Student Loan Company CCJ

[antiestablishment]

Hello All

 

I have discovered that some time in early 2003 the Student Loans Company register for a County Court Judgement against me. I had two loans from '95 and '96 academic years, totalling about £1600 (thats the amount claimed on the Judgement). I finished education in 1997 and I had an approved deferment running from September 1997 until 1999, at which time I bought my first property and changed address and bank accounts and so, and SLC was unfortunately missed during this changeover and fell into arrears, in actual fact I have never made any payments to the loan as no deferment papers were further received due to the address change, and I had subsequently completly forgot about it until all this came to light.

 

In early 2002 I went to work in the far east, renting out my property in England. After 5 years away I have come to back to some mail held in my post box from SLC, stating that they have traced me to my address and would be proceeding with recovery of the full amount in the future. This mail was dated around summer 2002. The next was the court papers served just before Xmas 2002. Obviously, not being present and not expecting to recieve any mail such as this, it has sat in my PO box until April this year.

 

I have no problem with them tracking me down, it all seems legitimate and I acknowledge the Debt, and I intend to pay it, less of course any ridiculous charges.

 

What I would like to know is that even though the judgement has been registered (at Northampton county court), I have a copy of the original agreement and neither are signed by SLC representatives. I have sent them a CCA to be sure that this is correct and obtain the copy or copies which they hold, but can I apply to have the judgement struck out / removed if its deemed to be an Unenforceable debt under the CCA?

 

How does the defence that I was non resident at the address, or in indeed the United Kingdom at the time which they have filed and posted the court papers hold up should SLC have the correct paperwork?

 

I have had a good trawl through the boards and dont see any other cases like mine, if I have missed them apologies on my behalf. Any input would be great.

[welly_59]

if you never recieved the papers as you were out of the country then u should be able to have it set aside

[alibobsy]

As well as making an application to have the CCJ set aside you could do a DPA request to ensure you also can claim for any charges applied to the account. Especially as if you get the CCJ set aside they may well just apply for a new one.

Good luck

ali

[emmaf01]

It seems best to attack on as many fronts as possible, all at the same time.

 

If you can get the judgment set aside, find out from the DPA SAR what hey have got address wise and when, and amounts of any charges, to be deducted from what you owe. Then there is less to pay off.

 

Sounds perfect but they won't make it easy.

[antiestablishment]

Ok, time to update this thread as discussion with SLC has got nowhere.

 

After posting this thread, I contact SLC and told them I agreed with the original £900 or so that I was in default with, but I disputed the charges (which added almost £700 to the judgement amount!!!).

 

I made an initial offer over the phone to pay off the original outstanding debt, followed by the remainder of the charges provided they confirmed to me in writing that they would remove the judgement in its entirety.

 

This was on a Monday, and I stated clearly that if SLC could write to me and confirm the arrangement ASAP, we could have it wrapped it in a week, everyone gets what they want, no embarrassment for either party. The operative agreed to my terms enthusiastically, but told me not to pay anything just now and she would get the correspondence prepared and that when this was done they would fax me a copy before calling to collect the payment.

 

Guess what - the letter dropped through the door 3 WEEKS later, stating that they would accept my payment plan, and as soon as I paid the original debt of £900 they would mark the default as SATISFIED (not remove it) and once they proved this they would expect the remainder of payment in 14 days. Then some cretinous rectum incompetent of monolithic proportions began calling to 'collect full payment'. He was heavily derided, and is probably still having nightmares and receiving counselling after what I said to him. Needless to say they did not call again.

 

Fast forward to mid December. After a number of phone calls, none of which disputed my proposal as it appears to be well recorded and documented in there system, I have had a further two letters from them in the last five months, all of which were a variation on the first letter. This was not what I asked for.

 

So that's it, gloves off. As my loan is from '95 and '96 academic years, I'm going to start with a CCA, because I seriously doubt they will be holding the original agreements, I remember trying to contact them back in 1998 and they had no record of my account or deferment.

 

In addition, I am filling out form N244 over the next week to have the judgement set aside in the interim on the grounds that I was not resident at the address, or indeed the country when the papers were served, and that the amount in default is disputed. I have been advised 'on the quiet' by a legal friend that if you can prove any of the points on this list below in court then the magistrate will have to grant your request:

 

Removal of CCJ's - Valid reasons to have your judgements set aside

 

I am interested to hear from anyone just how long and how dumb they played during the process of reclaiming charges etc.

[antiestablishment]

I had a thought whilst completing my paperwork yesterday, as my student loan is is from 1995/96 academic year, will requesting credit agreements under 1998 Data Protection act still be a valid request?

 

I was reading the statute case's and data that is not stored electronically does not appear to be covered under this ruling, i.e. SLC do not have to disclose it, and I distinctly remember filling out a very large booklet style triplicate application form, the type that does not lend itself too well to electronic storage.

 

Had a trawl through the posts and have found nothing that address' this point directly. The paperwork of some sorts must be available and valid as the court claim was processed in December 2002, so I assume the data relating to charges and the judgement will be available.

 

Any help greatly appreciated, Thanks.

[noomill060]

As SLC is a government body, it would be the Freedom of Information Act rather than a SAR.

 

(Saying that, I used a SAR to get my loan stuff off them from academic year 1994/95. I used a CCA request to get my agreement. They did have it and produced within the 12 days.)