Ccj for £17k

[Angela Hogarth]

After a battle with the court my husband has been ordered to pay almost 17k to a client for whom he partly built an extension. The history of this case is that we never actually received the claim form from this guys solicitor and only found out about the claim when we received the CCJ. We made an application for judgement to be set aside and attended the hearing which was meant to decide the amount my husband had to pay. We were told that his solicitor had not met the guidelines and we were given a new date of 27/11 for the hearing to decide on an amount. We were advised to get any information and send it to the court before this date. We did so and submitted this ages ago. My husband did not complete the job as there were illegal activities at the property. Unfortunately my husband was unable to attend this hearing as he has just started a new job after being out of work for weeks and we didn't feel it was appropriate for him to be taking time off. In his absence the judge has awarded the full amount to the claimant. We do not have any savings or assets and are very concerned that he can try to make us sell our house to get to our equity. Where do we stand with making an offer to pay monthly and is it possible to appeal against this ridiculous judgement?

[nemesis45]

Re: Ccj for £17k

After a battle with the court my husband has been ordered to pay almost 17k to a client for whom he partly built an extension. The history of this case is that we never actually received the claim form from this guys solicitor and only found out about the claim when we received the CCJ. We made an application for judgement to be set aside and attended the hearing which was meant to decide the amount my husband had to pay. We were told that his solicitor had not met the guidelines and we were given a new date of 27/11 for the hearing to decide on an amount. We were advised to get any information and send it to the court before this date. We did so and submitted this ages ago. My husband did not complete the job as there were illegal activities at the property. Unfortunately my husband was unable to attend this hearing as he has just started a new job after being out of work for weeks and we didn't feel it was appropriate for him to be taking time off. In his absence the judge has awarded the full amount to the claimant. We do not have any savings or assets and are very concerned that he can try to make us sell our house to get to our equity. Where do we stand with making an offer to pay monthly and is it possible to appeal against this ridiculous judgement?

I'm sorry to say that the judgement Is not ridiculous the judge had nothing from your husband to counter the claimants evidence.
Deliberately not attending a hearing new job or not especially after there has been a previous attempt to try this claim will not make it easy
to get a judgement set aside.
You have a short time in reality to apply for set aside County Court For N244 fee £155.00.
You will be expected to explain why the judgement should be set aside, and that you have a defence with a "Reasonable Chance of Success" to the original claim.

nem

[Amethyst]

Re: Ccj for £17k

I am a little confused, you applied to have the judgment set-aside, did you succeed on that and then put forward your defence and supporting documents ? It seems odd to have a hearing to decide on an amount following a set-aside application as a set-aside means putting the claim back to the point where a defence can be submitted. If it was a set-aside application then you probably won't be able to set-aside again. Did you inform the court you were not going to attend and send in any information to help the judge?

Anyway, what is done is done with that - if you have any paperwork from the court that might help suss out exactly what happened and whether anything can be done, but the situation now is you have a forthwith?? order to pay the full amount claimed ?

You can ask the court to vary the order to an installment order rather than a forthwith order - this involves completing a form ( N245 I believe) and your income and expenditure and making an offer to pay.

[Angela Hogarth]

Re: Ccj for £17k

I am a little confused, you applied to have the judgment set-aside, did you succeed on that and then put forward your defence and supporting documents ? It seems odd to have a hearing to decide on an amount following a set-aside application as a set-aside means putting the claim back to the point where a defence can be submitted. If it was a set-aside application then you probably won't be able to set-aside again. Did you inform the court you were not going to attend and send in any information to help the judge?

Anyway, what is done is done with that - if you have any paperwork from the court that might help suss out exactly what happened and whether anything can be done, but the situation now is you have a forthwith?? order to pay the full amount claimed ?

You can ask the court to vary the order to an installment order rather than a forthwith order - this involves completing a form ( N245 I believe) and your income and expenditure and making an offer to pay.

The application for the judgement to be set aside was dismissed and the date was rearranged for the amount to be decided. We submitted a massive amount of information to the court regarding the issues on site during the build and the holding back of monies owed to ourselves. I can see that not going was a mistake but we truly believed that justice would be done as the accusations are false. We did not advise that my husband would not be attending. My worry is that they can come after our house as we have no other assets or savings. I have not received the papers from the court yet, just a letter from the claimants solicitor stating that we have 14 days to pay. Any advice is greatly appreciated.