Help with court hearing for CCJ

[Mw123]

Hello all,

Just after some advise please. I'm new hear hope I am doing this correctly.

Basically my wife discovered last week she has had a CCJ set against her. It is for an amount of £1027 for which she believes is for an old bank account dating back to 2007.

The CCJ was granted in September 2014. In Febuary 2014 she was contacted by Lowell group advising her of this cost. She called them immediately and they advised it was a debt passed on by lloyds banking. She was concerned as didn't know of this what so ever. They advised they would put account on hold and seek statements and come back to her. Then in April that year we moved address but didn't advise Lowell of this.

The next thing we hear of this was last week when she check credit report and discovered a CCJ.

She was obviously distraught by this especially considering had she had known it got to this stage she would have paid within the 28 day time frame and the. Continued to investigate just to ensure nothing was put on her credit report.

Since last week she has fully paid the amount and also filed n224 with Northampton court and paid the fees.

Sorry for the long winded post but finally I get to my question of does she stand a chance in having this removed as we moved address however did not inform Lowell of change even though they were due to come back to her. Also when we moved we did change with council and DVLA.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[stevemLS]

Re: Help with court hearing for CCJ

Hi

What has she now made application for? To have the judgment set aside?

In my view the court will see it as irresponsible not to provide a new address to a creditor she knew was actively chasing the debt, in essence they will see it as her own fault that she did not know of the proceedings. (Sorry, others may see it differently). Notifying the local authority and DVLA for these purposes is irrelevant.

Usually if you apply to set a judgment aside, you have to file your defence alongside the application (or at the very least evidence as to why the judgment should be set aside). That your wife has now paid the sums due does not assist in this instance.

The court will not usually entertain an application that deals purely with academic questions.

Depending on the facts, for a debt dating back to 2007 your wife may have had a defence under the Limitation Act 1981, but it is rather too late to think about that now.

[Mw123]

Re: Help with court hearing for CCJ

Hi,

Thanks for your advise. From looking it all up online and from advice given by the court (call centre) we thought it would be worth a chance applying as we never knew of the CCJ being issued. I do appologise but she did intact advise Lowell we were moving when she called up originally and gave the new address but this was done over the phone. The only thing we have got to prove it is the name and extension number of the person she spoke with. I'm just not sure if they will accept that though. What do you think?

Thanks again.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry to reply to your question, she has applied to have it set aside and sent statement of what has happened.

[stevemLS]

Re: Help with court hearing for CCJ

If she can prove that she notified Lowell, then that may have been a ground - are you able to get telephone records which would show a call was made.

Then she would have to explain to the court's satisfaction why she had paid the debt - which may be difficult - although it could be argued that she did so in blind panic having discovered the CCJ.

See what [MENTION=55034]nemesis45[/MENTION] or [MENTION=39710]des8[/MENTION] thinks? (the [MENTION=7280]thing[/MENTION] is just a way of drawing the thread to their attention - if I am doing it correctly)

[Mw123]

Re: Help with court hearing for CCJ

We can go back to phone provider and see if they can provide and itemised bill for back then. They have proof of the phone call as there are noted on there file to say she called but evidently no updates on address. Would that be enough. With your point of paying the debt you are right. She didn't want this dead on her head as they said they would charge an extra £50 per month so paid in panic. I have now also just been looking at the limitation act as you suggested and also looking at the paperwork we have. The original debt goes back to 2002. She had contact from agency in 2013. Have they left it to late to apply for a CCJ or going on the fact the court approved the CCJ say other wise (could the court have made a mistake or been told false info).

Finally as the debt is paid we have contacted the solicitor for letter of satisfaction and they have advised they will have no dealing if this goes to court. Does that work in our favour?

Thanks again for all your help.

[nemesis45]

Re: Help with court hearing for CCJ

Good morning,

Questions that will be asked if this matter is subject to a set aside application.

1. Did the defendant receive the claim pack?

2. If not is there a reason why the documents were not received? e.g. Documents were sent to a previous address.

3. If the claim pack was received did the defendant acknowledge service of the claim?

4. If the defendant did receive the documents and failed to respond to the claim why was this? ( Likely that the set aside fails at this point.)

5. The claimant had been in contact with the defendant, but the defendant move house and did not inform the claimant of the change of address, the documents were properly served at the last known address. ( tenuous ground for set aside, as it is the responsibility of a debtor to inform creditors of a change of address.

6.Paying at this late stage will have little or no impact if used as a reason for setting aside the judgement.

9. Most important of all: It will be absolutely necessary to show the court that there was at the time the claim
was issued a "Defence to the original claim that had a reasonable chance of success".

It will as Steve has said now that payment has been made which is a clear admission of liability to
put forward a strong defence.
Statin what would/might have been done had the documents been received will not help.

nem

[Mw123]

Re: Help with court hearing for CCJ

Good morning Nemesis45,

Thanks for your message she had informed them of change of address over a phone call made to them in the Febuary. This was prior to moving but we said we would be at new address in April.

I understand paying now will have no affect.It was our understanding that simple paying the bill is not admitting liability. This was said to us by someone on the phone at the court and also I had seen this before. We just wanted to clear it to prevent incurring further charges and then fight this.

We are just trying to get as much info together as possible if this does go to court. Would we have an argument as if we were aware of imminent court proceedings the amount would have been paid instantly? The last my wife heard was it was on hold until they had more details?

Thanks

[nemesis45]

Re: Help with court hearing for CCJ

It will be necessary to have a defence to the original claim, as the change of address was verbal proving it was done will be a problem.
Arguing on what might have happened if the claim pack had been received or the various other parts of the claim process were adhered to is unlikely to assist.
nem

[Mw123]

Re: Help with court hearing for CCJ

Yes this is the problem I think it's going to be hard to give proof of this other then the fact she has the Mans name she spoke to and extension number. They do have on file a note from Febuary that year saying they were invistigating as a possible fraudulent claim as my wife had no idea of this until they originally contacted her. They said they would come back to her hence why she gave them the new address. We then heard nothing more. Any way she has already said forms and made payment for hearing so we will have to see what comes of it. Thanks for your help again.