CCJ at wrong address

[dab1]

Hi, I hope someone can help with a CCJ which has come out of the blue.

I bought a new build buy to let flat in 2007 which I have never lived in. The original builders/freeholders, were aware of my correspondence address. They went under perhaps in 2010, which I was not aware of. There were never any ground rent demands from the builders. Apparently the builders sold the ground rents, and then out of the blue my mortgage company sent me a letter of the CCJ of past 6 year's outstanding ground rent.

The court case judgement was on 24/08/2022 and I came to know of it just last week (31/10/2022). In panic mode, I paid the asking amount. The ground rent company Compton Group, claim they were never passed my correspondence address, and so they sent all last six years ground rent demand 2017 to 2022 in one go to my rented flat on 01/02/2022. Had I received them, I would have paid.

Now I want to set aside my CCJ and Compton Group say they will not give consent. I want to ask to all the experienced people, do I have a strong case if I do the N244 myself? Compton Group's litigation team says they will do it for a total cost of £500! They also want £100 ground rent for the year 2016 which they could not add to the intial court.

[R0b]

Hello
I am not sure what the freeholders/builders have to do with this. If you bought a flat then as part of the sale process you would have had to have nominated an address for serving those annual charges. Standard protocol is that the address of the purchased property will be used but the onus is on you to make sure the address is correct and up to date.

Prior to the sale, you should have told your conveyancer/solicitor and if they failed to update then you likely have a claim against them for negligence. If you didn't notify them before the sale then you should have informed the management company when you decided to rent out the flat. If you did do that, then the fault lay with the management company, not you. If you did neither, fault lay with yourself.

That's not to say you can't get the CCJ set aside, but you really shouldn't have paid up if you intend to challenge the CCJ otherwise you are deemed to have accepted liability for the debt. All you can do is make an application to have the judgment set aside and then the claim dismissed since you have satisfied the debt. It will cost you £255 for the privilege but it is a risk you may have to take and once you submit the application, then the management company might come on board and grant you the consent you need - not sure why they need £500 for drafting up a standard template and it sounds like they are trying to profit from this.

There is a case that you may be able to rely on that says if you were made aware of the debt you would have taken steps to pay it immediately. It may be possible to argue if you were a first time buyer or have never purchased a flat before and were not aware of applicable charges, depending on your circumstances.

As for the 2016 ground rent, I suspect they couldn't add it to the claim because it may be out of time to bring a claim. Contractual breaches have a 6 year limitation period so it sounds like that might be why it wasn't possible. Once 6 year period has expired, they cant't bring legal proceedings but they can still ask you to pay it. Be careful because if you admit the debt then the time limit restarts for a further 6 years so your best position may be to claim that you believe the rent in 2016 is "time barred" and therefore not recoverable.

First steps you should take, dig out your lease agreement and see what it says about ground rent or other charges. If there is nothing written about where those charges will be sent, check to see if there is a notice clause which might say notices might be sent to the address listed in the lease agreement or some other address as you might give them from time to time.

Once you have established where the notices should be going, we can then help you on the next steps of submitting the application if you still want to go down that route. In the meantime, I made a little guide around default judgments, to help you understand how one can be set aside.

Setting aside a default judgment (detailed version) - LegalBeagles Forum

[dab1]

It was in 2007 the flat was bought, and since then the solicitors and the builders have folded. But certainly the builders knew my correspondence address although it is difficult to prove now, whereas I have communcations to the solicitors which shows my correspondence address when I emailed them the Land Transaction form to file. If I can't find my lease, where can I get a copy?

When I emailed Compton group seeking consent, this is their reply: -

"Thank you for your message. The letter was written, ”Without Prejudice,” and subject to my client’s approval which will not be sought until payment has been received. Regrettably, my client the Claimant will not agree to your request to give consent: only the Court has a discretion on application to agree to an order setting aside. You can seek legal advice on setting aside a CCJ."

The £500 they made up as follows: -

Account Balance £100.00 - this is the 'time barred' ground rental
Court Fee £108.00
Solicitor costs £300.00
Total £508.00

I wonder if I can go back to them and offer to pay the time barred ground rental plus offer them £50 for their costs, provided they consent and allow me to do the N244 which I think I can by going through your excellent guide. They get their ground rental + £50, it costs me no more then £258 and hopefully set aside my CCJ, its a win win is it not?

Yes, I made a mistake paying court judgment, but I literally just panicked as I have never had a court judgement. If only I had discovered this forum yesterday!

[dab1]

I have just received this email from Compton Group, following my request to send me information on when the ground rents were sold: -

"Gracefavour Limited (for whom I act) bought the freehold reversion of xxxxxx from the joint liquidators of McInerney Homes Limited on 25 March 2021. I attach a copy of Gracefavour Limited’s title as registered with HM Land Registry.

The various ground rent demands would have been raised on one day as Gracefavour Limited was entitled to recover up to 6 years’ arrears of rent from you if that rent was not paid to the previous freeholder or its liquidators. I confirm that the right to pursue arrears of rent on your flat was specifically transferred to Gracefavour Limited by the liquidators."

[R0b]

Forget the builders, they are irrelevant here as you are the purchaser its your duty and obligation to make sure your details are always up to date. The courts will not generally accept you saying that you didn't know as that is not a good enough excuse. Your solicitor would or should have asked you, pointed it out in the legal pack it sent you to read and if you did read the legal pack, you probably would have known about the charges and where they will be sent.

Your lease should have been given to you as part of the legal pack on purchase. If you don't have it then your mortgage company should have a copy and may give you a copy for free, or you can contact the land registry by filling out a form. If I remember it the cost is £7 per document up to X number of pages. You really need to keep your property documents safe, they prove ownership and rights as to your property.

You are short on time for making an application to set aside as it needs to be done promptly upon becoming aware. If you can't get a copy fast then you need to decide whether you want to proceed with the application in the absence and just plead out that you were at a different address and unaware that the notices were being sent to the flat.

Thinking about it further, can you confirm whether you have ever lived at the flat? IF you have never lived in that flat at all, you may be awfully lucky in getting the judgment set aside automatically where the court must set it aside. This is because the courts have accepted that where a claim form is sent to an address where an individual has never resided, the claim form sent to that address is deemed to be invalid. If invalid, the court must set aside the default judgment because the claimant obtained a judgment when it was not entitled to.

[dab1]

I have never lived in the flat. The flat is in Wigan, and I live in London and the sellers had organised a letting agents and service charge management agents from day one. I never received ground rent demand from Mcinvery the original freeholders. One thing though, I moved house in Aug 2018, and had a post re-direct in place for at least 18 months.

I can see from the document copies of the court case my mortgage company sent me, that all letters were sent to the flat in Wigan, but there is one Letter Before Claim sent to my old address on 16/06/2022. I am not sure how they obtained that address - it could not be the mortgage deed, because the mortgage company has my latest address when I remortgaged in 2018 and again in 2020. The electrol register is also updated with my latest address.

[dab1]

I downloaded the title register from gov.uk and it says the owners are myself and my wife with the Wigan address, and not my residential address. Do I still have a chance to get the CCJ set aside using N244?

[R0b]

What address is shown on the claim form? is it your old address or the flat?

[dab1]

The claim form shows the flat's address

[dab1]

I am trying to get hold of a copy of my lease. The solicitors I used in 2007 are no longer there. I have just spoken with mortgage company, and they say don't have it. I have tried searching the land registry, but it appears I have to fill in a form and send it. I am running out of time and can't wait for it. Please, what is the advise - shall I go back to Compton group and negotiate a 'consent' deal? Should I accept the £500 deal with them? Should I attempt the N244 myself?

[R0b]

What you choose to do is up to you as it's your problem, not ours.

Based on what you've said so far, I think you have decent grounds to get the judgment set aside as of right and the court has no discretion on whether to set it aside. In order for Compton Group to have obtained a successful default judgment, they must have served the claim form at your last known or usual address. The fact you have never resided at the address means that the flat could never have been your last known or usual address and so the claim form served at the flat address is likely to be deemed invalid.

The relevant time to acknowledge the claim or file a defence only starts when the claim form has been validly served and Compton Group can only request judgment when that time has expired. Since the claim form was not properly served to the correct address, the relevant time for filing an acknowledgement or defence never expired and so it follows from that the judgment obtained by Compton Group was also invalid having not met the requisite criteria.

As above, the question as to what route you wish to go down is up to you. If you want to file an N244 we can assist but you need to appreciate that we are not all able to respond at the drop of the hat. You've only just become aware of the CCJ a few days ago so you have a few more days at least to get everything together and prepped. Mistakes are always made when you rush things and you only have one shot at this so if you want to go ahead and do it yourself, just let us know and we won't help. Otherwise, please be patient.

I would still recommend you fill out the form to request your lease agreement as you may need that in the future.

[dab1]

Really appreciate the response, it has made me decide clearly what I need to do.

I will email Compton group today and try to ask them to agree to give consent. I will mention to them that the address where they served the notice was never my residence address and so therefore the notice is not valid. I will say that I have paid the ground rent even though the ground rent demands was not sent to my residence address. On the basis of this if they will give consent.

If they don't give consent or don't reply, then I will go the N244 route.

Thanks again for the guidance.

[R0b]

Rather than rushing into sending the email, why don't you craft something and upload it here for feedback.

A well drafted email that shows you know what you are talking about will work wonders than snippets of information. It's not the end of the world for you to prepare something today and wait to send it tomorrow then give them until close of play Monday to respond, after that you will then issue an application to set aside.

[dab1]

Without Prejudice

Good morning,

Following on from my request, I would like to ask again if you will allow your consent to set aside the county court judgment.

I note from the pack, that the claim form was sent to Apartment 4, xxxx. The claim form must be submitted to the correct address. I bought this flat in 2007 as a new build, and it has never been my residential or usual address, and so therefore the claim submitted is not valid.
I have evidence that Mcinerney Homes Ltd had my correspondence address. Since 2007 I never received any ground rent demand. I had no knowledge that Mcinerney Homes Ltd had gone into receivership, nor had any knowledge that Compton Group had purchased the ground rents. Had I received the ground rent demands at the correct address, I would have paid.

Based on this, if you agree to give consent to set aside, then I will not ask to recover any costs that I have already paid and I will pay the £108 court fee for the application. Please let me know by close of business today, since, as you know, I must act quickly if I were to file a N244 application.

Yours sincerely,

[R0b]

I will have a look later today and put together some additional material you can use to add to that or if you cannot wait until then, send whatever you want to them but that email is a bit weak so do not expect much.