Just received a CCJ back in the UK at parents address

[DanP379]

I just received a CCJ at my parents address for £500 for a debt maybe 2 years old. Unsure where it’s come from.

I have no plans on returning home. Can they enforce this debt? Shall I call them and tell them I live in Australia so they don’t turn up? Can I go bankrupt in the UK from here? (I have no valuable assets) I’m also in no position to pay it back at the moment, and would rather not pay it back in the future.
 

Thanks

[Tulip1]

4 hours ago, DanP379 said:

I just received a CCJ at my parents address for £500 for a debt maybe 2 years old. Unsure where it’s come from.

I have no plans on returning home. Can they enforce this debt? Shall I call them and tell them I live in Australia so they don’t turn up? Can I go bankrupt in the UK from here? (I have no valuable assets) I’m also in no position to pay it back at the moment, and would rather not pay it back in the future.
 

Thanks

The paperwork would say where the debt was from.  I doubt very much they’d take your word that you live elsewhere over the phone, I’m sure many have tried that one.  They may very well send debt collectors to the address they hold for you which seems is your parents.  Your parents would then have to prove to them that they own everything in the home otherwise they can take it to offset the debt.  Just like the phone call, it’s unlikely to be enough that they say everything’s theirs, they have to prove it.  You may not be in a position to clear it in one go but I’d suggest you contact them and ask to put an affordable repayment plan in place. That would take your parents out the picture and if it’s something you owe then moving away isn’t a reason not to pay.  If you’ve still got no idea what it is from the paperwork you can ask for more information but safe to say it’s not been plucked out the sky.  I’ve no idea if you can go bankrupt from overseas but I expect you can find that out by searching the internet.  

[Parley]

Those big blokes from Can't Pay, We'll Take It Away will be round soon.

Still its lucky you were able to afford to move to Australia.

[Tulip1]

4 hours ago, Parley said:

Those big blokes from Can't Pay, We'll Take It Away will be round soon.

Still its lucky you were able to afford to move to Australia.

They might get Paul Bowhill, he seemed really nice (although not so nice he will happily walk away empty handed) 

[Parley]

5 minutes ago, Tulip1 said:

They might get Paul Bowhill, he seemed really nice (although not so nice he will happily walk away empty handed) 

I need to watch some more of them. I was watching on Youtube and got upto about Season 3 somewhere.

Always makes me feel grateful i'm not like some of those poor people.

We do have the sheriff over here who can clamp your car. A lot of people may  not be paying their covid fines and may get a visit one day.

[Tulip1]

2 minutes ago, Parley said:

I need to watch some more of them. I was watching on Youtube and got upto about Season 3 somewhere.

Always makes me feel grateful i'm not like some of those poor people.

We do have the sheriff over here who can clamp your car. A lot of people may  not be paying their covid fines and may get a visit one day.

Some of the people you have to feel sorry for.  Others are over silly things like parking tickets or something that started off as a few hundred pounds and has been ignored.  I also feel sorry for the many landlords that have tenants that don’t pay. The £500 in question here would have started off as about a £50/£100 unpaid mobile phone contract or similar,  it’s now higher because of the escalated costs.   

You’re right, I bet there’s a lot of unpaid Covid related fines the world over.  

[rammygirl]

Surely the CCJ was not the first communication they sent to that address though, you must have been sent other requests to pay the debt.

[Marisawright]

19 hours ago, DanP379 said:

I just received a CCJ at my parents address for £500 for a debt maybe 2 years old. Unsure where it’s come from.

I have no plans on returning home. Can they enforce this debt? Shall I call them and tell them I live in Australia so they don’t turn up? Can I go bankrupt in the UK from here? (I have no valuable assets) I’m also in no position to pay it back at the moment, and would rather not pay it back in the future.
 

Thanks

You can’t just ignore it because your parents’ belongings could be seized. 

[Craig Colas]

19 hours ago, DanP379 said:

I just received a CCJ at my parents address for £500 for a debt maybe 2 years old. Unsure where it’s come from.

I have no plans on returning home. Can they enforce this debt? Shall I call them and tell them I live in Australia so they don’t turn up? Can I go bankrupt in the UK from here? (I have no valuable assets) I’m also in no position to pay it back at the moment, and would rather not pay it back in the future.
 

Thanks

Not answering the moral question of whether you should pay or not I will just tell you what you can and can't do. Firstly your parent's belongings would NOT be seized or anything against them put in place. Stipulates this on the government website that no one else's property can be seized in your place. It will already be a black mark against your credit rating in the UK, this will stay in place for 7 years from the date you didn't pay, after that it's removed. The only way they could reclaim the money if someone kept refusing to pay would be through your wages, however you don't earn in the UK so they can't. In short won't effect your parents, wont effect you in Australia, just your credit rating in the UK. Morally though you owe the money so up to you what your intentions are.

[Tulip1]

30 minutes ago, Craig Colas said:

Stipulates this on the government website that no one else's property can be seized in your place.

That’s exactly right as no one is responsible for someone’s else debt.  However the parents would have to prove it was their property and that may cause them stress.  Can you imagine the amount of times debt collectors go to a property and everything is conveniently owned by someone else and not the named person.  May well be true but they’ll need some evidence, just a because I said so probably won’t be enough.  

[Tulip1]

1 hour ago, rammygirl said:

Surely the CCJ was not the first communication they sent to that address though, you must have been sent other requests to pay the debt.

You’re right.  There would have been quite a bit of correspondence/chasing of it first. Probably why it’s taken quite sometime to end up as a CCJ.  Companies will always try to recover debt owed before it gets to this stage. 

[Tulip1]

41 minutes ago, Craig Colas said:

Not answering the moral question of whether you should pay or not I will just tell you what you can and can't do. Firstly your parent's belongings would NOT be seized or anything against them put in place. Stipulates this on the government website that no one else's property can be seized in your place. It will already be a black mark against your credit rating in the UK, this will stay in place for 7 years from the date you didn't pay, after that it's removed. The only way they could reclaim the money if someone kept refusing to pay would be through your wages, however you don't earn in the UK so they can't. In short won't effect your parents, wont effect you in Australia, just your credit rating in the UK. Morally though you owe the money so up to you what your intentions are.

They would have to take it to court to reclaim the money.  If the debtor didn’t keep to the agreement made in court then the court can put an attachment of earnings in place and as you say, it is taken from earnings.  I’m not sure whether that can be done if the poster isn’t in the country but if possible then that £500 figure would increase with court fees.  For £500, is it worth the risk.  He can just pay off £40 a month or something and within a year it’s gone.  Pretty sure things like child maintenance through U.K. courts are upheld in Australia so it may be possible.  Whether they’d bother for a small amount of money I don’t know but I’d think it’s possible to do if they chose to. 

[Craig Colas]

4 minutes ago, Tulip1 said:

They would have to take it to court to reclaim the money.  If the debtor didn’t keep to the agreement made in court then the court can put an attachment of earnings in place and as you say, it is taken from earnings.  I’m not sure whether that can be done if the poster isn’t in the country but if possible then that £500 figure would increase with court fees.  For £500, is it worth the risk.  He can just pay off £40 a month or something and within a year it’s gone.  Pretty sure things like child maintenance through U.K. courts are upheld in Australia so it may be possible.  Whether they’d bother for a small amount of money I don’t know but I’d think it’s possible to do if they chose to. 

Yes as you say not really worth all the hassle and risk for £500 when they can agree to be paying small amounts each month. I would ring them see what it is for, if you owe try and set up a plan for the smallest amount possible and then not worry about it. 

[Ken]

On 11/08/2021 at 19:43, Tulip1 said:

They would have to take it to court to reclaim the money.  If the debtor didn’t keep to the agreement made in court then the court can put an attachment of earnings in place and as you say, it is taken from earnings.  I’m not sure whether that can be done if the poster isn’t in the country but if possible then that £500 figure would increase with court fees.  For £500, is it worth the risk.  He can just pay off £40 a month or something and within a year it’s gone.  Pretty sure things like child maintenance through U.K. courts are upheld in Australia so it may be possible.  Whether they’d bother for a small amount of money I don’t know but I’d think it’s possible to do if they chose to. 

They've already taken it to court. That's how they've got a CCJ.

[Tulip1]

7 hours ago, Ken said:

They've already taken it to court. That's how they've got a CCJ.

Yes sorry I meant if they still didn’t pay up they can be taken back to court to request an attachment of earnings be ordered. 

[rtritudr]

On 11/08/2021 at 16:24, Marisawright said:

You can’t just ignore it because your parents’ belongings could be seized. 

What's the legal basis of that?

[JetBlast]

5 hours ago, rtritudr said:

What's the legal basis of that?

It’s up to them to prove the items in the address on the CCJ are theirs. If they can’t (such as loosing the paperwork) it is assumed they belong to the debtors. Outrageous in my option!

[Tulip1]

11 minutes ago, JetBlast said:

it is assumed they belong to the debtors. Outrageous in my option!

Belongings have to be assumed to belong to someone at the address and it’s reasonable in most cases to assume at least some things may belong to the debtor.  If they just took everyones word that nothing does then they’d be walking away empty handed much of the time as people tell porkies.  Can you imagine the amount of times that bailiffs have been told things like I own that car, I own that tv etc and it turns out they don’t.  I do feel sorry for the many descent people who get that knock on the door and have to try and prove they own everything, all whilst the neighbours are embarrassingly watching.  That’s why this poster should sort it out so that it doesn’t happen to their parents.  They owe money to someone/business and they should pay it back.  It’s not like they’re being asked to give away money for nothing.  It’s a debt they have accrued. It will be far more than the original amount now but that happens because people ignore requests to settle it at the right time.   Taking an issue to court is done as a last resort, several requests to settle are attempted first.  If the poster really believes it’s not their debt then they need to address that but courts aren’t stupid.  They’d have had to be very sure the debt did belong to the poster before issuing a CCJ.   I get it.  Many move away and think I’ll get away with that and many do  I understand that and lot of people would try their luck at it, it’s human nature.  Sometimes they’ll get lucky, sometimes as in this case not. 

 

[Jennyrose Shields]

There are company’s who employ debt hunters in Australia . 
if you respond in ANY correspondence to the debt  company in the uk it just carry on as your in correspondence with them. 
If you can fix an agreement do so as uk debt company’s sell on the debt to other company some who will REALY use nasty ways to treat your parent . 
your parents need to go to a solicitor and fill out a statutory declaration that you don’t live with them and no debris of yours are their responsibility . Costs about 100 pounds 
should they continue you can give them a photo copy and can phone the police for abuse and threatening behaviour . 
After 10 yrs they will give up .  

[amibovered]

On 10/08/2021 at 14:17, DanP379 said:

I just received a CCJ at my parents address for £500 for a debt maybe 2 years old. Unsure where it’s come from.

I have no plans on returning home. Can they enforce this debt? Shall I call them and tell them I live in Australia so they don’t turn up? Can I go bankrupt in the UK from here? (I have no valuable assets) I’m also in no position to pay it back at the moment, and would rather not pay it back in the future.
 

Thanks

It costs £680 to go bankrupt, so it would be cheaper to pay the debt, they have no way of enforcing civil debt from the U.K in Australia, and even if there was, they wouldn't bother, its 500 quid , you will need to protect your parents from being bothered though, you could write, not call, with your Australian address, see what they say, first thing is. make them prove that you do actually owe them something.

Edited April 19, 2022 by amibovered

[Parley]

2 hours ago, amibovered said:

It costs £680 to go bankrupt, so it would be cheaper to pay the debt, they have no way of enforcing civil debt from the U.K in Australia, and even if there was, they wouldn't bother, its 500 quid , you will need to protect your parents from being bothered though, you could write, not call, with your Australian address, see what they say, first thing is. make them prove that you do actually owe them something.

A CCJ is proof you owe them.

I would try to pay as with these things if you ignore them the costs go up quickly. Before long it will be thousands owed.

Those big blokes for Can't Pay well take it away will be round to collect.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Parley

[Ken]

2 hours ago, Parley said:

A CCJ is proof you owe them.

I would try to pay as with these things if you ignore them the costs go up quickly. Before long it will be thousands owed.

Those big blokes for Can't Pay well take it away will be round to collect.

You're replying to a thread that is eight months old. I'm sure it will have been resolved by now.

[amibovered]

7 hours ago, Parley said:

A CCJ is proof you owe them.

I would try to pay as with these things if you ignore them the costs go up quickly. Before long it will be thousands owed.

Those big blokes for Can't Pay well take it away will be round to collect.

No it is not

no it won't 

no they will not.