CCJs I didn't know about? (Financial abuse)

DawningLight

Hello,

I left a highly abusive marriage after 20 years in 2020 during the first lockdown. I'm homeless and have been struggling ever since to find someone who will rent to me because it turned out I have a load of CCJs in my name that I had no idea existed or what they were for... I've since discovered some are Anglian Water, and despite my ex-husband telling me he'd informed them I no longer live there I have got a new CCJ every year since I left my ex... When I contacted Anglian Water they had no idea I wasn't living there but said they couldn't do anything about the CCJs even though they shouldn't be in my name and if I applied to courts to have them removed they'd agree.

I've fully settled one of them (a vets bill for an animal that wasn't mine), but it still shows as active. I contacted the company to say I settled in full back in 2020 so can they change the record to show that but have had no response.

There is no way I can service these debts and bearing in mind some have accrued since I left my ex and indeed since we divorced I feel like it's not really fair as I had no idea they existed. He controlled everything, every penny, all the mail.... I wasn't smart when I left, I ran for my life and took him at his word cos that's all I've ever done. I only just started getting my mail redirected as I'm now somewhere safe that I can stay as long as I like for the moment.  So I never saw any of the bills, never saw the CCJ paperwork, was never told or notified. I genuinely believed my ex was handling the bills as that's what he always told me and stupidly I trusted him.

I guess my question is, is there anything I can do to remove these CCJs? I can accept that I was stupid during our marriage and should just suck those ones up as a life lesson, but I'm a bit sore over the ones he put in my name without my knowledge AFTER we separated and I was no longer even living with him and had no idea these debts existed or the CCJs had been applied for....  I did contact a company which claimed they could get them removed for a price but I don't have that kind of money to spend so was wondering if there was a DIY version.

And without a financial order through the courts, is there anyway I can disassociate from my ex-husbad financially? We still technically own a house together although it's going up for auction now and being sold off.  I know that is a financial tie in itself, but can I stop anything else cropping up that he puts in my name without my knowledge?  

Thank you for your help.

MorningcoffeeIV

Any accounts that he took out in your name should be reported as fraud and treated as such.

Those accounts which are in your name will remain your responsibility. You could look at a set-aside which may or may not be successful, but they would still require paying, which you say you can't afford. You'd then end up with more recent defaults and/or CCJs which would be worse.

You can't disassociate while still financially associated. You can put a protective CIFAS marker in place to help prevent any further fraudulent applications.

sourcrates

Please don`t be tempted to respond to companies claiming to be able to remove county court judgements.

There is no magic wand to remove them, they would use exactly the same set aside process you would use yourself, except they would charge you three times as much, there is nothing any of these type of company claim to be able to do for you, that you cannot do yourself, a lot cheaper.

However, the set aside route could prove expensive for you, the normal set aside fee, per judgement, is £255.
Set aside with the creditors consent is around £100 per judgement.

Now, although technically these debts are yours, they were accrued due to fraud, so you should not really be paying them.

How many judgement debts do you currently have ?


There is some seriously good advice in this link from Experian -

What to do if You're a Victim of Identity Fraud | Experian

including this -

"Add a password to your credit report that nobody else would know or could guess. If a fraudster applies for credit in your name, the lender should request this password before opening a credit account".

That would benefit you a lot, I suggest you implement these measures today with all the main 3 credit reference agencies.

Just a side note, if you were to opt for any of the regulated insolvency solutions IVA/DRO/BANKRUPTCY, then all your CCJ`s would become unenforceable, and you would not have  to pay any of them.