A cautionary tale.

I had a flat when I was a vibrant young buck, where I paid for gas and electricity, but the landlord was responsible for the water rates. All was well, and I moved on at the end of my 12 months as planned, and paid all that was owed for gas and electric, cancelled accounts etc etc.

Some months later, actually thinking about it almost two years later, I was declined credit for car finance. I writ off to the credit agencies, and when I got my report back, found I had been issued with a County Court Judgement for non-payment of water rates. Seems like the landlord didn't fancy paying, despite what the tenancy agreement said, and said I was responsible and absconded. I hadn't left a forwarding address, and didn't arrange for a postal redirect, so all the correspondance must have gone to the flat.

I didn't even think you could be handed a CCJ if you didn't know anything about it, but apparently you can.

It took me a further *THREE YEARS* to get that CCJ struck off my record, during which I couldn't apply for a mortgage, get a loan for a car, or anything like that. Dealing with the county court was simple enough, but glacially slow, and then getting Experian to update my file was like getting blood out of a stone.

I'm not sure what the salutory lesson here is, just that if you do move on, having not paid stuff, it might come back to haunt you.

Posted By: Arizona Bay on June 12th 2014 at 11:51:30

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