I have recently undergone a credit check, for a remortgage, and to my horror, a county court judgement (CCJ) has been registered against myself. The CCJ originates from the DVLA and relates to unpaid vehicle duty from 2006. This CCJ has been recently entered, and at no point have I received notification etc for this matter. The vehicle in question was disposed of by myself, before the road fund expired. Upon disposal I returned the log book to DVLA as instructed. I moved from the address shortly after. From my point of view, I have followed DVLA's procedure correctly. If I move after I have notified the DVLA that the vehicle has been disposed of and have returned the V5 logbook to them, as directed, I am under no obligation to notify them of a change of address for a vehicle which has been disposed off.

Yet I have had a CCJ placed on my record for no apparent reason. Having spoken to the court, they say that my time for appeal has expired and I must satisfy the debt. In my opinion the debt is the result of a error by DVLA, not myself. Yet I am the one who is now affected. Is there a process of appeal I can submit, which could repair my credit? I am not willing to pay the judgement, as I feel it is unfounded, and even if I was to, the CCJ would still remain on record, as a satisfied debt.

Steve Weatherald

Sorry to hear about your problems remortgaging, assuming the CCJ has thrown a proverbial spanner into the works. Hindsight is so very valuable and this is a great example of why it is sensible to check your credit report before you make an important credit application like a mortgage. That way you can check everything is accurate and up to date before lenders run their checks, giving you the very best chance of getting credit and at the best rates.

You certainly shouldn't pay a debt that is not yours so I suggest you take this up with the DVLA, if you haven't done so already, and insist that they cancel the CCJ. If they refuse to - and I hope they don't - you can legally apply yourself to have the CCJ set aside (i.e. cancelled), because you didn't receive the summons. This means that the original CCJ would be cancelled and the case would be reheard. Unfortunately, there is a £60 charge for making a set aside application, but it may be worth it, and necessary, if the DVLA won't help you.

In the meantime, you might like to add a note to the CCJ on your credit report to explain the circumstances. This note, which can be up to 200 words, will be seen by any lenders checking your report while the CCJ is registered. We will also share the note with the other credit reference agencies, to save you having to contact them. You'll need to get a copy of your credit report from us first and, if you don't have one already, you can get a free Experian credit report by signing up for a 30-day trial of our online credit report monitoring service CreditExpert.

I do hope you quickly manage to get the CCJ removed and arrange a good mortgage deal. Good luck.