CCJ - set aside?

[Trevorswife]

Hi. I hope someone may be able to help me. My husband has a CCJ from August 2020. He discovered it in Feb 2021 as all the letters and court documents had been sent to an old address that we had moved out of in 2014. He contacted the company and made a SAR request for all the correspondence relating to this and discovered that the CCJ related to one of his three student loans. Two of his student loans had remained with the original creditor and one had been sold to another company. The loan was passed on to the new company in the same month that we moved house so, although my husband changed his address with the original company, his loan was sold after we had moved but before he informed them of his change of address so the new company was given his old address but he didn’t receive any correspondence from them. The original date of the court claim was March 2017 but the creditor didn’t seek a judgment at that time. The claim was stayed due to this delay. The creditors solicitors sent a letter in 2018 and again in early 2020 saying they were awaiting a decision from their client about seeking a judgement and, if they received such an instruction, they would send a letter informing him of this. They did not send this letter but did seek a judgement in August 2020. As he didn’t receive any of the letters relating to this and the solicitor didn’t send the letter to inform him that they had decided to seek a judgement would he have grounds to ask for the CCJ to be set aside? Any help would be much appreciated.

[jaguarsuk]

Yes he can apply for set aside and would either need to do so with or without consent.

The problem he might have is that he would be expected to apply to set aside promptly on discovering the CCJ, which over a year later cannot be described as promptly.

If he still wishes to try then he should write to the solicitor stating he intends to set aside due to deficient service of all documents and ask them to consent adding a time limit to apply.

If they agree he will complete form N244 to request set aside pursuant to CPR 13.3 (b) that service of the claim form and all documents were deficient. He will need to evidence the change of address, people usually get the bank or some other institution (old council tax bill) to provide proof of the date of change.

The fee will be £108.

If they do not respond in time or refuse consent the process is the same, except the fee will be £275.

My advice would be not to mention anything about the time he found out about the CCJ and simply apply hoping the solicitors don't bother to contest it or inform the court of when he really found out.

If successfully set aside then he will have to either defend the claim, submitting a defence of why it is not owed which would be to request agreements etc. or he'll need to come to some settlement with the claimant for them to either discontinue or enter into a tomlin order.