ccj over gym membership

[paulinec]

Hi,

 

New to this so hope its in the right forum. Basically son had membership to gym in 2010 lost his job and couldnt pay subscriptions. Informed gym and they said ok put in writing with relevant letters of termination of employment, which he did, but he was 1month behind and he had to give 1 months notice. Gym passed, what he thought was 2mths subs, to dca who said no it was for the remaining 6mths (rest of year) so he paid the 2 months to them and refused to pay the rest. He heard nothing till a couple of months ago from gym who had issued a court claim, my son appealed, sent to copies of letter etc. but the judge found in the gyms favour. My son couldnt attend hearing and didnt get reasons why it was found in gyms favour. The gym contract states if made redundant you can cancel membership giving a months notice, so why had judge gone in their favour.

Court also said it has to be paid in 14days, the letter from the court took 8 days to arrive, when ask why it took so long thay said the courts work 5 days behind,then posted, so it left 4days to pay and 2 of them were weekend days, so basically he hasnt been able to pay. My question is can we appeal, and would it be heard, as we dont know why judge found in their favour, was it technicality or wording in contract we dont know and courts have said judge would of said why in the hearing. Letter from court said just pay in 14days, no details of appealing, no advice if unable to pay nothing.

 

Please help as i dont want bailiffs from courts coming here as hubby getting over a car crash and we would pay this for son but we are now on benefits coz of accident.

Any advice would we appriciated.

[slick132]

Hi Paulinec,

 

If the CCJ is not settled within 30 day, it will be registered against YS on his Credit Reference files, causing possible damage to his credit rating for the next 6 years. So paying it now would make a lot of sense and will not compromise the chance of making an appeal.

 

You can inform the court when paying that you were given notice to pay that was xx days short of the 30 which you should have been given. Therefore you want this shown as settled within the 30 days and NOT registered against YS.

 

We need some more info on this please :-

 

1. When was the court case heard.

 

2. At what court and how far is this from YS's address.

 

3. What gym is the m/ship with.

 

4. If an Admin Company acts for the gym, who is it.

 

5. What was the minimum initial m/ship contract period.

 

6. Have you kept copies of all letters sent to the gym and to court.

 

7. Do you have a copy of the gym contract. If so, please state exactly what is said about cancellation and redundancy.

 

8. In addition to the monthly fees claimed, did the Claimant seek any Admin or Late Payment fees. In fact, please give a breakdown of exactly what was claimed.

 

By not attending court, YS badly compromised the chances of successfully defending the claim. Is there any reason he didn't attend.

 

Pay the Judgement amount now if possible to save YS's credit rating being damaged. You can get the money back in due course if you appeal and win. Even if you decide not to appeal, YS's credit rating will be spared enormous damage by paying promptly.