Northampton County Court Claim Form - Parking Fine Civil Enforcement Ltd

Tubbs_1

Just received a County Court Claim form from Northampton court for a private parking fine back in 2012. I ignored all the letters at the time and never heard back so quite a surprise when the letter arrived. As it appears to be a CCJ I don't really want to ignore this as it states it may affect mt credit rating. The claimant is Civil Enforcement Limited based in Liverpool. My question is what do I do now?

Quentin

Read up on preparing a defence in the newbies FAQ thread at the top of the forum.

And send in the acknowledgement of claim (now) to give you an extra 14 days to get the initial defence together

Redx

same advice as in this similar 2016 court claim thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5422417

it wont affect your credit rating as if you lose you pay up , promptly, within the period given to you by the judge

its not a CCJ as its not been to court yet, its an MCOL (look it up)

Tubbs_1

Thanks for the response. I've been reading through the forum and there is a lot to take in and its all a bit daunting. IN summary if I choose to submit a counter claim I can go to moneyclaim.gov.uk and submit the acknowledgement of service, then it gives me a further 28 days to submit the defence of claim? In terms of the circumstance I cant remember the exact detail but it was along the lines of free parking at a retail park for 3 hours - apparently i stayed 20 minutes over this therefore Any advice on the defence preparation would be appreciated!!

If I lose the claim (currently standing at £254) will I pay any more court fees or is it just settlement of the claim?

Coupon-mad

You are not counterclaiming. You are defending the claim in full, that's all. If you lose (unlikely) you'd pay LESS than £254 almost certainly because that's a made-up inflated sum. Therefore, you may as well defend, that's the point!

Did you read the linked thread, it has enough advice to launch you into the next stage?

Did you also read Bargepole's post linked under the heading 'Small Claim?' in the NEWBIES FAQs thread near the top of this forum. Read that first; Bargepole's post (which I will never link!, newbies are best finding their way around!) tells you what to do and when.

pappa_golf

you state 2012 , in what mth of 2012 did this occur?


this may be important before you fill the reply in

Redx

there are dozens of examples of court defences on here in previous 2016 threads about CEL, and UKPC as well as others, learn from them

acknowledging the claim online gives an extra 14 days , not 28 days , so 28 days from the start of the claim itself , which is a few days after it was actioned. so 28 to 33 days in total, but try to keep it within the 28 days allowed

once a claim is paid, in full , it is settled

you can submit part 18 requests to get the full details of the claim

you are defending an MCOL, not counter claiming

Tubbs_1

it was december 2012?

pappa_golf

OK , I thought it might have been before POFa2012 , in which case I was going to suggest that you said "the driver" , and not "I"

Coupon-mad

He should defend as registered keeper anyway, of course, as long as no appeal was ever made or phone call or contact prior to now, where the driver was admitted. CEL do not use the POFA and never did get it right, certainly not in December 2012! The keeper is not liable.

All this discussion is overcomplicated it for this poster though. This is one of the easiest ones to defend and the OP has been shown a thread with an example defence to adapt to suit and been told where to find Bargepole's post about the paperwork, which boxes to tick, how to submit the defence etc. That's enough for going on with, next we need to see the draft defence based on what this OP reads on that other thread (and on any other CEL court threads, there were a few in Feb/March and a few more now, all easy to find on the forum).

Tubbs_1

ok, new to the forum and getting to grips with the navigation and finding stuff- the site isnt the easiest. Fully understand the process now just need to do the research re: defence by looking through all the posts.