Can I do anything about a ccj that I didn't know about?

[batfuttocks]

We are applying for a mortgage and a credit check has found a ccj against my name which I didn't know about. It's registered to me maiden name (I married in 2005) and to a house we moved out of in 2006. The actual ccj was registered in 2011 and I literally had no idea about it. I'm not even sure if its legitimate or not - we have never left a debt knowingly unpaid and have ten years of paying mortgage etc without default. Always pay credit cards at the end of the month, that sort of thing.

Anyway, I'm looking for a bit of hope please! I can phone the court in the morning to find out what this relates to but in the meantime am a mess. We have just sold our house and need to move ASAP as I'm expecting a baby in ten weeks. Everything else is lined up perfectly - lender is ok with the amount borrowed, they have been our lender for the last seven years and we are using a mortgage broker who has a good relationship with them. The outstanding amount is under a thousand so, if it is our fault, we can happily pay it off immediately.

I'm just worried that we are buggered now either way as even if we pay I'm scared the lender will decline us.

Even if the debt is not ours, all I care about right now is that we can sort something out quickly to enable us to get the mortgage and secure the house we want.

Has anyone had a similar experience ?

I had a ccj I didn't know about following a car crash. The lady I crashed into claimed against me and my insurance company sent them my old address details so all the paperwork went there. As a result I (obviously) failed to respond and the ccj was issued. I only found out about it when my credit card company called they were reducing my credit limit as a result of the ccj.

I got a copy of my credit report to get the details and contacted the solicitors that dealt with the claim. They were a really really helpful.

You can get it removed from your file for a fee and you'll need to prove it was issued in error. It took me about a year all in all to get all the evidence from my insurance company to prove their negligence, and I had to attend court (not scary, just me and a judge type guy) and he authorised the removal.

I did it all myself though so if you don't have time on your side you might want to invest in getting a solicitor to help you as it might speed up the process. First off you need to find out what it's for. And explain up the mortgage company that its being dealt with.

It's the timing that worries me. Our buyer wants to be in within eight weeks and we obviously have a baby coming imminently. If I satisfy the ccj, and can show we haven't lived at the address for seven years so as no notification of the ccj, I am just praying we cn still get the mortgage. My husband has a credit rating of 999! I am just wreck worrying it will all fall through over an amount we can pay tomorrow, but no one told us about. Not good for my blood pressure

Have you had the formal mortgage offer?

I'd explain the situation to your broker as well. I guess it'll depend on what the mortgage company want to do but even if you've only had a mortgage in principal agreed they would have run a credit report on you already so they may be aware of it.

Try not to panic until you know all the details.

They are aware of it - the broker put the application in today, they were happy with the amount we want to borrow against our incomes, but then they ran the credit check and came across this.

The broker explained he thought it likely we didn't even know about it (which is the case) and then called me to advise us about it. I've tracked down the court case number and i will call them tomorrow to work out what the debt is.

It's just gutting because its not an amount we would ever have left unpaid had we known about it. I feel like I have ruined everything for the family and am shocked this could have happened without me being aware. We've been with our mortgage lender 7 years and never missed a payment. We earn 100k a year between us and have paid every mortgage payment, phone payment, car loan etc all in full every month. I think hormones aren't helping but I feel so anxious that we are not going to get the mortgage (or any mortgage) because of this.

I am happy to pay it in full. I'm tempted to do it even if its a fraudulent debt just to clear the bloody thing so we don't lose our sale and purchase. I feel sick just thinking about it all.

Can you join Equifax now so you can see your credit report for yourself? Surely it will tell you who the creditor of the debt is supposed to be?

I joined experian but am waiting for a pin to access all the info. theres a site called trust infor or something but it only shows the judgement and the court it was issued in. I have a case number so I will call tomorrow.

I have no idea what it will relate to. The odd thing is that it relates to my maiden name, I married in 2005 but the judgement is from 2011. I just can't fathom it. To be honest, all I care about it it not getting in the way of the mortgage but from what I can see even getting the judgement set aside takes ages which will risk us our house sale. It's awful. I was already stressed trying to move before the baby comes but this is a disaster.

I'd wait and see if your broker can speak to the mortgage provider. Merely settling the debt won't remove the ccj from your file so I'd wait to see what the mortgage company's criteria is before unnecessarily paying for something that may be fraudulent.

Call experian tomorrow and chivvy them along so you can be as informed as possible for the mortgage company.

I really feel for you. It's shit when you normally do your best to keep on top of things. I'm an accountant so was mortified to have a ccj issued against me when I'm normally so on top of my finances.

Exactly. I am just horrified because of all the issues I anticipates with the house move, having a bad credit history wasn't one of them.

Just feel sick. It's awful when it's something that is out of your control and you can't make it better.

Did your broker give any indication as to what the mortgage provider might do now it's come to light?

I'd suggest that given your income versus the value of the debt you might have an argument for them to still make the offer given that you had no knowledge of it and are taking steps to deal with it. If you already borrow from them, your payment history should count towards you too.

We've just had a mortgage offer after lots of arsing around with the lender changing the goalposts at the 11th hour, but we got there eventually and I am due to give birth any day now so I understand how stressful it is.

If the worst comes to the worst, does your husband earn enough to take the mortgage in his sole name? This would be a solution, and you could be added onto the mortgage further down the line once its all settled.

No, unfortunately! We both earn about fifty each, if anything my income is the higher one most years.

Have just woken up feeling sick to my stomach and can't get back to sleep. I just want to get to the bottom of this and get it sorted.

Anyone know how quickly courts release this sort of information?

Any update? Have you spoken to Experian or your broker this morning?

Not sure how quickly courts release the info as I managed to go back to my old property and retrieve all the documentation as the tenant thankfully hadn't chucked out my post.

Hi. Hopefully have some positive news, the debt was accrued by the people who moved into our old flat as they didn't pay the annual service charge for about six years. What seems to have happened is that they didn't fill in the correct form when they arrived to change the account into their name, so the debt was assigned to us. When I spoke the the solicitors who acted for the management company, they were very apologetic. There was clearly a way to contact us as the new owners had our forwarding address, email etc and of course their solicitors had the name of our solicitors who would have been able to contact us if needed. In the end, they paid 600 of the debt but there is 140 outstanding, no way of knowing if we owe that - its from the year we moved so potentially ours, but as the solicitor admits they did not make full attempts to contact us she has written to the court to say they have no objections to the ccj being set aside (ie wiped from my record). Unfortunately all this takes time so I have paid the outstanding amount anyway to ensure at the least the ccj can be shown as satisfied. Mortgage broker cautiously optimistic but the timing may cause us problems.

On the plus side I do feel a little less like vomiting

Phew. Sounds like things are moving in the right direction. How massively stressful though.

Good good, you sound a lot calmer today which is what you need. I think the form to get it set aside is an n244 form. I'd get cracking on that, get the solicitors to document their lack of attempts to contact you/negligence as proof. This should help with the lender if they have any concerns.

This is a question for mamalovebird. I have found myself in the exact same situation as you were in and have hired a solicitor to help me set aside the judgement. It's been recommended to me that I try to find a similar court application that's been heard and set aside in court. Would it be terribly rude of me to ask you to give me a little information of your court hearing? All I think I need is the name of the court that the hearing was held and the date of the hearing. I hope you don't think this is too cheeky, I am just panicking as me and my partner are looking to get a
Mortgage and I am also in the process of starting a business and this default ccj could ruin everything all because of my insurance companies negligence.
Thanks!

Laura, I don't know the specifics of your situation, but we now have a document from the court saying the ccj has been set aside - the solicitors who dealt with the original claim wrote to the court on our behalf to say they had no objection to the ccj being set aside, we filled in a form n244 and paid £80 and its all be sorted within days.

I would try and talk to the solicitors who claimed against you and explain you did not receive any paperwork. As long as the monies have been settled you may find you have no problem.

Best of luck.

I have spoken to the solicitor and they have said they won't object to me applying to the court to set aside the judgement but they have asked their client to agree to set aside and she has refused. I just wanted to find a case similar to my case as mine that had been set aside as an example as my solicitor has advised me there is a case the court may refuse to set aside.
Thanks

Hi,
I was going through the forum. I have had a same problem. Got my credit score for mortgage to find out I have a ccj against me. Ccj was issued only 35 days ago. Close enough. I contacted the court. It is because of a stupid parking ticket which I appealed against. Later changed my address. They have been sending all the papers to the previous address. I am not really sure how to proceed now. Shall I go for a set aside?
BW

Hi just curious whatthe outcome was for Bilal123? As this has happened to me yesterday and im worried sick Monday cant come quick enough.

Bill it won't be set aside because you owed that money. Unless your appeal was successful in which case you have the paperwork to show to the court

Do we know what happened in the end or how long this took?