Capquest - Registered CCJ without knowledge

[kazdudds]

I have received a Judgement for Claimant today

 

 

which orders me to pay £1661.42 by 26th November (today's date).

 

 

The Judgement is dated 19th November.

 

 

However, I did not receive any papers or any notification that I would be taken to court to get a CCJ.

 

 

I have recently moved and as I was unaware of the debt

I obviously did not notify them that I have moved.

 

 

I do have a post redirection in place which is why I have received the judgement today.

 

 

But surely any documents would have been forwarded by the post redirection.

 

 

I have never had to deal with anything like this and am at a loss as to what to do!

 

 

I have checked my credit report and it states that Capquest registered a default on 21/10/2009 and it says account type is bank

- but I have had the same bank account (and no others)

since approx 2004.

 

 

says the account started on 02/06/2008

 

My main questions are;

- I do not know what the debt is relating to - how can I find out?

- Can I do anything about the CCJ now? If I had received the documents prior to the court date I would certainly have looked into it at that point.

- I cannot afford to pay the debt - we are barely keeping our heads above water as it is, is there anything I can do about this? As for more time until I have determined what the debt is for? I feel that I should not be paying for a debt when I do not know where it came from?

 

Any help would be really appreciated

- I have been looking at advice given by others for similar problems

but am getting lost with all the CCA/SAR abbreviations

- I don't know what they mean .

 

Thanks

[Sidewinder]

You will need to apply to the Court to get the Judgment set aside on the grounds you have stated - that you failed to receive any notice of the hearing, nor have ever had any prior dealings with the creditor and were therefore denied the opportunity to defend. Do this using an N244 form.

 

There is a useful guidance on the National Debtline site http://www.bdl.org.uk/images/12_EW_NDL_Setting%20aside%20a%20judgment%20in%20the%20county%20court.pdf

 

If the court set aside the Judgment then this will reset the claim and you will then need to establish precisely what this debt is for, and whether indeed it is even yours.

 

Have you checked your credit file recently to see what , if anything, is showing.

[Sidewinder]

BTW - once set aside, you would get Capquest to provide you with full details of the debt, who the original creditor was and take it from there.

[kazdudds]

Thank you for the quick reply.

 

I have just been looking at the form N244 and just have a couple of further questions.

 

Which court do I need to send it to? The CCJ was from Northampton County Court - however this is nowhere near where I live.

 

Would I have to attend the hearing? I have a job where I am unable to take time off in term time.

 

Thanks again

[sequenci]

Hello there. Before you consider the set aside do you know what the debt might be for, and if so do you acknowledge that you owe the money? It appears that there could well be a dispute based up your first posts.

- If you feel that you owe the money it may be a better route to consider applying to vary the judgment to allow you to pay via affordable instalments

- If you feel that you have a reasonable prospect of succeeding with a defence then the set aside is the way to go.

 

- Seq.

[mjt2013]

If you do decide to contest the CCJ the matter should automatically be transferred to your local court, Northampton is just an administrative centre (although there is also a County Court there) so you won't have to go there for the hearing.

[kazdudds]

Again, thank you for the quick replies.

 

I feel that I need to get to the bottom of what the debt is.

 

 

I had no idea that the entry was on my credit file

- it has shocked me that it has been on there since 2008.

 

 

However I have not had any other account other than my current bank account which I estimate I opened about 9 - 10 years ago.

 

 

I married my husband in 2004 and I'm sure we had our account before getting married.

 

So, just to confirm,

 

 

I send the N244 to Northampton County Court.

 

 

I explain in the evidence box that I did not receive the claim form because I have recently moved

and due to not receiving any correspondence I did not notify them of a change of address.

Due to this I was unable to put together a defence or respond to the claim.

 

Should I also explain that I do not know what the claim relates to and request more time to investigate what the debt is?

 

Thanks again

[kazdudds]

I have been looking for further information regarding submitting the N244. On gov.co.uk it explains that if I do not attend the court hearing my application will be rejected.

 

 

Now I'm having a panic over what I need to do - if I submit the application will they give me a court date at my local county court? I would definitely not be able to go to Northampton.

 

 

Can Capquest instruct a bailiff in the meantime or will they have to put that on hold until the court date?

If the court decide that I cannot have the debt put aside will they force me to set up a payment plan even though I do not know what the debt is for?

 

 

I am sorry for all the questions but this whole situation is very frustrating - I wish there was more information on the form. I did notice that the space for my date of birth was blank on the judgement I received today - If I had a debt with them surely they would have this information?

 

 

Thanks again for any help with this

[mjt2013]

If you do decide to contest the CCJ the matter should automatically be transferred to your local court, Northampton is just an administrative centre (although there is also a County Court there) so you won't have to go there for the hearing.

 

See above.

[mjt2013]

As for bailiffs, enforcement is usually stayed pending the outcome of the application but if for some reason bailiffs do attend just say you've applied to set the judgment aside and they should back off (you may wish to keep a sealed copy of the application handy just in case but I'm sure that won't happen).

 

If the judgment isn't set aside and you don't appeal that decision then you will have to try to arrange payment even if you aren't happy about it, I'm afraid.

[AndyOrch]

Bailiff enforcement is really the very last resort in Money Claims and Credit Consumer Law...Enforcement is usually by way of a Charging Order on a property/ Attachment of Earnings or a Third Party Order or Bankruptcy.

 

With regards to your set a side I wouldnt state that you had not informed them of a change of address .....as last known address is considered good service and your application could fail.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[mjt2013]

With regards to your set a side I wouldnt state that you had not informed them of a change of address .....as last known address is considered good service and your application could fail.

 

Yes, I suspect they will make the last known address argument themselves so no need to tell them that. I suspect therefore that the issue will be whether you can satisfy the court that you have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim as, because of the service issue, the judgment is in all likelihood regular so it'll be a matter for the judge's discretion whether to set it aside.

[Mike_hawk]

If the debt genuinely isn't yours you could ask the other party to consent to set aside....... bit short on time though given the judgment date. You could also telephone it to speed up the process of establishing the origin of the debt. No need to go into too much detail, but it may assist with preparing your application if you know the cause from the outset.

 

 

Stay or suspension of any subsequent enforcement can also be requested within the app pending the set aside. Whether or not that would be hilited on the case file at Northampton to prevent activity in the short term may require a little intervention on your part if anything crops up prior to N24 being issued.