CCJ advice required please.

x2dvyz

Hi,

A messy situation, but I'll keep this as concise as possible, as I respect and value the help you guys provide. I would appreciate your help please.

Having gone through financial failure/divorce, loss of child, loss of job, severe depression, had to walk away from the UK in 2018 and moved abroad (South America) off-grid.

Total debts (loans/credits cards/parking fines) approx £50k. 
No assets in the UK, only a couple of bank accounts (not much in them, although they are useful). 
No plans to return to the UK to reside, only to visit family once every couple of years.

Most of the debts are statute barred. 
Three CCJ's, one amounts to £8700, the other is £3500 and one smaller amount. I have been hounded by email for over six years for all debts, and ignored them - no contact. All CCJs were issued in 2020. I have not received any physical letters, because I have not been there. Previous bank accounts are still linked to an old UK address.

I'm aware the CCJs do not expire and will always be enforceable if I ever return to the UK. Therefore, I am more inclined or feel pressured more into clearing them because they can cause me problems in the future if I ever need to return. 

Recently I received email from a solicitor regarding the two largest CCJs totalling approx £12,500 saying along the lines of:

Paraphrased - "You have ignored us for years. There is an outstanding CCJ of £12,500. We will add another £90 (approx) in the next 14 days for further enforcement action if we do not hear from you. If you pay in the next 14 days the balance in full, we will offer a 25% discount."

I've managed to save over the years, although work is a bit sketchy (employed is also outside the UK), but I could pay this and get it out the way, but it would take me back down to a struggling financial position. My feeling is, as its a CCJ its one of the serious ones I should take care of and ignore the others as they are SB.

Questions:

1. What enforcement actions can they take, especially with them mentioning this additional amount (approx £90) that will be added? I have no assets in the UK, and not present in the UK. Can they seize my bank accounts there, is it likely?

2. Will paying this balance somehow affect the other debts that are statute barred?

3. In the email they mentioned that paying a reduced amount will not satisfy the County Court Judgment (CCJ) entered, but will prevent the CCJ being enforced in future and stop the additional cost and fees being applied. If this debt is recorded on credit file and I accept one of their reduced payment offers, they will mark the credit file as partially settled. This sounds concerning if the CCJ is not satisfied, what are the consequences of this?

4. Am I better paying it now although it would cause me a lot of stress, or for now hold off?

Any other thoughts or opinions I may not be seeing, I would very much appreciate your input.
Thank you.

DullGreyGuy

You say you are "outside the UK" so where are you?

Initially you say off grid but then mention having both Internet and work so are you really living in a hut in the wilderness or not? Is your work as an employee and formally paid?

International enforcement is more difficult but the options open vary depending on where you are.

x2dvyz

DullGreyGuy said:

You say you are "outside the UK" so where are you?

Initially you say off grid but then mention having both Internet and work so are you really living in a hut in the wilderness or not? Is your work as an employee and formally paid?

International enforcement is more difficult but the options open vary depending on where you are.

Edited the post above to include more info. South America, employed by a SA company and formally paid although paid to bank accounts outside the UK. 

fatbelly

They are whistling in the wind about enforcing these.

Yes technically if you have a UK bank account they could do a third party debt order. But they would need to know where you bank.

Ccjs have to be enforced within 6 years normally. They could argue that you have been evading them but it's all unlikely. I'd just set up a subfolder for annoying emails and leave them there

sourcrates

After 6 years the CCJ`s will become unenforceable, under section 24, limitation act, and your other debts will become, or already are, statute barred.

Emails are a cheap (free) way of contacting you and trying to persuade you to pay them, in all honesty none of this is going anywhere, they are having a last ditch, ever so desperate attempt to get paid, there`s nothing they can really do about this, other than keep emailing you.

Despite some reciprocal agreements for debt being in place, you would normally have to reside in the UK for them to have any hope of ever enforcing any of these judgements.

UK debt purchasing companies don`t like wasting money trying to trace debtors, and especially so if they are abroad, as the process is just too time consuming and laborious, with no guarantee of a payday, they would have to transfer the case to a south American court, and get a judgement in that territory, of course first they would have to find you, its just not going to happen.

RAS

The Limitations Act still applies, just a different section. This ain't going anywhere, IRL.

dankemp

x2dvyz said:

Hi,

A messy situation, but I'll keep this as concise as possible, as I respect and value the help you guys provide. I would appreciate your help please.

Having gone through financial failure/divorce, loss of child, loss of job, severe depression, had to walk away from the UK in 2018 and moved abroad (South America) off-grid.

Total debts (loans/credits cards/parking fines) approx £50k. 
No assets in the UK, only a couple of bank accounts (not much in them, although they are useful). 
No plans to return to the UK to reside, only to visit family once every couple of years.

Most of the debts are statute barred. 
Three CCJ's, one amounts to £8700, the other is £3500 and one smaller amount. I have been hounded by email for over six years for all debts, and ignored them - no contact. All CCJs were issued in 2020. I have not received any physical letters, because I have not been there. Previous bank accounts are still linked to an old UK address.

I'm aware the CCJs do not expire and will always be enforceable if I ever return to the UK. Therefore, I am more inclined or feel pressured more into clearing them because they can cause me problems in the future if I ever need to return. 

Recently I received email from a solicitor regarding the two largest CCJs totalling approx £12,500 saying along the lines of:

Paraphrased - "You have ignored us for years. There is an outstanding CCJ of £12,500. We will add another £90 (approx) in the next 14 days for further enforcement action if we do not hear from you. If you pay in the next 14 days the balance in full, we will offer a 25% discount."

I've managed to save over the years, although work is a bit sketchy (employed is also outside the UK), but I could pay this and get it out the way, but it would take me back down to a struggling financial position. My feeling is, as its a CCJ its one of the serious ones I should take care of and ignore the others as they are SB.

Questions:

1. What enforcement actions can they take, especially with them mentioning this additional amount (approx £90) that will be added? I have no assets in the UK, and not present in the UK. Can they seize my bank accounts there, is it likely?

2. Will paying this balance somehow affect the other debts that are statute barred?

3. In the email they mentioned that paying a reduced amount will not satisfy the County Court Judgment (CCJ) entered, but will prevent the CCJ being enforced in future and stop the additional cost and fees being applied. If this debt is recorded on credit file and I accept one of their reduced payment offers, they will mark the credit file as partially settled. This sounds concerning if the CCJ is not satisfied, what are the consequences of this?

4. Am I better paying it now although it would cause me a lot of stress, or for now hold off?

Any other thoughts or opinions I may not be seeing, I would very much appreciate your input.
Thank you.

I am very sorry for your loss and the life changing circumstances that you have been through.

When I was at the height of my debt mountain there was all kinds of shenanigans by debt collectors pretending to be law firms or private investigators, until it was banned by the FCA (I think). What I have noticed is that there are now a lot of Solicitors firms being bought by debt owning companies. The firms continue to operate but also become the in house legal department.

Debts are passed around from debt collector to debt collector, some of them add fake charges to the debt they are chasing but when the debt is passed to another debt collector the amount reverts back.  Just another reason to not engage,

If you do not acknowledge the debt or pay anything to the debt it becomes statute barred, 2018 is when you left but it may not be the date they defaulted, so be wary of making any contact that would extend the six years.

A reduced amount is just a way to get you to engage, as each debt collection agency gets close to being kicked and another appointed they offer amounts, but why pay a penny when it will disappear soon enough, if it has not already.

Also you are abroad, do not tell them this under any circumstances, just let the thing time out.

Paying one debt will embolden others, when I paid off my overdraft all the debt collectors got high on the fumes but they realised after a few months that they were not getting a single cent.

They have no rights of enforcement in Latin America, you have no assets and no plan to return, they are writing vapour.

Wait for the other debts to become statute barred because one stunt is to come after you for a debt that is statute barred, you warn them off and they say "what about this" with one that is not statute barred.

You are far away and even if one of the debts were going to Court for a CCJ then let it happen, it just gives them another 6 years to have a go, still virtually impossible to enforce with you being over there.

Why get a debt "out of the way" this is a business, the original lender made an irresponsible decision to lend, they then wrote it off and sold it for pennies in the pound to a so called debt consolidator.  That debt consolidator paid those pennies because they knew there was a very poor chance of recovery.  So even if they paid £750 why would you pay them a penny just for writing you a letter or sending you an email.  Paying them only encourages them and others.

Chances are they will be sacked and a new firm comes on, they can't add interest to the debt, the amounts they add are for their services so do not engage with them or perhaps you in some way agree to their terms which say if you engage with them you pay.

I must have had about 12 companies add amounts to my debt only for it to be gone when the next vulture was appointed.

You did nothing wrong, this is all part of the game.  I see no reason for you to do anything but file away the nonsense letters so that one day you have evidence if you need it that something was barred.