Credit Card CCJ

[JaymoMook]

Afternoon all, I'm hoping that you might be able to assist us in a stressful time.

My partner applied for a mortgage and as part of that process a CCJ she knew nothing about has been flagged up - frustrating as it is going to kill the mortgage process, but that's an aside.

As it's my partner's issues, I have some knowledge, but might not have all the detail you ask for, but I can get it and clarify as needed.

The debt is for a credit card with Citi Card for approx £2500 back in 2010. Citi subsequently became/sold to/otherwise now are Opus. The debt was paid, in full, and we can approach the bank for evidence of this.

In 2014, at a different address, a letter from a credit agency of some sort wrote to her to tell her that they were taking court action for non payment. There were no communications received in the interim period - though she had moved address and had unfortunately not advised the credit card company of this. With the help of the CAB this debt was challenged and all the evidence of payment was returned to the credit agency/solicitors and a letter was received to say that the action was being put on hold.

In 2017 we received a new letter advising similar and chasing the debt. After a phone conversation and an email conversation, the solicitors said the letter was an 'administrative error' and that the action would once again be held.

Since this flagged up, we have spoken to the solicitor, who referred us to the credit card company directly. The credit card company referred us to the credit agency, and the credit agency referred us to the solicitor. So we're stuck in a circle.

One big issue we have is that we have no information, so we don't know if the debt being chased is the debt that was paid, and so we need to fight to prove that this was the case, or whether the debt is for a subsequent debt that has been accumulated since the payment was made. Any debt accumulated since the payment was made has been accumulated by somebody else fraudulently.

So my questions are these.
How, and from whom, do we get the information that we need in regards to what the debt actually is, and when it is from etc.
If the debt is the original debt and they simply haven't apportioned the payment made correctly, how do we rectify this?
If the debt is from subsequent fraudulent activity, is there a different route to take?

As you can imagine, we are very stressed by all of this, and not experienced in these matters (something I feel credit agencies and their legal representatives take advantage of) so any support that can be offered will more than gratefully be received.

Thanks in advance

J

[jaguarsuk]

How, and from whom, do we get the information that we need in regards to what the debt actually is, and when it is from etc.
If the debt is the original debt and they simply haven't apportioned the payment made correctly, how do we rectify this?
If the debt is from subsequent fraudulent activity, is there a different route to take?

As you can imagine, we are very stressed by all of this, and not experienced in these matters (something I feel credit agencies and their legal representatives take advantage of) so any support that can be offered will more than gratefully be received.

Thanks in advance

J

Your partner needs to contact the Northampton County Court Business Centre and request copies of the claim form and judgement be sent to her due to non receipt.

Either route to challenge this will be by applying to have the judgement set aside, more info on that here: http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...tailed-version

Don't worry we all start somewhere and we'll be here to help you along the way.

[JaymoMook]

Thank you so much. I'm a forensic researcher into everything, obsessively so, but I'm finding all this extremely confusing and trying so I'm incredibly appreciative of the help.

I'll have a read through that and go from there.

Could I ask how you know it's Northampton?

[jaguarsuk]

Most claims are issued online via the Money Claim Online system and CCBC in Northampton is where they are distributed from. It may be the claim was issued via CCMCC in Salford, but Northampton will still be able to help.

Once you are ready to set aside the judgement this will be done by application to either CCBC or CCMCC depending on which entered it then transferred to your local court for the hearing.

Upon finding out what the judgement relates to that will determine the advice of how to proceed with the application.

[JaymoMook]

So step one - Contact the court and get all the documents, then come back here and lay it all out for advice? Nothing else until we get these documents?

[jaguarsuk]

So step one - Contact the court and get all the documents, then come back here and lay it all out for advice? Nothing else until we get these documents?

Exactly.

You can't do anything more until then as you don't know what the CCJ relates to or whom to contact.

[JaymoMook]

Excellent.

Once again, thank you so much for your assistance. An absolute god send!

[Amethyst]

While you're chasing up the court for details it might also be worth getting the evidence of the debt being paid up with Citi from your bank as back up ( and likely a good idea to get evidence from Citi/Opus by way of sending a Subject Access Request Letter )

[JaymoMook]

Yep, we're already in contact with the bank to get that oh so valuable proof.

[Debt Camel]

As a separate matter, you should try putting in a PPI claim for this credit card. Citi cards very often had PPI on them, it's worth a try.

[JaymoMook]

Ok, so we're having a nightmare and I don't know the best route.

So.... rang Northampton who referred us to our local court.
Local court said "No problem, just fill out a form, fee for application etc. prove you've paid it, should be fine.
But we have no documentation at all as to what the debt actually is. We've got nothing.
Also struggling to get the proof of payment as the payment was made by my partner's ex husband, in 2010, from a bank that he has now closed his account with. He's requested the info as a SAR, but this could take some time.
The debtor's solicitors say they have no documentation at all.
The debt agency say they have no documentation at all, but have raised an 'urgent' request for this info, but they've said it could take up to 16 weeks, though they are hoping for quicker.
The credit card company refuse to speak to us at all.

So I feel like we're stuck.

I feel like we can't apply to have it set aside when we have absolutely no information whatsoever.

What is our best plan of attack from here, other than what we've tried to establish.

In regards to PPI - How would we go about that, considering that Citi have been bought out by Opus? Do we just speak to Opus directly about it? I'm concerned that they will pull the same "We can't talk to you about it" line that they're sticking with at the moment :/

[jaguarsuk]

The debtor's solicitors say they have no documentation at all.
The debt agency say they have no documentation at all, but have raised an 'urgent' request for this info, but they've said it could take up to 16 weeks, though they are hoping for quicker.
The credit card company refuse to speak to us at all.

So I feel like we're stuck.

I feel like we can't apply to have it set aside when we have absolutely no information whatsoever.

Believe it or not, none of this is a bad thing.

Your partner needs to write to the claimant and the solicitor stating they never received the claim form for this judgement and as such they intended to apply to set the judgement aside.

Therefore they are requesting the claimant consent to the judgement being set aside as pursuant to CPR 13.3(2) "the court must have regard include whether the person seeking to set aside the judgment made an application to do so promptly."

16 weeks cannot by any reasonable person be deemed to be "prompt" and therefore they must act with your partner now to satisfy the court, so give their consent within 7 calendar days.

If they refuse or do not respond within 7 calendar days your partner should file form N244 to set the judgement aside pursuant to CPR 13.2 that they did not receive the claim form and that costs of the application be paid by the Claimant to the Defendant.

The application fee is £100 with consent or £255 without it, but recoverable from the claimant if successful.

As for the Credit Card company if your partner has submitted an SAR then they have choice but to deal with your partner by law.

Do you have it in writing that both the claimant and solicitor have no documentation at all?

[JaymoMook]

I believe she did receive court papers back in 2015 (after the CCJ was entered, so I'm confused as to what these are), but these were challenged by her and CAB with proof that the debt was paid (paperwork she unfortunately no longer has) and has a letter still in her possession stating that the judgement would be placed on hold whilst they asked the original creditor for information pertaining to this.

Does the fact that she has moved address a number of times since this point, including from the current address they hold for her affect our position?

They have her email address and we have requested that all correspondence be submitted via the same, but we've been a little wary of providing a new address whilst this is so up in the air. I imagine it's the wrong approach, but as we are getting zero information from them, we have not wanted to be providing all the information as it is unfairly non-reciprocal to me.

Additionally, I presume that emailing the Debt Agency and the Solicitor is sufficient, and that this doesn't have to be done via hard copy?

[jaguarsuk]

I believe she did receive court papers back in 2015 (after the CCJ was entered, so I'm confused as to what these are), but these were challenged by her and CAB with proof that the debt was paid (paperwork she unfortunately no longer has) and has a letter still in her possession stating that the judgement would be placed on hold whilst they asked the original creditor for information pertaining to this.

Does the fact that she has moved address a number of times since this point, including from the current address they hold for her affect our position?

They have her email address and we have requested that all correspondence be submitted via the same, but we've been a little wary of providing a new address whilst this is so up in the air. I imagine it's the wrong approach, but as we are getting zero information from them, we have not wanted to be providing all the information as it is unfairly non-reciprocal to me.

Additionally, I presume that emailing the Debt Agency and the Solicitor is sufficient, and that this doesn't have to be done via hard copy?

Okay that complicates things a little and yes the moves do affect your position. It was her responsibility to keep the claimant and the court up to date with her address due to their being an ongoing claim lodged with the court.

Some solicitors will not communicate by email other will, seems to be an individual form thing.

When you refer to the CCJ being entered do you mean when the forms were filed with the court by the claimant? As this would explain why they said they would put things on hold.

As she did not file a defence to protect her legal position it seems that the solicitor just went ahead and obtained a default judgement. The difficulty is that she knew about the claim and had chance to file a defence.

You could still apply to set the judgement aside, but you'll be lucky to achieve it without consent from the claimant.

[JaymoMook]

Yeah, thought it might. Unfortunately my partner was not particularly hot on being organised. Still isn't, but I'm there to push things through

She can't remember whether she had any communication from anyone prior to the CCJ being obtained, and certainly none of the documentation we still have pre-dates this.

I'll have to have a read through what few letters we have say, but we have an email from February 2017.

Dear Madam

Cabot Financial (UK) Limited v xxxxxx

Claim Number: xxxxxxx

Our Reference: xxxxxx


We write in relation to the above matter and thank you for answering the relevant security questions.

We can confirm we do have an outstanding query with our Client in relation to this matter and we are awaiting a response from our Client, as this was raised with the original vendor which in this case is Opus Credit Card.

We apologise for the recent letter sent to you in this matter and can confirm this was an administrative error.

Upon receipt of a response we will contact you directly and can assure you no further enforcement action will take place whilst we are awaiting a response.

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01926 758018.


That is the last communication we've had from anyone at all. Upon phoning the solicitors, they say that the original vendor did not respond to the request for information.


So, in order to get this set aside, would proof that it was paid be a method to remove it, or are we at the stage where we can do nothing unless Cabot agree for it's removal?