Undoing The Quickie Judgment

First I have to say that I LOVE your site!!!!

With that said, I have a scenario here in California that I really need some help with.

I had a judgment from 2001, which I just paid in full and went to the court to file the satisfaction of judgment. While I was there I find that I have ANOTHER judgment that I was completely unaware of!!! I’m in the process of cleaning up my credit, and right smack dab in the middle of buying a house. My mortgage approval was conditional that I pay off the first judgment as it showed up on my credit report. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded when I found out yesterday that I had a judgment from 2005 which I never knew about. I had moved a little over a year before they supposedly served me with the court papers, and on the paperwork it says that they served me by substitute method of mailing to my old address?!?!?!?! I hadn’t lived there in over a year and I had put in a change of address, but I think that they expire after a year…? Either way, I don’t know who this person is that’s suing me – It’s an attorney listed for Melville Acquistition Co….Never have heard of them, so I’m assuming that they must have bought a debt of mine from years ago.

My questions are as follows:

1) Do I have any recourse other than to pay them now? The judgment was filed 05/2005 and because it was never reported to the credit reporting agencies, I never knew about it.

2) If I have to pay it, what are the chances that they will accept a lesser amount?

3) Should I contact my mortgage lender and let them know what I found and notify them that I’m in the process of trying to resolve this? I’m SO afraid that this is going to hurt my chances of buying a house. I’ve worked for several years trying to clean up my credit after some poor choices and a divorce that nearly sent me bankrupt. My escrow is supposed to close July 31st and I want to make sure that nothing stands in the way!!!

I’ve read your site about vacating judgments 180 days after you find out about the judgment, but I’m afraid if I do that, it WILL then show on my credit report, even though it doesn’t now.

Just when you think that you’ve finally gotten things straightened out, something comes crawling out of the woodwork. It really is depressing.

Any advice would certainly be appreciated.

Denise

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Hi Denise,

1) Since it was a default judgment in California, you may be able to have it vacated.

2) That will be a function of your perceived collectability and your negotiating skills.

3) The judgment will be picked up by the title company search.  This is a separate issue from credit reporting.  Title companies perform an extensive search prior to closing and provide an insurance policy to you and to the lender relating to that search.  In other words, the judgment will be discovered at the tail end of the transaction.

Your best bet is to talk to an attorney regarding vacating this default judgment.  When the judgment is successfully vacated, it’s as if it never existed and will not appear on your credit report.  You should be prepared to have the case heard at that time, although the modus operandi of the typical junk debt buyer is to push for default judgment without having sufficient documentation to be awarded such in court when the debtor is present to defend.

Of course, Naca.net has some great consumer lawyers.

Thanks for the questions and hope this helps.

Paul

This author is not an attorney and this information should not be considered legal advice.  Please consult an attorney for legal advice.