CCJ arrived I know nothing about

DesperatelyScared

I am very bewildered as I've received a letter saying I have a CCJ but I know nothing about it.

A bit of background - i did get into a mess of debt a few years ago when I had some mental health issues, I had treatment for cancer and was evicted from my flat all about the same time. I am okay now and have found a permanent job and starting to get on my feet (still living somewhere temporarily in a room in a shared flat which is not ideal, as I don't have a tenancy agreement) but I still do have some old debts hanging about I need to deal with . Gradually starting to deal with them but I have been finding it hard and have recently been going to counselling to get myself organised.

So I received a letter from a debt collector some months back for a debt I did not recognise. I cannot to be honest remember when as everything is very blurred in times due to my MH not being good. I was avoiding opening post. I asked for clarification of the debt but didn't receive anything. I saw a default appear on my credit file for a company whose name I did't recognise (Motormile) which I queried.

Some months later I have received a notice of a default judgment of a CCJ. I cannot find any paperwork threatening legal action at all for this (if I received it I would have tried to get some legal advice). I do live in a place with a shared mailbox for about ten people so it could have gone astray of course.

So what are my options?

The debt is something like £450 so I could (at a push) pay it now, if I borrowed some money from a friend - to get it wiped off the system (however there is no information on how to pay on here at all, so I have no idea of where I would send the payment to. There is the name and address of someone called Moriarity Law on it but I've never heard of them and I can only find a webpage which is from the perspective of someone employing them to collect a debt.

I've read about something called a Set Aside, is this something I could look at?

I am very anxious of the effect of this on my credit file as I am trying to find a place to rent at the moment - as I am just somewhere temporarily where i have no tenancy security - so I just want to get rid of it if I can.

I do have defaults on my file but they are all from 2/3 years ago and since then my credit history has got better, since I found a job and have been able to sort my life out a bit.

I genuinely can't remember where this debt is from though

if this is the wrong place to post this please let me know!

DCFC79

Dont worry its in the right place.

Ive heard of Moriarity Law, not personal experience but from the forum.

PixelPound

You don't mention the date of the CCJ, if it is older than 1 month then the only real advantage of paying off in full would be it is marked as satisfied, if its less than 1 month then it would get removed. Now that the debt is liable under a CCJ, no extra interest etc can be added (extra costs only go from further action), so no real benefit of borrowing to pay off early inmost cases.

Set aside would get rid of the CCJ but the debt would be still liable and a CCJ could happen again if continued not to pay. However applying for it to be set aside costs £255 plus you need a good reason for it to be done so. You not receiving paperwork isn't good enough if Moriarty Law can prove they sent a letter before claim. The court send out the claim form too. Whilst you say you queried the default, who was it queried with, if not ML, then the LBC and claim form could all have been sent to the flat you were evicted from - which they can do if you did not tell all your creditors of a new address.

You would at first need to contact Moriarty Law to find out what the debt is for - there are letter templates to help with this that don't admit any liability. If you don't recognise the debt as yours then you have options, if you do recognise the debt as yours then its a case of repaying it, affordability depending, unless you have a really good reason to get the CCJ set aside.

sourcrates

Hi,

Moriarty Law are a firm of solicitors used by the debt collection industry to do there legal work for them.

What has most likely happened here, is that all court papers, pre-action letters etc, will of gone to the last address they had on file for you, the flat you were kicked out of.

Thing is paying off the CCJ wont remove it from your credit file, it would be marked as satisfied, but would still remain there for a total of 6 years.

Obtaining a setaside is another option, but you need to have a good defense with a good prospect of success, there is also the cost of £255,00 per application.

You can get remission on this fee if you are on a low income, but with the debt only been £450 is it worth all that hassle ?

The majority of landlords only do a soft credit search when checking out potential renters, lots of people have CCJ`s, and still mange to rent ok.

DesperatelyScared

its dated the 16th of september.
I have a letter saying they are thinking of taking me to court, but not a Letter before Action

the previous letter is sent here, not my old address. I moved from there 2 years ago but did have post redirected for about a year (actually to a friends as I had no address of my own for a while)

sourcrates

DesperatelyScared wrote: »

its dated the 16th of september.

So time is up to pay this then realistically, in order to have it removed from your file within 30 days..

You now have two choices :

(1) apply for a setaside, on the grounds of not receiving the court papers, you can Google the correct form to use, and also the remission forms for the fee.

or,

(2) admit defeat and come to some kind of affordable re-payment plan with them, and take your chances with the landlords.