Left the UK 3 years ago... suddenly a CCJ appears

Voltron

Thanks, yeah I'm sure both you and your brother know about the pains of being abroad but trying to keep things tidy back home!

jpsartre

Ben8282 wrote: »

Because somebody living outside the UK would not normally have any UK credit to keep on top
of

Surely the OP's situation is exactly an example of *why* it's a good idea to keep on top of things from abroad?

buglawton

Voltron wrote: »

Dear lord, this is still going on.

Friend disappeared without trace, obviously didn't pay up and I've been trying to deal with them myself since I found out but they're so slow in replying there was zero chance it would be resolved in the first 30 days.

I'm now at the point where I've provided every bit of evidence I can to show that I was not living in the country during the time this debt was accrued including a letter from my boss saying I've worked for this company for multiple years without any extended leave.

They're now asking for me to provide a UK address which I have told them I do not have, and to use a friend or family members in lieu of mine. Are they too cheap to pay for an international stamp? Do they not know how to attach documents to an email? Or, as I suspect, is this some way of trying to connect me to an address that isn't mine. The last email, which didn't even get my name right and came in a month after I last contacted them, advises me that providing this would "increase the chance of success" which smells like BS.

Is it time to contact the ombudsman in this situation?

I once had an issue with the water company. They somehow managed to double bill the same address with 2 account numbers and allegedly 2 water meter numbers.

Via my insistent phone calls to the water co's customer accounts people, citing the one and only meter number I was responsible for, I eventually got them to admit the error and cancel the 2nd accounts billing. Because there can only be one water meter for one account.

Of note is the fact that the bogus bill (for £100s of back payments) suddenly appeared over 2 years after I'd been their customer. If I hadn't stayed right on top of the correspondence it'd have been a CCJ for me too no doubt.

The takeaway for me was, utility companies can make big errors and their default behaviour is to assume the consumer is guilty.

By the way, water co's have online accounts and billing which you can and should gain access to, to check on the facts.

xlnc99

you are handling it all wrong. Why did you give your friend the money to pay? All you need to do is make payment to the water company for the CCJ amount due. Do this first within 30 days and the CCJ will be removed from your account and then handle all disputes afterwards.

Making a meal out of this, its a very simple task

Otherwise once it gets passed the 30 days it will be more hassle to get it removed. You will get it removed based it on your circumstances but it will mean alot of back and forth and sending paperwork etc and maybe even a court date (unlikely)

buglawton

Per OPs post # 13

Friend disappeared without trace, obviously didn't pay up and I've been trying to deal with them myself since I found out but they're so slow in replying there was zero chance it would be resolved in the first 30 days.

So he hasn't sent any money to friend yet.

Voltron

Yeah, I haven't and have no intention of sending my previous roommate any money. If I was in the financial position to sort this out, I would've just paid the co directly back last year. Alas it's cheaper to try put forward my case and see where it gets me, it's just a very slow process and I don't trust them.

I'm guessing they paid for a good amount of time after I left the property in Dec 2015, as I recall the quarterly bill being approx 130gbp so feels like a year in arrear. So maybe late 2018 the payments stopped, which makes sense as I know things were not in a good place for the person involved around that time.

jpsartre

I don't get it, has your friend been paying bills on an account in your name all this time? If so, you should have just paid the debt when you received the CCJ (obviously it's too late for that now). Have to agree with xlnc99 that (on the face of it at least) you've made this much more complicated than it needed to be.

Voltron

jpsartre wrote: »

I don't get it, has your friend been paying bills on an account in your name all this time? If so, you should have just paid the debt when you received the CCJ (obviously it's too late for that now). Have to agree with xlnc99 that (on the face of it at least) you've made this much more complicated than it needed to be.

I didn't have 500 quid I could've magic'd out of thin air, turns out when your wife dies suddenly things get very expensive very quickly.

The account was apparently in both of our names, I did not know this until I saw the CCJ turn up. I believed that I had settled everything prior to leaving the country, but obviously this one got past me as I hadn't dealt with them in years.

While trying to be helpful, xlnc99 seemed to be under the impression that it was still within the 30 days which it's long past. It might have been nearly 30 days before I was even able to find out who filed this against me, and then it took weeks for them to answer any original query anyway. Blindly paying a large sum might not have left me in any different situation to now, other than in 5 1/2 years time I assume they could reissue the CCJ against me if this is not resolved by then.

(Edited to strikethrough the last part as it sounds like that doesn't generally happen.)

boo_star

Voltron wrote: »

I didn't have 500 quid I could've magic'd out of thin air, turns out when your wife dies suddenly things get very expensive very quickly.

The account was apparently in both of our names, I did not know this until I saw the CCJ turn up. I believed that I had settled everything prior to leaving the country, but obviously this one got past me as I hadn't dealt with them in years.

While trying to be helpful, xlnc99 seemed to be under the impression that it was still within the 30 days which it's long past. It might have been nearly 30 days before I was even able to find out who filed this against me, and then it took weeks for them to answer any original query anyway. Blindly paying a large sum might not have left me in any different situation to now, other than in 5 1/2 years time I assume they could reissue the CCJ against me if this is not resolved by then.

(Edited to strikethrough the last part as it sounds like that doesn't generally happen.)

Pay the debt and chalk it up to experience.

Voltron

boo_star wrote: »

Pay the debt and chalk it up to experience.

I can see the benefit to this if I return to the UK, as having it marked as PAID is naturally better than not... but if I don't return, is there any point?