CCJ incorrectly put on file after payment plan offer accepted

Gabmoj

Hello 

Please kindly need your advice on this

My ltd Coy is owing £300  and this was passed to a debt collection agency . I received a letter in Jan chasing this and was told to contact them before Jan 26th to make the payment. I kept calling and calling and left a voicemail which they said we could and I would get a call back. i didnt.

Then in February i received a form from the county court telling me to reply immediately to the company to discuss payment options if i agreed to the amount. The amount was now £385 because of court fees and admin charges etc ) but i didnt want to make it longwinded so i just replied to the claim form with a payment plan of £50 sending it off on16 Feb ( with tracked mail ) and telling them this should no have gone to court in the first place because they can check their voicemail records. i dropped loads and no one was picking. They received the letter next day

I didn't hear anything from the company and being suspicious of their intentions to put a ccj , i called them up on 2 March to ask why they hadn't  responded to my letter. Thdey said it was probably with another dept but if i was willing to pay the £50 to start off, then i should. So my first payment was 2 March.

I then received a letter from the Court mid March stating that as i didn't reply to the claim, a CCJ had been issued and I had to pay £50 installment , first payment should be 22 April.

On the other hand, the Debt recovery company sent me a letter generated  on 22nd March saying they have received my letter and their client is willing to accept the £50 payment and i should make the payment before 5  March (which i had already paid on 2 March). It seems they cant get their act together as how can they be generating a letter on 22nd march telling me to pay before 5 march?
Anyway seems there has been a miscommunication between the court and the recovery company and im looking for how to fight this? I don't want this on my company record?

Please kindly advise

Thank you

[Deleted User]

If a CCJ has been awarded, pay it within 30 days so that it doesn't appear on your files.

sourcrates

Debt collectors can`t take legal action, only the owner of a debt can do that.

The DCA has to send your offer back to the client, the client then has to respond, all this takes time, meanwhile, someone else in the clients office has decided to take things a step further, unaware of your chain of previous communications, and has issued proceedings against you, you then mistakenly failed to defend the claim, and here we are.

A set aside will cost you another £255, so its in your best interests to just pay it, if you do so within a month of judgement, it will be removed from your credit file on application.

Gabmoj

Thank you for your reply

Sorry I’m lost as to what defending the claim means ?

I replied to the claim immediately I got the claim form as it was said to reply immediately to the company and no need to reply to the court if I’m ready to pay in instalments, so I didn’t reply to the court

also if the Ccj is issued against the company , is it issued against my ( director ) credit file too?

thank you 

MovingForwards

You sent your response to the claimant and not to the court too, leaving yourself open to a county court judgement being obtained.

Even if you would have sent it to the court a CCJ would have been granted, as you admitted to the debt and wasn't defending the allegations made against you, it's just your instalment offer may have been approved by the judge.

Gabmoj

Thanks
So the only option is to pay the whole debt within a month ?

MovingForwards

Your options:

Pay it in full.

Pay the instalments and have the CCJ showing for 6 years.

Apply to set it aside, which may not be approved as you appear to have no defence.

Ignore it and wait to see if they enforce the judgement to recover the money; not recommended as that will increase costs further.