Additional card holder issued CCJ by Ex partner

[gavandcarly]

Hello everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on this.

My ex partner had a credit card in her name, and she added me as an additional card holder.

When we split she kept stating that I need to pay her back half of the balance of the card.

We had a joint mortgage together, and I really wanted my name taken off the mortgage to cut all ties with her as she kept trying to contact me and using the house as an excuse.

She was living in the house and I was renting a property and still paying mortgage and ground rent for the property.

I asked her lots of times to remove my name off the mortgage but she refused.

In 2010 her solicitor sent me a letter demanding half of her credit card balance.

I replied with the following on 24/08/10: I am unreservedly prepared to accept point (1) of your clients proposed settlement on the condition that I am indemnified and released from the mortgage first; should this criterion be satisfied, I will happily pay the whole sum of the credit card liabilities of £1200, as a sign of my goodwill.

I received no response what so ever from my ex partner, nor her solicitors.

On 24/03/11 (7 months later), I received an email from my ex partner stating: Would you please be able to give me a call today and I will explain the next steps to you, this is an extremely painful and express process- just want give you heads up. Also need to talk about getting me the £1200 to pay off that credit card.

My name in the end was removed from the mortgage roughly 7-8 months ago. I did not pay my ex the £1200, as firstly she never replied to the letter that i sent to her solicitor agreeing to the deal, and she did not reply to me at all for 7 months!

She has now taken me to a small claims court over this.

I now live in Dubai therefore was not aware of the hearing and the hearing went ahead on 13/02/12 without me being aware or being able to submit evidence or attend and I now apparently owe:
1. Judgment for the Claimant in the sum of £1450.00 together with interest of £393.99 (a total of £1843.99).

2. Defendant to pay Claimant's court costs of £245.00 (being £80.00 of the claim form and £125.00 hearing fee)

I am going to get the judgement set aside due to me being unaware of the hearing, however I would like peoples advice on the whole situation and if you think I have a chance of winning the case, and what sort of evidence I need to take with me?

Due to me only being an additional card holder, I am not even allowed to view the card statements, so god knows what has been bought on the card, I also found info on the Halifax website stating: Please note that additional cardholders will not be able to view the credit card online.
As principal cardholder, you are responsible for all transactions made on any additional cards. If the additional card is withdrawn, you must retrieve and destroy the card, during which time you are still liable for all transactions made using that card.

Any help/advice good or bad is much appreciated. :-)

[strangewayofsavin]

Re: Additional card holder issued CCJ by Ex partner

The contracts signed by Joint persons, will find that Either Or can be chased for the debt, the only way out would be bankruptcy, or a re-negotiation of the account when you split up.

[debbbs]

Re: Additional card holder issued CCJ by Ex partner

The contracts signed by Joint persons, will find that Either Or can be chased for the debt, the only way out would be bankruptcy, or a re-negotiation of the account when you split up.

I was added as a joint card holder on my husbands barclaycard. When they were unable to respond to a CCA request and actually admitted they could not locate an agreement, the account went into default. At no point during any of the communications and when the account went into default and was passed to various DCA's did I personally as a card holder ever recieve any correspondence from the original creditor or anyone.

The original credit card application/agreement was in her name solely. You would need to see a copy of the 2nd card holder application you signed to see if you are legally liable for the whole of the credit card.

The contracts signed by Joint persons, will find that Either Or can be chased for the debt

The original contract for this credit card was not signed jointly, therefore it is not a joiint and severall debt. Only the person on the original agreement is liable, unless the additional card holder agreement states otherwise.

Judgment has been gained without your knowledge, you have been denied the opportuntity to either acknowledge the claim or file a defence. File an N244 to have it set a side. it will cost you £75.

On the other hand, you did agree to pay this if she removed you from the mortgage. She did do this. Perhaps a bit of common sense and understanding might be a better approach. Agree to pay the £1200, and the CCJ is removed, if she refuses you will challenge it. the burden of proof is on her to prove you are liable for the whole amount including the interest charged.

Debbie