Trekrider

But if they do this knowing that you are not resident in the UK is it then unenforceable?

We have two debts in the UK, one creditor has been very understanding of our difficulties (stopped charging interest, accepted reduced payments, doesn't hound us, etc), the other refuses our offers of payment, continues to charge interest and adds other charges (I understand these later charges are not legal).

We are continuing to pay the first creditor as we feel it is the right thing to do but the second creditor has passed the debt to a DCA well known for breaking not only the DCA code of practice but also the law. They all know where we live but knowing that the DCA breaks the law when going after people in the UK it wouldn't surprise me if the took out a CCJ knowing they aren't supposed to.

jasonlec

Why? Please explain

Deancm

9 times out of 10 though it is not worth their while to make anyone bankrupt. It costs money to make someone bankrupt and if they do bankrupt someone they then know they won't get any money back.

Even if they do make you bankrupt, under the insolvency laws in the UK you will only be bankrupt for 12 months.

Deancm

CCJs are only enforceable in the UK. Australia is outside the jurisdiction of the UK courts.

RedT

thanks Sr71, no hope for us going on a reccie and not coming back then!

Janna and Nick

Your children are still your responsibility whether you live with them or not and forgetting the reasons for a split the child deserves your contribution to their upbringing. That's why I hope you are joking

This is off topic though so I don't propose we start arguing about this.

jasonlec

ok

perksy

See post number 89 on this thread. A DCA or creditor may go for a CCJ on the off chance they presume you are ignoring their threats of payment. Should you discover thats happened you can apply to the court to have the CCJ set aside (effectively null and void) as the CCJ was raised illegally. It has been known for a creditor to use your last known address to raise the CCJ, but it still worthless if you can prove you dont reside in the UK at time of issue.

perksy

See post number 173

maximmm99

For everyone out there - I left a Council Tax debt in the UK and went through this exact situation. I left the debt because the Council had decided (not forced by legislation, decided by local council vote) to charge me full Council Tax for my old, empty home that took more than 6 months to sell due to the market being so bad and so the exemption ran out. I used to work for that Council and so knew they were a) tossers b) they had no real power and more importantly c) no will to actually recover that debt. Inland Revenue stuff is probably a totally different story but Council's have very few teeth at all. I actually used to advise on enforcement procedures - did you know that if you have a debt collector come round your house to collect on Council Tax debt, you're under no obligation to either speak to them or let them in?! If you refuse to let them in, the collection agency just send the debt back to the council with a note saying they were unsuccesful. A court summons is equally useless as there's no need/point you attending as all the court is doing is agreeing that you, the named bill payer, is actually liable for that debt and nothing more. Also, it's only when you get up above around 10,000 pounds of debt that they'll actually do anything nasty like bankruptcy or putting a charge over your property (if you own the house). It is just TOO EXPENSIVE for them to do this for debts smaller than this. The whole system is a joke and I can say that quite confidently after working in the industry for 7 years.
To sum up, if you've got an unpaid Council Tax debt that you think you've been unfairly charged, tell them to shove it.

buchanan

Does this work for all council debt, I am paying back £3000 of maternity pay that I owe them as I didn't return to work but emigrated instead. I am happily paying it off maybe should ignore it!!

perksy

Some valid points raised and some bullshit in there aswell I'm afraid. Firstly council tax is civil not consumer debt and theres no getting out of paying see here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...re/5115104.stm just one of numerous examples.

However you are quite right, the council can send whom ever they want to collect non-payment though legally the only only people allowed to demand payment from your doorstep is a county court bailiff and the milkman. In order for the bailiffs to arrive a county court summons must first be issued.

Agreed the system is a joke, but to simply advise to 'tell them to shove it' is plainly naive. You can get away with doing this with a consumer debt not with civil debts, unless you now reside in a country that doesn't have reciprocal agreements with the UK

maximmm99

In reference to the rather offensive 'bullshit' and 'naive' comments - I worked in Council Tax debt for 7 years and spent 3 of those as a rather highly paid freelance consultant advising many different Councils on this sort of thing. I realise that you appear to have done some minimal research (a page off of the BBC website doesn't really come under the heading of reliable research I'm afraid) but I have to stress that many of the regulations held under the Council Tax banner are pretty much unenforcable and that the whole scheme varies massively council to council. Enforcement in some councils, for example Peterborough CC, has been exceptionally lax - they had a combined unpaid Council Tax debt running into the millions which they just wrote off one day to make their books look better. That way, they went from one of the worst performing councils in England to one of the best in one year. The general public, of which I would guess you are a member, did not get to find out about that though.
The crux of the matter is that the Councils just do not have the resources to recover debt from people overseas. The standard procedure for a debt is to send reminder, final reminder, summons, liability order, bailiffs letter (which you ignore along with 95% of the people in this situation) and then, if the Council cannot find you in another house in their area, the debt is written off so that the council can better comply with it's Key Performance Indicators which are set by the government.
What we're talking about here is the difference between someone who's seen a house built next door and a builder. One might think they know everything about it from having watched it happen whilst the other, having actually worked in the trade, actually does know that it's not as simple as it looks and would be quite offended if a layperson suggested their real-world experience was 'naive'.

Deancm

I think if you don't pay that off then you could be arrested and charged with Obtaining Financial Advantage by Deception (Fraud) if you ever return to the UK.

Deancm

And even then you can tell the county court bailiffs to piss off and they can do nothing.