Cabot and CCj

chalkstripe1

HI,

I have just discovered I have a CCJ from Cabot. It was issued in Aug 2016 and is for an Intelligent Finance Credit Card for £6k. I got divorced and moved around a lot and received a letter from Cabot at the address I now live it with my girlfriend asking me to contact them about paying the old credit card off. I sent a CCA request and they have responded saying I have a CCJ as above.

I am going to have to contact them to arrange some kind of payment plan. I currently have no income or assets following my divorce and live at the charity of my girlfriend in a house that she owns. I may however be in a position in the near future to offer them a substantial sum as F&F as I have been building a business for the last 2 years and should have some deals closing shortly.

My question is does anyone have any advice or experience of dealing with Cabot at this stage. I want to avoid any unpleasantness with bailiffs etc although as I have nothing they wouldnt get much of a result. Do I have any recourse if Cabot refuse to be reasonable and demand that i make monthly payments that I simply dont have the money to pay. I have heard that if they want to send bailiffs round they have to get a judge to approve that and I have the option to submit I believe its a N244 laying out what I can afford. I have always believed you cant be asked to pay what you dont have but would appreciate any advice here.

Thanks a lot for any input.

fatbelly

chalkstripe1 wrote: »

I am going to have to contact them to arrange some kind of payment plan. I currently have no income or assets ...

I may however be in a position in the near future to offer them a substantial sum as F&F as I have been building a business for the last 2 years and should have some deals closing shortly.

I want to avoid any unpleasantness with bailiffs etc

I have heard that if they want to send bailiffs round they have to get a judge to approve that and I have the option to submit I believe its a N244 laying out what I can afford.

How are you going to offer them a payment plan if you have no income?

You may not get a very good F&F deal as there is a ccj on this and they have enforcement options. But certainly try that if you come into a lump sum.

Just because there is a ccj on it does not mean that it will be enforced. If they chose bailiffs, as this is a consumer credit act debt, they would have to use the court bailiff, who generally will behave reasonably. Should this happen you may wish to use a N245 to suspend the warrant but you would have to make a payment offer for this to be successful.

sourcrates

Remember, even £1 a month is an offer of payment.

chalkstripe1

Thanks for response guys. My girlfriend gives me a small amount each month to pay my mobile phone bill and cover out of pocket expenses such a Tube fares etc. She pays all other bills such as food, council tax etc. I could make a small monthly payment up to 15-20 a month. I just don't want any unpleasantness until I am in a position to deal with properly. Thanks

Just_Di

chalkstripe1 wrote: »

I have just discovered I have a CCJ from Cabot. It was issued in Aug 2016 and is for an Intelligent Finance Credit Card for £6k. I got divorced and moved around a lot and received a letter from Cabot at the address I now live it with my girlfriend asking me to contact them about paying the old credit card off. I sent a CCA request and they have responded saying I have a CCJ as above.

If you have only just discovered that you have a CCJ then you may be able to get it set aside if it was served incorrectly e.g. at an address where you weren't living at the time.

Once it is set aside it's as if the CCJ never happened so you have the opportunity to defend the claim.

So far you've been told by Cabot that you have a CCJ but you need the details so contact Northampton County Court Business Centre (assuming it was a Default Judgment since you didn't respond to the claim) and ask them to send you the Judgment (CCJ) and the "Case Details" which is a printout of the Particulars of Claim etc. Call them on 0300 123 1057.

If Cabot haven't given you the claim reference number then you can get this from Trust Online if you search the address where the claim was issued (do you know which old address that is?) but there's a small fee to pay. I can't post the link as I'm a new member but you can get it on Google if you enter "Trust Online search yourself".

To be successful in a set aside application you need to persuade the court that not only was the claim served on an incorrect address but also that you would have likely prospects of success if you were to be given the chance to defend the claim. Otherwise the court may take the view there's no point in setting it aside if your only going to get another CCJ in its place.

If you send a s 77-79 CCA Request to Cabot after the CCJ has been set aside then they are legally obliged to comply within the statutory time-frame or the debt becomes unenforceable in court unless or until they do. Obviously if they can't comply that would be a good time to negotiate payment of the debt if that is what you want to do instead of fight on.

A court can't order you to pay more money than you have. If you're not successful with a set aside application (or don't want to try) then you can make an Application to Vary the CCJ to affordable payments.

As long as you don't breach the Order (fail to keep up with the payments) then enforcement action such as bailiffs or an Attachment of Earnings is not an option for the Judgment Creditor Cabot.

Di