Today I actually found out on my credit report that I have a civil judgment on my record. This was 6 to 7 years ago. I had no idea until now. Someone told me that it has accrued interest on the principle since the judgment was made. My question is what can I do about it and where do I start? Will it stay on my credit report even after I pay for it?
2007-02-06 08:39:46 · 4 answers · asked by preludexrage 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
By the way this was in small claims court filed in PA by my ex-roommates for unpaid rent. Should I pay it and get it off my credit report. I read some questions before and most answers state that it will disappear from the credit report in 7 years. Me and my girlfriend is getting married next year, I would really like it for her to not see this.
Please advise...
2007-02-06 08:52:14 · update #1
The statute of limitations varies from state to state. Don't assume it's 7 years. Our company is in Texas, and the statute of limitations is 10 years.
In addition, should the creditor choose to do so, they can renew the judgment before it expires. Indefinitely. The judgment can, potentially, never go away, depending on the tenacity of your debtors to maintain these filings.
Whoever told you the judgment has accrued interest is correct. The average rate of interest awarded by most courts is 10%. Your judgment is now worth, most likely, between 60 and 70% more than what was originally awarded.
I find it difficult to believe that you are just finding out about the judgment. The courts will not take a case to judgment without you, the defendant, going through process of service, meaning you were served papers that notified you of the court hearing. You apparently ignored the court hearing, thinking the whole thing would go away. Bad idea. When that happens, your creditors receive a "default judgment" - default meaning, because you did not defend yourself in court, by default, the plaintiffs receive their judgment.
What to do? Contact your creditors, and pay the judgment or make a settlement immediately. Once you have paid or settled your judgment, ask for them to file a Satisfaction of Judgment and/or Release of Liens with the court. Sometimes the courts will report the satisfaction to the credit bureau, but this practice is very random. Therefore, you yourself will also want to file these documents with the credit bureaus.
Only when you have presented to the credit bureau evidence of the judgment being satisfied will it come off the record. It is possible for the judgment to expire, and come off that way, but if you are dealing with an aggressive creditor, that will not work.
2007-02-07 10:01:29 · answer #1 · answered by DMEdwards 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You need to find out who the judgement was received by, contact them and make payment arrangements. It will stay on your credit report for 7 years after the last date of reported activity on it. Once you have it paid off, the person or business who received it should update the info on your credit to show it as paid, and while it'll still hurt your credit, it'll look better to have it paid than not paid.
2007-02-06 08:51:34 · answer #2 · answered by Katasha 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First, you have to get the info from whichever credit reporting agency told you this. And get a copy of your report. You can pay for one from them, or, you can file for something you KNOW you won't get, and you can get a free one when you are turned down.
If you want to pay it, you'll have the names and addresses of who it is and call them.
I think there is a statue of limitations of 7 years though if they don't collect it, they can't. It's already been written off by whomever did this.
NO MATTER what you do, pay it or not, it WILL stay on your report. For many many years. It will however show paid if you do pay it which is good. But even when paid, they will not remove it. I am still having trouble getting them to remove things from 1989! That were filed on bankruptcy! They are supposed to though, but they don't like they are supposed to!
Good Luck!
2007-02-06 08:55:25 · answer #3 · answered by Shari 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you pay it. It should clear it up but your credit report might say slow payer rather than bad credit.
I don't know if the law is still that if you haven't paid after seven years it automatically clears off your credit. They changed the laws one year ago so I do not know if it is still the way they do it.
Also every time you check your credit it counts against your credit some.
2007-02-06 08:49:42 · answer #4 · answered by sapphire_630 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋