CCJ / Old Debts / £1 Payments – Timeline not sure what to do next?!

projectforty

Hi everyone - I never thought I would be back on here asking for advice but here we go

Background

• My ex wife and I had multiple old debts from over 10 years ago.

• Back then we arranged token payments of £1/month to 4 or 5 debt collection agencies each (DCAs).  We have subsequently been divorced and I have remarried

• These debts were long since defaulted, and no longer showed on my credit file. I have also managed to get a perfect credit file since then.

• I continued paying the £1s out of goodwill — but stopped them all earlier this year, thinking they were statute-barred or dead and also as I was hoping to apply for a mortgage and thoguht this would raise questions about my previous situation

What Happened

• On 19th July 2025, I spotted a new CCJ on my credit file from Mortimer Clarke Solicitors.

• It was for £4,009, linked to a very old Northern Rock loan originally from 2013.

• The CCJ was issued to my old address, where I haven’t lived for 4.5 years. I received no court claim pack or letters at my current address.

Steps I Took

1. Verified the Source

   • Found an old letter forwarded from my ex-wife (who used to live at the old address).

   • It was from Cabot Financial (now owner of the debt), passed to Mortimer Clarke.

   • Confirmed this debt matched one of the old £1 arrangements I had stopped.

2. Made the Payment

   • Paid the full CCJ amount of £4,009 within the 30-day window to ensure it is marked as “cancelled” and removed from my credit file.

3. Form N443

   • Mortimer Clarke said they would file the Form N443 (request for CCJ satisfaction).

   • I also posted my own completed N443 form by recorded delivery to the court, just to be 100% safe.

4. My Concerns Moving Forward

• Should I reinstate the £1's -if so do I do it silently, or proactively by contacting the DCA's and if I contact the DCA's what should I say? Do I tell them it was a mistake that the SO was cancelled? give them a new Income and Expenditure form?

• If DCA's chase me more aggressively how on earth do I deal with this? I am no longer at that address (I now have post redirected) they are over ten years old.

• Should I give them my new contact details

• Have I re-exposed myself by paying this CCJ's

Would love any guidance from others who’ve been through similar

Thanks so much in advance x

fatbelly

£1 token offers are a short term strategy. I wouldn't restart them now that you've stopped

Only around 1 in 10 defaulted debts see court action so you were unlucky with Cabot. Paying them hasn't caused you a problem.

If anyone wants to find you they can. Unless you are deliberately hiding, your credit file will show your addresses

Just to be clear - your debts have not gone statute barred precisely because you carried on with those payments. Although, if the debts have changed hands enough, the present owners may not be aware of the history