CCJ at old address against statute barred debt

[taz_in_2001]

Hi,

I am posting on behalf of a friend whom has recently started talking to his parents again after 6 years. He moved away and hasn't made contact until recently.

His mother has kept a gigantic amount of mail dating back years all unopened, so we got to work sifting through them. Have come across a letter from Lowells dated August stating that he has failed to make payments against the CCJ they issued against him, she has every letter that was sent to the house in his name, there are no court papers and no prior letters to this one from Lowel or letters since that onel. Its all very strange.

The debt they have got a CCJ against him for is a mobile phone contract on Orange/EE he had around 7 years ago so this debt would have been statute barred, he isnt even sure if there was money outstanding but is adament he closed the account after contacting them due to having no signal in his home, this was discussed with a customer services operator and they both decided it would be the only option. He doesnt remember anything else.

Where does he go from here because obviously he did not receive any court summons and if he had he would have defended against it with the supposed debt is barred. What is the next step for him in sorting this out?

Any help appreciated
Thank you

[charitynjw]

Re: CCJ at old address against statute barred debt

Hi taz

It does seem odd that there has been no info either prior to or during the alleged court claim/CCJ.
You can find out more details on the CCJ (for a small fee) via http://www.trustonline.org.uk/search-yourself
With that info, phone the court concerned to find out more info (ie the address on the claim form, etc).
Mobile phone claims are tricky when it comes to statute-barred defences.
The 'cause of action' date can be a lot later than the last payment date, so it is important to pinpoint when the trigger date for the 6-year timeframe started. & if the court claim was within that timeframe, it will not be SB.

[taz_in_2001]

Re: CCJ at old address against statute barred debt

I have just done that and checked, there is indeed a CCJ issued by the County Court Business Centre is November 2015 for £536. This makes it even odder as they have made no contact since then till August 2016.

There is no way he owed £536 as I have it in writing from Orange themselves from my own fight with them that after 3 months of non payment they close the account so if this was the case they are putting his monthly bills at over £150 a month which is ridiculous.

He has just spoken to his mother and she said that baliffs attended her property in September but his father informed them that he had neither seen nor heard from him in over 5 years, he did not even know if he was alive or dead. They haven't had any more come since then nor had anymore letters.

He says pretty much all he remembers is it was a blackberry he had which was out of contract as he was due an upgrade, he had recently moved back home with his parents after a breakup and the signal was poor back home, it had always been fine in his old property, he asked orange if there was anything they could do and they couldn't so the operator basically told him to go with another provider, which he did. He took the Blackberry with him but that would have been fine given that it was out of contract anyway. He then took out a Vodafone contract and had a new phone with them before the argument with his family, he left and informed Vodafone etc that he had moved but did not contact Orange as his contract had been cancelled after the phone call.

[charitynjw]

Re: CCJ at old address against statute barred debt

If it were me I'd phone CCBC Northampton to find out further details.
Following a recent Daily Mail investigation, there is now a government investigation into firms which bring court claims using old addresses in order to get sneaky CCJs.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/n...om-debt-claims
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...addresses.html