Urgent help please setting aside a ccj

[Madmaria69]

Hi I really hope someone can help me out here because I used to be very good at this kind of thing but now I suffer from a mental illness which affects my ability to process information. So please bear with me on this one. My husband received a notice of issue of warrant of control. Which refers to a ccj obtained by default by lowell back in August 2016. They obtained the judgement by default because lowell sent it to our old address therefore my husband could not file a defense.This is the first documentation we have received from anyone regarding the ccj we had absolutely no idea he had a ccj until this warrant arrived. So we phoned lowell and asked them for details it turns out that the claim is to do with a credit card debt with vanquis who last received payment from my husband in March 2015. That year I became very ill and we were facing repossession of our home everything was up in the air. We were going to be homeless the council found us a flat and we moved in Feb 2016.They are wanting over 700 pounds which we have not got. We have no spare money we are on disability benefits and income support my husband is my full time carer.Vanquis were receiving token payments of £1 per month arranged by the citizens advice bureau and I have no idea why they stopped being paid to them. All I can think is that they bounced back because lowell took over and we never knew so didn't have the chance to swap direct debit to them. I am just so confused. Is there any way we can get this judgement set aside. Because they sent it to the wrong address
because they obviously know our correct address now as we received the warrant of control. Also if the last payment was made to the account in March 2015 can we use the argument that it is statute barred. Any help would be greatly appreciated thankyou.

[Celestine]

What date did you receive the warrant of control?
Yes you can apply to set aside the judgment on the basis it was sent to an old address by Lowell. but you must act swiftly - we have a guide to set asides here LegalBeagles

Limitation Act is not of use as the limitation clock stopped ticking when they issued the court claim.

One other thought, Lowell have a vulnerable persons team, ask to speak with them, you'll need to prove your vulnerability, under lending rules they have to treat you fairly; which I'd argue does not include issuing a warrant on a 5yr old claim.

[Madmaria69]

Hi thank you so much for your reply. The warrant of control was issued on the 21st of April 2021. And we received it on the 23rd of April 2021.

[Madmaria69]

Would it be possible for someone to help me with the correct wording of the defense on the n244 form. I know that it is appreciated by the courts if you adress them correctly and point out relevant details. I tend to ramble and forget my train of thought thank you in advance . I really appreciate your help.

[Madmaria69]

I have also applied for fee remission it says I attach the ref no to the claim form but I don't understand do I still have to pay the fee or not its very confusing.?

[Celestine]

Did you follow the guide I linked you to earlier? The wording on the N244 form is all in there.

The Witness Statement may be what you mean? I've had a little play with our template, see if any of the below works for your husbands statement.

CLAIMANT’S NAME


Claimant

– and –

Defendant

YOUR NAME


_________________________________

WITNESS STATEMENT OF YOUR NAME
_________________________________

I , YOUR NAME of YOUR ADDRESS , being the Defendant in this case will state as follows;

1. I make this Witness Statement in support of the application for an order that the judgment in this case (Claim No. XXXXXXXXXXX Judgment dated XX/XX/2016) be set aside.

2: CPR 13.3 states (1) In any other case, the court may set aside or vary a judgment entered under Part 12 if –

(a) the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; or

(b) it appears to the court that there is some other good reason why –

(i) the judgment should be set aside or varied; or

(ii) the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim.

3. I learnt of the existence of this claim on the DATE when I received a letter from an Enforcement Agent requesting payment of the judgment detailed in paragraph 1. [EXHIBIT A]

4. My address changed in 2016 and because the previous creditor for this account, Vanquis, had ceased trading, I was unable to provide updated address information. My address has remained the same since 2016 and so it should have been possible for a specialised debt purchaser to identify my location having taken assignment of my former Vanquis account without my knowledge. Given they have successfully located me to issue a warrant of control, I assert that their efforts to trace me in 2016 were inadequate and have caused me detriment in being unable to respond to this claim.



5. In 2016 my wife became seriously ill and I am now her full time carer, this five year delay in learning of this court claim has been extremely distressing and we respectfully ask the court to give us the opportunity to defend this claim fully as we believe we have a legitimate dispute with the original lender, Vanquis which would potentially render this account unenforceable.

6: On DATE I made a written/telephone request to the Claimant/Solicitors inviting them to consent to set aside the judgment due to the reasons in paragraph 4.

7. The Claimant did not respond to my request / turned down my request.

8. I therefore respectfully request that the Court sets aside the judgment in this claim and allows 14 days for me to submit my defence.

Statement of Truth

I, YOUR NAME, the Defendant, believe the facts stated within this Witness Statement to be true.

Signed: ________________________________

Dated: ________________________________

[Madmaria69]

That's exactly what I meant thank you so much Celestine.

[Celestine]

Excellent, please make sure you amend it very carefully to be accurate, I was just guestimating the bits you may struggle to express.
Let us know how you get on. You will need to send CCA requests to Lowell for the original Vanquis agreement, even though technically the account is terminated, so they may refuse, but its another thing to put in your defence.

[Madmaria69]

Hi celestine we have a court hearing date for the 17th of June via btmeet. A telephone hearing. Unfortunately I didn't request the cca from lowell about vanquis as I have been very poorly recently and trying to sort this out is taking its toll on me. I have little brain power as it is so I am finding this a real challenge. We have submitted our tenancy agreement as our defence to the court as proof we were living at our current address when lowell applied for and obtained the ccj by default. I was quietly confident that this would be sufficient proof that my husband had not been given chance to put in a defence at that time. However today we received the evidence that lowell will be presenting to the court on the 17th and they are basically saying we had plenty of warning as they sent us 17 letters prior to obtaining the ccj. Therefore we should have known it was coming and informed them we were moving. They are requesting that if the court set asidevthe judgement instead of going through the process again and submitting a new application that the court should make a judgement at this hearing for Paul to pay now. I am so confused right now. All the evidence they are providing is in solicitor speak and right now that is beyond my mental capabilities to understand. Any guidance would be helpful thank you again so much for your help.

[Madmaria69]

I just wanted to add that we had an arrangement in place to pay £1 a month with vanquis. We never ended this arrangement lowell ended it by buying the debt form vanquis in July 2015. Lowell obtained the ccj in July 2016. As I said I used to sort out all the bills Paul had no idea. I told him all our debts were under control I had made arrangements. During that time we were facing repossession of our family home of 25 years my husband had no clue what arrangements had been made with anyone. He was trying to deal with me and our children and find us a home so we were not out on the streets. All this turmoil all this loss was because I became ill. We didn't ask for it to happen it just did. We had insurance but it doesn't last forever. I just want you to understand that we are genuine people and through circumstances beyond our control we ended up homeless and penniless. Therefore if lowell sent a million letters they were not on his priority list at that time. As he was alone trying to sell and pack up our things. Now these people want to drag him through the court as further punishment. It just makes me feel so guilty and sick to the stomache. To be honest.

[Madmaria69]

Well we had the court hearing via a conference call on the telephone and the judge basically ran rings around my husband saying he should have known that the debt had been transferred to lowell. 6 months before the house was repossessed and although he was trying to care for his sick wife pack up the home and find us somewere to live he should have had time to contact lowell and make a payment arrangement. Therefore it was his fault that lowell got the court judgement because he should have told them he was moving implying he was trying to avoid paying the debt. Which is not true. He was paying vanquis. They lied by saying they had sent letters to our new address one per year since 2017 and had sent us and the court alleged copies of these letters. They never sent any the only letters we received at this new address were the ones about the warrant of control. The judge said that my husband only responded to this one because they were going to take away our goods. The judge sent my husband had plenty of time before that to deal with having the judgement set aside. Because lowell said they had told him he had a ccj once a year for 5 years. It was an absolute joke. The judge did not set aside the judgement but did not order him to pay costs. It was patronising and offensive to listen to and I had to sit there and witness all the untruths without being able to say a word. So now my husband has a debt of 889 to pay instead of the original 559. And told my husband to make an arrangement with lowell to pay it off. We now have to go online and fill out a budget sheet then they will no doubt argue about that too to extract more money out of him than we can afford. It doesn't pay to be genuine and tell the truth these days you are much better off lying through your teeth because our justice system is a joke. He admitted he owed the money and prior to court made an offer of payment. But that wasn't good enough rather take him to court and try and get more out of him. It's about time someone put a stop to these companies that buy debts. People have no clue half the time who they are dealing with or why. No wonder so many people fall fowl of scams thes days. Anyway thank you for all your help it is appreciated.

[MIKE770]

Being honest in s lot of cases does not help judges are different to reality in most cases and mis-direct themselves so many times.there needs s whole new system brought in making originator's take responsibility

[Celestine]

Oh Maria, I am so frustrated to hear this. Sadly some judges are just dismissive of anyone with debts, they are so privileged they have no idea of dealing with such hardships.
OK, so the debt now needs dealing with. You've tried the legal route to no avail, so now you need to REALLY deal with Lowell by speaking with that Vulnerable Persons team I mentioned earlier. Work out with them a payment plan but only after you have made them aware of your vulnerabilities, by GP letter if need be. I have witnessed remarkable transformations in treatment once that team gets involved.
Sending you a huge hug and let me know if you need any help at all. XX

[Celestine]

Being honest in s lot of cases does not help judges are different to reality in most cases and mis-direct themselves so many times.there needs s whole new system brought in making originator's take responsibility

They will never want to take responsibility - they sell the debt for 10% of face value and the write off the balance as a business loss....they cannot lose.

[Madmaria69]

Thankyou so much all your help is always appreciated