CCJ Awarded to Holiday Company for Alleged unpaid deposit.. HELP!

[Tpshortyy]

Hi there guys I'm hoping you can help me. In February this year I booked a holiday with Hoseasons Group t/a Cottages 4 U. Coincidentally after paying my deposit of £25 plus a £10 booking fee I was told by work that i couldn't have the time off. I didn't contact Cottages 4 U to pay the outstanding balance which I thought was fine because i had paid the deposit and they would claim against this.

 

Cottages 4 U then contacted me in July to say they had cancelled my holiday because I hadn't paid and that i owed them the remainder of the deposit totaling £115.44. I swiftly contacted them and informed them that I had paid my deposit of £25 earlier in the year and informed them I would not pay them another penny.

 

They told me that i had taken up an offer of a special 'low' deposit in which you only have to pay part of the deposit to reserve your booking and therefore the rest of this deposit needed paying. I foolishly had never read the T&C's and therefore didn'y understand this and how they could do this.

 

I contacted them again and told them that i refused to pay them any money because I had paid a deposit and from what they were saying to me they offered me a deposit on credit without credit checking me and responsibly lending and furthermore without a credit licence in which to lend. I told them I would see them in court if they were determined and thought nothing more of it.

 

Today I received a letter stating that they had been awarded a default judgement in the Northampton County Court because I failed to provide answer or attend. I never received court summons and the lady of the phone thinks this is because they had the wrong address. They had my address down as (Example) 00 House Name, Town, County, Postcode. The street address was missed off; but I don't think this would affect it considering I got the judgement notice today.

 

The court told me I can contest the judgement under the grounds I didn't receive the papers or I can pay the judgement in full; now £150.44 and the judgement will be struck off. I don't know what to do, is this whole deposit thing legal, could I contest the alleged debt based on that I paid a deposit regardless and that they're not authorized to lend?

 

PLEASE HELP ME! Thankyou.

 

Troy.

[BASFORDLAD2]

You should first of all get the ccj set aside

[Tpshortyy]

I know that but that's £80 and I don't want to pay that out unless I have a good chance of winning...

[freakyleaky]

Thread moved to debt forums.

[twofoot]

Without seeing the T&C's it's hard to say. Personally I would bite the bullet and pay. If paid in the first month it will not get registered on your cra file. If it all goes wrong you can end up with 6 years of bad credit files.

[Stigman]

I know that but that's £80 and I don't want to pay that out unless I have a good chance of winning...

 

If your on a low income then you can apply for some or all of the Court Fees waived, you need to read and if you qualify then fill out form EX160A.

 

Stigman

[rameses_qc]

There's no credit or lending as far as I can see from what you say. Why do you think there is? You should have actually contacted them and cancelled it yourself. If you don't read or understand the terms and conditions of any contract, that makes no difference. If you sign or accept, then you're stuck with it; even if it was written in a language you didn't understand. It's up to you to make sure you understand what you're accepting. Without seeing the actual terms and conditions, I can't really say for sure, but it looks, on the face of it, that you wll not be able to successfully defend the CCJ