Scare Mongering? Claim form from Northampton County Claims Court and Parking Eye

myjay

Hello all, months ago i received a charge in the post for staying at a free retail car park for 20 mins or so. I ignored it as I thought these were charges and not fines, and have been binning every letter from them since.. maybe that wasn't the best thing to do, either way, bottom line is i received this today (as a new user I'm not allowed to post images but it says:

Judgement for Claimant (in default)

To the defendant
you have not replied to the claim form
it is therefore ordered that you must pay the claimant £100 for debt (and interest to date of judgement)
and £100 for costs

If you ignore this order your good may be removed and sold, or other enforcement proceedings may be taken against you. If this happens further costs will be added. If your circumstances change and you cannot pay, ask at the court office what you can do.

Ive been reading around on the forums but honestly am feeling overwhelmed by all the acronyms and the Beavis' etc. Theres not even a court date on the letter, I'm confused and beginning to panic, i CANNOT afford the £200 they're asking, I've just graduated, I'm pretty damn broke.

What I've gathered from reading is that i could:
a) Contact the retail shop and ask them to cancel the claim, or something along those lines?
b) go online to the .gov link they supplied and provide a defence?
c) If i ignore i assume i will get a court date in the post?

If someone could explain to me in layman terms where I'm at in the whole process in terms of this letter that would be so helpful

Please Help!!

Herzlos

That reads as if you've already been offered a court date and didn't respond so it's automatically gone to the parking company. Can you post a photo?

If it has, your only options are to pay up or request a set-aside. With the set-aside you can apply to have the case re-heard and should be able to pay nothing, though there is a £155 up front fee. You'd need to justify to the judge (a) why you didn't acknowledge the initial claim and (b) why you think you have a reasonable chance of success.

If you just ignored the letters, you might struggle with (a) but I guess you could state that you believed they were a hoax due to the reputation of private parking companies to send fraudulent papers. For (b) you've got all of the usual appeal points from the newbies thread.

The_Slithy_Tove

Too late for a defence. If this is genuine (from the court), then it means you have ignored (binned) the actual court claim, not filed a defence, got a default judgement, and this is telling you just that.

You could apply for a set-aside (£155), but you would need to show the court why you didn't defend the claim. Doesn't sound like you have a case.

Sad to say, in this case, it looks like you'll have to pay up, and pay up soon, else you'll end up with an unsatisfied CCJ against your name.

You can post a scan/image by hosting it on something like tinypic, then pasting the URL (without the http bit) in this thread.

Nodding_Donkey

The first thing is to find out if the form is genuine. Can you post a pic to photobucket or somewhere and link to it?

As a new user you will have to break the link, change http to hxxp

Jim_AFCB

If it is Parking Eye then it is IMHO almost certainly genuine....

ampersand

Have you fed any ref. no's into their site to trace any trail back, with dates?
https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/northampton-business-centre/county-court-bulk-centre

If not, get straight on to this no:
County Court Business Centre (CCBC) 0300 123 1056 / 01604 619400

Double-check whether any aspect, or reference link in that p/w is genuine, then tell us. Make and agree bullet-point notes with Northampton if you can't record the call.

Congratulations on your Degree and welcome to mse.

Awaiting your next post - with apologies for crossposting to other msers.

Take heart, op - you see how forumites are all springing to help ).

bargepole

myjay wrote: »

... If someone could explain to me in layman terms where I'm at in the whole process in terms of this letter that would be so helpful ...

Where you're at, in layman's terms, is up a dark brown coloured river tributary without a visible means of propulsion.

If you had bothered to research this properly, you would have found that the advice to 'ignore' went out of date three years ago. Even worse, you obviously had a Claim Form, and chose to ignore that instead of defending it.

No wonder the parking companies are coining it in when faced with such ignorance and stupidity.

You have two choices - pay, or wait for the bailiffs to come knocking.

ampersand

Bargepole, that #7 really is harsh from you, even allowing for your other parking Thread involvement posted today.

We want people to be encouraged and welcomed here, to spread the GOOD word, not the abuse sometimes associated with other public forums.

op failed to see changed advice, in common with probably over 80% of newbies. Google listing order does not help in this, too often dependent on some accurate knowledge to give predominance to current advice.

It can simply be a matter of mischance via word order in the search box.

Is there some way of alerting ALL potential mse Parking Forum newbies to include month/year in their first google search?
I realise this can't cover every scenario, but it should better direct a healthy proportion.
#

'I've just graduated, I'm pretty damn broke.' - writes op.

3 years ago, advice WAS different.
3 years ago, op will have been deep in Degree work.
#
Really hope your Preston case input brings the desired result today, bargepole.
#
myjay - let us have some answers, please.

System

You have two choices - pay, or wait for the bailiffs to come knocking.

Third choice is a set-aside but unlikely if there was a wilful ignoring of the claim form. Just check to see where the Claim form was sent e.g. to your parents address while you were at Uni.

If you have a good, solid and honest reason for missing that form then apply for a set-aside and have the case reheard.

In the alternative, if you do not, a CCJ makes a real mess of your credit rating and paying it off now saves a lot later on.

op failed to see changed advice, in common with probably over 80% of newbies

Figures vary from PPC to PPC but between 65% to 70% of claims end in a CCJ simply because people either do not take them seriously or assume the ostrich position.

bargepole

ampersand wrote: »

Bargepole, that #7 really is harsh from you, even allowing for your other parking Thread involvement posted today.

It may be harsh, but the OP needs to understand where they stand, which they clearly haven't from the first post.

The questions asked were:

a) Contact the retail shop and ask them to cancel the claim, or something along those lines? NO, the claim has gone to judgment in default. far too late for that.

b) go online to the .gov link they supplied and provide a defence? NO, the opportunity to defend was when the Claim Form arrived. That ship has sailed.

c) If i ignore i assume i will get a court date in the post? A ridiculous assumption. Had a defence been submitted, there would have been a court date. But it wasn't, so a default Judgment has been ordered by the court.

I stand by what I wrote.

Herzlos

IamEmanresu wrote: »

Figures vary from PPC to PPC but between 65% to 70% of claims end in a CCJ simply because people either do not take them seriously or assume the ostrich position.

Ouch, no wonder they are so keen to do court.