Set aside CCJ/Charging Order after SAR reveals no record of agreement or default notice

[brightonian]

Hi, will try and keep this short....

 

Took out a loan in 2005, stopped paying in 2007 as was in financial trouble. Total owing to the bank £13,000.

 

In late 2007, a large "solicitors" took out a CCJ against me, which, given the circumstances and naivity, I just let them do without defending, and then they took out a CA on the house in 2008.

 

Now, during divorce settlement, unsurprisingly my ex is claiming "no knowledge" of the loan and "no benefit" from it, so I took out a SAR with the bank (which cost minus £200 after they took so long to do it they did it for free and paid me £200 compensation - suckers!) to get my old statements to prove she had benefitted from the loan. The SAR revealled that "unfortunately we are unable to locate any of your original agreements" and also in the list of actions on the account, there is no mention of any default notice being issued, and no copy of any document within the SAR (I specifically asked for all of these items to be included in the SAR and they specifically wrote that they were unable to find the documents).

 

Now, nothing has happened on the account since 2008. They seem happy with the charging order just sitting there. In recent (pre SAR) correspondance, the bank have stated that they will accept £8k to clear the £13k debt, mark the CCJ as satisfied and write to confirm I owe no more to them.

 

I now am in the following situation: do I request/demand/apply myself that they set aside the two orders and go away, never to bother me again, because the CCJ should never have happened if a default was never issued, or do I accept the £8k offer, pay it and get on with my life, knowing in 18 months it will be gone from my credit file?

 

I feel the first option I have the most to gain (no CCJ, no payment) but the most to lose (judge sets aside at my request, then the bank magically find a default notice and my original agreement, take out a new CCJ for £13,000 and then refuse a part settlement of £8k in the first month, so I have a new CCJ) - so my question is, is it worth the risk?

 

Thanks for any help,

 

Brightonian

[lulilu]

I'm in the same sort of situation as you. I have threatened to take the bank to court to set aside the charging order but don't know how to go about it. There are many thousands of people in the same situation as us. Somebody out there must know what to do.