"Judgment for Claimant" letter - legit?

sdando

Hello,

i received a claim form from Northampton County Court back on the 24th November 2014 it related to an unpaid parking ticket i received in Dec 2012. The amount was for £215 and the letter was official as it came with a claim no. The claimant was Debt Enforcement & Action Limited (DEAL).

I decided my response would be to admit part of the claim and completed the necessary forms to pay the amount claimed of £130. I sent off the claim within the allocated period and contacted ccmcc customer inquiries to confirm that they received the my form. They confirmed receipt and said they were waiting for a response from the claimant.

Nothing happened for a few months so in January 2015 i contacted ccmcc again to ask had they received anything from the claimant (DEAL). They confirmed that the deadline had passed for the claimants response. I considered this to be matter over.

I then (1st July 2015) received a suspicious looking letter from County Court Money Claims Center with a claim number matching that of the original claim saying the following:

"To the defendant

you have made an offer of payment which the claimant has accepted.

It is therefore ordered that you must pay the claimant £130 for debt (and interest to date of judgement) and £85 for costs.

You must pay the claimant the total of £215 forthwith."

That's it for the specifics and at the bottom of the letter there is advice on how to pay DEAL.

Is this a legitimate letter from the courts? the amount of £215 is not what i had offered to pay in my part-payment response. It is also the amount DEAL were asking for.

I am skeptical because, having read this forum, i know the unscrupulous lengths these companies will go to in order to get their money and appear that their claims are genuine and have the support of the county court.

I would attache the letter if i was able to.

I am willing to pay the money but just want to be sure that this is legitimate and is a court decision before i do so.

Thanks for your input and advice in advance.

Redx

check if it has the embossed court seal , ring the court if necessary and ask if its legit

if it isnt, maybe you should complain to the SRA about it, possibly other bodies too , as it sounds like fraud to me

you can redact the scan and host it on tinypic or photobucket , then use a dead link in your reply, changing http to hxxp

you should have fought back and paid nothing, that is what most people do, fight back, win in court (or just before court), and pay zero pounds

esmerobbo

You offered to pay £130 they accepted and then costs are added of £35 claim fee and £50 solicitors fee so £215 in total.

bazster

Your best bet now might be to pay it and then raise a MCOL yourself for your money back. Your grounds would be deceit, misrepresentation, and misleading/aggressive practices (no-one believes that the so-called debt was really assigned to DEAL, they made that up, and in any case DEAL is just CEL with a different paint-job). If you cited the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Regulations 2014 you could sue for damages on top of your losses.

If you wanted to go that route you'd get plenty of offers of help.

stator

esmerobbo wrote: »

You offered to pay £130 they accepted and then costs are added of £35 claim fee and £50 solicitors fee so £215 in total.

But why were costs added?

Guys_Dad

stator wrote: »

But why were costs added?

Because they were incurred? If you had paid the £130 originally before they took it to court, then no court costs. You agreed to pay their claim that they originally asked for, so they get that clear of any cost to recover.

esmerobbo

stator wrote: »

But why were costs added?

As GD says they are costs, although everything CEL get is unjustified, if it was a legit claim for £130 it would not make sense if the claimant had to stand the cost of bringing the action.

It is a pity the OP didn't understand that an offer is plus costs, they should have offered £25. Or even better defended it, and wait for CEL/Deal to pull out.

stator

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Because they were incurred? If you had paid the £130 originally before they took it to court, then no court costs. You agreed to pay their claim that they originally asked for, so they get that clear of any cost to recover.

But if you allow them to take you to SCC and defend your case but lose, can the Judge (or whoever) award costs against you?
If you win, the Judge can't award costs to you unless they are being unreasonable?

bazster

Costs are limited on the small claims track, not forbidden! The claim fee is always automatically added to the claim. Up to £50 is allowed for solicitors' costs.

OK, we know that Schwartz didn't get £50 for signing the form, but the OP didn't challenge it so it stood.