CCJ mortgage nightmare with Nationwide and Call Credit

edhed148

Posting my horror story to settle the nerves of whoever might be going through something like this horrible experience. It was all ok in the end. The sleepless nights and the anxiety were horrible. If this happened to you, you have my sympathy and I hope this helps.

I was selling my one bed to move to a two bed and have our first kid. I was happy to stay with Nationwide - my mortgage provider - and I fully expected an agreement in principle on a larger mortgage. I had over 50% of the sale price (once the 1 bed was sold).

Following the affordability check on the phone with Nationwide, I had to hang on the phone to await the credit check. I've never failed one and never had significant debt. It was declined! I was told there was something on the credit file with Call Credit. I'd never heard of Call Credit but I now know it's one of the main credit agencies along with Experian and Equifax.

I then spent a month in varying degrees of panic, not knowing what had happened but not having a mortgage agreed. I was terrified of doing a round of mortgage applications and further damaging my credit with 'hard' credit checks. I eventually managed to get through to Call Credit and I had to sign up to their credit compass service to download my report. I recommend you do this as you'll get to the root of the problem quicker.

I found that there was a CCJ on my credit file. It was really tricky to find out what had caused it as I wasn't aware of what had gone wrong. It said that I had a £2K CCJ against my name and that it was 'satisfied'. I hadn't paid £2K to anyone! So what had caused it!? I also had perfect credit file with Experian and Equifax, which made it all the more confusing! At this point, I still thought that Call Credit had made a mistake and they were to blame. I was filing various complaints against them because it was still the only blip on my file that was taking my Call Credit rating down to 2/5 (I was 99% on Experian).

I was also speaking to mortgage advisors. This is worth doing and there's plenty of free advise out there. But I was terrified I'd have to get a high rate mortgage designed for people with criminal records etc.

What I should have done sooner was call the court where the mystery CCJ was registered. It was County Court Money Claims Centre (CCMCC). Their call centre gave me the name of the solicitor who had filed it against me. I called them up and - after some confusion - I was able to find out what had happened. When I had rented my flat out the building had changed to a different insurance company and the correspondence asking for the new payment hadn't been passed on to me by my tenant. Bills had mounted without my awareness.

Without my knowledge, the lease management company for the building had gone to my mortgage provider - Nationwide - to pay the unpaid insurance. They'd also charged Nationwide for the legal fees incurred for filing the CCJ against me! All of this had happened two years prior without my knowledge. Nationwide had paid the fee - £2K - and charged it all to my mortgage! To my shame, I hadn't noticed! This explains why the CCJ on the Call Credit file was marked 'satisfied' - it had been paid by Nationwide. But the satisfied CCJ was still enough for a big mark down on my Call Credit score - and Nationwide are one of the trickier providers so had denied my application. So the error wasn't with Call Credit, though they hadn't been very helpful in helping get to the bottom of things.

I was figuring this all out. But I still didn't have a mortgage! Just as this was happening I had a magical email from the court. In the first week of the trauma, I had filled out an N244 form to dispute the - then mysterious - CCJ. Someone in their filing department had simply instructed the Registry Trust to cancel the satisfied CCJ. Apparently my defence about not knowing where it had come from and having perfect credit with other agencies was enough.

The relief at that point was incredible. If you're in a time sensitive situation (like I was with a pregnant girlfriend), I'd advise you to fill out the N244 as early as possible, writing it clearly and concisely and providing all the information you can. Get legal advice on writing it if you can. You could also apply for consent from the party that filed the CCJ - though I never got this. Worth getting the N244 through the wait time to get someone in the court to see it as soon as possible. If I'd had to go to a judge, I would have waited another month to see a judge, so that email from the court was magical. It was in response to an email I'd sent chasing their filing department.

In the end, because I couldn't wait for Nationwide (waiting for Call Credit to actually update my file), I actually got a new Mortgage with Halifax WHILE the CCJ was still on file. Halifax apparently either didn't check Call Credit OR didn't mind the presence of the satisfied CCJ. This was organised by a Mortgage advisor for me, who seemed to understand that Halifax are more lenient. That said, it's impossible to figure out which lenders use which credit agencies. All I know is that Halifax are more lenient than lenders like Nationwide and HSBC.

All in all - I would advise anyone in this situation to get on the phone and get to the bottom of what happened. Call courts. Call solicitors. Then write out your defence to the court as quickly and clearly as possible and get the application to set aside/cancel in there. They may turn it around for you.

And if you ever have tenants in your property - make sure they don't throw away your mail!!!

Newbie78

Wow thanks for sharing, good to know!

marliepanda

Whilst I am pleased you got it sorted and got your mortgage approved, I do need to say this.

'Make sure your tenants don't throw away your mail'

Its not their job to forward your mail. It is YOUR responsibility to update your address with everyone you can think of, and set up a redirect for the rest. You clearly hadnt updated your management company or your registered address.

Its your fault, not your tenants...

Thrugelmir

edhed148 wrote: »

Nationwide are one of the trickier providers so had denied my application.

As I read it. From the issues you describe. The relationship between you and them appears to have broken down. Trust is paramount in any financial relationship.

glentoran99

edhed148 wrote: »

Posting my horror story to settle the nerves of whoever might be going through something like this horrible experience. It was all ok in the end. The sleepless nights and the anxiety were horrible. If this happened to you, you have my sympathy and I hope this helps.

I was selling my one bed to move to a two bed and have our first kid. I was happy to stay with Nationwide - my mortgage provider - and I fully expected an agreement in principle on a larger mortgage. I had over 50% of the sale price (once the 1 bed was sold).

Following the affordability check on the phone with Nationwide, I had to hang on the phone to await the credit check. I've never failed one and never had significant debt. It was declined! I was told there was something on the credit file with Call Credit. I'd never heard of Call Credit but I now know it's one of the main credit agencies along with Experian and Equifax.

I then spent a month in varying degrees of panic, not knowing what had happened but not having a mortgage agreed. I was terrified of doing a round of mortgage applications and further damaging my credit with 'hard' credit checks. I eventually managed to get through to Call Credit and I had to sign up to their credit compass service to download my report. I recommend you do this as you'll get to the root of the problem quicker.

I found that there was a CCJ on my credit file. It was really tricky to find out what had caused it as I wasn't aware of what had gone wrong. It said that I had a £2K CCJ against my name and that it was 'satisfied'. I hadn't paid £2K to anyone! So what had caused it!? I also had perfect credit file with Experian and Equifax, which made it all the more confusing! At this point, I still thought that Call Credit had made a mistake and they were to blame. I was filing various complaints against them because it was still the only blip on my file that was taking my Call Credit rating down to 2/5 (I was 99% on Experian).

I was also speaking to mortgage advisors. This is worth doing and there's plenty of free advise out there. But I was terrified I'd have to get a high rate mortgage designed for people with criminal records etc.

What I should have done sooner was call the court where the mystery CCJ was registered. It was County Court Money Claims Centre (CCMCC). Their call centre gave me the name of the solicitor who had filed it against me. I called them up and - after some confusion - I was able to find out what had happened. When I had rented my flat out the building had changed to a different insurance company and the correspondence asking for the new payment hadn't been passed on to me by my tenant. Bills had mounted without my awareness.

Without my knowledge, the lease management company for the building had gone to my mortgage provider - Nationwide - to pay the unpaid insurance. They'd also charged Nationwide for the legal fees incurred for filing the CCJ against me! All of this had happened two years prior without my knowledge. Nationwide had paid the fee - £2K - and charged it all to my mortgage! To my shame, I hadn't noticed! This explains why the CCJ on the Call Credit file was marked 'satisfied' - it had been paid by Nationwide. But the satisfied CCJ was still enough for a big mark down on my Call Credit score - and Nationwide are one of the trickier providers so had denied my application. So the error wasn't with Call Credit, though they hadn't been very helpful in helping get to the bottom of things.

I was figuring this all out. But I still didn't have a mortgage! Just as this was happening I had a magical email from the court. In the first week of the trauma, I had filled out an N244 form to dispute the - then mysterious - CCJ. Someone in their filing department had simply instructed the Registry Trust to cancel the satisfied CCJ. Apparently my defence about not knowing where it had come from and having perfect credit with other agencies was enough.

The relief at that point was incredible. If you're in a time sensitive situation (like I was with a pregnant girlfriend), I'd advise you to fill out the N244 as early as possible, writing it clearly and concisely and providing all the information you can. Get legal advice on writing it if you can. You could also apply for consent from the party that filed the CCJ - though I never got this. Worth getting the N244 through the wait time to get someone in the court to see it as soon as possible. If I'd had to go to a judge, I would have waited another month to see a judge, so that email from the court was magical. It was in response to an email I'd sent chasing their filing department.

In the end, because I couldn't wait for Nationwide (waiting for Call Credit to actually update my file), I actually got a new Mortgage with Halifax WHILE the CCJ was still on file. Halifax apparently either didn't check Call Credit OR didn't mind the presence of the satisfied CCJ. This was organised by a Mortgage advisor for me, who seemed to understand that Halifax are more lenient. That said, it's impossible to figure out which lenders use which credit agencies. All I know is that Halifax are more lenient than lenders like Nationwide and HSBC.

All in all - I would advise anyone in this situation to get on the phone and get to the bottom of what happened. Call courts. Call solicitors. Then write out your defence to the court as quickly and clearly as possible and get the application to set aside/cancel in there. They may turn it around for you.

And if you ever have tenants in your property - make sure they don't throw away your mail!!!

all good advice, except for the highlighted part, You do not need to sign up to anything to get your credit report, all are available free


callcredit -Noddle
Equifax - clearscore
Experian - MSE credit club


You can also get your stat report for £2 no need to sign up for anything that is charging you