Satisfied CCJ but not in the country

klameer

Hi All,
I do hope you can help.
I have a CCJ registered against me on December 2012. During this time, I was abroad having to take my wife and baby to see her parents. I don't believe I received any documents at the time regarding the hearing (as I would have made sure that I attended the hearing or at least informed the claimants that I was be unable to attend due to reasonable circumstances).
It was only after I came back to the UK that I discovered the CCJ. I immediately satisfied this (in February 2013, though not the full amount) and resigned myself to the fact that I would be a financial pariah for 6 years.
I recently discovered that if there are reasonable grounds that CCJs can be set aside.
My question is, can my situation be considered reasonable grounds. I am unable to prove that I didn't receive the summons, however I can prove that I was abroad during the CCJ hearing.

If this is the case, I would be grateful for some advice of the process I need to follow in order for the CCJ to be set aside.

I thank you in advance for any advice given and may karma visit favorable circumstances upon you in return.

Karim

Thrugelmir

There would have been correspondence prior to the County Court Summons being issued. Doesn't appear that you made any attempt to settle the debt owed. Chalk it up to experience and in future pay your debts as they fall due.

National_Debtline

Hi Klameer,


I am afraid the claimant is only required to send claim forms to the last known UK address, and unfortunately, if you are not there then there isn't much that you can do. A set aside application takes the CCJ back to the beginning and the court would normally assess a few things - such as why didn't you respond to the original claim forms, how prompt have you been in filing this application (from 2012/13 - now is quiet a long time) and do you have a realistic prospect of a defence. Unfortunately, the fact that you made a payment typically admits liability so I am not sure what your grounds could be to say the money wasn't owed.


On top of that, this application costs £255 to submit, and if you were to lose then the debt can increase because of legal costs of the other side. I would suggest that you are very careful before doing anything like this. The CCJ will come off in 2018 - you could put a notice of correction on there until then to give the CCJ a bit more context to future lenders.


You mentioned that this CCJ isn't fully settled...did you make a deal with the lender to do a lump sum settlement and is it definitely marked as satisfied/ partially satisfied on your credit file?


Laura
@natdebtline

FairWorldCitizen

If you intend to apply for a set aside, then you would need to make sure that:
1) there is a solid, very solid, ground for a judge to re-open the case;
2) you can demonstrate that you did not have a chance to respond to the debtor.

The important point that goes beyond 2) is also whether you were potentially aware that you could owe money to someone. Secondly, the debtor will have tried to contact you (to the last known address) and kept record of this.

As long as 1) or 2) are not satisfied, CC judges nowadays are prompt to reject the SA, at a time where CC costs are raising.

The best option for you now, could be to satisfy the debt in full. The CCJ will soon be marked as satisfied. If you need to prove your honesty (loan application, job application etc), then once you have done that, you can obtain a 'certificate of satisfaction' from the court.

Killykev

Sorry for hopping on the thread but I have recently received my certificate of satisfaction for a CCJ but I'm not sure what to do with it? Do I need to send it to experian etc?? Or will the claimant let them know??

Thanks in advance.