Unknown CCJ Help Please

Student_AcF

Hello,

I hope this is the right place to post this. It may be a little complicated so hopefully I have all of the required information.

I had a CCJ lodged against me in April 2015 which I have only recently become aware of and it risks jeopardising my future career so I need to get it sorted asap.

It is due to a supposed CC debt with Lloyds TSB, which I have no knowledge of and I suspect may be due to identity theft, as many many years ago I had a letter from Lloyds TSB (with whom I had a Current Account) to say that they had been unable to take out my DD for my credit card as there was not enough money in the account. I phoned them immediately as I did not have a CC with them and, after a few days, they called to apologise and said there had been an issue which they were investigating and they were aware that I had no CC with them and there would be no more money taken for repayments.

I received the original Court paperwork in 2014 at my current address in my old name. At the time I used forums and got a little advice and sent the Claimant (Lowell's, through BW Legal) a 77-79 CCA request. I also informed them of my new name. I moved 2 months later and, to be honest, didn't even think to inform anyone of my new address as I hadn't received a reply from Lowell and so assumed that they realised that I didn't have a debt with them. I had a 6 month redirect set up so should have received anything sent in my current name within that timeframe.

The judgement was lodged in April 2015 as the court didn't receive a defence questionnaire? I have no idea what this is or when it was required by.

I have no paperwork relating to any of this.

I would like to have the judgement set aside and have received the paperwork from the courts, however, as this may impact my career, and an internship that I am due to start this summer, so I have a valid defence? Apart from immaturity/ stupidity for not realising that the process would continue? The debt is for £3700, and so not a small amount for a student with a young family.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can offer advice.

Kind Regards

D_M_E

Did you ever get a response to your 77-79 request?

Did you report the fraud to actionfraud at the time?

You should write a letter to Lloyds to start with headed COMPLAINT in big bold letters detailing the saga and ask why, when they knew it was fraud, they carried on and passed it to collesctors who obtained a CCJ?

You also have the option of applying to the court for a setaside as this was fraud and you never had a chance to contest the CCJ application.

Speak to a solicitor ASAP - but there are some people who come on the forums who can offer better advice than I.

Exodi

Hi Student AcF,

Thanks for taking time to post here.

So first a couple of questions, I'd appreciate your complete honesty in your answer so we can help you sufficiently.

Is this debt yours? You stated you had called to advise you don't have a credit card with Lloyds but then advised the DCA (Lowells) of your new name and issued a CCA request? The sentiment of your post and these actions indicate the the debt may be yours?

Depending on whether the debt is yours or not dictates what your next actions should be.

In response to some of your statements;

a) it is entirely your responsibility to update your address with the owner of the debt, even if you did have a redirect for 6 months, it has been the case on these forums that DCA's can take years to send back a compliant CCA.

b) a defence questionnaire is where you state that you refute the debts and the grounds to do so, it was required before the case so is of little interest now with consideration for the point above.

c) setting aside the judgement will only work if the debt is not yours however you need to be completely sure first. I'd ask the claimant to send you another copy of the CCA to the correct address (however they are not obliged to do this and this would be a complete courtesy).

You'll find a lot of useful information here https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/ccj/set-aside-ccj.aspx

But to be honest it's hard to give correct advice when I'm not completely sure the debt is not yours.

WhenIam64

I received the original Court paperwork in 2014 at my current address in my old name

You also have the option of applying to the court for a setaside as this was fraud and you never had a chance to contest the CCJ application.

Doubt it. The correct response to a court claim is to Acknowledge within 14 days (19 max) and to send in a defence within 28 days (33 max). The defence would have been it was not your debt, and a judge would have decided.

The advice to send the CCA request - without defending - was wrong. There is really no way back from this as you had one shot at defending, and it was not taken.

If you do try for a set-aside, you have to pay a £255 fee and you run the risk of a judge deciding that the court process was followed correctly so no way back. Since the Denton judgment Courts are getting more picky about people following their rules ie. defending in time.

Edit: Just seen Exodi's posting. Proving fraud requires a high level of proof so you should do everything you can to get to the bottom of this. If you can prove fraud, then Lowells *may* allow a set-aside "with consent". But you'll have to do a lot of work on this rather than "it's not mine"

Exodi

D_M_E wrote: »

Did you ever get a response to your 77-79 request?

Did you report the fraud to actionfraud at the time?

You should write a letter to Lloyds to start with headed COMPLAINT in big bold letters detailing the saga and ask why, when they knew it was fraud, they carried on and passed it to collesctors who obtained a CCJ?

You also have the option of applying to the court for a setaside as this was fraud and you never had a chance to contest the CCJ application.

Speak to a solicitor ASAP - but there are some people who come on the forums who can offer better advice than I.

I don't think it's reasonable to contact ActionFraud if Lloyds were supposedly aware of the fraud - this should solely be raised as a complaint with them, as you've said.

You will not be able to apply for a set aside on the grounds of Fraud until Lloyds has deemed it as such (which they clearly haven't), also there's little sense applying to set aside a judgement solely because of an old address - the grounds of the claim would still stand which is what the OP should be looking to refute and would be a big waste of £255.

I think there is a lot more information to this story...

EDIT: seems WhenIam64 has the same thoughts as me. I agree with all of the below.

WhenIam64 wrote: »

Doubt it. The correct response to a court claim is to Acknowledge within 14 days (19 max) and to send in a defence within 28 days (33 max). The defence would have been it was not your debt, and a judge would have decided.

The advice to send the CCA request - without defending - was wrong. There is really no way back from this as you had one shot at defending, and it was not taken.

If you do try for a set-aside, you have to pay a £255 fee and you run the risk of a judge deciding that the court process was followed correctly so no way back. Since the Denton judgment Courts are getting more picky about people following their rules ie. defending in time.

Edit: Just seen Exodi's posting. Proving fraud requires a high level of proof so you should do everything you can to get to the bottom of this. If you can prove fraud, then Lowells *may* allow a set-aside "with consent". But you'll have to do a lot of work on this rather than "it's not mine"

sourcrates

Sending a CCA request to a disputed debt was a bad move, a CCA request asks for a copy of your credit agreement, if your not the debtor, how can you ask for a copy of an agreement that is not yours ?


The others above have covered most of the basies, i would certainly get legal advice on this, we have a solicitor on here called "Just Di", alternativly you can try legal beagles, see what they say.