What effect does having 5 CCJ's against you?

[tigwig]

I'm a childminder and recently had to terminate a parent's contract with me after she failed to pay for 2 weeks. My union will be taking her to court however I have done my own 'digging' on her and found out she already has 5 CCJ's against her going back to 2009 and owes approx £35,000! so it seems that having these CCj's has no effect at all. How is this I just dont get it?

[Mosaic]

There are some people in the world who are simply unconcerned about owing money, the bigger the better. We know a couple who all their lives have done this - never paid a bill they weren't taken to court for, then some - they are perfectly nice people but do not give a damn about other people's businesses. They would not be fazed by summonses or by court appearances and it sounds like your parent is similar in outlook.

[hc4361]

You can't get blood out of a stone.
If they rent a furnished house, drive a car on HP, have no savings then very little can be done.
An attachment of earnings order, perhaps, but if they are on the minimum wage it would be peanuts per week.
Then they'd go bankrupt which would wipe out all the debts.

[themas]

Sadly, in these circumstances your best advice is not to throw good money after bad - do not spend your own money taking them to Court (if your Union is paying that's another matter) as you are unlikely to get anything back.

The only qualification I would make is that if you are absolutely sure she is actually financially secure, is working & you have details of her bank account (did you get the account number & sort code from her when she did pay you?) then once you have a CCJ & she defaults on its terms you might be able to get a third party order to take money direct from her account.

However, even this is dodgy - she could close that account, or she could provide the Court with (fictitious?) financial details & a nominal payment offer (eg £1 per month) when you issue the Court claim. If the Court made a CCJ for her to pay only the £1 & she did so without fail, then you would not be able to take any other action.

[Twenty20]

Wouldn't it be better in future to take money in advance? No money, no childcare.

[sandyRoe]

I suppose it would have been too extreme to keep the child until she paid her debts?