Managed to get 2 defaults removed from my credit, just one CCJ to go... need some advice on strategy

TurningANewLeaf

DCFC79 wrote: »

I'm a firm believer in if 1 has run up a debt eg an overdraft then 1 owes said amount and pays it over a number of months.

And that is completely unhelpful advice for my situation.


One of two things is going to happen,


I'm going to pay nothing, zilch and wait this out for 4 years OR.. I'm going to have this set aside and pay a lump sum to make this go away (preferably a lot less than £1,800 as they've pulled my pants down with these horrific bank charges which amounted to £1,700, plus another £200 they added on with fees and stuff at the end).


If my CCJ does stay on my file, hell will freeze over before they get a penny out of me, so all these lectures of "you owe it, pay them"... save it... I'm after strategy advice here.

[Deleted User]

TurningANewLeaf wrote: »

And if I have the CCJ set aside, my credit report will look unblemished (incredibly). If I merely pay the CCJ, it's still gonna look like crap for 4 years. That is unacceptable.

Maybe you should have merely paid it off at the time?

There’s only one person at fault that’s making it look “unacceptable” and it isn’t the court, DCA or original lender.

[Deleted User]

You’re on the wrong site.

This is Money Saving Expert.

Not Get Me Out The S**t Expert.

TurningANewLeaf

!!! wrote: »

You’re on the wrong site.

This is Money Saving Expert.

Not Get Me Out The S**t Expert.

Yes, Money Saving Expert, and a fat lot of money I'd be saving me if I listened to your 'expert' advice. I'd be paying them back AND my CCJ would stay on the file. Genius!

[Deleted User]

Correct.
Even if you get the CCJ set aside they’re not obliged to accept a settlement offer from you and can will ask for the full amount.

TurningANewLeaf

!!! wrote: »

Correct.
Even if you get the CCJ set aside they’re not obliged to accept a settlement offer from you and can will ask for the full amount.

And even that scenario is preferable to your original suggestion.


But clearly, as soon as I get this set aside, I've lost my leverage at that very point, which is why I think it is better to start negotiating now and get something formally written up so that they can't reset the clock on me the moment I get this CCJ set aside.



Hopefully someone who knows what they're talking about can advise me here.

[Deleted User]

You’ve been given advise above already.

You have no dealings with the DCA whilst it’s with the court.

Any talk of “negotiating settlement after a set-aside” will be swept under the rug as they have no stance to agree... whilst it’s with the court.

xlnc99

in the same situation as you. Very very tough, alot of work goes back and forth.

You need to get a consent order and get it set aside that way. No guarantees though.
Then go through the normal set aside process if that doesnt work as you have grounds. If it was sent to the wrong address then u have a claim and chance
it does depend on the judge and what mood he is in though as he makes all the decisions regarding a removal of ccj. Nothing to do with the debt company

how did u get ur defaults removed? Im fighting tooth and nail, it is hard work

TurningANewLeaf

xlnc99 wrote: »

in the same situation as you. Very very tough, alot of work goes back and forth.

You need to get a consent order and get it set aside that way. No guarantees though.
Then go through the normal set aside process if that doesnt work as you have grounds. If it was sent to the wrong address then u have a claim and chance
it does depend on the judge and what mood he is in though as he makes all the decisions regarding a removal of ccj. Nothing to do with the debt company

how did u get ur defaults removed? Im fighting tooth and nail, it is hard work

Thanks for the info!


Both defaults were from a water company for two different addresses (same company/two different addresses/two accounts).


So yeah, it was a bit of pain... I paid the balance off on both accounts, but they said they'd only remove the defaults if there was a mistake. So the first account, I noticed they got my 'move in' date slightly wrong by a few days, the reason I knew the date was wrong was because I moved in on my mum's birthday, and they had me moving in 3 days earlier. So I had to get the council tax people to write me a letter confirming the dates I moved in and left and forward it on to the water company. They still weren't budging on removing my defaults but they relented in the end, a mistake is a mistake after all.


The second default, at the next address I lived at, I noticed the bill was a lot higher one quarter compared to all the other quarters (or it might have been over a 6 month period... well however they bill it). So I said, "look, there was no way I was using that much more water over that period", so they said "did you have a leak? or were there more people in your household at that time?" and I said "I don't think so, your meter must have had a glitch". And they said "our meters don't mess up". So I was like "well how can you know 100% that your meters don't get glitches, nothing in life is foolproof". And they were like "well I can put you through to an engineer who can explain to you why our meters don't get glitches, we don't use digital meters so they don't just get glitches". So I was like "well if analogue meters are so 100% accurate, why's everyone on the planet switching to digital, there is no way on earth you can tell me with 100% certainty that your meters never make mistakes".



Anyway this went back and forth for a while, I spoke to so many differently people at the water company, made so many phone calls, and EVENTUALLY they relented and gave me a very small credit on my account explaining it as an "unexplained water leak" BUT they said they weren't going to remove the default as they didn't feel it was their mistake. So then I was fighting tooth and nail saying "well whose mistake was it then?" They weren't budging on this one though,



But anyway, as luck would have it, their 'credit data sharing' team emailed me to confirm the first default was being removed. PERFECT now I've got a line of communication with the right people to get the 2nd default removed, I wrote them a polite email explaining how there had been a mistake on the 2nd account too, and a few days to a week later, they agreed to remove the 2nd default too, and all negative marks on my credit file. Bingo!


If that hadn't worked I would have taken it to the Information Commissioner, but didn't get that far.


The moral of the story here is "never give up on the first hurdle". Took a lot of work, a lot of calls, a lot of emails, but got there in the end. :beer:

xlnc99

Wow. I have never ever heard of a story like that resulting in a default being removed.
Hats off to you, thinking outside the box. I like it.
Keep up the good work