fraudulant debt

This has never happened to me, if it did, I’d be horrified as I’m guessing you are. I think you could take it to ombudsman for assistance, not something I’ve ever experienced but I’m sure you’ll get advice from others about the procedure. 
Good Luck getting a positive outcome to this. 
Chris B. 

Thank you. It has been really stressful. I have never been in this position before so have put my trust in ovo to sort it out but am willing to try anything now. I even have a civil litigation solicitor for a last resort, enough is enough. Thank you for replying i will get on to the ombudsman now.

Hey ​@Dmw1982,
 

Sorry to hear you’re dealing with this, I know letters like that can be really stressful. We’ve got a couple of threads on the forum that might help you:
 

If you’d like to raise things formally with OVO, you can also use our complaints procedure, which explains the process and how we’ll support you.

I’ll also tag in ​@Nukecad here, as he’s often great at sharing advice on this sort of thing.
 

You’ve done the right thing by reaching out, and hopefully between the community and those links above you’ll feel more confident about your next steps.

Hi. ​@Dmw1982 I do have some insights into incorrect credit records and getting them corrected. (I’ve also been through it myself).

County Courst Judges issue CCJ’s and there are a lot of legal protection steps to make sure the debtors details are correct, proper notices are issued to the right place, etc, etc before it gets to court.

Which means you haven’t “been given” a CCJ by OVO, only a Judge can issue a County Court Judgement, not a company.
Plus if the CCJ is not in your name then it hasn’t been “given” to you at all.

I suspect that what you are actually meaning is that somehow OVO have informed a Credit Reference Agency that you have a CCJ when you don’t.

It’s still a horrible mistake for you, but it doesn’t mean that you actually have a CCJ.

This is more of a case for getting OVO to acknowledge the error and get it corrected with the Credit Reference Agency.
You say that OVO have already admitted the error, and they say that they are correcting it; so that’s good and what is often the big part of the job is done.

If that is the case then the Energy Ombudsman is not the person to contact.
The Ombudsman could only rule that OVO should accept and correct their error. (and maybe give compensation, usually that would be a GSOP payment/credit).

You say that OVO have already admitted the error, and that they have informed the Credit Reference Agency to correct it, so there’s nothing more that the Energy Obusdman could realisticaly require OVO to do.

The Energy Ombudsman has no powers to tell the Credit Reference Agency what to do.

Neither does OVO, they can inform the Credit Reference Agency there has been error and it should be corrected but then it’s up to the Credit Reference Agency to act on that information.

Have you also contacted the credit agency yourself and told them that the CCJ record showing on your record is incorrect and acknowledged as incorrect by OVO?
(At the very least they should then add a note on your record that the CCJ is ‘disputed’).

OVO uses Experian for credit checks and reports, so I assume it’s an Experian based report that you have, in which case it would be  Experian that you would need to contact, if you haven’t already.
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/faqs/how-to-dispute-credit-report-information/

However you should note that even when everyone agrees (incluing the Credit Reference Agency themselves) that the record is in error it can be months before the Credit Reference Agency corrects it.
(Been there, done that. It was a disputed debt not a CCJ and even after it had been accepted as incorrect/invalid it still took another six-months for it to dissapear from my credit record).

Ok well OVO has decided i owe them £7000 for a bill for an address i have not lived at for over 12 years. I have been with ovo a long time in my actual address so you can see why i place my blame on ovo. They have then applied to the courts and the courts have then placed a big £7600 CCJ on my credit account, which says CCJ from OVO energy. I have missed most of the letters about this because i dont live at the address the bill was for, they did then send me solicitors letters to let me know to my actual address by then it was too late. They have admitted they were at fault, i have gotten the same copy and pasted email a few times now. It seems i do have to rely on ovo as no one else can help me as was agreed by the courts. Surely it should be more difficult to slam an £7600 CCJ on someone without evidence,

Thank you, i will try and be patient and hope it is removed soon.

So the CCJ is against you, it is your CCJ not somebody elses.

That puts a whole different, and much more legally serious, light on things.

It may not have been your debt, but the CCJ is YOUR CCJ and YOU now have to deal with that CCJ. (Pay it or get it set aside).

OVO cannot cancel a CCJ, - only the court that issued the judgement, (or a higher court), can set a judgement aside once it has been made.

Why were the letters too late? Did you not have chance/time to inform the court that you wanted to defend the case, and ask them for more time?

There is a strict legal process about the timing of letters in the process of taking someone to court, to try and ensure that cases don’t get to court without you having a chance to defend yourself.
Although strict sometimes cases can slip-through the process and get to court without the defendant knowing about them, which is what seems to have happened here.

If you have been unknowlingly taken to court and had a judgement made against you then there is another court process where you can get the judgement ‘set-aside’ which cancels the judgement, (but not the alleged debt which you still have to deal with and get corrected).

What is done is done though, so going forward:

As the CCJ is yours then getting things wrong at this stage will be very costly for you.
You are going to be dealing with the court and so I strongly suggest that you do need to get legal help  -a lawyer.
You do not want to risk doing it yourself and getting things wrong.

As the CCJ is in your name then, (if you don’t accept the courts judgement), you/your lawyer should be applying to the court that issued it for a ‘Set-aside’ of that judgement.

https://www.gov.uk/county-court-judgments-ccj-for-debt/cancel-the-judgment

Again you should get a lawyer to help you fill in the N244 application, or to complete it for you.
it is a legal form and should be filled in very carefully, using the right legal language and terms.

Although from what you say you should be able to get the judgement set-aside fairly easily, it is not something to take a risk with, get help from a lawyer.

Unless you get the judgement set-aside then you are going to have to pay the £7,600, a court has ordered that you must.

If the judgement is not set asside (and you havent paid in full within one month) then the CCJ will stay on the ‘Register of Judgements’ for 6-years. (and so on your credit record for at least that long).
https://www.gov.uk/county-court-judgments-ccj-for-debt/ccjs-and-your-credit-rating

This is more from StepChange about getting a CCJ set-aside, and the possible consequences if you don’t act now that you have a CCJ against your name:

https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/ccj/set-aside-ccj.aspx
https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/ccj/not-pay-ignore-ccj.aspx

Thank you Ben, i will follow the link you provided and chase this up. It is incorrect and they have admitted that so it's just the hoping that they will remove it soon before it also ruins our christmas.

Thank you

​@Ben_OVO, ​@Dmw1982 

it appears that things have moved on and this is no longer simply an incorrect Trace & Search.

According to the latest information above from Dmw1982 then letters have been sent and the matter has proceeded to County Court where a CCJ has actually been made against Dmw1982.

Correcting the debt and/or the T&S at OVO now will not get that CCJ set-aside.
Only a court can set aside a court judgement.

I have never received a CCJ from OVO however 20 years ago I was made aware of a CCJ against me. The claimant was Essex and Suffolk Water. That debt did belong to me because they had spelled my name correctly however they had been sending all bills and letters to the wrong address all along. The postman knows me and gave me one of those red letters because it had my name properly spelled on it even if the address was wrong. The letter was from a debt collection agency. I explained the situation to them and later, somehow, the judgment was set aside, and the reason stated for that was that neither the claim nor the rest of documents were properly served to the defendant (me).

Later Essex and Suffolk Water started sending me the bills to my correct address. My account was in credit before moving to that address. I contacted Essex and Suffolk Water, they applied the discount to the bills for the credit at my previous address and from that moment I started to pay all their bills without fail.

I honestly believe that you have the right to apply for an order that the CCJ against you is set aside if it is true that the CCJ is indeed against you and you are in a position to easily prove that the OVO debt does not belong to you because I was able to get that even when my name was on the bills but they had been sent to the wrong address.

I believe that in the UK the small claim limit is now GBP £ 10,000 and therefore a CCJ for £ 7,600 would qualify for this track. Nonetheless, my advice is that you are extremely careful with the wording used because from the moment a Judge hears a word that is somewhat related to “fraud” or “dishonesty” they may decide that the case is no longer suitable for a small claims track.

If in doubt you can always get free legal advice from your local CAB.

I hope this helps.

Not a £7,600 CCJ but they were trying to extort £1,936.44 out of me that they weren’t legally entitled to.

They tried to charge me for usage in my property for a period where the utilities were disconnected and the house wasn’t being lived in due to an electrical fire.

They told me on the phone that just because I appeared on the electoral register they could legally bill me, even though the actual account holder shut her account down on the day of the fire.

West Midlands Fire Service had both the gas and electricity cut off on the day of the fire and they didn’t get turned back on until Dec 2023 after the property was deemed safe for workmen to enter.

Insolvency + evidence I hold was enough to get their fraudulent CCJ set aside.

Now I wait for my Insolvency period to run it’s course then their fraudulent fabricated debt go bye bye.