CCJ enforcement questions

Debtfreeby23

Hi! We have been in debt for over 7 years now. Luckily, a lot of the debt is either already statute barred or is close to becoming. Me and husband have both just looked at our credit files and our debts (that were well over £15k) are coming down! The most worrying now are 3 ccjs which we have.

Husband has 2 of £300 and £5050
I have one of £94

Now the 2 smaller ccjs are not a concern, should we get chased for these they can be paid up in a matter of months.

But the £5050 is a concern.

This ccj was given in 2013 and we have heard nothing since...we don't recall being given the ccj...! We are assuming it is for a car which we had on finance which was defaulted on and they took the car. The car was only £6k and we had paid off a year of the 3 year dealater before husband lost his job.

The car was taken in 2009- and I assume it would take a while for a ccj to come about so that's all we can think of. But we didn't receive any post about the ccj and we have had nothing since!

Both me and husband are on electrol roll and have in no way tried to hide from our debts (we have ignored the lower debts which we knew we wouldn't be able to pay and which we knew were close to being statute barred) but never hidden away. If we had received anything about a ccj we would have acted on it as we are now a lot older and wiser than when we got into debt and are keen to get out credit scores up from 300!

My question is, these ccjs (we have had no correspondence regarding any of them since moving into our current property in 2009) are they enforceable.

Now I know that a ccj never disappears. It will "drop off" the credit file in 6 years but will not go away. But since they have never once chased for this debt, and we have no idea that we even had them before today, surely there is some kind of limit on how long a creditor can leave it before chasing for the debt? Surely there are some kind of rules about telling someone they have a ccj too?! As I say we haven't hidden our address, we have banks, we vote, etc etc. So we are easy enough to find.

Any info on this would be great.

I don't want to go contacting anyone about the ccj because if they have sort of forgotten about them, I don't want them to remember...! But at the same time I want to be prepared should they come knocking.

We have no assets, we rent our home and don't have a car. Our TV is worth around £50 and have no games consoles. We have 2 Samsung galaxy phones (both on contract in my mother's name) and a Samsung tablet (again contract in my mother's name). We don't have jewellery or anything like that. Our entire household of stuff is probably worth £1000 total...the phones and tablet are legally the property of EE and are in my mums name anyway.

They could get an attachment of earnings from husbands wages, but I'd fight that on the grounds of we have an attachment already in place (from council tax debt from the same time as the rest of the problems).

Would I be able to say the debts are not mine (well husbands)...considering we don't actually know what they're for (the £5k suspected car debt should have been covered by resale of the car if that's what it is!) And we never got any correspondence??

Just some advice should they ever come asking for the money on what to do? Is it still enforceable etc etc .

TIA :money:

CIS

You might be able to get some more info on it here - http://www.trustonline.org.uk/ . They're the company who administer the access to the registers on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Craig

CIS

Does the £5050 one show as satisfied - if it was for the car and it has been paid off them is should show as such.

Craig

fatbelly

Debtfreeby23 wrote: »

This ccj was given in 2013 and we have heard nothing since...we don't recall being given the ccj...! We are assuming it is for a car which we had on finance which was defaulted on and they took the car. The car was only £6k and we had paid off a year of the 3 year dealater before husband lost his job.

The car was taken in 2009- and I assume it would take a while for a ccj to come about so that's all we can think of. But we didn't receive any post about the ccj and we have had nothing since!

Both me and husband are on electrol roll and have in no way tried to hide from our debts (we have ignored the lower debts which we knew we wouldn't be able to pay and which we knew were close to being statute barred) but never hidden away. If we had received anything about a ccj we would have acted on it as we are now a lot older and wiser than when we got into debt and are keen to get out credit scores up from 300!

My question is, these ccjs (we have had no correspondence regarding any of them since moving into our current property in 2009) are they enforceable.

Now I know that a ccj never disappears. It will "drop off" the credit file in 6 years but will not go away. But since they have never once chased for this debt, and we have no idea that we even had them before today, surely there is some kind of limit on how long a creditor can leave it before chasing for the debt? Surely there are some kind of rules about telling someone they have a ccj too?! As I say we haven't hidden our address, we have banks, we vote, etc etc. So we are easy enough to find.

Any info on this would be great.

I don't want to go contacting anyone about the ccj because if they have sort of forgotten about them, I don't want them to remember...! But at the same time I want to be prepared should they come knocking.

We have no assets, we rent our home and don't have a car. Our TV is worth around £50 and have no games consoles. We have 2 Samsung galaxy phones (both on contract in my mother's name) and a Samsung tablet (again contract in my mother's name). We don't have jewellery or anything like that. Our entire household of stuff is probably worth £1000 total...the phones and tablet are legally the property of EE and are in my mums name anyway.

They could get an attachment of earnings from husbands wages, but I'd fight that on the grounds of we have an attachment already in place (from council tax debt from the same time as the rest of the problems).

Would I be able to say the debts are not mine (well husbands)...considering we don't actually know what they're for (the £5k suspected car debt should have been covered by resale of the car if that's what it is!) And we never got any correspondence??

Just some advice should they ever come asking for the money on what to do? Is it still enforceable etc etc .

Yes ccjs remain enforceable for 6 years after judgement. After this they are 'enforceable by order of the court', i.e. they would have to explain why there has been such a gap. There is case law for permission to be granted and case law for permission to be refused.

Asking the awarding court what this is costs nothing, and they will not communicate your request to anyone. You just phone and ask who the claimant was. It would be useful if this info appeared in credit reports but there you are...

You are right to suggest the most likely forms of enforcement they could try would be (1) bailiffs or (2) attachment to earnings.

(1) If this is a consumer credit act debt (or any debt under £600) they would have to use the court bailiff, who is not usually aggressive, and you could always use an N245 to suspend the warrant and change this to payment in instalments

(2) To attach to husband's earnings the judgement would have to be in his name. Your suggested defence would not work. There's no fixed scale like in Council Tax attachments so you would end up paying in instalments like (1)

sourcrates

It would seem an attachment of earnings would be the only viable method for them to invoke, should they choose to do so, it's not unusual for debts to "go cold" like this, sometimes a creditor just decides the debt will be unrecoverable, and dosent bother.

If you can get over the 6 year mark, you would have a case to argue the creditor has had time enough for enforcement.

National_Debtline

Hi there,


I just wanted to add a few extra points to what has already been said.

Debtfreeby23 wrote: »

Hi! We have been in debt for over 7 years now. Luckily, a lot of the debt is either already statute barred or is close to becoming. Me and husband have both just looked at our credit files and our debts (that were well over £15k) are coming down! The most worrying now are 3 ccjs which we have.

Husband has 2 of £300 and £5050
I have one of £94

Now the 2 smaller ccjs are not a concern, should we get chased for these they can be paid up in a matter of months. I would suggest that you start saving now, that way if they do approach you then you can have the money ready, but if they don't then you will just have some savings.

But the £5050 is a concern.

This ccj was given in 2013 and we have heard nothing since...we don't recall being given the ccj...! We are assuming it is for a car which we had on finance which was defaulted on and they took the car. The car was only £6k and we had paid off a year of the 3 year dealater before husband lost his job.

The car was taken in 2009- and I assume it would take a while for a ccj to come about so that's all we can think of. But we didn't receive any post about the ccj and we have had nothing since!

Both me and husband are on electrol roll and have in no way tried to hide from our debts (we have ignored the lower debts which we knew we wouldn't be able to pay and which we knew were close to being statute barred) but never hidden away. If we had received anything about a ccj we would have acted on it as we are now a lot older and wiser than when we got into debt and are keen to get out credit scores up from 300!

My question is, these ccjs (we have had no correspondence regarding any of them since moving into our current property in 2009) are they enforceable.

Now I know that a ccj never disappears. It will "drop off" the credit file in 6 years but will not go away. But since they have never once chased for this debt, and we have no idea that we even had them before today, surely there is some kind of limit on how long a creditor can leave it before chasing for the debt? Surely there are some kind of rules about telling someone they have a ccj too?! As I say we haven't hidden our address, we have banks, we vote, etc etc. So we are easy enough to find.
The creditor is only required to send paperwork to the last known UK address, so if you moved but didn't inform them that could explain why paperwork regarding the court papers was missed. The other problem you have, even if you haven't moved, is that things don't have to be sent recorded delivery.

Any info on this would be great.

I don't want to go contacting anyone about the ccj because if they have sort of forgotten about them, I don't want them to remember...! But at the same time I want to be prepared should they come knocking. Even if they did decide to enforce the judgement(s) with bailiffs, you should get a 7 days written warning before they come - this is known as a Notice of Enforcement. Bailiffs in this situation can only come inside if you invite them in or if they find open or unlocked access – so do not let them in and hide anything valuable outside (like a push bike).

We have no assets, we rent our home and don't have a car. Our TV is worth around £50 and have no games consoles. We have 2 Samsung galaxy phones (both on contract in my mother's name) and a Samsung tablet (again contract in my mother's name). We don't have jewellery or anything like that. Our entire household of stuff is probably worth £1000 total...the phones and tablet are legally the property of EE and are in my mums name anyway. Check the agreement but normally you own the item straight away and you are paying the for the service – minutes, texts, data etc. So they would be your asset.


They could get an attachment of earnings from husbands wages, but I'd fight that on the grounds of we have an attachment already in place (from council tax debt from the same time as the rest of the problems).

Would I be able to say the debts are not mine (well husbands)...considering we don't actually know what they're for (the £5k suspected car debt should have been covered by resale of the car if that's what it is!) And we never got any correspondence?? Now that the creditor has a CCJ they are not required to respond to the ‘prove it’ letter because the judgement already proves the debt. With the car, assuming it was on hire purchase, you would be liable for the full agreement (including interest and charges), minus the money paid to date and minus the resale at auction if applicable. You may also be liable for additional costs depending on the T & C’s of the contract.

Just some advice should they ever come asking for the money on what to do? Is it still enforceable etc etc .

TIA :money:

Laura
@natdebtline