CCJ's and the 6 year time limit

Smurvk

I found the information below on a legal website called darlingtons.com but MSE won't let me post a link to the site. Anyway, I'm a little confused and was hoping someone could clarify what it means.

What happens if the debtor doesn’t pay – can’t pay or won’t pay?

County Court Judgments are usually in force for 6 years and can be enforced in a number of ways It is important to understand and recognise that the civil court will not do anything against the debtor simply because there is a judgment. If the judgment debtor does not pay, it is up to you as judgment creditor to take further action and this will involve delay, additional cost and no certainty of outcome.

Time limits on enforcement of a Judgment

You have 6 years to enforce a judgment before it becomes time barred. Some creditors wait to enforce if they know the debtor is in financial difficulties in the hope that at some stage the debtor’s situation may improve. Others take the view that it is important to keep maximum pressure on a debtor and to try and recover monies before other creditors do.

Where the above paragraph says "county court judgements are usually in force for 6 years" is what's got me confused.

I understand that (depending on the type of debt) most claimants have 6 years to make a claim before their claim is statute barred and that they can no longer sue. Perhaps I'm reading the above passage wrong, but it appears to be saying that even if a claimant sues successfully in court, they only have six years to enforce the judgement.

Does this mean that once the judgement is made, if a debtor genuinely cannot pay the debt for the following six years, then as soon as six years have passed the court judgment can no longer be enforced?

Or is it the case that six years simply means that's how long a claimant has to take someone to court, but once the judgement is made it lasts forever?

sourcrates

Hi,


Court claims do not become statute barred, however, six years is often considered time enough for enforcement, so if six years have passed since judgement, and the creditor wanted to enforce it, they would need to go back before the court for permission to do so.


The judge would require a good enough reason as to why they had not exercised there rights in the previous six years before hand.


Reasons could be, for example, the debtor has eluded all attempts to trace them, they had not given the creditor an up to date address, things like that.


If the reasons were not considered to be acceptable, the case would be thrown out.

Smurvk

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,


Court claims do not become statute barred, however, six years is often considered time enough for enforcement, so if six years have passed since judgement, and the creditor wanted to enforce it, they would need to go back before the court for permission to do so.


The judge would require a good enough reason as to why they had not exercised there rights in the previous six years before hand.


Reasons could be, for example, the debtor has eluded all attempts to trace them, they had not given the creditor an up to date address, things like that.


If the reasons were not considered to be acceptable, the case would be thrown out.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

When you say court claims do not become statute barred, what do you mean please? Do you mean court judgements? As I understand it the limitation act can render virtually all court claims statute barred if they are made after a certain period of time?

sourcrates

Smurvk wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the reply.

When you say court claims do not become statute barred, what do you mean please? Do you mean court judgements? As I understand it the limitation act can render virtually all court claims statute barred if they are made after a certain period of time?

Yes, county court judgements.

For normal consumer credit debts, a creditor has 6 years in which to take legal action for non payment, (5 years in Scotland).

After the expiration of 6 years (England and wales) court action can still be taken, but if a claim form is issued, the Limitations act comes into play, the debtor would have to defend on the basis the account was statute barred, that is a full defence to any court claim that is genuinely out of time.


If the debtor does not defend the claim, then judgement by default can still be made.
Ideally the creditor would of written to the debtor beforehand, and the debtor would of responded with a statute barred letter, which, in an ideal world, should of been enough to put any such claim to bed.

County court judgements once made, are not subject to the Limitations act.
The judgement creditor can still go back to court after 6 years have passed, and gain permission to proceed with the judgement, if, as I said, they have a sufficiently good reason to do so.

If the creditors case is dismissed, then the CCJ can no longer be enforced.

The only other way a judgement can be challenged is by applying for it to be set aside by filling in court form N245 and paying the £255.00 court fee, and again, you would need a sufficiently good reason to get a judgement set aside.

fatbelly

National debtline posted helpfully on this a few years ago

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63806369#Comment_63806369

Smurvk

sourcrates wrote: »

Yes, county court judgements.


After the expiration of 6 years (England and wales) court action can still be taken, but if a claim form is issued, the Limitations act comes into play, the debtor would have to defend on the basis the account was statute barred, that is a full defence to any court claim that is genuinely out of time.

Thanks again. I think I'm getting there. Regarding the paragraph above, is there a scenario where someone would take court action and not issue a claim form? I thought that would be the first thing someone would do if they are seeking to make a claim?

fatbelly

The claim form is the start of the process to obtain a county court judgement.

Smurvk

That's what I thought. Which is why I was confused at the above post

After the expiration of 6 years (England and wales) court action can still be taken, but if a claim form is issued, the Limitations act comes into play

I'm probably reading it wrong but this seemed to imply that a court proceedings could be obtained without a claim form.

fatbelly

No it's saying that proceedings can be started (by issuing a claim form) beyond the 6-year point but the Limitation Act provides a full defence to that action.

As Sourcrates says "the debtor would have to defend on the basis the account was statute barred, that is a full defence to any court claim that is genuinely out of time."

Smurvk

Ah ok, that makes sense. Many thanks.