Last october i received a court summons for myself and my ex husband (my ex husband has never lived at the address that i am living at now with my new partner). Basically it was for our house which had been repossessed a year earlier, i filled in my part of the form and disuputed that i should be held responsible for the whole debt as my husband had responsibility also.

i sent back my court papers and my ex husbands with a letter saying that he had never ever lived at my address and that we were in fact divorced ( I had already informed the solicitors that were dealing with this case that he did not live at my address, and even gave them his address) i heard nothing until februay 7th this year when a judgement order came through in my ex husbands name i again sent a letter saying that he did not live here and never had, I was then told by a clerk at the court not to open any more letters that were addressed to my ex-husband, i also added to the letter that i hoped the judgement against my exhusband would be removed.

Today i received a letter from the court to say that the case had gone before the district judge and the letter said that the judgement against my ex husband stands how can they register a county court judgement against someone who does not live at this address and never has, i have been told by the clerk at the court that they will try to enforce this judgement, i once again today gave them my ex husbands address, I cannot afford to seek legal advice, this does not seem fair any advice would be greatly appreciated.

many thanks

sarah

-- sarah (trust8x@aol.com), May 14, 2001

Answers

Not to put too fine a point on this - you are going to get royally screwed if you don't get this set aside. Your ex has probably used/given your address at some point as either his place of abode or a contact address to deflect attention from his real whereabouts. My ex pulled the same stunt - he denied it of course - but I eventually confirmed that he had done so. The CCJ is against the address and will affect all and any credit applications made from there. You and your ex are both jointly and severally liable for the shortfall (which I assume you will dispute?) BUT the kick in the backside is that they will hound you and you alone because they have an address and a CCJ to enforce. You will also have to prove that anything you currently own is not property "pertaining to the marriage" i.e anything you now own must be in your partner's name otherwise they can take it. (I know everyone will tell you that stuff jointly owned with the new partner is off-limit's but it's not that simple and you really need to be careful.) I repeatedly gave the relevant people my ex's new address(es) and they totally ignored the letters and calls - they had me at my address and that was more cost effective than chasing my ex. He has a habit of moving as soon as things warm up and has never paid a penny. What was the background to the repossession? Did you walk away or were you repossessed for arrears? If you give a few more details we may be able to help a little more.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), May 14, 2001.

I had no choice to give up the marital home, he left and would not pay the mortgage so i had to walk away, the house was sold very very cheaply but all i want is for this ccj to be taken off the register when clearly did not live at this address

-- sarah (trust8x@aol.com), May 14, 2001.

A lot of these problems are pretty complicated and it's clear that a lot of folks need proper legal advice. I understand that Law Centres offer help of a high standard, with most having specialists. They are free - but unfortunately a bit thin on the ground. Worth a punt if you're in a city, though. They also refer clients to specialist (and reasonably-priced) solicitors. They focus on areas such as housing & welfare.

Many areas also have legal advice centres, run by local authorities, church groups, etc, but again these tend to be urban-based. These also feature volunteer lawyers, and, again, their main contribution may well be to refer you to a specialist solicitor who won't rip you off.

You have to do your own research, to be good of a result you're happy with, I guess.

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), May 17, 2001.