If your account has been passed to County Court Business Centre, it is most likely because you owe money. Usually, your debt is owed to a different creditor and the County Court Business Centre is acting as a collection agency for that creditor in order to chase you for payment.

Many businesses with County Court Judgments will receive a call or letter from the County Court Business Centre. If you need some confidential advice and support with regards to CCJ’s get in touch with us and we can help.

Yes, It is ill-advised to ignore debt collection agencies and they will not give up. If you choose to keep ignoring them, they might take you to court which can then result in you having to deal with enforcement agents or a charging order if you own your own home.

Not all debt collection companies will come to your house in order to collect debts, but you can always check their website or contact them to check this.

Even if they say they do house visits in order to collect debts, they cannot do this straight away. You will be provided with advanced notice before they can come and show up at your property.

Address:

St. Katharine’s House
21-27 St. Katharine’s Street
Northampton
NN1 2LH

Contact Number: 0300 123 1056

Website: https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/courts/county-court-business-centre-ccbc

Email: ccbc@justice.gov.uk

At the end of the day, everyone needs to pay their debts if they can afford to, and if they feel as though they cannot afford to, there are plenty of debt management options that Business Helpline can assist you with.

However, just because you are being contacted for payment by County Court Business Centre doesn’t mean that there aren’t any other options available. Before you pay anything to County Court Business Centre, make sure to get into contact with us for free money advice.

While County Court Business Centre are allowed to chase you for repayment, they are not allowed to harass you or call you at unreasonable times. Harassment includes:

• Calling you at unreasonable times.

• Calling you at work without your consent or after you have asked them to stop.

• Discuss your debts with any of your family members or with your employer

• Take payments without your permission

• Not allowing you to have time to consider your debt management options

• Insist that you pay off your debts by borrowing more money

• Purposefully use legal and technical language in order to intimidate and confuse you

• Force payment when a debt is statute-barred

Before you consider making a payment towards County Court Business Centre, do the following:

1. Do you owe the debt?

Check that the debt that County Court Business Centre is contacting you about, is actually yours. If you are unsure, check with a credit agency to find out the debts you owe.

2. Get them to send you a ‘Prove The Debt’ letter

Every debt collection agency legally needs to be able to prove that the debt they say is yours, is actually yours. If they are unable to prove this, they are forced to mark the debt as settled.

3. Is my debt to County Court Business Centre statute-barred?

According to the Limitation Act 1980, some debts have a time limit. In the majority of cases within England, that time limit is six years. If you are in Scotland, the time limit will most likely be five years. The countdown begins from the last time you made a payment towards the debt or acknowledged the debt in writing.

Criteria for a debt to be statute barred:

▪️The creditor has not registered a Country Court judgement (CCJ) against you

▪️You (or if the debt is a joint one, you and the other person) have not made a payment within the last five/six years (or however long the limitation period is in your case)

▪️You have not admitted to having the debt in writing in the last limitation period

4. Is this letter for you?

Sometimes, debt collection letters can be sent to someone’s old address. If this happens, make sure to contact the debt collection company and explain what has happened. The company should then change their details.