BW legal (via Lowell) filed a CCJ against me - they were posting to an old address

[Luke_1112]

Hello,
Thank you so much for any advice on this:

1. I try to hire a car. Most places I have no problem, but this one place they say their insurer couldn't approve me and I eventually find out it's because I have a CCJ against me!

2. Very confused and surprised (I didn't think I had any serious debts or CCJs against me) I contact the national government body who handles CCJ applications (sorry I forget their name!) and they say yes, there is one held by Lowell

3. I contact Lowell, they also have pretty much no info about the case other than my name, the amount of money and I think maybe a date. I think they had an old address. They couldn't tell me what the debt was for! They said they sold my debt to BW legal

4. I contact BW legal and they also have no additional info. It's so surreal and ridiculous!

5. I am on Universal Credit because all of my freelance work vapourised over Covid. So I go to the government legal website for getting financial support with setting aside a CCJ because I don't have hundreds of pounds to stop a CCJ against me which no-one even has any information about and is about 6 years old.

6. It takes THREE WEEKS for this generic financial support application to arrive by post (not sure why I couldn't just do it online?) and during this time, BW legal have managed to dig up more info about my debt. It's something to do with money I owed on a mobile phone contract about 7 or 8 years ago. Now they want me to pay around £600. I do not physically have enough money to my name to pay this, even if I used every penny of my overdraft. I also have about £4,000 other informal debts which I have been slowly but reliably paying off in recent years.

Now we have a court hearing 27th July.
BW legal just called me today because I didn't reply within 7 days to their letter.

I said I needed a bit of time to get some legal advice..
I tried calling Citizens Advice Bureau today but after 11 mins on hold, the automated message said "we're too busy, try again another time" and hung up.

Thank you for any suggestions on how best I can move forwards.

[Luke_1112]

what I'm unsure about is how best to go forward, eg 1. Try to set it aside completely (is that more likely to fail and just end up costing me even more money?)
2. Pay it
a) in one or two installments (that would be very hard, I would have to sell belongings)
b) get it reduced and pay that
c) pay very small installments over a long period (how small can I make the payments?)

Hope that's clearer -and maybe there's other good questions I should be asking about this!

[mike22861]

As BW Legal have been sending correspondence to an incorrect address it does qualify for set aside using form N244, a standard N244 costs £255 if the claimant agrees it will cost £100 and you can get help with the costs on an EX160 form

There are 3 points required for set aside:

1 Why didn't you respond to the claim form: In your case incorrect address claimant failed to perform due diligence.

2 Do you have a good prospect of defending the claim.

3 Did you act quickly once you found out about the CCJ

[echat11]

Hi Luke_1112

I would personally look to gather as much information as possible,.Send / email Lowell a Subject Access Request, they have 30 days to provide all the data they hold on your account. Then you can go through the data to determine what is what. It doesn't cost anything.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ccess-request/

[Luke_1112]

Thank you both!
Ok, I'll contact Lowell and request the Subject Access Request (that's all the info they have about me/ my case, right?) although my court hearing is before then... so with my court hearing in 7 days as mentioned, I'm not sure what to do first!
It is advisable to actually try and stop the hearing from taking place, or I just argue my case at the hearing..?
Thanks again

[MIKE770]

Too late dsar hearing 7 days,? Also dsar would go to original owner pity left so long as you could of asked court during proceedings to force information?

[Luke_1112]

Thank you all for the support - especially Mike; really useful to be aware of those arguments.

My court hearing is tomorrow now. There wasn't enough time to set aside judgement, partly because it tooks such a long time to get my paperwork for getting financial support with my application cost.

The claimant sent me this, which I'm a bit confused by. What does it mean?
At first I thought they were cancelling their claim against me, but I'm guessing they're just showing how me they would set aside the CCJ *if* I agree to their previous demand to pay the £508?

https://i.imgur.com/lQ5GJt5.jpg

[Luke_1112]

Hey all, just to update - Indeed, the claimant changed suddenly in the few days running up to the court case I started to set aside the CCJ, now saying they would completely write everything off, so no need for court hearing, but I went ahead with it anyway. So it happened over the phone. So.

Thanks for the advice, all seems well now for me and this 11 year old debt written off!

[MIKE770]

well done make sure court knows!

[MIKE770]

if you paid set a side cost claim it back .. they want you to sign the consent order and any cost not claimed?? did you pay court fee? if so get on to lowells before signing and state court fee has been paid so cost has been made, or just sign it and accept it as case closed but send to lowells with your signature