Cabot Financial

[ceinwenn]

Just over a year ago I checked my credit rating as my partner and I were looking to buy a house. I hadn't checked it in a long while, as as far as I knew I had no real reason to. I disvovered that I had a CCJ from January 2015, which I knew nothing about. A couple days after my discovery I was suddenly made redundant, and my partner was made redundant from his job 2 weeks later. We ended up having to give up everything and move in with his parents until we were able to get back on our feet. (We are still living with his parents)

I couldn't afford to try to do anything about the CCJ, we didn't have £255 to throw away on a chance to get it set aside so I didn't try to find out anything about the CCJ until 3 weeks ago. I have discovered that the CCJ relates to a debt I had in 2007/8, when I had lived in Bedford. At the time my partner and I had just been made redundant (we've not had much luck since the financial crisis), and I couldn't pay the debt. I tried to work something out with the company, but they weren't interested. I received no notice of default from the original company, and had no correspondence from any collection agencies relating to this debt.

All of the court paperwork relating to this CCJ was sent to my address in Welwyn Garden City, which I had moved away from 8 months prior to the court action being taken. I therefore didn't know about the action being taken against me, and had no chance to try to defend myself. We had moved from Hertfordshire to Devon, and did have our post forwarded for a month, but no longer as we notified all the pertinant people who had to know, so not much post was forwarded. I was working at the time of the court action and could have settled the debt, but by that time I had completely forgotten about it because so many years had passed without any contact from anyone.

Now today I have had a letter from Cabot's solicitors telling me that they have been instructed by their client to close my account, that the debt remains and that I will hear from their agents in due course. Is that their subtle way of telling me that the bailiffs are on their way? What can I do to fight this? Do I have grounds to apply to have this set aside? I know that if I had originally tried to fight this, and been unsuccessful, that I would have had a month to settle the debt without it appearing on the register. As I didn't know about the court case, I didn't get to either try to defend myself or settle the debt, haven't my rights been taken away?

According to the information I received from Trust, the CCJ is for £447, does this include the costs etc? & should I just suck it up and pay it, now that I am working and can pay the debt? Especially if this letter means the Balliffs are coming, I cannot allow that to happen, my in-laws would never forgive me!

Thanks for your help.

Ceinwenn

[Kati]

Re: Cabot Financial

I'll tag [MENTION=55034]nemesis45[/MENTION] for you xx

[nemesis45]

Re: Cabot Financial

Just over a year ago I checked my credit rating as my partner and I were looking to buy a house. I hadn't checked it in a long while, as as far as I knew I had no real reason to. I disvovered that I had a CCJ from January 2015, which I knew nothing about. A couple days after my discovery I was suddenly made redundant, and my partner was made redundant from his job 2 weeks later. We ended up having to give up everything and move in with his parents until we were able to get back on our feet. (We are still living with his parents)

I couldn't afford to try to do anything about the CCJ, we didn't have £255 to throw away on a chance to get it set aside so I didn't try to find out anything about the CCJ until 3 weeks ago. I have discovered that the CCJ relates to a debt I had in 2007/8, when I had lived in Bedford. At the time my partner and I had just been made redundant (we've not had much luck since the financial crisis), and I couldn't pay the debt. I tried to work something out with the company, but they weren't interested. I received no notice of default from the original company, and had no correspondence from any collection agencies relating to this debt.

All of the court paperwork relating to this CCJ was sent to my address in Welwyn Garden City, which I had moved away from 8 months prior to the court action being taken. I therefore didn't know about the action being taken against me, and had no chance to try to defend myself. We had moved from Hertfordshire to Devon, and did have our post forwarded for a month, but no longer as we notified all the pertinant people who had to know, so not much post was forwarded. I was working at the time of the court action and could have settled the debt, but by that time I had completely forgotten about it because so many years had passed without any contact from anyone.

Now today I have had a letter from Cabot's solicitors telling me that they have been instructed by their client to close my account, that the debt remains and that I will hear from their agents in due course. Is that their subtle way of telling me that the bailiffs are on their way? What can I do to fight this? Do I have grounds to apply to have this set aside? I know that if I had originally tried to fight this, and been unsuccessful, that I would have had a month to settle the debt without it appearing on the register. As I didn't know about the court case, I didn't get to either try to defend myself or settle the debt, haven't my rights been taken away?

According to the information I received from Trust, the CCJ is for £447, does this include the costs etc? & should I just suck it up and pay it, now that I am working and can pay the debt? Especially if this letter means the Balliffs are coming, I cannot allow that to happen, my in-laws would never forgive me!

Thanks for your help.

Ceinwenn

Good morning Ceinwenn,

Was it Cabot that obtained the judgement?

This closing of the account sounds a little odd to me, but one possible interpretation is that although Cabot has the CCJ in place they are not attempting to enforce it via the court, they have not given notice that such enforce will take place. The statement that "the debt still exists points" in that direction as well.
The judgement debt £447. 00 is the total amount.

Please give us some history of the debt.
You say the debt is " from 2007/2008 " is this when payments ceased?

Do you Know when the account was defaulted?

I ask as Cabot will often sit on debts they have acquired and only take legal action years later, mean that this debt could have been already statute barred when the claim was issued.

nem

[ceinwenn]

Re: Cabot Financial

Hi Nemesis,
I can't say with 100% certanty, but believe that the last payment I made would have been around July (or earlier) 2008 but I don't know when the account was defaulted, I honestly do not ever recall receiving a default notice. It was definitely Cabot who obtained the judgement, and Mortimer Clark were the solicitors. When I called the County Court Business Centre they told me that was the solicitor firm I should contact.