Just informed about a CCJ from 2013

stobXXZP

Hi, I took out a phone contract around 2007 with Orange who about 5 years were owned by T-mobile. I have zero paperwork and little memory of what happened later, when I defaulted.
The phone turned out to not do as designed, asked for different replacement or I would refuse payments....all this within 14 days, if there was any colling period back then?

Anyway, just this week, I received a letter from Lowell collections, stating they had purchased the debt in late 2015! Calling them revealed a CCJ was taken out in 2013 in Northamptonshire court.
I also set up a contract with EE a year ago and think there is a link in this?

It's not the amount of £381 that I dispute, it's the fact it's taken well over 10 years for one or more companies to contact me about paying this off.
Surely, I need to be told there is a 'live' CCJ from 2013?
There was no mention of an updated CCJ, as they supposedly last 5 or 6 years and maybe need to be re-applied for. But I also read CCJ's are time limitless....confused!!
I also read CCJ's totally overrule Statute Barred debt.
As for credit file info, I have checked my accounts monthly since about 2016 and this debt or CCJ was never there!

Any ideas on why I stand please?

fatbelly

The ccj should have been on your credit file up to 2019. It may be that it was registered against an address that you did not give the CRA.

ccjs are expected to be enforced within 6 years so again 2019. They can only be enforced beyond that by express permission of the court who will want to know the reason for the delay. Unless you have been living on the Moon for the past 5 years, there isn't one.

You can ignore it, or tell them you won't be paying, or offer them something in settlement. Easiest to ignore if you're comfortable with that. There is a lot of this happening at the moment.

stobXXZP

@ Fatbelly.
Thanks for the reply. I am and always been partly visible on my council register, as I have had rent help via them, paid council tax and always declared myself and address to local authorities on the forms they send out every so often.
Collection agencies can go that route to trace debtors.
It does seem odd that I was not traced via the council, because I could have been, or that no attempt was made to put an attachment of earnings on me, as I have worked nearly all those years from 2013. 
I have contacted Step Change as a back up.

sourcrates

They ran out of time to enforce this in 2019, CCJ`s don`t become statute barred, but as fatbelly has said, they must be enforced within 6 years, and this one wasn`t so it`s dead in the water.

What tends to happen is legal action may be taken on a number of accounts, then nothing else happens with them for years, this is a deliberate act, as debts with a CCJ attached sound more scary to the uninitiated.

Often they will be sold on to companies such as Lowell in bulk, and they then try to con you into paying up.

It`s all a numbers game, the more that can be persuaded to pay, the better for them.

fatbelly

Yes they could have traced you. Councils don' report much to the credit reference associations, but they do see electoral roll info.

Generally it's your bank account that gives you away.

Anyway, for whatever reason they're out of time on this one. I hope stepchange say the same.

DullGreyGuy

Statute Barred means they can no longer litigate but this as already been litigated hence the law of limitations doesn't apply. 

CCJs technically never go away but they stop being reported on your credit record after 6 years and the counterparty would need the courts express permission to restart enforcement activities after 6 years. The courts generally take a dim view on applicants unless there is a very good reason for the delay. 

Now knowing about it you have to consider all those times when asked if you've ever had a CCJ (eg whenever you buy insurance) and should be answering "yes". Similarly most of those will ask if you've paid it off in which case you'll have to say "no".  It could be the answering no costs more than it would be to pay it off and be able to say yes... though some here would just advocate "forgetting" to declare it as clearly others have found it during checks and now are less likely to given its off your CRA record (if it was ever on)

fatbelly

Is there any proof of a ccj? All the op has is the word of a dodgy debt buyer. It never appeared on the op's credit file when it should have been appearing in 2016. Registry Trust records go back 6 years so they can't find out from there.

It would need some detective work using the original court to find out if this ever existed and who the defendant was, and it's not in their interest to go digging!