Mortimer Clarke Chasing a 8 year old CCJ

Wardie40

Hello you lovely people. Just wanted to say what a great help this forum has been. As someone who suffers with mental health issues triggered by anything financial this place is an absolute godsend and not sure where I'd be without it.

So about 13 years ago my life took a downward spiral and I found myself in loads of debt. I lost track of them but thought I'd paid them all off until in 2019 i discovered a CCJ had been awarded against me back in 2015 which I knew nothing about strangely as it had my current address attached to it. Being fairly close to the 6 year limit to enforce it I decided to wait and see if I was chased or any contact was made.

I heard nothing and it dropped off my credit file. Then this year I began receiving letters from Mortimer Clarke in regards to this debt. Which due to my my mental health I ignored. I have since moved house and began receiving phone calls from them. Having read some of the threads on here I decided to answer and discuss the debt with them. I explained that the CCJ had not been enforced for over 6 years and having been at the address listed on the CCJ since, sufficient steps had not been taken to enforce it within this time. They would therefore need to go to court and explain why to get the CCJ extended and be able to continue any enforcement of the debt. I refused to give them my current address but gave my e-mail address as a form of contact should they wish to discuss it further.

Basically I'm really out of my depth. I haven't told my wife about any of this as we have stretched ourselves to the limit having just bought a house thinking the debt could no longer be enforced and had gone away. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as its really effecting my mental health and fear me dealing with it blindly will just make matters worse.

Many thanks

fatbelly

I think you've said exactly the right thing. They may have a ccj but it should have been enforced by 2021.

Continue to ignore and block their phone calls

I guess you could have confirmed this in writing but you don't want to disclose your address

Wardie40

fatbelly said:

I think you've said exactly the right thing. They may have a ccj but it should have been enforced by 2021.

Continue to ignore and block their phone calls

I guess you could have confirmed this in writing but you don't want to disclose your address

fatbelly said:

I think you've said exactly the right thing. They may have a ccj but it should have been enforced by 2021.

Continue to ignore and block their phone calls

I guess you could have confirmed this in writing but you don't want to disclose your address

Thank you ever so much for the response. It's given me some peace of mind 🙏

sourcrates

I agree with that approach, it`s rare, if at all, a debt purchasing company will bother going back in front of a judge, too much cost and hassle for them.

Wardie40

sourcrates said:

I agree with that approach, it`s rare, if at all, a debt purchasing company will bother going back in front of a judge, too much cost and hassle for them.

They have now replied via e-mail stating.

'We refer to the above matter and your recent contact.

We can confirm that although the outstanding County Court Judgment is over 6 years 

old, you have been deemed liable for the balance by the Court, therefore our client is 

within their rights to pursue the outstanding balance.

We can confirm your contact number has been removed from the account as requested, 

however should contact not be maintained via alternative methods, we may reinstate 

telephone contact.

It is the responsibility of the debtor to update their creditors with any changes to their 

situation including moving address, any attempt to with hold information of this nature 

could be perceived as deliberate evasion of addressing the balance.

As you have advised you are not living at the above property, we have referred this 

account to our trace team in order to update our records.

As you have stated you are seeking Independent Legal Advice, please provide our details 

to your representative with a signed Letter of Authority so we can discuss the matter 

with them on your behalf.

As the matter remains outstanding, we are instructed to proceed with obtaining the 

outstanding balance, therefore we enclose an Income and Expenditure form for you to 

complete and return in order that our client may assess your offer of repayment.

Please return the completed form within 14 days. Should we not receive a response, we 

will refer to our client for further instruction.'

Any suggestion of my next move or response?

sourcrates

Basically they are saying, we know we can`t enforce the judgement, and your a naughty boy for not updating your address details with us, but please pay us anyway.

We will keep harassing you for the time being, but if you ignore us for long enough, we will refer this matter back to our client, who will then most likely tell us to forget about it, as we don`t have a leg to stand on.

The civil procedure rules state that :

Should a judgment creditor fail to enforce a judgment or court order within the six-year time period, then, in accordance with CPR 83.2.(3)(a), they require the permission of the Court to take any legal action against the debtor.

Having said that, judgment creditors should be wary that permission to enforce the execution of a judgment or court order over six years old, is not a "mere formality", and sufficient reasons for the delay in enforcement must always be given.

Basically, unless you have been living on the Moon since the judgement was granted, a simple trace would have identified your new address, where you would have been contactable, they have failed to enforce their rights within the timescale allowed by statute, so convincing a judge to agree to this would be an unlikely outcome, in my opinion.

You can never say this with 100% certainly, but I'm 95% convinced.

Wardie40

sourcrates said:

Basically they are saying, we know we can`t enforce the judgement, and your a naughty boy for not updating your address details with us, but please pay us anyway.

We will keep harassing you for the time being, but if you ignore us for long enough, we will refer this matter back to our client, who will then most likely tell us to forget about it, as we don`t have a leg to stand on.

The civil procedure rules state that :

Should a judgment creditor fail to enforce a judgment or court order within the six-year time period, then, in accordance with CPR 83.2.(3)(a), they require the permission of the Court to take any legal action against the debtor.

Having said that, judgment creditors should be wary that permission to enforce the execution of a judgment or court order over six years old, is not a "mere formality", and sufficient reasons for the delay in enforcement must always be given.

Basically, unless you have been living on the Moon since the judgement was granted, a simple trace would have identified your new address, where you would have been contactable, they have failed to enforce their rights within the timescale allowed by statute, so convincing a judge to agree to this would be an unlikely outcome, in my opinion.

You can never say this with 100% certainly, but I'm 95% convinced.

Thanks for that. So best to just ignore from now on?

sourcrates

Wardie40 said:

sourcrates said:

Basically they are saying, we know we can`t enforce the judgement, and your a naughty boy for not updating your address details with us, but please pay us anyway.

We will keep harassing you for the time being, but if you ignore us for long enough, we will refer this matter back to our client, who will then most likely tell us to forget about it, as we don`t have a leg to stand on.

The civil procedure rules state that :

Should a judgment creditor fail to enforce a judgment or court order within the six-year time period, then, in accordance with CPR 83.2.(3)(a), they require the permission of the Court to take any legal action against the debtor.

Having said that, judgment creditors should be wary that permission to enforce the execution of a judgment or court order over six years old, is not a "mere formality", and sufficient reasons for the delay in enforcement must always be given.

Basically, unless you have been living on the Moon since the judgement was granted, a simple trace would have identified your new address, where you would have been contactable, they have failed to enforce their rights within the timescale allowed by statute, so convincing a judge to agree to this would be an unlikely outcome, in my opinion.

You can never say this with 100% certainly, but I'm 95% convinced.

Thanks for that. So best to just ignore from now on?

I would, let them make the next move, if any.

Wardie40

sourcrates said:

Wardie40 said:

sourcrates said:

Basically they are saying, we know we can`t enforce the judgement, and your a naughty boy for not updating your address details with us, but please pay us anyway.

We will keep harassing you for the time being, but if you ignore us for long enough, we will refer this matter back to our client, who will then most likely tell us to forget about it, as we don`t have a leg to stand on.

The civil procedure rules state that :

Should a judgment creditor fail to enforce a judgment or court order within the six-year time period, then, in accordance with CPR 83.2.(3)(a), they require the permission of the Court to take any legal action against the debtor.

Having said that, judgment creditors should be wary that permission to enforce the execution of a judgment or court order over six years old, is not a "mere formality", and sufficient reasons for the delay in enforcement must always be given.

Basically, unless you have been living on the Moon since the judgement was granted, a simple trace would have identified your new address, where you would have been contactable, they have failed to enforce their rights within the timescale allowed by statute, so convincing a judge to agree to this would be an unlikely outcome, in my opinion.

You can never say this with 100% certainly, but I'm 95% convinced.

Thanks for that. So best to just ignore from now on?

I would, let them make the next move, if any.

So that seemed to do the trick with Mortimer Clarke passing it back. However Cabot have now started writing to me weekly and calling daily I'm regards to the same matter.

Is it just a case of continuing to ignore them and they'll eventually guve up? Is there anything to be gained from communicating with them. They're pretty incessant with letter and calls. Is there anyway of making them stop (other than paying it off). If not I guess it's a small price to pay for running up such a debt. Just putting strain on my mental health as hiding this from my wife as she thought this had all blown over after the 6 year period and we just bought a house and had a baby in the past year so don't want her to worry.

RAS

Send Cabot the same message and they will back off.

At some stage you need to tell your wife you are being harassed about an old unenforceable debt about which you knew nothing for years.

It's not good for your mental health or the trust between you to avoid this. Trying to hide it gives these bullies power that they don't have in law.

sourcrates

Agreed, tell Cabot the same thing, don`t be afraid to have it out with these companies.

The very last thing you should do is allow these people to get under your skin, send them the same letter.