CCJ issued against us after we had paid out of court! Claimant did not close case !!

Nothavingit_3

Ok, I have an issue , I’ll try and break this down for you as it spans months.
I am a sole trader and we were using a SEO COMPANY based in London to improve our website ranking on google, the company promised 13 keywords after 6 months if not they would work for free until it was !
Moving 5 months on and 3 or 13 words was improved but the remaining 10 had not done a thing, when we challenged the company we were told that the contract was for 12 months not 6. This is where it becomes messy as the service that was sold over the phone did not match that confusing contract. And in highensight should have picked up earlier on it!
PayPal was the companies merchant, we paid them through PayPal every month, we contacted PayPal and raised a case for not receiving service sold, we were told that the seller had 10 days to reply to the case. We hear nothing from this company during this time, as far as they are concerned they have our money “ tough S&£t”

10 days pass and PayPal awards us all of the 5 months we had paid. No sooner do they see the money eh has left their account they are on the phone threatinging we with small claims court saying we had illegally obtained money by lying. Our response was clear. They had 10 days to discuss this with their payment merchant “ PayPal “ in this case they refused. Nothing we had done was illegal. PayPal told us we may lose if it’s regarding a service that they just don’t understand! We took the risk and went for it!
No we received an email from the company with an attachement from a small claims court ordering us to court . We had 14 days to respond.
This is where it gets murky

We left our rental address in 9th August 2017. This email was from 29th September 2017, we informed the company that we had moved but were not willing to provide new addr as to him based on his threats.
We emailed back and forth and stated we would pay approx 23% of the agreed amount of 6 months as only 3 of 13 words had improved!
He refused. He called me to say he would accept 4 months payment which equates to £480. If he received this payment by the 13th of October he would close the account and consider the matter closed!
I obtained this in writing and have this on my server. We made payment to the individual on the 10th of October, for £480 as agreed in the email. And since that date he refused to communicate and ignored every single email from us seeking he case had been closed!
We then started to recejved 1 star reviews on our google page. A clear indication it was him as the reviews where for people we had never heard of and were to specific in nature to not be a coincidence! The final review stated we had a ccj against us for not making payment to a company!
This review has since been deleted!
Enraged of dragging my company name through the mud I called him, as soon as he got my name he hung up and 1 hour later emails us a cease and disist order! Stating we are harassing him and thy he doesn’t need to speak to us if we bother him he will sue us for harasssement!

Ok move on to today, I have an email ffrom Clear score to say a major change had happened on our account! Scroll down and there it is a CCJ For the sum of £780 which was the amount he was chasing me for, 6 x £120 + £60 Court free for submitting the case!

Ok so here I am, with a ccj , being issued to a house I don’t live in for 2 months, after paying and agreed settlement out of court , proof of payment and agreement we have. Every attempt of communication ignored by the company after getting our money . And then keeping the case open and winning by default. As we didn’t know the case was open or receive paperwork as we don’t live at the address he filed it against!

So now to get a judge to set this aside “ if we will win” we have to pay an additional £225.

This has ruined our reputation, my credit file and my faith in fellow man! How can he not tell a judge we made a payment that he requested to close the matter yet still chase for the whole amount, it’s not even 780 minus 489 we paid!

Please please please can someone advise me on what to do; it’s newnm years eve and j feel sick to my stomach that someone has defamatory my name and business after failing to stick to his word and deliver us what he sold!

Do we go to the police, we do get a solicitor, can we raise it to the attention of the courts that he had obtained money from us that he hasn’t notified the courts!
Can we go after him for obtaining money and still trying to obtain the full amount! Surely there are legal boundaries and moral boundaries that have been smashed to bits!

I hope someone can come to me with a plan

Stu

fatbelly

Nothavingit wrote: »

So now to get a judge to set this aside “ if we will win” we have to pay an additional £225.

It's £255 - with remission for those on a low income.

There shouldn't be any problem in getting set aside.

There is a consultation ongoing about this kind of abuse of process.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/action-to-make-the-process-fairer-on-debt-rulings

Nothavingit_3

All information and evidence submitted to a solictor would cover what had been shown here. Writing a full blown step by step account of what’s happened on here would only lead to people falling asleep . It was just a “in a nutshell” post.
We are a victim here, we have been punished in the highest possible way of not being happy with a service by a company. We have followed procedures and the company has lied and deceived to us and the courts about how much money we owed.
We were ignored after making payment before the date we arranged and yet he still went to court! And then made posts on google under a fake name drawing attention to the ccj to further ruin our reputation.
Rouge trader is not even close to this guy. Posing as a latge organisation. Under a virtual address it’s almost impossible to track this guy. Reviews of this business have sprung up on line to futher show more people being being conned into the same contract as I.
So whilst there maybe some information missing from the post to flesh it out , I can assure you that we are wanting to pursue the legal and most effective way of clearing our name, restoring our credit rating and going after the individual who has lied and cheated us and the judge to get his judgement

fatbelly

He would have had to give a postal address to make the claim so that shouldn't be an issue.

The set-aside takes the claim back to the initial stage, from where you can defend (on the grounds that it has been paid) and counter-claim for the expenses you have incurred in sorting this out. There will be a small fee to counterclaim, and a further fee if it comes to a hearing.

Pursuing the debt for payment, assuming you get a judgement against him, will involve further fees. It depends how far you want to take it.

You don't need a solicitor

Nothavingit_3

Thanks mate,
So based on the fact I have emails of an agreement to settle out of court and a payment completion and the fact he hasn’t disclosed to the court that he has recejved £480 . You would say that this would be a sufficient grounds to have a court over turn the decision.
I want to take this as far as I can, I have had my credit file absolutely smashed to bits And the stress and hassle this has taken out of my life is enough for me to claim for damages! We will speak to a solictor . I’m just angry and disappointed that my credit worthiness is currently affected from someone who has lied to the court! Lied to me and made promises to not take it futher, even though I paid 4 months of payments for 23% of the work
He led me to believe he would close the case if I paid, knowing full well that he would still carry on he case!
I feel angry to have ever been sucked into a promise that was never intended to be fulfilled in. It’s the work and the out of court settlement!

I was hoping people may have had similar cases that they could advise me on! On how to proceed , or should I just put it in the hand of a solictor ?

fatbelly

Yes, to have a judgement set aside you need:

to have a defence with a real prospect of success
to have a reason why you could not/did not defend the original claim
to have acted 'promptly'

It shouldn't need a solicitor but I see you are thinking of going down that route. In the first instance you will have to pay solicitor costs. You can add them to your counterclaim but you will also have to work out how you would force payment if you won. Many judgements remain unpaid.

geezadrc

you don't need a solicitor you need the paperwork from the court or the details of the login to the money claim online.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

once you login to the claim against you I believe there will be an option to set aside (sorry not been on the receiving line of ccj yet)

Comms69

This thread should be used as an exemplar of HOW NOT TO DEFEND A CLAIM!


You did literally everything wrong!

[Deleted User]

I agree.., well worth having a royal mail post forwarding service. You could have done this and should have.

One phone call to the court to double check would have established the court case was ongoing. Just to be sure. Then you could have attended with proof and stopped this stone dead. You already knew (based on what you have said) the person had no principles.

No you shouldn't have to, yes you do have to, to prevent hassle like this.