CCJ applied on statute barred debt - Lowell Portfolio

laurae5868

Hi there,

Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Basically I checked my credit report a few months back and wanted to try and sort it out because my gf and I are planning on buying a house next year. The credit report showed a couple of debts from 2011 which I proceeded to pay over the phone. However, when on the phone to Lowell Portfolio, the lady informed me that I had a debt with HSBC for £3,000. This was not on my credit file and I know that this was a very old debt that is now statute barred (had some financial difficulties when younger).

However, this weekend I have received a letter from Bryan Carter solicitors stating that a CCJ has been applied and granted on my credit file and I have 30 days from the date of the letter to pay or it will remain on my file.

1. I have not received any other documentation from Lowell Portfolio to even warn me that this was happening
2. The letter arrived nearly a month from the date on the letter (end of October) meaning that I have around 3 days to sort this.
3. This debt has not been paid in over 6 years so how can they now stick a CCJ on it? Is this because I rang to pay the other debt?
4. I have checked my credit file and it's already on there.

I have read about asking the court to put my claim aside on the grounds that I have not received any documents other than this letter and that it is also statute barred.

What I would like to know is what else can I do? Do I need to provide evidence that I have not paid anything?

Any advice would be much appreciated, very worried about it, especially before Christmas.

Thanks

National_Debtline

laurae5868 wrote: »

Hi there,

Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Basically I checked my credit report a few months back and wanted to try and sort it out because my gf and I are planning on buying a house next year. The credit report showed a couple of debts from 2011 which I proceeded to pay over the phone. However, when on the phone to Lowell Portfolio, the lady informed me that I had a debt with HSBC for £3,000. This was not on my credit file and I know that this was a very old debt that is now statute barred (had some financial difficulties when younger).

However, this weekend I have received a letter from Bryan Carter solicitors stating that a CCJ has been applied and granted on my credit file and I have 30 days from the date of the letter to pay or it will remain on my file.

1. I have not received any other documentation from Lowell Portfolio to even warn me that this was happening
2. The letter arrived nearly a month from the date on the letter (end of October) meaning that I have around 3 days to sort this.
3. This debt has not been paid in over 6 years so how can they now stick a CCJ on it? Is this because I rang to pay the other debt?
4. I have checked my credit file and it's already on there.

I have read about asking the court to put my claim aside on the grounds that I have not received any documents other than this letter and that it is also statute barred.

What I would like to know is what else can I do? Do I need to provide evidence that I have not paid anything?

Any advice would be much appreciated, very worried about it, especially before Christmas.

Thanks

Hi laurae5868

The debt being over six years old doesn't automatically stop the creditor from seeking a CCJ - it just means that the debtor has the opportunity to dispute it.

You can apply to "set aside" a judgment at any time, not just within 30 days - that deadline is just for the purposes of paying the judgment in full and thus avoiding it staying on the credit file. It is important, however, to apply promptly once you are aware that you can do so.

It seems that you have already read up on getting a CCJ "set aside", but for avoidance of doubt this is our fact sheet on the subject:

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/12%20EW%20County%20court%20-%20how%20to%20set%20aside%20a%20judgment/Default.aspx


Dennis
@natdebtline

chanz4

I would put the house buying on hold, as sounds like you wont get accepted with such new defaults anyway

Marktheshark

laurae5868 wrote: »

Thanks for that Dennis,

On the N244 form, do I need to be stating that the debt is statute barred anywhere?

Not really sure how to fill this form out properly i.e. using proper terminology etc.

Have you actually checked to see if they have a CCJ first ?

National_Debtline

Marktheshark wrote: »

Have you actually checked to see if they have a CCJ first ?

Hi Mark

OP states at the top of the thread that they have already checked their credit report, which does indeed show the CCJ.

Dennis
@natdebtline

Marktheshark

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi Mark

OP states at the top of the thread that they have already checked their credit report, which does indeed show the CCJ.

Dennis
@natdebtline

Yes it does, in that case he will need a "reason" for the N244 as none service of notice to correct address.
They dont go in to that much and tend to go straight to another hearing these days, as long as they get the fee, they will re-sit the case.
The district will need sight of a reasonable defence to strike the CCj and order a re-sit.
The days were they just threw it out are sadly no longer, it's more about the money now.

National_Debtline

laurae5868 wrote: »

Thanks for that Dennis,

On the N244 form, do I need to be stating that the debt is statute barred anywhere?

Not really sure how to fill this form out properly i.e. using proper terminology etc.

Hi again

Don't worry too much about terminology. You just need to ensure that you make it clear:

(a) what you are applying for (the N244 being a general form) - namely for the judgment to be set aside; and

(b) why you are making this request - i.e. your belief that the debt in question was already statute barred by the time the claim was issued (plus the fact that you didn't get the claim form in order to respond).

Normally, some sort of evidence to support (b) would be useful. It's not that simple here, as you are trying to prove the non-existence of something! So I would simply provide as much info as you know - an estimate of when you believe you last paid towards this debt or acknowledged it in writing would help. Or a statement that you have no recollection whatsoever of your last dealings with this debt, if that is nearer the mark.

Please refer to page 3 of our "set aside" fact sheet for a guide to answering the specific questions on the N244:

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/12%20EW%20County%20court%20-%20how%20to%20set%20aside%20a%20judgment/Page-03.aspx#

Dennis
@natdebtline

laurae5868

Hi both,

Thank you very much for your reply.

I rang this company to pay off a different debt of £62.87 in July (there was a dispute with our phone line company) and I received a letter to say that that debt had been paid and marked down as satisfied, the part Im worrying about is if they try and say I made a payment for the statute barred debt or that I acknowledged it.

Basically, the lady on the phone mentioned it to me and I said that is not on my credit file and it's statute barred so I'm not discussing it.

If I state on the N244 form that I have not received any correspondence regarding the statue barred debt, can they say that it was discussed on that phone call this year? (Which it wasn't.)

National_Debtline

laurae5868 wrote: »

Hi both,

Thank you very much for your reply.

I rang this company to pay off a different debt of £62.87 in July (there was a dispute with our phone line company) and I received a letter to say that that debt had been paid and marked down as satisfied, the part Im worrying about is if they try and say I made a payment for the statute barred debt or that I acknowledged it.

Basically, the lady on the phone mentioned it to me and I said that is not on my credit file and it's statute barred so I'm not discussing it.

If I state on the N244 form that I have not received any correspondence regarding the statue barred debt, can they say that it was discussed on that phone call this year? (Which it wasn't.)

Hi again

It doesn't really matter whether it was discussed or not during that July phone call, as such a conversation would have no relevance in determining whether the debt was statute barred.

You had a separate telephone debt of £62.87, you made a payment of £62.87 towards that debt, and they have since written to you acknowledging that that debt is paid and satisfied. From that we can reasonably state that none of that £62.87 was paid towards the CCJ debt.

More to the point, if the CCJ debt was already statute barred by July, it could not have become "un-barred", even if you did then make a payment towards it.

Keep this simple, for your own sake, and don't try to second-guess how the creditor might respond. I refer you back to points (a) and (b) in my previous post.

Dennis
@natdebtline

Tixy

A phone call doesn't count as acknowledgement of a debt for statute barred purposes.
You could have said on a telephone call that you 100% accepted that the debt was owed and it still wouldn't have impacted on the date the debt became statute barred.

Plus if the debt was already statute barred at the date of that call earlier this year then even if you had then written a letter to acknowledge the debt, or even if you had made a payment on that call - neither of these would change it being statute barred.

Once a debt is statute barred it remains that way permanently.