jonesyd UE Diary

[BuzzyBee]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

The MailOnline highlighted this and other sneaky ways that CCJs are obtained on Monday ---> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-new-home.html Supposedly Theresa May is going to do something about it.

Yes, it was actually front page news in the paper version, which I thought unusual. I didn't see this in the online version but the paper version had the Top Ten companies that issue default judgments.



Although a lot of noise was made about the parking penalties, that was just because the amounts were often rather small, however, the amount of judgments from Parking Eye was just 10% of the number obtained by the top two, which everyone should be familiar with. One of them wrote to me yesterday, saying they'll be sending some round to visit me. I shall invite them to tea and biscuits. The OC had six years to obtain their default CCJ as that particular card was always an online only account and last address they had I've not lived in for 12 years. They missed their chance and instead sold to Cabot, who tracked me down but they'd already missed the boat, it's coming up to 7 years since last payment.

[jonesyd]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

Just simply find out by checking with Trust Online to see whether there are any CCJ's.

This is from my diary!
HSBC were paid in full within week of Judgement (caused considerable hardship) they did not tell Court.
CCJ was NOT Issued BUT
HSBC advise will cost me £15 to get CCJ taken off.

It was this Site Niddy and Jo that directed me to Trust Online and guess what NO CCJ.

So my advice is do what Plan B suggests check with Trust Online. First step in taking charge here is find the facts

Thanks Roger. If I was planning to remain in the UK permanently, I would indeed follow your and Plan B's advice to confirm everything with Trust Online and then take it from there.

But as I'm actually planning to leave the UK again in a few months and then live abroad for at least a few years - and also because as far as Restons and the court are concerned there is no reason for either of them to currently believe I have EVER received any of their correspondence at any time in the UK - I feel I should simply wait until I actually DO receive communications from them either at my current address in the UK or my business address in the UK or else my permanent address abroad.

Basically, as I was straightforward with them about my plans and movements since 2011 - and how they should contact me as a result - I don't see why I should make any running for them now unless what they're doing affects me or threatens to affect me in some meaningful way.

Obviously, all this would change if I decide at some point to remain or return to the UK permanently, in which case I'd do whatever it took at that time to confirm all the details and act accordingly.

[BuzzyBee]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

Thanks Roger. If I was planning to remain in the UK permanently, I would indeed follow your and Plan B's advice to confirm everything with Trust Online and then take it from there.

It costs just £4 to search Trustonline: http://www.trustonline.org.uk/search-yourself For CCJs you'll only need to search one section.

Basically, as I was straightforward with them about my plans and movements since 2011 - and how they should contact me as a result - I don't see why I should make any running for them now unless what they're doing affects me or threatens to affect me in some meaningful way.

Obviously, all this would change if I decide at some point to remain or return to the UK permanently, in which case I'd do whatever it took at that time to confirm all the details and act accordingly.

No harm in searching the registry though, just so you know. If there are CCJs, they don't go SBd so you should factor that in if you ever decide to return. If there aren't, then you have nothing to worry about. CCJs also drop off the record after six years.

[Pixie]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

Yes, it was actually front page news in the paper version, which I thought unusual. I didn't see this in the online version but the paper version had the Top Ten companies that issue default judgments.

The info was there in the online version.



I wasn't at all surprised to find which names were in the top 10 when I read it

[jonesyd]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

Thanks Buzzy.

I hear what you’re saying but I think - after a lot of thought - that this is a case of “ignorance is bliss” over “better the devil you know”, not least because of the time spans now involved.

As I said, though, if they do actually contact me correctly - via post or email - I realise that I’ll then have to take front foot, so to speak.

[jonesyd]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

A quick update: the same court official/DCA guy who called at my old address in August once again showed up at my old address just last week - apparently for a “different” debt matter - and was once again told by the resident there that I had been living abroad since 2011. Apparently the court official/DCA guy seemed “resigned” and “like he was going through the motions” of calling at the address. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens next...

[jonesyd]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

The net tightens ... today at my current address I received this letter from Restons:

"Dear Sir

We are attempting to contact the above named person regarding a personal matter and we have been provided your address as a possible address for our subject/customer.

If you are the person named above, please contact our office on telephone xxxxxx.

If however you are not the person named above, please accept our apologies for this contact. If you are able to supply us with information on where our subject may now reside, we would welcome contact from you so that we may update our records appropriately.

Yours faithfully

(signed “Restons”)

Restons Solicitors Ltd"

My Q: is this aimless fishing, i.e., if I do not respond am I likely to never hear from them again? Or is this kind of letter more targeted than that?

[The Tech Clerk]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

The net tightens ... today at my current address I received this letter from Restons:

"Dear Sir

We are attempting to contact the above named person regarding a personal matter and we have been provided your address as a possible address for our subject/customer.

If you are the person named above, please contact our office on telephone xxxxxx.

If however you are not the person named above, please accept our apologies for this contact. If you are able to supply us with information on where our subject may now reside, we would welcome contact from you so that we may update our records appropriately.

Yours faithfully

(signed “Restons”)

Restons Solicitors Ltd"

My Q: is this aimless fishing, i.e., if I do not respond am I likely to never hear from them again? Or is this kind of letter more targeted than that?

Phishing letter! see what comes next, they probably will not go away as they may have got your details from CRA, unless they are phishing everybody with your name etc mass postings??

[jonesyd]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

I do have quite a common name, so it did occur to me that this may have come to me as a result of a "mass posting", as you describe it - but if they've sent a letter to everyone in the UK with my name, that would be a list in the 10s of thousands.

So my feeling is that they've probably been a bit more scientific than that, somehow, and narrowed it down using CRA and geographical data, because I currently live in the county next to the county of my old address, and this has all happened fairly sharply after the court/DCA guy tried and failed to doorstep me at my address from 5 years ago.

Maybe they've just sent a letter to all the people with my name in the county of, and counties surrounding, the county of my old address, etc.

That would still give them quite a long list of "possibles", though.

TBH, I'm still marvelling that they are going to this much trouble - the accounts they're talking about cannot be more than approx £20K combined and were both manifestly UE. Maybe they just haven't looked into that part of it ...

[Roger]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

Originally Posted by PlanB
I can see your logic.

If you respond to Restons' recent letters sent to your old address, they may question how you were able to 'receive' those three letters but not the summons or Default Judgements which would have preceded them.

At the moment you don't have any evidence that there are any CCJs until you check that with Trust Online. There may well be, but you can't really move forward until you know the full facts.

Plan B x

I do have quite a common name, so it did occur to me that this may have come to me as a result of a "mass posting", as you describe it - but if they've sent a letter to everyone in the UK with my name, that would be a list in the 10s of thousands.

So my feeling is that they've probably been a bit more scientific than that, somehow, and narrowed it down using CRA and geographical data, because I currently live in the county next to the county of my old address, and this has all happened fairly sharply after the court/DCA guy tried and failed to doorstep me at my address from 5 years ago.

Maybe they've just sent a letter to all the people with my name in the county of, and counties surrounding, the county of my old address, etc.

That would still give them quite a long list of "possibles", though.

TBH, I'm still marvelling that they are going to this much trouble - the accounts they're talking about cannot be more than approx £20K combined and were both manifestly UE. Maybe they just haven't looked into that part of it ...

Little point in speculating here because you start going round in circles.
As I understand what really matters is whether there is a CCJ or not.
Clear this up and then you can better formulate what you should or shouldn't do.

[jonesyd]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

I think there may be a little confusion here - my story is long one! - so maybe it’s worth me giving a quick recap at this point:



May 2010 - A personal financial crisis means I stop paying all credit card bills.

2010 - With Niddy’s invaluable help, I discover that virtually all my CC debts are UE and I follow his sage advice for dealing with my creditors.

Mar 2011 - I move abroad permanently. I inform my creditors of this and that they henceforth should contact me by email. There is a 2 year Royal Mail redirect on my address to a friend’s address in the UK.

2011-2013 - A million billion bullshit letters from DCAs arrive at the Royal Mail redirect address. I ignore them all. I receive one solitary “phishy” email contact from one of them.

Mar 2013 - The Royal Mail redirect period ends. After this, my friend simply marks any mail that arrives for me as “Addressee Unknown - Return To Sender”.

Feb 2016 - I return to the UK for 9-12 months for a work project.

Jun 2016 - It seems my credit card debts from 2010 have become statute-barred. (Hurrah!)

Aug 2016 - A court official turns up at my Royal Mail redirect address and I discover that 2 of the original cc debts were given default CCJs at some point after March 2013, when I was abroad and thus in complete ignorance of it. (Important: the court official and/or DCAs do not know that I am in possession of any of this knowledge)

Oct 2016 - I receive the Restons “phishing” letter at my current address.

[cymruambyth]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

How much longer are you in the UK, by my calculations it will only be another month. I would be tempted to ignore.

Out of curiosity, do you still have all your old paperwork? If so and you are planning to live in the U.K. permanently in the future then perhaps start getting everything ready for a set aside on the ground that debt UE and you were ignorant of the action and had informed DCA of this.

[jonesyd]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

How much longer are you in the UK, by my calculations it will only be another month. I would be tempted to ignore.

Out of curiosity, do you still have all your old paperwork? If so and you are planning to live in the U.K. permanently in the future then perhaps start getting everything ready for a set aside on the ground that debt UE and you were ignorant of the action and had informed DCA of this.

Hi Cymru.

I should be here another 1 to 3 months, so your point on that is certainly valid. But ... even after I head back to the US, I'd been thinking about keeping the property I'm renting here (it's cheap) for another 12 months or so because I will have to come back fairly frequently to the UK for work.

And yep, I do have all the original paperwork and I have been thinking about a set aside plan pretty much as you describe.

I suppose what's on my mind is this: the latest letter from Restons - do the experts here feel real action from them is likely to follow it, or is it more or less phishing?

Diolch/Thanks!

[jonesyd]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

Another Q: does anyone here know how, in a case like mine, a court/DCA would go about - pursuant to a previously unknown/un-acted upon CCJ - verifying that I am indeed who they think I am?

[BuzzyBee]

Re: jonesyd UE Diary

A quick update: the same court official/DCA guy who called at my old address in August once again showed up at my old address just last week - apparently for a “different” debt matter - and was once again told by the resident there that I had been living abroad since 2011. Apparently the court official/DCA guy seemed “resigned” and “like he was going through the motions” of calling at the address. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens next...

Jun 2016 - It seems my credit card debts from 2010 have become statute-barred. (Hurrah!)

Aug 2016 - A court official turns up at my Royal Mail redirect address and I discover that 2 of the original cc debts were given default CCJs at some point after March 2013, when I was abroad and thus in complete ignorance of it. (Important: the court official and/or DCAs do not know that I am in possession of any of this knowledge)

Oct 2016 - I receive the Restons “phishing” letter at my current address.

By "court official", presumably you mean an enforcement agent, a.k.a. a bailiff, which is not the same as a DCA guy a.k.a. field agent/doorstep collector. Before a bailiff can pay a visit, they should send a letter called a notice of enforcement. If the letter was sent to an old address and returned to the sender saying you are not at that address, they shouldn't send an agent round to that address, at least in theory. It is possible that the letter was not returned promptly or not at all (the requirement is for just 7 days excluding Sundays and BHs). It is also possible they decided to send the bailiff round regardless, in order to add the enforcement stage fee to the debt. Once bailiffs get involved, a £75 compliance stage fee is charged when the notice of enforcement is issued, followed by a £235 enforcement stage fee when the bailiff visits.