CCJ issued - questions.

jules1973

Hi, I had papers served for a CCJ a few weeks ago. I admitted the claim and offered £150 per month, I posted it on 26th Nov, it was due back on 28th Nov at the latest. Now I have received a CCJ saying I didn't reply to the claim form, dated 29th Nov. It is for almost £9000 which obviously I can't afford to repay in one go. I do want to clear this debt asap, hopefully within a year or two as my salary increases.

How do I go about asking for installments?
Do I approach the creditor direct first to see if they will agree or submit a N245 form to the court asking for a variation?
Are the court likely to reject it and ask me to pay in one go?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

sourcrates

If you have some money and can afford to pay the debt off in installments, you need to fill in court form N245 to apply.

This is called an application for an Instalment Order.

You'll have to fill in your financial details on the back of the form and say how much you can now afford to pay.

Return the form to the court, with the fee for the application.

You may not have to pay the fee or you might get it reduced if you're on a low income.

If your creditor agrees to the new offer, the court will make a new order setting out what you offered. There won't be a court hearing.


If your creditor doesn’t accept your offer, court staff will decide what you should pay, according to guidelines produced by the Court Service. They will then make an new order.

If you don’t agree with what the court staff decide, you can write to the court and ask them to reconsider the order.

You must do this within 14 days of the date of the new order being made. You don’t have to pay a fee to ask the court to reconsider the order and you don’t have to use a special form.

jules1973

Thank you for your very helpful reply. I shall send a N245 on Monday and the £50 fee. I should have got a proof of postage as they should have received my offer of payment reply in time, but hey ho, it's a lesson for the future.
I hope they'll accept the offer. I was going to offer £200 per month on 8k debt.

Thanks again

Just_Di

jules1973 wrote: »

I had papers served for a CCJ a few weeks ago. I admitted the claim and offered £150 per month, I posted it on 26th Nov, it was due back on 28th Nov at the latest. Now I have received a CCJ saying I didn't reply to the claim form, dated 29th Nov. It is for almost £9000 which obviously I can't afford to repay in one go.

How do I go about asking for installments?
Do I approach the creditor direct first to see if they will agree or submit a N245 form to the court asking for a variation?

It appears you have received a Default Judgment (CCJ) because your reply (Admission) wasn't received by the court when the Claimant sought Judgment on 29th November. At least it may have been received but not logged on the system because courts can be several days behind with paperwork.

If you had Proof of Posting you may have been able to apply to the court for 'relief from sanctions' but since this was an Admission you would have got a CCJ eventually albeit with potentially a monthly payment you can afford instead of the whole £9k.

Depending on your relationship with the Claimant you could ask them to consent to a set-aside of the Default Judgment and at the same time consent to an instalment Order, or better still consent to a set-aside and consent to a Tomlin Order which stays the claim until the debt is paid or either party breaches the settlement agreed (when it can become a CCJ due to any breach of the Order). The benefit of the latter is there won't be any CCJ recorded on your CRA file for six years.

Or simply make an Application to Vary the CCJ

Di