backdoor CCJ gain whilst claimant knew i was living abroad. ** CCJ set aside and removed from records **

[mediastars]

Hi,

 

This is a real struggle to deal with. I recently noticed when credit was refused to me that a storage company had issued a CCJ in my name at an address I no longer lived at.

 

The story in brief goes as follows;

 

I took up storage back in 2008 as we were going to live abroad for a few months. The storage company were well aware of this and also knew they were required to communicate with me via email which they did. They also invoiced me via email and they were paid via BACS.

 

Our situation changed in relation to we found somewhere free to store our possessions and i asked my friend to clear out our storage which he did, however he left the padlock on the storage unit.

 

I emailed and communicated all of this with the storage company including when the storage was empty. However they continued to bill me by paper bill to my previous address rather than by email, they ceased communication on email and apparently (talking to neighbours) they had sent 4 or 5 invoices to my old address even thou they knew we did not live there and that we was abroad.

 

According to the court, a default notice / CCJ was issued at that address unknown to myself until recently. i have tried to contact the storage company and in writing a few times and have not had a reply from them.

 

I have read up about CCJs and having them set aside but how easy is this? I clearly was abroad and/or not living at the address and they clearly knew this. Will emails i have be enough for me to prove this? or am i wasting my time.

 

You see the problem is that this company continued to bill me monthly for nearly 2 years after they severed contact with me. Which surely is wrong? i can only think of greed as their motivator for continuing to bill someone who clearly did not have anything in their storage and had clearly told them all items had been removed and that it was no longer needed. There was no contract saying i needed to give 2 years notice?

 

The CCJ will come off of my credit file in 2015 and is less than 2k but i need it removed so that it was never there, which is quite difficult to achieve.

 

Any experience in this or help is most appreciated in this very stressful time.

 

Michael

[renegadeimp]

A set aside in your case is pretty straightforward. You never recieved the court documents, and the business knew you were abroad, yet it sounds like they chose to contact your old address, possibly because they knew they could get judgement by default.

[mediastars]

Hi,

 

Its about proving that i was not at the address and proving i informed the company of this. I would only have email communication as evidence as i was abroad. I read on the trust online website that you have to be careful asking to set a CCJ aside and you need a good reason. I believe i have a good reason and im not beyond paying my debts when they are real, i just want to remove the CCJ so it was never there and also im concerned that a company can continue to bill someone for nearly two years after having no contact.

[renegadeimp]

If you still have the original emals that were sent, then the headers of the email should prove that they were sent. You could also SAR the storage company for all records they hold on you, although chances are the records may have been destroyed.

[mediastars]

OK THANKS I will do that and send a request as i was about to write one last time to the company. The fact that they have ignored me already may mean they will ignore the request too. Should I wait 40 days then (i guess thats a silly questions) before asking the court to set aside the CCJ ?

[renegadeimp]

Thats a good idea. Write to the company and give them 7-14 days to reply. If no reply happens, get that set aside application going. If successful, they would have to start the claims process again. And since you are not a resident of the UK right now, they cannot bring a claim against you. You could also use that in your set aside application.

[mediastars]

OK well thats what I will do, i will write to them again and give them 7-14 days to reply, do not think they will bother given they have ignored me on 3 occasions already. I will after 14 days pay the set aside fee and fill out the paperwork, what form do i need from the court? N244 im guessing looking at the trust online website. Only one question, intriguing that you are saying they bring a claim against me while living abroad. However they already took out a CCJ in my absence at the old address regardless of me living abroad already so clearly i need to sort this out properly as they are likely to raise another CCJ as they have done this already, leaving me in this mess.

[renegadeimp]

Get that set aside done first. It basically gets rid of the CCJ you have right now, and forces the business to start the process again. However, since you are not a resident of the UK, it is impossible for them to bring court action against you in small claims court.

 

They cant issue multiple CCJ's on the same debt. If the set aside is granted, and somehow they managed to get a claim started, then IF they win, they can get a new CCJ registered. However, all the above info applies. As long as you have told them that you are no longer a resident of the UK, and you have provided new contact details and they chose to ignore them, you should be fine.

[mediastars]

OK thanks for your help i will get to writing and filling out the forms then. Your forum is a great help.

[mediastars]

Just an update. I attended court last week, the judge set aside the CCJ and cancelled it as well as the case in relation to the company cannot now chase me anymore. Also after persistent letter writing on my part the company who issued the CCJ had not complied to a SAR request in months. They then sent me a letter and sent one to the court saying they wanted the CCJ set aside and that they will not be pursuing me anymore.

 

Only now left is to check my credit file in two weeks when i next get an update to check if the CCJ has gone completely. Which it should.

[citizenB]

This is brilliant news, thank you for updating - I will amend your thread title.