Poor credit rating and surprise CCJ!

Country_Diver

I'm a British military veteran legally resident in Spain, where I have lived continuously for 4½ years. I am currently in the process of buying a house of which I require a mortgage. One of the things mortgage brokers here ask for is a full credit report from your home country.

This afternoon I setup an Experian.co.uk account so I could see my credit score and access my report - considering I have lived in Spain for several years and the only contact I have with finances in the UK is getting my military pension paid into my Nationwide account, which I then transfer to a Spanish account, it was quite a shock to find my credit rating as "very low", and a CCJ against my name dated 21st March 2019. I also have 3 unpaid debts from Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd. after a long standing dispute with Vodafone UK - neither of which, or any combination of, add up to the £327 the CCJ is listed as for. My friend sent me a few links to this website about the above mentioned company and it jogged something in my memory as to why I never dealt with them before all those years ago, and just ignored them. I found them very persistent and read that if I left the debt long enough it would automatically clear....I haven't had contact with them since.

Obviously having a CCJ against my name is going to have consequences when applying for a mortgage and I wonder if there is a way, considering i live overseas of getting the CCJ removed and the outstanding debt voided.

To be honest, my mail from them went to my parent's house and I may possibly (I'm not 100%) have told my mother to ignore any correspondence from them because they were con artists.

Am I able to get Lowell removed from my credit score and the CCJ lifted to improve my credit rating so I'm able to get a mortgage?

Thank you

ElizabethRose

You accept you ignored the debt, you accept you told you parents to ignore it on what basis do you feel it should be removed? Living abroad is not an excuse. 

Thrugelmir

Country_Diver said:

I found them very persistent and read that if I left the debt long enough it would automatically clear....I haven't had contact with them since.

Walking away from debts is never advisable. As you never know when it might come back to bite you. Settling the CCJ would be a first step in the healing process. 

The CCJ amount will include the claimants costs. Not just the debt owed. 

Country_Diver

ElizabethRose said:

You accept you ignored the debt, you accept you told you parents to ignore it on what basis do you feel it should be removed? Living abroad is not an excuse. 

Have your read up about the company nentioned? If not, can I suggest you do. They're nothing but chances that threaten people to get what they want.

cymruchris

They may not be the most reputable company - but they aren't con artists. If someone has a debt that doesn't get paid - companies like these buy them up for reduced amounts, and then take on the recovery themselves. In many cases, the debts are valid (there are exceptions) - and in this case you also say the debts are valid. For a CCJ to have been granted - formal court papers would have been sent to your last known address before the court date. Would your parents have ignored such an important piece of mail? Or did they just not open anything addressed to you and kept it all in a big pile?

There is a clause in legislation that allows for a set aside of a CCJ if you were living overseas when the judgment was made - I used it when I was living in Malaysia for 6 years prior to returning to the UK. If granted - the set aside takes you back to the starting position of still owing the debt, but the CCJ is removed from your file, so you still have to pay the debt. However, to get this, you have to substantially prove that you didn't receive the paperwork, so if it was sent to your parents address this would be very shaky ground.

The set aside itself currently costs £255, and you'd have to fund it. The other important point is that a set aside can only be granted if you yourself attend the hearing. You can't deal with it remotely. The rules for set asides also state that you must act promptly once you've found out about the CCJ in order to apply. Again though, if you are overseas, you do have a defence here, in that you can't reasonably deal with it until you're next in the country. I found out about my CCJ in Jan 19, and had my set aside done in Sept 19. The judge accepted that being overseas meant that I couldn't deal with it in person promptly, and allowed the hearing to go ahead. 

I might first get in contact with Lowells to say that you've just found out that you have a CCJ, and that you've been living overseas for several years, and ask them what the debt related to, and where the paperwork was sent. I imagine you had your own address before leaving the UK? Did you set up mail redirection? I also wouldn't let them know your parents address unless they confirm to you they know it by repeating it over the telephone. If the only address they had on file was your own previous address, and that's where the paperwork was sent, you might be in with a chance to argue the set aside. 

D3xt3r5L4b

Regardless of your views on them, you chose to ignore the debt. Your problem. 

Country_Diver

cymruchris said:

They may not be the most reputable company - but they aren't con artists. If someone has a debt that doesn't get paid - companies like these buy them up for reduced amounts, and then take on the recovery themselves. In many cases, the debts are valid (there are exceptions) - and in this case you also say the debts are valid. For a CCJ to have been granted - formal court papers would have been sent to your last known address before the court date. Would your parents have ignored such an important piece of mail? Or did they just not open anything addressed to you and kept it all in a big pile?

There is a clause in legislation that allows for a set aside of a CCJ if you were living overseas when the judgment was made - I used it when I was living in Malaysia for 6 years prior to returning to the UK. If granted - the set aside takes you back to the starting position of still owing the debt, but the CCJ is removed from your file, so you still have to pay the debt. However, to get this, you have to substantially prove that you didn't receive the paperwork, so if it was sent to your parents address this would be very shaky ground.

The set aside itself currently costs £255, and you'd have to fund it. The other important point is that a set aside can only be granted if you yourself attend the hearing. You can't deal with it remotely. The rules for set asides also state that you must act promptly once you've found out about the CCJ in order to apply. Again though, if you are overseas, you do have a defence here, in that you can't reasonably deal with it until you're next in the country. I found out about my CCJ in Jan 19, and had my set aside done in Sept 19. The judge accepted that being overseas meant that I couldn't deal with it in person promptly, and allowed the hearing to go ahead. 

I might first get in contact with Lowells to say that you've just found out that you have a CCJ, and that you've been living overseas for several years, and ask them what the debt related to, and where the paperwork was sent. I imagine you had your own address before leaving the UK? Did you set up mail redirection? I also wouldn't let them know your parents address unless they confirm to you they know it by repeating it over the telephone. If the only address they had on file was your own previous address, and that's where the paperwork was sent, you might be in with a chance to argue the set aside. 

My previous address before moving abroad was my parents address, but with my mother being a retired teacher, and my father a retired Legal Executive who made people bankrupt & homeless, even a letter like that I don't think they'd completely ignore....especially if it was addressed to THEIR property and the risk of bailiffs turning up was a possibility. Even if I used to be careless when it came to money, they most certainly weren't and would have grilled me for it....or possibly even have paid the debt themselves (as it was only small and I was no longer residing in the UK), rather than let it spiral out of control. I most certainly haven't heard anything from the company (directly or indirectly) since at least 2016, which is why finding a CCJ on my credit file (from 2019) was a complete surprise. As for mail redirection, it was never setup as my initial intention was never to move abroad, it was solely to do a course. I then fell in love with the country and one thing led to another. However, several of the properties I have lived in (I've moved about) are off-grid and haven't had postal addresses, so I wouldn't have been able to receive mail anyway. Regardless, on the CCJ it clearly states my parent's address so if red letters were sent, they would have been sent there. My mother also has my permission to open any mail that arrives for me. Initially she did used to forward mail onto me, but I don't remember ever seeing anything from Lowells.

Maybe firstly I need to speak to my mother (once she is back from my sister's wedding), and then possibly set an account up with Lowells so I can at least see what debt is in the account and work to get it cleared.

Thank you for your help and advice, appreciate it!

MinuteNoodles

Country_Diver said:

I'm a British military veteran

What has that got to do with anything? You're not entitled to special treatment just because you were in the forces.

RelievedSheff

I'm not sure why you think you have any defence to this. You openly admit that you just ignored letters and the debts so why does it now come as a surprise that they have applied for and won the case for a CCJ to be put on your credit file?

You have left the country knowing that you owe people money. 

Yes having a CCJ will affect your chances of getting a mortgage. Lenders will now know that you have not paid previous credit agreements so it will make them less likely to lend you money. 

I'm afraid that this situation is of your own making. Paying off the debt and getting the CCJ satisfied will be a good start and the affects of the CCJ will deminish with time. It will drop off your credit file six years after the date of the judgement.

[Deleted User]

I can see a con artist in this thread. But it isn't Lowell.

D3xt3r5L4b

MinuteNoodles said:

Country_Diver said:

I'm a British military veteran

What has that got to do with anything? You're not entitled to special treatment just because you were in the forces.

Maybe they should throw in a line or two about being a “keyworker” as well