CCJs – can you inform friends, families and community associations?

CCJs – can you inform friends, families and community associations?

11:28 AM, 11th February 2019, About 5 years ago 9

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I have a familiar problem with a tenant owing rent, and we have taken out a CCJ against them. He is still in the limbo period where he has a chance to pay but we’re not holding out much hope as he is a tricky customer. He is personally responsible for the debt, it is not a ltd company debt.

We know that he is active in his community, and is also a director of one other company (not one that owes us the money) and is also a director of a local community group. These details were obtained from Companies House.

So here’s the question. In order to nudge him into paying, are we allowed to inform his company, and his community group, that he has a CCJ against him?

The reason being is that we would like to tell the debtor that we will be forced to inform these various parties, as well as his bank (we have his details). As he is a local community person, we would do this to get him to pay up as he would most likely be embarrassed if we informed these various groups that he has a CCJ against him.

The question is: are we actually allowed to inform people that he has a CCJ against him or is that a breach of privacy or something like that?

Any help/advice would be gratefully received. I’ve looked everywhere for guidance and none of it is really relevant to this specific situation. I can imagine that being able to inform people of a CCJ, and the threat of embarrassment, loss of standing etc would be a useful tool in the armoury in order to get a tenant to pay up!

Thanks in advance,

Bootsy


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Comments

Rob Crawford

12:55 PM, 11th February 2019, About 5 years ago

Once he leaves the property and the CCJ is on the public register you could chase the debt by writing to him at his place of work. If he is senior, he may well have a secretary who opens his mail and word will soon get around, at the least it will cause some embarrassment. Keep sending letters until the debt is recovered. Alternatively, I have seen letters sent to CEO's asking for an open debt recovery letter to be passed onto to a named member of their staff (debtor), very effective. You need to satisfy yourself the GDPR is not being compromised. I would not threaten anything in advance of an eviction, as this could be used against you. Any correspondence before the eviction should be professional, accurate and compliant with best practice for dealing with the situation in hand.

Yvette Newbury

9:19 AM, 12th February 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Rob Crawford at 11/02/2019 - 12:55
When I had this situation (thankfully a very long time ago) I sent the tenant information on CCJs and the implications of them to all the addresses I had, including their place of work as a number of times she had asked me to contact her there (by phone) and she had stopped communicating with me. She refused to communicate as she told everyone she was "leaving the country anyway so it won't affect me" but I was fairly sure she would not leave... 6 years later once I had the CCJ I received the amount owing through Attachment of Earnings.

lloydbuilders@hotmail.co.uk

9:21 AM, 12th February 2019, About 5 years ago

Interesting article, I have a similar problem were the tenant has vacated owing £2.5k in rent and the deposit is unlikely to cover the dilapidations!!
Obtaining a CCJ would appear to be the sensible cause of action but I have no forwarding address as the former tenant would not give the info.
Suggestions gratefully received, I do have an e-mail address for the tenant though.

Charles Fonteijn

10:48 AM, 12th February 2019, About 5 years ago

reply to Lloyd builders: Use a tracing agent to find the new address of the tenant. It is not expensive.

S Somerset

11:10 AM, 12th February 2019, About 5 years ago

I don't have any advice for you on this one, except be careful!

We had a terrible non-paying tenant who we became quite nervous about as he seemed to know every trick in the book, and would use anything he could against us. All worked out fine in the end, however I do wish there was a 'Bad Tenant Register' just as there's now one for bad landlords.

And failure to pay rent should appear on their credit record too - not just a voluntary option. There should be more incentive for them to honour their contractual obligations, rather than focussing on getting away with as much as they can (which seems an all too common attitude among a minority of tenants).

Richard Adams

11:35 AM, 12th February 2019, About 5 years ago

All interesting posts but why bother with all this stuff - shaming the debtor locally etc? Just go for the throat to get paid. You've got a CCJ for the amount which debtor must pay within 14 days. Instruct Debt Collection Bailiffs Ltd as seen on TV - "Don't pay we'll take it away" - and they will get your money. Just give them the CCJ and £60 I recall and they will do it. Always have done so for me with tenants owing money. Because they will turn up unannounced at debtor's home or place of work neighbours and/or work colleagues will get the message he is a bad non paying egg so he will get shamed at the same time.

Joey

12:24 PM, 12th February 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by S Somerset at 12/02/2019 - 11:10
There is A ' ( Bad ) Tenant Register' where you can record this information @
http://www.landlordreferencing.co.uk/ - It's Free to Join

Anne Noon

6:07 AM, 13th February 2019, About 5 years ago

Sadly, I have tried to do this, through Redwood Collections, for a Leasehold Tenant, who has not paid her Ground Rent and Service Charges for 10 years. I paid hundreds of pounds for this service, they sent in the Sheriffs twice but she was not there. They have given up and want another £1500 to try and recover the debt. Also tried the Bailiffs for another debt of £20000 (rent plus wrecking a brand new house) even though she had vehicles worth about £5000 on the drive of my house, they still could/would not try to reclaim the debt. I currently have about £70000 outstanding ccjs over the past 17 years but have only recovered £850 of that debt. The whole system is a joke, every year I try to reclaim some of the debt (that which has not past the 6-year limit), so these people just get away with it. I shall be so glad when I am finally able to sell my properties.

wanda wang

22:22 PM, 13th February 2019, About 5 years ago

I used county court and high court bailiffs, waste time and money, through Attachment of Earnings I got all the money back. But it took longer. To apply and get fist payment, it took 8 month and another over two years to pay off the debt.

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