Left the UK 3 years ago... suddenly a CCJ appears
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Voltron
Posts: 45 Forumite
I'll do my best to keep things brief!
I haven't lived in the UK for 3+ years now, from memory when I left all the bills were moved over to my housemate, but I know some companies aren't great at dealing with that. Looking at you, Virgin Media (but to my knowledge that's just to the extent they still send me surveys at least). He kept the same house until recently, and had a different housemate.
Fast forward to checking my credit the other day, as I like to keep on top of things despite not living there, and I see a CCJ has been filed on 18/9 for 500 quid. Not good. I rang Nottingham, and am told it's a utilities company and given the contact number.
I tell my ex-housemate and he's digging through the old mail he has to try and sort this, I provide him the case ref and the contact number I'm given. Naturally, I want to be on top of this too because I don't want anything going wrong. I know the first 30 days is crucial, after all.
So ideally, I'm guessing the best case scenario is having him pay off the debt (either in one chunk or an agreement, presumably) and then I contact them to try arrange the CCJ to be put aside as I was completely unaware and to my knowledge wasn't on the bill anymore. Naturally it's possible it was something overlooked so I can't rely on that element. I can naturally prove I've not been in the country for some time though, and would not have been there during the debt accumulation or any attempts to contact me (I'm waiting to find out if the mail is in my name or not, also).
Is there any specific things I should be doing or arranging right now to try and resolve this before this tarnishes my good name?
I haven't lived in the UK for 3+ years now, from memory when I left all the bills were moved over to my housemate, but I know some companies aren't great at dealing with that. Looking at you, Virgin Media (but to my knowledge that's just to the extent they still send me surveys at least). He kept the same house until recently, and had a different housemate.
Fast forward to checking my credit the other day, as I like to keep on top of things despite not living there, and I see a CCJ has been filed on 18/9 for 500 quid. Not good. I rang Nottingham, and am told it's a utilities company and given the contact number.
I tell my ex-housemate and he's digging through the old mail he has to try and sort this, I provide him the case ref and the contact number I'm given. Naturally, I want to be on top of this too because I don't want anything going wrong. I know the first 30 days is crucial, after all.
So ideally, I'm guessing the best case scenario is having him pay off the debt (either in one chunk or an agreement, presumably) and then I contact them to try arrange the CCJ to be put aside as I was completely unaware and to my knowledge wasn't on the bill anymore. Naturally it's possible it was something overlooked so I can't rely on that element. I can naturally prove I've not been in the country for some time though, and would not have been there during the debt accumulation or any attempts to contact me (I'm waiting to find out if the mail is in my name or not, also).
Is there any specific things I should be doing or arranging right now to try and resolve this before this tarnishes my good name?
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Comments
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So ideally, I'm guessing the best case scenario is having him pay off the debt (either in one chunk or an agreement, presumably) and then I contact them to try arrange the CCJ to be put aside
No.
If you pay it within 30 days - in full, not an agreement - then it will be removed from your files.
Bills generally can't be 'moved over' to someone else. The contract needs to be ended and a new one taken out. Make sure you check all three of your files to see what else may be on there.0 -
Ah that's encouraging at least. I can see me having to loan him the money to ensure this is done, but at least I'll know it's done and dusted then.
Good idea with regards to checking with the others, just in case there's something else there. I only have a basic service that I don't pay for, so it could well be missing stuff.
And I thought my difficulties in even getting a credit record here in the US were tricky, and that at least back home my record was spotless...0 -
You can't transfer accounts.
When you left you should have closed your accounts and had the other person open their own in their own name.0 -
Curious as to how/why somebody who has not lived in the UK for over 3 years and presumably has no UK address or credit should have just happened to be 'checking their credit' the other day.0
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Another thought. If as stated this ccj is in respect of a utility account, which utility have the current occupants of the house not been paying for?0
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Are you worried about it because you're coming back to the UK soon?
CCJs come off your record after 8 years and are not visible to anyone after that time.
I would also advise you to keep UK bank accounts open if you plan on coming back to the UK. Keep them active by transferring money between them.0 -
Are you worried about it because you're coming back to the UK soon?
CCJs come off your record after 8 years and are not visible to anyone after that time.
I would also advise you to keep UK bank accounts open if you plan on coming back to the UK. Keep them active by transferring money between them.
6 actually.
And you should ask the banks whether they allow accounts to be open when you no longer reside in the UK.0 -
Sorry, lack of multi quote system on here means I'm having to copy/paste things in so lack of names etc.Curious as to how/why somebody who has not lived in the UK for over 3 years and presumably has no UK address or credit should have just happened to be 'checking their credit' the other day.Another thought. If as stated this ccj is in respect of a utility account, which utility have the current occupants of the house not been paying for?
Wouldn't you? I'm a UK citizen after all, and it's good to be on top of these things. I hadn't checked in a few months, so it's insanely good luck I found out about this within a few days. Happened to get the heads up email from the system I used, and clicked it just out of curiosity. Usually nothing changes, but this time a big change.
While I don't think it matters which utility bill it was, in this case it was water.Maybe that's what the OP meant by saying they had the accounts transferred.
Yeah I could've sworn it was dealt with, either by a name transfer or closing down and reopening. Possibly it slipped my mind, so I just dug out my old spreadsheet I used to keep track of bills... and from what I can tell, it was always paid directly by my housemate. So what I'm guessing is, maybe it had both our names on it but I forgot about being listed when we settled up. So he possibly has something against his name too, but definitely adds another level of intrigue to it all. I shall investigate further though for sure.Are you worried about it because you're coming back to the UK soon?
I would also advise you to keep UK bank accounts open if you plan on coming back to the UK. Keep them active by transferring money between them.
I wasn't planning to, but life got complicated. My wife passed away a few months ago just as I was applying have my green card extended. There is a section on the forms for those circumstances and it's the hands of my immigration lawyer, but it's not a guaranteed yes stamp anymore. I'm on an 18 month extension while I go through the system.
So I may come back because of no choice, or I may decide I just want to come back anyway. Right now I'd rather stay where I am, but things can obviously change.
Bank account wise, I did have a current account kept open but it became more hassle than it was worth trying to work it from this side of the pond, so I closed it down when I visited home in December. Was costing about 10-15 quid in fees each month, easy to forget and go into overdraft etc so didn't feel worth keeping open. If I need to, hopefully they'll have my records on file, as I was with them as my primary back for close to 20 years.
I've got a savings account open with Nationwide, but not much money in that. Unlikely to ever really use it.And you should ask the banks whether they allow accounts to be open when you no longer reside in the UK.
Neither my bank or Nationwide seemed to have an issue with that fact at least. PayPal are worse because they don't like you having more than one account, and you can't change from one country to another, so I eventually closed my UK one after I made an error and paid with it by mistake, which then hit a UK credit card I have but don't regularly check who then chased my mum up on the phone for about a tenner ha.0 -
£500 is an awful lot for a water bill.
Seems like residents of the house were ignoring correspondence/bills for some time.0
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