CCJ set aside advice

[Catburp]

Hi there!

First of all - thanks for taking an interest in this one. I've been a bit of a moron and have found myself a CCJ for factoring fees which i hadn't been aware of and wanted to get some advice before i went down the road of trying to get it set aside.

I wondered if i might apply for the judgement to be set aside as i don't live at the address i was served at - i still own the property, but rent a property in a completely different part of the country. Is this reason alone to ask for a judgement to be set aside? I fully agree that i should have paid the cash to the housing association and so i wonder if i would get anywhere in the event of going to court.

The first i found out about the court hearing was when i had a bailiff telephone me which terrified me and meant that as soon as i found out i paid off the debt.

Any advice would be really gratefully appreciated.

Seriously, even if its - "wise up, you've been a total idiot".

Thanks.

[R0b]

Morning,

I'm going to say that you might have an uphill struggle in trying to remove the CCJ having already paid it. By paying the money you have in effect acknowledged the debt and therefore thats the end of it.

In order to set it aside the best way would be to obtain the consent of the Claimant, but they are under no obligation to give their consent. Otherwise you would have to issue an application to set it aside that could be very risky in that if you lose, you could end up paying substantial costs. Equally, a lot of judges I have come across don't like to see people applying to the court so that they can effectively "repair" their credit file and I've seen some applications thrown out at the first hurdle as an abuse of process.

You can however obtain a certificate of satisfaction from the Court for around £15 which will update your credit file to mark it satisfied, but in any automated credit decision your likely to have problems with getting credit because you will probably need to explain your reasons as to how you ended up with a CCJ (something a computer can't do, yet).

Next time before panicking and paying up, you should look to make an application to set aside the CCJ first which will allow you to maintain your clean credit file if it is successfully set aside. Not receiving the Claim Form is usually a good enough reason to set it aside.

[Catburp]

Very helpful - thank you.

Do you think with the consent of the claimant for it to be set aside that i would have a good chance of having it set aside?

If they gave this consent, would i have to face a combative court situation at all?

Best wishes.

[R0b]

Possibly. Approving the consent order to set aside the CCJ will always be at the discretion of the judge reading the application and judges in the County Court are never consistent so it would be a lottery.

Usually, judges tend to approve consent orders as it is the wishes of the parties who have both agreed to allow the application to be set aside but you may get one judge who can only be described by a four letter word, that will either reject the application or require the parties to attend a hearing to obtain further information as to why the CCJ should be set aside.

You are probably going to stand a better chance of getting the CCJ set aside if you make an application to the court by way of consent rather than without. The difficulty will be persuading the relevant person within the Claimant's business to consent to setting aside the CCJ. However, do bear in mind that the setting aside of the CCJ puts each party back in the position normally at the stage of filing a defence - the claim does not end. So as part of any consent, you would need to have a consent order drawn up to say that the CCJ is set aside and the Claimant withdraws its claim.

In the end, there's never a guarantee that it will be set aside.

[jaguarsuk]

You mention Factoring fees in your OP, are you in Scotland?

[Catburp]

Yes i am.

[R0b]

If you are based in Scotland then forget what I said above as the information provided is based on a CCJ in England and Wales. I have no idea on how Scots law applies unless someone else on here can be of assistance.

[jaguarsuk]

ScottishSolicitor is your best bet as I know only a little about Scottish Proceedure.

[ScottishSolicitor]

This sounds like an undefended decree if you were unaware it existed. There is almost certainly the ability to recall it. What is the total that has been awarded?

[Catburp]

This sounds like an undefended decree if you were unaware it existed. There is almost certainly the ability to recall it. What is the total that has been awarded?

It was less than £900. I think some £600-700 of acrued fees with £200 of interest or so. I paid back the entire £900 ASAP to avoid any further issues without realising what was fully included.

Best wishes!