CCJs after taken for a ride by a debt management company

Kamalak

I have never posted on a forum before so sorry if I don't explain myself very well or am asking something that has been covered already.

I was paying One Debt Soloution, then General Recoveries to pay off my debts. They have subsequently gone into administration. The finanicial ombudsmen have found in my favour that they were taking my money but not distributing it. I had always told my creditors that the money should be coming from ODS/General Recoveries. Since ODS/General Recoveries have gone into administration, I have been served with two CCJs from Arrow Global via Reston Solicitors. I now have a date with the court to ask them to be set aside. I know they will fight me, but do I have a case?

rizla_king

set aside on what grounds?

You always had the option to pay direct or to use a reliable debt management company such as stepchange where it would be guaranteed your payments would be safely distributed. I feel sorry for what has happened to you but cant see what case you have to have them set aside.

National_Debtline

Hi Kamalak

I think Rizla King is right. The debt management company failing to pass your payments on to your creditors is a separate issue to whether you still owe the creditors money at this point.

If your creditors haven’t received payments for your debts so far you still owe them money and they have the right to take court action to recover it.

James
@natdebtline

Kamalak

Thanks both, I thought that might be the case.

fatbelly

Kamalak wrote: »

I have never posted on a forum before so sorry if I don't explain myself very well or am asking something that has been covered already.

I was paying One Debt Soloution, then General Recoveries to pay off my debts. They have subsequently gone into administration. The finanicial ombudsmen have found in my favour that they were taking my money but not distributing it. I had always told my creditors that the money should be coming from ODS/General Recoveries. Since ODS/General Recoveries have gone into administration, I have been served with two CCJs from Arrow Global via Reston Solicitors. I now have a date with the court to ask them to be set aside. I know they will fight me, but do I have a case?

If you had a 'defence with a real prospect of success' but were somehow prevented from responding to the original claim, and have acted promptly, then the court may agree to set aside the judgement.

There's some info on set aside here

sourcrates

Kamalak wrote: »

I was paying One Debt Soloution, then General Recoveries to pay off my debts. They have subsequently gone into administration.

Hi,
A salutary lesson for you unfortunatly, not to use 3rd party fee charging DMC's.
As regards the CCJ's, I don't think you have a good enough reason for a set aside, you can try using the argument you have put forward, the judge may be sympathetic on the day, if not, you will have to come to some arrangement over payment.

FireWyrm

And whilst the government fiddles around the edges coming down on Pay Day Lenders like a tonne of bricks, the real scandal is how these bottom feeding scum limited companies continue to bilk people out of what little money they have to pay their debts. These companies should be utterly illegal.

You always have the right and responsibility to pay your debts yourself. Using a fee paying company does you no favors as you have discovered and in fact, can end up causing more harm.

If any government official is reading this, for the love of little green apples, pull your fingers out of your collective backsides and do something about this menace. It is far more pervasive and damaging than PDLs ever were.

sourcrates

FireWyrm wrote: »

And whilst the government fiddles around the edges coming down on Pay Day Lenders like a tonne of bricks, the real scandal is how these bottom feeding scum limited companies continue to bilk people out of what little money they have to pay their debts. These companies should be utterly illegal.

You always have the right and responsibility to pay your debts yourself. Using a fee paying company does you no favors as you have discovered and in fact, can end up causing more harm.

If any government official is reading this, for the love of little green apples, pull your fingers out of your collective backsides and do something about this menace. It is far more pervasive and damaging than PDLs ever were.

Possibly get Martin involved ?


Another crusade to add to the list, if anyone can champion this cause for tighter regulation, he can !!!!

patman99

It might still be worth going to Court.
You could use the defense of
"I engaged a 3rd party (namely ODS) to negotiate in and subsequently manage, my debts to my creditors.
As far as I was aware, the company was passing on to my creditors a set monthly amount."

You engaged the services of a 3rd party in order to set up and manage a debt management plan. It was this company that failed to pay your creditors (or theirs as they are now bankrupt). Unless they told you they had not been paying the creditors, you would have had no knowledge (unless of course, your creditors had decided to contact you to ask what was going on).

FireWyrm

patman99 wrote: »

It might still be worth going to Court.
You could use the defense of
"I engaged a 3rd party (namely ODS) to negotiate in and subsequently manage, my debts to my creditors.
As far as I was aware, the company was passing on to my creditors a set monthly amount."

I dont think that is going to work. The responsibility for paying the debts belongs to the debtor, regardless of any proxy that they might have engaged. The fact that the proxy stole the money is irrelevant. The debtor should have been following up with the creditors to determine that all was well and payments being made as expected. If you pay for a service, you generally check whether that service was supplied or not. Sticking one's head in the sand and saying "the limited company is dealing with it" is not the creditors fault. They still expect their money and they are not going to let this go.

dancingfairy

Even being on a debt management plan does not gurantee they won't take court action. It's not in the spirit of things to break a gentlemans agreement/informal agreement which is what a dmp is but they can still take it to court if they wish.
Whilst it is unfortunate and a horrible situation to be in I don't think you have any hope of getting the CCJ overturned.
I suggest you speak to one of the free debt charities/organisations and ask for their help on how to move forward from here.
Onwards and upwards.
df