Questions On Paying Off A Judgement
I have been working on cleaning up my credit and paying off everything over the last 2 years. The only bad thing I have left on my credit is a Judgement for 12K. I want to buy a house but was told with that on there, I could not get a VA loan. How do I go about paying this item off? I don't know where the other party lives, or anything. Do I need a Lawyer, or what do I need to do?
Go to www.creditboards.com and get your information. This board has everything you need to know, and you can ask for anything clarified.
I have had help in clearing some things off me credit and threatened to sue but didn't have to. The original creditor decided they didn't want to lose.
In your case there is a specific way to get rid of your judgement, and even inprove your credit.
Good luck
How old is the judgment? Have you moved since it was entered?
If it's a few years old and you've moved around a bit, it might be possible to dispute all but the last couple of years of addresses off your CRA reports, then dispute the judgment as "not mine". If the attribution is weak enough (name only, no SSN or address information), the judgment may vanish from your reports (better still if you're a woman, the judgment was in your maiden name, and you dispute that off your reports too). This is not the proper way to do it, it doesn't relieve you of your debt, and the judgment can certainly reappear. Nonetheless, this is how some people clear 'em off.
If you were never properly served with the lawsuit, the judgment is subject to being voided for lack of service. This is where you would need a lawyer. If you were properly served and simply ignored the case, or fought and lost, vacating will not be a possibility in 99% of the cases (in 1% of the cases, some strange technical quirk might be discovered by your attorney that would get the judgment vacated).
Judgments have a statute of limitations of their own (typically 7-10 years) after which they can no longer be collected. They also are not supposed to stay on your credit reports longer than 7 years ... after that, you can dispute them off as "obsolete" (even if they're not out of SOL yet). Of course, they may still show up on a "full factual" report (in the unlikely event somebody payed extra to pull one) ... and that might stop the mortgage process.
If you can find the judgmentholder, you want to try to compromise the amount and pay as little as possible. If you can't find the judgmentholder, but need the judgment off your reports before it ages off, you might want to check with the court to see whether you can pay the money into the registry of the court and have the court issue a satisfaction.
Check your state's statute of limitations on judgments, and remember that in some states an older judgment can be renewed prior to its expiration.
www.Creditboards.com, www.creditinfocenter.com, www.artofcredit.com and www.creditnet.com are good resources.
The mortgage/lender will not issue the loan because someone can 'tie up' the property AFTER the closing with your previous judgement. Therefore, the lenders approach is to have these items satisfied PRIOR to granting a mortgage. Frankly, you must get this item paid/satisfied prior to applying for a mortgage.
Good luck,
Eric & Rosa
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Judgments have a statute of limitations of their own (typically 7-10 years) after which they can no longer be collected. They also are not supposed to stay on your credit reports longer than 7 years ... after that, you can dispute them off as "obsolete" (even if they're not out of SOL yet). Of course, they may still show up on a "full factual" report (in the unlikely event somebody payed extra to pull one) ... and that might stop the mortgage process.
This is not entirely accurate. Depending on the state in which the judgment was rendered, it will expire in 7-10 years unless the judgment creditor renews it. This is actually a simple process; however, most judgment creditors don't know enough to do this. If they knew how the thing worked, they'd have already taken their money from you.
Also, this is extremely important. If and when you decide to make payment, get a record. Collect a receipt and require the creditor to fill out a "Satisfaction Record", which is a court doc that shows the judgment as paid. If this doc is not filed with the court, you will have a heck of a time getting the judgment to be marked "paid" on your credit report.[ Edited by af7850 on Date 02/28/2004 ]
You're right, those points needed to be made. I made mention in passing, but it should have been more prominent.
Thanks for the info, the judgement is not old at all (Less than a year). I intend on paying it, I just have no idea of how to go about it with out being ripped off.
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On 2004-02-29 21:56, TrueBlueGT wrote:
Thanks for the info, the judgement is not old at all (Less than a year). I intend on paying it, I just have no idea of how to go about it with out being ripped off.
At less than a year you may have all sorts of grounds to reopen the case (improper service of process being the most likely showstopper). You may want to look into vacating that sucker, if you think you might have had a good defense.
It should be clear to you by now that you should have a lawyer look at this and tell you if it truly is a "Final" J, beyond any hope of re-opening it, or appealing it, and if so, how collectible it is, with your asset situation, etc.
Since most J's are not collectible, I'd try having somebody else, not you, make a stab at "buying" it cheap...the J holder may have given up by now, thinking you're J "proof" and he'll never collect it...so if he were to get a call out of the blue telling him that the caller is a J buyer, if he can get it cheap enough, he might just jump at the chance of selling it early...and you could get it paid off cheap.
You should get a copy of your credit report or ask the title company to pull the judgement from the court house. this will give you all the information you need to pay off the lien. Since it is less than a year old the county records should be correct. You could also bring the money to close and let the title company handle it for you. You said you want to pay it. This way if they don't find the person or company after a period of time they will issue the check back to you.
Lori
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Quote:Since most J's are not collectible, I'd try having somebody else, not you, make a stab at "buying" it cheap...the J holder may have given up by now, thinking you're J "proof" and he'll never collect it...so if he were to get a call out of the blue telling him that the caller is a J buyer, if he can get it cheap enough, he might just jump at the chance of selling it early...and you could get it paid off cheap.
That's a very good point. When egos are involved, the judgment creditor is going to be looking for every penny to be paid back. But when a third party approaches him, you may find a different situation. I was just reading yesterday that back in the day, carmaker W.O. Bentley thought he was negotiating with some trust or other. He learned later to his chagrin that he was actually selling out to archrival Rolls-Royce.
Do they garnish your wages if you have a judgement? If so, what is the max. percentage that they can garnish? I live in California, by the way...
An old live-in boyfriend who as it turned out, was a con man and conned me out of alot of money.
I finally kicked him out but he left a bunch of old broken tools, small machinery and other worthless stuff.
True to form, two years after, he took me to small claims court and said he wanted his stuff and that I owed him money. When we lived together, I paid the bills and he wrote checks to me. Well, on several checks, he wrote in "loan to: (my name)" and that's what he presented in court.
He is such a good liar that the judgement was againt ME!!!!
This guy was a parasite, never had money, was always into me for money and now I have this judgement againt me and I have not done anything about it.
Total cash I have to pay out is $1000.000.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
Do I just pay it and get him out of my life?
I can file an appeal but I don't really have any tangible supporting evidence against him, it's his word against mine, and he has left several menacing voice mails stating he is going to put a lien on my house!
Any comment or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have to do something but don't know what!
Thanks!!!
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On 2004-03-04 20:20, Raven2k12 wrote:
Do they garnish your wages if you have a judgement? If so, what is the max. percentage that they can garnish? I live in California, by the way...
In Florida they can garnish 25% of your wages - ouch!
hang in there if you have not done it yet i made a agrrement with the lawyers office and citi bank to make monthly payments on a jugement i have to get the bill taken care of within 24 months i will not be trying for any loans but i do want to keep my property :-? :-? null :-?