Lowell solicitors CCJ

[gdlb113]

I have an old debt with O2 which I defaulted on April 2013. It got passed on to Lowell solicitors and they have now gone through the county court and entered a CCJ against me in February of this year. The majority of my post goes to my mums address as I'm in the army and move about a bit and I only found out that this debt had re-emerged (after ages of hearing nothing) a couple of weeks ago. The original debt was for approximately £360 and now stands at £505 with the court costs etc added on. I just wanted to know if there is anyway I can get the CCJ removed from my name and court costs removed as I had no idea this was happening. To be honest I ignored the debt to begin with back in 2013/2014 and I haven't heard anything from them until now, probably because of my mum moving house a couple times. Obviously I'm going to pay the debt but I don't want a CCJ against my name. Any help would be much appreciated.

[jaguarsuk]

If they sent it to an address which you do not reside at then you can apply under CPR13.2 to have the judgement set aside.

Doing this incurs a fee of £255 without consent from the claimant or £100 with it. I would write to them and ask for their consent to set it aside based on the fact you did not receive the court claim as they sent it to an old address. Give them a 7 calendar day deadline and if they refuse or do not respond you file an application.

More in depth info in set aside here: http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...tailed-version

Do not admit liability for the debt or offer to settle anything just yet as this damages your position legally and could result in a judge deciding against setting it aside.

If successful the claimant will be ordered to pay your costs of the application and the claim goes back to you being able to file a defence.

At this point you can choose to make the solicitors do some work to prove the claim or negotiate a settlement, but as we go along then we can navigate those.

Mag to Grid the idea of paying them £360. They paid about £3.60 for that debt when they bought it from O2 and as I say we'll cross the bridge of an offer when it arises.

In additon to the letter requesting consent from the claimant to set aside send a letter to O2 to make a Subject Access Request Letter. They are pretty quick at coming back to you and the documents they can be revealing.

Ask them for copies of:

1. Agreement to open account
2. Default Notice
3. Notice of Assignment
4. Full history of the account
5. Details of the name and allowances of the plan
6. Any and all other information they hold of you

Number 5 might sound strange, but if it was a refresh plan these came with handset finance and then there's a further letter we can send out based on that.

Key Do's

1. in writing to anyone it is always "alleged debt"
2. vary your signature from your normal signature on letter to the claimant or their solicitor (add a squiggle, line or extra do - nothing extravagent, but enough that if it happens to find it's way via Photoshop on to an agreement you'll know)
3. only communicate with the claimant and their solicitor in writing - what's written down can't lie and you're less likely to slip up then say something that shoots you in the foot.

Come back an post with the next update or questions once you have done this.

[MIKE770]

somebody move the above into its own thread?