water bill court action help please

wrightk wrote: »

Im not disputing the amount, i have made a payment arrangement to clear the balance. what i am disputing is the fact that despite to my knowledge giving a forwarding address, setting up a temporary redirection of mail, the water company receiving official notification of my new address from the council, and continuing to pay water at my current address under the same name and with the same water company, they decided to enter a ccj against me at my old address 4 years after moving and its taken 6 years for me to find out about this by a letter to my new address

Was there a reason why you didn't pay in 2012.? Had you paid then you wouldn't be in this mess now.

They couldn't use your new address when you registered, because how can they know it's the same person, and not just someone else with the same name?


Still, there are ways of tracing people so it seems they didn't try harder. As others have said, you could apply for a set-aside to send it back to court, usually you would need a reasonable chance at success, which without proof you gave them the new address yourselves would be difficult.


Although if you don't dispute it you could try writing to the company and ask them not to contest the set-aside and in return you promise to just pay the demanded amount (edit: the correct term is a set-aside with consent). You'd still have to pay the original claim amount (bill + original court fees) as well as the set-aside cost, but it would remove the CCJ from your file if that's important to you.


They may refuse, but couldn't hurt to try.


Otherwise it won't be going back to the county court, but their mention of further court action may mean referring it to the high court for bailiff action (think, Can't pay? We'll take it away!) now they know where you live, which adds extra costs (in the order of £300+) so this isn't something you want to let drag on.


If it does go to the high court, I don't believe there's any obligation to notify you before you get the knock on the door (the CCJ is considered notification enough) so make sure you're aware of what to do if HCE turn up, including what they are, and what they're not allowed to do.