CCJ due to insurance not returning from - help!! effect on mortgage app?!

[crazyaccountant]

hi i am totally panicing and need advice from anyone that can help! long story so please bare with me!

we were involved in a bump in a car park in april in my partners company car, the other party tried to claim through insurance and failed and we received a letter about 6 weeks ago from the court service saying they were trying to take my partner to court for £900, the incident was not our fault so rang the company insurance broker and they insisted they would deal with this on our behalf no problem and to sent the form recorded delivery to them to complete the defence and send to the court. we sent the form and the lady at the insurance firm emailed to acknowledge receipt of it and said she would take it from there. this morning however we have received a county court judgement in the post stating that the court recieved no response to the letter and have concequently found us guilty!! obviously the insurance have not forwarded the form within the given deadlines and i am beyond furious and dont know what to do!

the complication is we have sold our house, and are in the middle of negotiating the price on the house we want to buy and have an appointment at the bank this friday to apply for the new mortgage, i have checked my partner's credit report online and the court judgement is already there so obviously i am pertified this will prevent us from getting the new mortgage (our credit reports are totally fine apart from this) we are supposed to be completing in January and just dont know if that is going to be possible now if this has smashed our chances of getting a new mortgage.

the insurance co and courts and bank are all unavailable until monday so just looking for some advice to get me through the weekend as feel like my dream new home is dissapearing beacuase of someones total incompetence, i even wanted to send the origional form back to the court myself as im a bit obsessive about making sure things are done correctly but the insurance people insisted they did it as they were the "experts"

sorry for the long post but as you can see this could have a massive knock on effect for us and im desparate for advice!

Please don't worry, it won't affect you getting a mortgage, but you might not get the best rate available because of the CCJ.

We had two CCJ's (failed business related) and we got a mortgage with Nat West, our bank. So it might be worth trying the bank you are with.

It is definately NOT a NO.

You should be able to get this judgement set aside fairly rapidly as it was only given due to the failure of the insurance company.

Speak to insurance co and the court on Monday and get advice on the procedure.

Not sure how long it will take for this judgement to be removed form your record - hopefully not long.

Explain the situation to your bank and ask their advice on how to proceed.

I am sure this has happened plenty of times before, should not affect your ability to get a mortgage.

Make sure you copy any correspondence in relation to this to show the company you are applying for a mortgage through. Most institutions have really tightened their belts when it comes to lending, but mortgage underwriters are not inhumane. If you have a full and valid explanation and can prove that it was the insurance companies incompetence then they should overlook.

The other thing that I would be looking at is the insurance company. I would be making a formal complaint by telephone backed up in writing. Tell them why you are so mad (affected credit history, moving home etc etc). Companies must not be allowed to be so incompetent.

Too right, Gonzo.

Insurance company have been woefully incompetent and should be hauled over the coals over this.

Thanks for your advice everyone, very much appreciated! Sorry i havent replied earlier but yday and monday was tied up trying to get to the bottom of this. Basically the insurance company had decided just to pay the claim rather than contest in court as they said this would cost them more (so lying pays off it appears?! Maddness!) but anyway they paid the claim 2 days after the deadline hence the CCJ being issued as far as the court are concerned the claim was not paid or responded to by the set deadline. We are waiting for the third party insurers to confirm they received the payment then we can apply to the court for a certificate of cancellation when we show the CCJ is settled as it has been paid within 30 days of issue (even tho it should never have got this far if the fing insurance company had done their job on time!)

Ive got emails from the broker and insurance company with a screen shot showing the payment being made so once we have confirmation from the third party insurers it is paid we can hopefully move forward with the mortgage app. The annoyance is this will take weeks for the deletion of the ccj to filter through to the credit report. Once this is sorted there will be one hell of a formal complaint going in to the insurance company and the industry ombudsman!

Just dont need this stress when trying to find a house, homeless in 8 weeks as sale agreed and currently bloody snowed in up here in the north east! Thanks again for the support ladies, venting definately helps the stress levels!

Glad you got to the bottom of this.

Thats annoying about it taking so long for the CCJ to be removed.

You should claim compensation from the insurance co for the hassle and the problems they are causing you with your mortgage application.

Sadly, insurance co's usually settle out of court and try to pass on the cost to the policyholder. It is likely that this will show as a fault claim against your policy.

My DH's ins co tried to do this when a car drove into him from a side road while he was stationary in traffic. Despite the fact he had two witness statements his ins co wanted to settle with the other party and put a fault claim on his record. He insisted on them taking it to court and the judge found against the other party so his record was cleared.

I would have a word with the insurance co to see how this is going to be reflected on your record.