Advice needed - 2 month old CCJ

Theopop

Hi guys,

I'm really trying my best to get back on track with my debts and improve my credit score. I'm feeling a lot better after a number of years of feeling low and struggling with some mental health issues and sadly, as I imagine happens a lot, during that period I didn't deal with my finances as I should.
I wonder if somebody could help me.

There is one CCJ that I have seen on my credit file that is affecting me and will for 6 years. It really puts a dampener on my optimism of getting back on my feet and feeling better about my finances. I am now in a position to get a personal loan from a family member to set up my new business and pay off some debts. I of course knew about the debt but didn't realise they were taking me to court after such a long time.
I am absolutely gutted that this CCJ has the date of February 2018 on and if I had checked my credit file only a month ago it is likely I would have been able pay the amount in full and avoided the CCJ on my file. I know that after this it is on there 6 years.

My question: As I said I have been suffering with mental health issues and have avoided dealing with things and opening letters. I was living at home with my parent up until last year and her house is quite chaotic and post is put away without my knowledge.
I moved out in December and finally feel like I'm on my feet again, I have not received any post from my Mother's up until I've been to look through her house after seeing this on my credit file. I don't need to be told this is a poor excuse but seen as it is only 2 months since the judgement, does anyone think I have a chance of using this excuse and offering to pay the amount in full in order to get the judegment set aside by consent by the claimant/court? Is it worth a try or should I just accept the 6 years?

Original account: Lloyds Bank Account started 02/07/2010
Default Date 30/07/2015 Default Balance £1644
Passed on to ARROW GLOBAL LTD
Account started 02/07/2010
Default Date 30/07/2015 Default Balance £1644

County Court Business Centre
Judgement - Blake Morgan LLP - You did not reply to claim form
Pay claimant £1851.05 DATE: 12/02/2018

I await your replies and advice.

Thank you in advance

Theopop

I must add I've tried to pay this or set up a payment plan over the years. I even wrote to the head of Lloyd's bank at one point explaining my predicament and had a sympathetic letter back but of course, it was not wiped or reduced.

John-K_3

You should do both. You should pay, and you should accept that it will be on your file for six years.

You don!!!8217;t deny the debt, so it makes sense to pay it back, and the record is a true account of what happened.

Use this as a line in the sand, a lesson about what happens if you don!!!8217;t stay on top of things.

The next time you are tempted to default on a debt, remember how you feel like today.

sourcrates

Not receiving the court papers can be a reason to apply for a set aside, however, there is a cost involved with this, currently £255.00.

Although remission on the fee may be available if you are on a low income.

You would ideally need a defense with a reasonable chance of success as well, otherwise you will just be wasting more money.

You said :

Quote.
"I of course knew about the debt but didn't realise they were taking me to court after such a long time"

Could the debt of been statute barred prior to legal action been taken ?

Theopop

I was sort of thinking it was as it's been such a long time and I hadn't really heard anything. However I guess the fact that they were able to get a CCJ means that it musn't have been statute barred? Sorry, I'm not very knowledgeable on how all of this works. I'm learning now though.
I could kick myself really that this could have been dealt with. I have suffered depression and anxiety and a fair share of problems over the years and let a great career and excellent credit score go downhill.
Not dwelling though, I'm trying my best to fix what I can now.
I was diagnosed with ADHD attentive as well, which also means you find it hard organising, eg. letters and finances etc. and concentrating on tasks. I don't know if that's worthwhile noting too if I try.
Would it be best to contact the claimant and discuss whether they would accept to set aside by consent? It's something I've been reading about online.

Theopop

I've just found the letter I sent to them. The amount owed was for an overdraft on my account and it was being paid into to avoid going over the limit up until 2015 when I began suffering some mental health issues due to the loss of a child, missed a few payments and the account went into default. My letter to Lloyds on 2nd December 2015 about this would mean it was not 'Statue Barred' I assume?

Theopop

Would it be better to hire a solicitor to try for the 'set aside' or is it easy to do yourself?
I could do without solicitors fees but if that's the more likely way to get a set aside then it's something I'd have to consider. Anyone?

National_Debtline

Hi there,


Unfortunately, if payments and written acknowledgements of the debt were happening until 2015, this would mean the debt is not statute barred. The 6 year clock, under the Limitations Act starts from when the first payment was due and missed or from when the last payment was made or from when the last written acknowledgement was made - whichever is the later - so this would be around 2015.


I appreciate there are a lot of circumstances to consider here, but you don't appear to have a dispute on the debt, so you would need to consider legal advice if you were still thinking of trying to set this aside. You should remember that a satisfied CCJ (from your credit file perspective) will be better than one that is outstanding/ in default so although paying it now won't remove it from your file, it would be a step in the right direction.


Also, whilst the debt is in default there is a risk of enforcement action, so you do need to vary the payments to something you can manage or pay it in full (or challenge it) soon to avoid a risk of things like bailiffs.


Laura
@natdebtline

John-K_3

Theopop wrote: »

I've just found the letter I sent to them. The amount owed was for an overdraft on my account and it was being paid into to avoid going over the limit up until 2015 when I began suffering some mental health issues due to the loss of a child, missed a few payments and the account went into default. My letter to Lloyds on 2nd December 2015 about this would mean it was not 'Statue Barred' I assume?

Correct, not statute barred.

Statute, as in a law, not statue as in a bronze fellow on a horse.

Theopop

Hi guys, Thank you for the advice (and correction) above

I sought some legal advice and the response is below. (It may help others in this situation)
It all sounds very good but I am not sure I can afford those fees right now However, I find the prospect of doing this myself a little daunting.
Can anyone advise or does anybody know if there are any threads on here that would guide me through the 'set aside' process?

Thanks in advance xx


Solicitor's response:
Thank you for contacting us about the County Court Judgment (CCJ) registered against you. We will be very happy to help you persuade the court to set it aside.

The court can set aside a default judgment in cases where the defendant, you, did not know about the court case because you had not received the claim form – the official notice from the court.

I assume the claim form was issued to your mother’s address when you no longer lived there. That would be a good reason for the court to set aside the judgment, and the prospects that it will are fairly good. I’m afraid that I don’t think that the claim would be time barred – in consumer credit cases the six years usually go from the date of default.

Now you know about the judgment, it is important to act promptly as the court must consider whether an application to set aside default judgment is made promptly.

Please note that this area of procedural law is fairly technical. Our provisional assessment of your prospects of success assumes that you will follow our advice.

Alternatively, you may be able to get help from a local Citizens Advice Bureau to make an application yourself, and you may be able to get a fee remission for the court fee (which is £255). However, if you are unsuccessful there is a risk you may have to pay legal costs to the claimant.

It is still possible, though more difficult, to obtain credit with a poor credit score. I have attached the UK guide to credit scoring which may be of help if you decide not to try to set the judgment aside.


As specialists in litigation and procedural law, we’ve helped many clients like you to successfully have a CCJ set aside and removed from their credit record.


The court has the power to set aside the CCJ but it can do so only in certain circumstances. The rules are complicated and the court will consider a number of different factors before reaching a decision. One factor is promptness, so it’s important to act as soon as you can.

We’ll prepare the case for you using the right legal arguments and providing relevant evidence to the court.

We are often able to persuade the claimant to agree. We can then draft the required legal documents for the court and make an application to set aside by consent, without a court hearing. That will take less time and cost less.

If the claimant will not agree, then the court will have to decide at a hearing. We will instruct an experienced barrister to represent you in court.

The likely cost

We will do the initial work of taking your instructions, considering evidence, preparing legal arguments for the judgment against you to be set aside, and providing written advice for an agreed fee of £300 + VAT. At this point, you are not committing yourself to any legal costs beyond that agreed fee.

Once you have received the written advice, we can then discuss next steps with you. Further work will be done on a time basis in accordance with our Terms of Business, which are attached.

We will charge for the time we spend doing work for you. “Work” is mostly made up of drafting documents, preparing evidence, phone calls, letters, and emails between us and you, the claimant or their solicitors, your barrister (if you have one), and the court. The costs of an application are difficult to predict because it depends on factors outside of our control, such as how the claimant responds and whether additional information comes to light in the course of events.

However, from our experience of acting in similar matters for other clients, we can say that one of two routes through the litigation is likely and the estimated costs of each stage are set out below. Which route is needed depends on the claimant. More often than not, we are able to persuade claimant to agree to the first and lowest cost route. We will try that route first, and ask you before trying the other route.

1) Negotiation with claimant (or their solicitors). We will try to persuade the claimant to agree on the legal position setting aside the judgment, settlement of the claim (if required), and the disposal of the court case. If we can persuade the claimant to consent to the judgment being set aside, our fee is likely to be between £160 and £480 + VAT. Factors which tend to increase the amount of time we need to spend on the case are: if the other side are unresponsive and we have to do a lot of chasing up; if there is a lot of back-and-forth negotiating a settlement of the claim itself; if we receive incomplete responses and have to make the same point or ask the same question more than once.

If the claimant can be persuaded then we can make an application to the court for an order by consent.

2) Making an application to the court by consent. We will prepare the application and evidence and make the application to the court. Our fee is likely to be £160 + VAT, and the court fee will be £100.

If the claimant cannot be persuaded then we will need to make an application “on-notice” and the court will decide at a hearing.

3) If the application proceeds to a hearing, the costs, including the hearing, will probably be between £500 and £1,500 + VAT, plus barrister’s fees of around £250 - £350 + VAT and court fees of £255.

The court has the power to order the claimant to pay all or some of your legal costs, but it depends on all the circumstances and so you should not count on it.

We'll keep you informed throughout the matter. If any unforeseen additional work becomes necessary, we'll let you know of any change in our cost estimates.

Timescales

Typically, the process takes around 6-7 weeks from when you instruct us to receiving a decision from the court. If we must proceed to a court hearing, then the process typically takes about 6-12 weeks, depending on how busy the court is and how soon it can hold a hearing.

If you need to arrange credit urgently, then please let us know. We may be able to help persuade the creditor to overlook the CCJ while this process runs its course.

Next steps

In order for us to begin work for you, please read the attached terms of business and then register as a client by completing our online client registration form, which can be found here:


We will then send you an invoice for the agreed fee of £300+VAT, and once you’ve paid it, we will begin work.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please let me know if you’d like to speak on the telephone before deciding what to do.

GothicStirling

I think talking to Citizen's Advice would be preferrable to paying solicitors.