so on my credit file, I also haven't received anything about that. Life story over!

Just on your first point, they are entitled to charge you interest etc while in a dmp, there is no law that says they can't

tallyhoh

I thought it was in order to get a CCJ even if statute barred UNLESS you put in a defence stating it was. Doesn't sound like the OP did.


Sure someone will let me know if this has changed.

glentoran99

dimmented wrote: »

DM,
I more than paid them everything I owed them several times over trust me! The were charging interest and charges whilst I was in a debt management plan (which they aren't allowed to do) and then for an age after, not to mention 'admin charges'and the such for missing payments in the first place. These were nasty pieces of work!!
Like I said I took the debts back on from the debt management company when I got a decent job working away in 2008. Around the same time I decided to spend a bit of time away in new Zealand as I could fly from anywhere to work. My partner came with me and got a job there. Plan was to carry on payments as normal. Then the downturn happened. I lost the job and was effectively stuck in new Zealand. Not such a bad place to be stuck but it meant that with a menial job and living expenses over there I couldn't afford to send anything back to debts. Anyway I spent a few years there and then came back. After 6 months of doing rubbish jobs I found a decent one and started passing off my debtors. One by one in lump sums. I left Lloyd's till last as they had annoyed me so much throughout the whole process. Anyway I split up with partner a while later and moved away. It was a bad break and I left with nothing. At this point I had 2 more debts to pay off. I managed to pay one of them and I tried to pay the Lloyd's one but with no details I just couldn't, I spent a while trying to pay them and they weren't being very helpful so I said sod it! Everything was done over the phone so without any details they cannot access your account and as mine had been passed from pillar to post it was difficult anyway. So I left it and moved to Scotland and here we are! I have never received anything from this Lowell's company and the only reason I know it is Lowell's that the ccj has come from is they are the only one left I owe money to! The only reason I know I have accj is because it says so on my credit file, I also haven't received anything about that. Life story over!

Also reading that, and I'm not sure on your timelines but it doesn't se it could be 5 years since aknowledging the debt as you made offer to settle before you moved