How to Remove a CCJ from your Credit Record

Trust Online

If you notice a change on your credit file you can get the details of the company and the case number from Trust Online.

Go to Trust Online and pay £6 to search for any CCJs against you. Select ‘check a person’; then select the box ‘England and Wales County Court Judgements’; then enter your information as requested. You will receive a PDF by email. https://search.trustonline.org.uk/Search/Person

Summary

When you find out that they have a CCJ, you will need to have it ‘set aside’ before you can dispute the debt and wipe it with the 3 letter process. This gets HARDER the longer that the CCJ is in place. A CCJ lasts 6 years, so it becomes increasingly more difficult to explain why you didn’t act sooner the closer it gets to falling off your credit record:

If the company they purchased the ‘debt’ from, loaned you money, you can make an ‘irresponsible lending complaint’ to the Original Creditor (they only sell the ‘benefit’, not the ‘burden’ of an account) this will help to UNDERMINE the CCJ (this can only be done for phone contracts if they extended credit for a handset).

If the ‘debt’ relates to a service bill (for Telecom or Energy) you can make a SERVICE/BILLING complaint to the ORIGINAL CREDITOR and then escalate any ‘final response’ to their industry Ombudsman. You can also apply to their TRUST FUND to clear the ‘debt’.

You should file an N244 with the Court to have the judgment set aside (one for each judgment).

The Judge will look at 3 points:

1-Why you didn’t respond to the Claim Form – don’t put you ignored it, perhaps it was “lost in the post”

2. If you have a good prospect of defending the Claim – always dispute the original debt not just the assignment!

3. If you acted quickly when you found out about the Claim – the longer you leave it, the more you have to explain!

File an N244 to have the judgment set aside.

This is normally straight forward when you didn’t receive the claim form.

Don’t put down that you “ignored” the Court documents, perhaps they were “lost in the post”.

A standard N244 costs £275 but this can be reduced to as little as ZERO if you are on low income or benefits by filing an EX160.

Example Section 3 text – “An Order that the judgment in Default be Set Aside pursuant to CPR 13.3 and the Defendant be allowed to file a defence in the case. The Defendant only discovered the judgment when…… and has acted promptly when making this application.”

It is not necessary to complete questions 4 – 9

https://sites.google.com/view/n244setaside/home

Statute Barred

The Limitation Act 1980 sets out the rules on how long a creditor has to take action to recover a debt. All records of County Court Judgments (CCJ) are held in the Registry of Judgments, Orders and Fines are automatically destroyed after six years for both paid and unpaid debts. Statute barred means the debt is unenforceable and can no longer be recovered through court action, and is effectively written off.

Under the Limitation Act, time starts to run from the ’cause of action’ but this is not the same for all types of debt. Following a Court of Appeal ruling a debt becomes statute-barred six years after the default notice expires.

In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland the limitation period is six years which applies to credit cards, personal loans, gas and electric arrears, council tax, and overdrafts. It doesn’t include mortgages, personal injury claims, income tax, VAT, and capital gains tax.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) say that it’s not fair for a creditor to keep asking you to pay a statute-barred or prescribed debt if you’ve told them you don’t intend to pay it. This means for debts which are regulated by the FCA, once you’ve shown the limitation period has passed and told them you won’t be paying the debt, they should stop contacting you. This applies to many common types of consumer debt such as credit or store cards, payday loans, personal loans, overdrafts, and catalogues.

Set Aside

If you feel you don’t owe the debt, you can ask the court to re-open the case against you. You must show you have a genuine legal reason that you do not owe the money.

The first thing you would need to do is contact the court and ask them to set aside the CCJ either by using form N244, or by letter. In most cases, you will be charged a fee for this. Acting quickly will give you more chance of being successful provided you have a justifiable reason.

You can write on the N244 that your reason for having the CCJ set aside is because the company has not provided you with proof of claim. You can then list a timeline of the dates of your notices as evidence. State the acts and statutes under which you have asked for specific information. eg DSAR pursuant to the Data Protection Act 2018.

If the court agrees with your request to set aside the CCJ, you will have the chance to put forward your case. If the court finds you don’t owe the money, it will remove the CCJ from the Registry of Judgments, Orders and Fines. It will usually take around three to four weeks to complete this.

It costs £275 or for free if you can use EX160 form.

The Set Aside Aplication

The judge has the discretion to set the judgement aside if you didn’t recieved the claim form and you have a good prospect of defending the claim. Challenge every element of the claim made against you. If the debt was purchased by a DCA, dispute the orignal debt owed ot eh Original Creditor as well as the assignment. Always dispute owing the original debt, not just the assignment. Never admit to ignoring the claim form – say it wasn’t recieved.

Conact the Court

Once you are aware of the CCJ and you have the claim number contact the court to ask for further information about the claim, which will likely be the County Court Business Centre in Northampton. They cannot search on a case using your name and date of birth as other courts can, and do. They require the case number to pull up the details of the claim.

Ask for:

• the name of the claimant;
• the claim number;
• the claim form;
• the Particulars of Claim (if detailed particulars have been submitted separately); and
• the Order granting Default Judgment.

Write to the Claimant

Once you have recieved all of the information from the court, write to the claimant and ask them to consent to set aside the CCJ. If they do not consent they should expalin their reasons for their refusal. Failure to provide any explanation as to why the claimant objects to the setting aside of the CCJ may run the risk of the court making an adverse costs order against them. Give them seven days to respond. Do not wait longer than seven days for a response from the claimant. If they don’t respond within the given time, continue with the N244 application.

Write to the Court

I am the Defendant in Claim Number xyz.

I am requesting that the court to make an Order that the judgement in Default be Set Aside pursuant to CPR 13.3 and the Defendant be allowed to file a defence in the case.

CPR 13.3 states (1) In any other case, the court may set aside or vary a judgement entered under Part 12 if – a) the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; orb) it appears to the court that there is some other good reason why – i) the judgement should be set aside or varied; or ii) the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim.

I learned of the existence of this claim on x date when I received an email from Experian advising of a change to my Credit File.

I therefore respectfully request that the Court sets aside the judgement in this claim.

I dispute the Claimants case in full as there is no contract between myself and the claimant and therefore any alleged debt is not owed.
The Claimant has failed to provide any Contract as first requested in our Data Subject Access Request dated xxx. They have also failed to address our questions on a point-for-point basis and with full disclosure pursuant to the Data Protection Act 2018.

The Claimant has never served the Particulars of Claim to the defendant.

Due process has not been followed so so I would request the court orders the service of these documents before the next court hearing.

Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights states: In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law.
I therefore request that the Court sets aside the judgement in this claim and allows 14 days for me to submit my defence.

The claimant has never served the Particulars of Claim to the defendant.

We wrote to the Defendant after they failed to provide the Credit Application

The default judgement has negatively affected me because my credit rating has gone down by 359 points from 999 to 635, taking me to the Poor score band.

N244 Application

Start drafting your application to the court as soon as you have written to the claimant to ensure it is carefully prepared and not rushed.

Only file a Witness Statement if the case is more complex.

• Question 1: fill in your name here.
• Question 2: you will normally tick the box as the ‘defendant’.
• Question 3: you need to briefly state what order you are asking the court to make and the reasons for your request.
  Example: An Order that the judgment in Default be Set Aside pursuant to CPR 13.3 and the Defendant be allowed to file a defence in the case. The Defendant only discovered the judgment when…… and has acted promptly when making this application.
• Question 4: this asks if you have attached a draft of the order you are applying for. We would suggest that you only tick ‘yes’ to this if you have had help from a solicitor or advice agency with drafting the order. Otherwise, leave this up to the court.
• Question 5: this asks you if you want to have the application dealt with at a hearing. Most applications will be dealt with at a hearing.
• Question 6, 7 and 8: it is safer to leave these blank rather than guess how long a hearing will last or what level of judge you need at the hearing.
• Question 9: only fill this in if there is someone you want the court to send a copy of the application to, such as your solicitor.
• Question 10: this appears on the back of the form. You should tick the box saying you are relying on ‘the evidence set out in the box below’. You need to include any evidence you have to support your case, such as proof you have changed address or were out of the country. Any information you have about your possible defence should also be included. You should explain any delay in making the application.
• Sign the statement of truth on the bottom of the form.
• Send enough copies of the form by recorded delivery back to the court so that one can be sent to the ‘claimant’ (the person who has the judgment against you) and one for the court. Remember to keep a copy for yourself.
• The court will take into account how quickly you made the application and may want to know the reason for any delay, e.g. you only just found out about the judgment.

For a better chance of succes, support your application with evidence such as bills, statements, letters, etc.

Enforcement of a CCJ

Once a creditor has a county court judgment (CCJ) for a debt, the Limitation Act does not put any time limits on how long they have to enforce that judgment.

If your CCJ is more than six years old, and the creditor wants to use enforcement action, they must first get permission of the court. Special rules apply if they apply for a third party debt order or you already have a charging order. Contact us for advice.

If you think the creditor has been to court and got a CCJ against you after the six year limitation period has passed, you can ask the court to ‘set aside’ the CCJ so you can put in a Limitation Act defence. For more information, see our Setting aside a CCJ fact sheet.

Bankruptcy

If a creditor already has a county court judgment (CCJ) against you, there is no limitation period to make you bankrupt. If there is no CCJ, there is a six year limitation period to make you bankrupt.

To make a donation to the writer please follow this link: