First post and a question on CCJ's

st1300 · 13th December 2006, 01:35

Hi there, great site a little overwhelming in places but great non the less.

My first question is in relation to a CCJ wife has has and its repayment. The judgment was made back in 2003 and was in realtion to an outstanding bill to one of her suppliers when she owned her own business, which unfortunatley folded.

The judgement was for a sum of £3,047. We now find ourselves in a position to pay this debt in full but on contacting the company involved they have informed her that they require £3,400 in order to satisfy the debt. laiming that the £350 extra is for interst accrued over the last 3 years and admin.

Now I'm no financial whizz but that doesn't seem quite right to me. The courts have her told she must repay one amount but the company states another. Can anybody offer any advice on this? Info I have turned up on the net suggests that the company will have to reapply to the courts to impose these costs, is that right?

Also after settling CCJ's how doe they continue to affect your credit score? As we are planning to emigrate and part of the proccess includes a credit check.

I also have many questions about bank charges by NatWest for knocking back direct debits over the years and charging me £38 for the priviledge. Am I right in assuming that I could possibly claim these charges back and is there an easy to follow thread I could refer to?

Cheers and keep up the fight.

Nigel.

lookinforinfo · 13th December 2006, 04:25

Welcome to the site.

In most instances when a ccj has been applied, no futher interest may be charged. However, there are a few lenders [First Credit is one I believe]
that stipulate in their T&Cs that they are permitted to continue to charge interest even after a ccj is attached to the account. But it is quite rare.
I would certainly ask to see where it says in their terms that they can do this.

Although you will be paying off the ccj shortly, it will stay on your wife's
credit file for 6 years from the date of the ccj being issued. Though you can
pay a small sum to the Court that issued it to put a note on her file stating
that it has been paid.

Yes you can claim back all unlawfully applied bank charges from any account
going back six years [does include credit card charges too]. You will need to
read the FAQS on the first page, followed by the step by step guide and read
some of the threads at least on the section of the forum devoted to the bank
or banks against whom you will be claiming to get an idea of the tactics they
employ to put you off.

Good luck with reclaiming your charges. If you need any further help just
ask, but bear in mind you will need to know your way around the forum
and understand why you are able to reclaim your money, or the bank will
attempt to run rings around you.

Delboy01 · 13th December 2006, 11:06

Nat West is here

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk.../natwest-bank/

st1300 · 13th December 2006, 19:03

The outstanding debt is to a company that traded as Triangle foods and more recently as Suma foods. They are not a financial institution but a supplier of health food products. I don't know if this makes any differance. I have been over to their website but there is no mention of any T&C's on trade accounts. Looks like I`ll be making a phone call tomorrow to see if they will fax me a copy.

Cheers for the help.

lookinforinfo · 13th December 2006, 21:04

I wouldn't bother asking for their T&Cs. Just ring them up and explain that
the Court order was for £x and they are not allowed to charge interest once
the ccj has been issued. When they accept that is the case, let them know
you are in a position to settle the account.

st1300 · 15th December 2006, 13:08

We just got off the phone with these muppets. Its a case of one hand has no idea what the other is doing. Firstly they told us that the extra costs were for admin and interest. When challenged over this explaining that only the £3047 ccj issued by the courts is enforcable they changed tac and claimed that the extra amount could be for court costs or interest? Eh!

Apparantley the lad we spoke to didn't really know much about this sort of thing and that somebody would phone us back this afternoon. I'm not holding my breath.

Am I right in presuming, that if they wish to enforce these extra charges that they have to reapply to the court for a new CCJ for the revised amount. And if that is the case does the old CCJ become void and if we pay the new one within 28 days no record of any CCJ is then shown?

Very strange state of affairs. We want to pay the amount they told the courts under oath that we owe them. But on contacting them they say that the figure we really owe is £350 more.

I would usually use several expletives at this point.

st1300 · 15th December 2006, 14:34

This gets better and better this. Suma did in fact ring back and told us that the debt has been passed onto a recovery agent by the name of Credit Business Services.

We duly phoned them to see if we could get a straight answer. On speaking one of their representatives he told that we now owe £3,810. WHAT!! So its gone from the original figure of £3047 to £3400 to £3,810.

I asked how this could be and he stated it was for £250 court costs and interest accrued over the period that the CCJ was issued. Apparently shes been charged 71 pence a day (£558 in total) interest along with £204 costs.

We have never received any correspondent from this recovery company and I am even more confused as to how they have come to this final figure. I have demanded a full break down of charges. The representative also stated that further steps had been taken since the date of the original CCJ issued on 29/12/03. On doing a credit check on my wife there seems to have been no change to this CCJ according to Equifax.

Will be phoning the court this afternoon to get the details of this CCJ and whether or not this interest formed part of the CCJ.

Nigel.

lookinforinfo · 15th December 2006, 15:09

The £3047 should have included the Court costs and any interest
accrued until that date as well as any other charges. There can be no
extra Court costs involved unless they have gone back to Court and
obtained something like a Charging Order on your property for instance.

Do you yet know if Credit Business Serices own the debt or just
acting as collectors for Suma?
You don't say how the ccj has changed. Also, have you changed your address since the ccj was applied so that Suma would have lost contact with you during the intervening years?

st1300 · 15th December 2006, 21:01

On the original CCJ issued at Northampton on 29/1203 a charging on the order on the property was also obtained. We have had no further correspondence from either the courts or Suma foods or Credit Business Services. We have not moved since that date, in fact CBS confirmed that they have our present address on file.

We contacted Northampton Courts who said that the CCJ had been handed off to St Albans. It would appear that without our knowledge CBS has reapplied, sometime in 2004 ,to the courts and had this interest charge of 71p a day, plus costs attached. We were not aware of this and have never been notified of these extra charges.

Had we been aware of these extra charges my wife would have paid the interst charges at the very least, in order to keep the amount in check. As it stands at the moment we have a charging order on the house and daily interest charges on the original amount, plus further court costs.

We tried to contact St Albans courts but nobody was answering the phones. So we couldn't get any more details with regards the change to the CCJ.

As far as I can tell CBS are acting as collectors for Suma. I would not be suprised if Suma obtained the original CCJfor £3047 in 2003. Then passed the debt over to CBS for collection in 2004 who are now trying to make any profit they can out of it.

Very unhappy at this state of affairs. I want to clear the CCJ but not be ripped off to the tune of £800 when I do.

st1300 · 2nd January 2007, 16:22

Well finally got a letter from CBS with reagrds the break down of charges. Not much of a breakdown though, it just says we owe them £3800 and are accruing 71p a day interest on that amount.

Also managed to get through to St Albans Court, who were very helpful. The chap there looked through our file and could find no mention of interest charges attached o admin charges. As far as he was aware the CCJ still stood at £3000. His words were that CBS "maybe trying to pull a fast one".

So where do I go from here. I have a charging order over my house. I have secured a loan but part of the loan agreement is that the lenders pay off the CCJ directly to clear this charge. However the the amount owed is now in dispute and CBS refuse to budge on the amount owed so won't remove the charge over my property until I stump up the extra £800.

So what do I do now?

falcon185 · 2nd January 2007, 17:21

Hi,
there are a couple of ways you could deal with this depending on how quickly you require your new loan to be completed.
If you want it to complete as soon as possible it may well be worth paying the ammount then file against them for the interest back. At least you will get your loan through quicker.
Or you could contact the court and ask for a copy of the judgement to be sent to you along with a letter from the court stating that the interest was not included and the amount owing on the CCJ. And that no other action has been taken in court by the company or DCA.
Armed with that you will be in a better position to claim back the unlawful charges they have placed on top of the outstanding ammount.
Thats how I would deal with it but there are others on here with more knowledge on the subject than I do. I'm sure they will be able to point you in the right direction.

st1300 · 2nd January 2007, 18:29

Cheers for the speedy reply Falcon. I suggested this to my wife, but she is worried that by paying this extra £800 it could be seen as a admitting liability for it. And therefore loosing it into the ether for ever. Not something we are prepared to do.

We really want to clear this CCJ and be back on the straight and narrow wth regards our finances but theres no way some unscrupulous debt company is going to steal £800 from us.

If we do opt to pay the amount in full what sort of hoops will we need to jump through in order to get our money back? And how long will it take.

Nigel.

falcon185 · 2nd January 2007, 18:40

you might be able to call their bluff by ringing the DCA and advise them that you have contacted the court and inform them of what the court told you, therefore you are willing to pay the outstanding amount but not the £800 charges as these were not part of the CCJ, the court issued the CCJ for the ammount owed and NOTHING more. Should they want to charge interest they would have to re-apply to the court. As it stands, they cannot apply any charges on top of the CCJ, that is the courts ruling not theirs. They may decide its in their best interests to accept what your offering and make sure that they know, if they dont accept you will have no alternative but to start legal procedings against them for unlawful charges.

The Terminator · 2nd January 2007, 18:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by st1300

Cheers for the speedy reply Falcon. I suggested this to my wife, but she is worried that by paying this extra £800 it could be seen as a admitting liability for it. And therefore loosing it into the ether for ever. Not something we are prepared to do.

We really want to clear this CCJ and be back on the straight and narrow wth regards our finances but theres no way some unscrupulous debt company is going to steal £800 from us.

If we do opt to pay the amount in full what sort of hoops will we need to jump through in order to get our money back? And how long will it take.

Nigel.

Bear in mind that the DCA is only acting as the collector for Suma.As far as I am aware the DCA cannot charge interest because they are not the creditor or they don't legally own the debt.If the CCJ is for 3k and the courts have confirmed this then just pay the 3k.

falcon185 · 2nd January 2007, 18:58

my sentiments Exactly Terminator. It may also be a matter of sending a letter to the Creditor too advising them of the underhand practices of the company they employ??

Also, I'm not sure on this so please correct me if I'm wrong, you May be able to pay the money into the court for it to be processed to the creditor cutting out the middle man so to speak?

st1300 · 2nd January 2007, 19:06

Quote:

Bear in mind that the DCA is only acting as the collector for Suma.As far as I am aware the DCA cannot charge interest because they are not the creditor or they don't legally own the debt.If the CCJ is for 3k and the courts have confirmed this then just pay the 3k

Thats very interesting.

The only problem is that Copes Solicitors are telling my lender that I owe them £3800. So in order to get the loan completed and the charge took off the house I need to authorise my lender to pay them £3800.

They seem to have us over a barrell at the moment. Agree to having £800 stolen and I can have the loan, if I don't I can't.

Falcon, just seen your reply with regards paying the court direct. This is something worth looking into. At least I know they won't rip me off, I hope.
Nigel.

The Terminator · 2nd January 2007, 19:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by falcon185

my sentiments Exactly Terminator. It may also be a matter of sending a letter to the Creditor too advising them of the underhand practices of the company they employ??

Also, I'm not sure on this so please correct me if I'm wrong, you May be able to pay the money into the court for it to be processed to the creditor cutting out the middle man so to speak?

You can under the Civil Procedure Rules it's called a Part 36 offer.

CPR Part 36 (YAWS version 42.1 (10 October 2006))

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