CCJ Payment Plan

ozgi

Hello all 

Hope this is the right board to post on. 

I had a CCJ for £10k granted against me in October 2012 due to a personal guarantee given on a failed LTD company bank overdraft.

I offered a payment plan via the court of £125 per month which was accepted and I have paid this every month since (more on this below).

The CCJ itself is now over 6 years old and so is not on my credit file and statute of limitations has passed.

I am still paying my £125 per month via standing order as agreed with the court back then, however Natwest have several times changed the solicitor account that I send the money to. In the last 36 months I've received letters from 3 different agencies (all solicitors) all claiming to be acting for Natwest, and saying I should be paying them now instead.

I'm now totally lost as to who exactly I'm meant to be paying and how much is left to pay. Natwest don't respond to my enquiries (I get sent from department to department when I call, no replies to letters etc).

I don't even know if the solicitors account I'm sending the money to now is reaching Natwest or if its just sitting in a solicitors account somewhere. The full debt will be pretty much paid off by now but I can't get through to whoever is administering it to get a closing balance. 

My question is: If this money hasn't been reaching Natwest and is just being pocketed by a previous agent of theirs, could they take me to court again and make a NEW claim? I know the original CCJ is now gone but if they are not receiving the funds !!!!!! I agreed with the court in 2011 could Natwest successfully argue that I am in breach of this agreement and try to go after me now in 2021?

My credit report is clean now and I'm concerned that this administrative situation (where is my £125 a month actually going and has it been reaching Natwest) could lead to a new County Court Claim against me.

Many thanks in advance 

Platespinner123

Hi Ozgi

If a creditor wants to apply again to enforce a CCJ more than six years after the judgement was made, they need the permission of the court to do so. This would not be a new CCJ, just enforcement of the existing one (as the CCJ doesn't expire - there's no statute bar). So it wouldn't affect your credit report, although you might have to deal with e.g. bailiffs.

As far as the confusion about the remaining balance & who to pay, I would suggest putting a complaint in writing to NatWest saying that they've failed to confirm these details, and if they stay silent on you, taking it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. That could take quite a while if it ends up needing the FOS to intervene, but it's the way to force the issue.

If any of the solicitors have not passed your payments on, or wrongly claimed you should be paying the money to them, you can also complain to them, then the Legal Ombudsman Service, which should sort things out.

EssexHebridean

If you reckon the original amount is now likely close to paid off it will also be worth your while investing some time to work out how close, to make sure you don’t pay more than you have to. I can only imagine the hassle you’d have trying to get them to refund you if needed! 

sourcrates

If complaining doesn't work, try stopping your payments, they will soon write to you, thus giving you a point of contact.