Received Judgement for claimant(in default) am I too late

Steve59

I have today received a letter from claims online stating that I have to pay MIL Collections £170.80 as I didn't reply to the claim form.
I originally received a Parking charge notice by post on 30th Dec 2015 from Parking awareness services o f Blackpool that I parked my vehicle on a private car park in Preston on 28th Dec 2015 and not displaying a ticket. The ticket machine was not working at the time and I along with around 10 other drivers put a note in the windscreen saying that we would pay on return.
We did try ringing the number given on the signs but it was a recorded message. On return the ticket machine was still not working so we left. I emailed Parking awareness services appealing the the charge but to no avail. After receiving another email from them we wrote a letter and sent by recorded delivery explaining what happened and included a cheque for £4.20 to cover the parking fee, which they cashed and then they sent me another email telling me the balance £55.80 I still owe them. Some friends told me to ignore them to which I did and since then the debt has been sold to MIL collections and finally to court. I feel that I should have fought this now and not listened to friends who had similar fines. Am I too late and should I just pay the £170.80?

Coupon-mad

OK, so you ignored court papers? Oh dear. You have left it very late but do NOT do what another poster did, do not phone up MIL and pay whatever they say because that does not remove the CCJ! We had a terrible thread like that yesterday where someone called MIL and paid £300 without checking, then (after taking that payment) MIL decided to tell them they had to pay another £155 to remove the judgment...

You must now pay £255 to the courts, to try to set aside the judgment and you can get CAB help with that. Your reason for ignoring court papers would have to be explained in some way and not just 'my mate told me to'. Were you away during that time? Is anyone in the household - or the recipient of the court papers - ill, vulnerable, elderly or do they have any other reason (suffering from anxiety etc) for being too scared to have dealt with court papers when they arrived? That can be argued as a reason why the matter wasn't handled in time (if true).

You certainly have prospects of defending this claim (once set aside - act quickly) because MIL cases are struck out by the courts and discontinued all the time. The Parking Prankster (blogger) has remarked that no defended MIL case has been reported as won by MIL. They are not the parking company and have simply bought some alleged 'parking debts' for £1 but without having any interest in the matter, nor contract with you, nor proper assignment paperwork.

Search the forum board for 'set side' as keywords, using the search just immediately above the thread list on page one, where it says 'this board' (NOT the one at the very top of the entire page).

pappa_golf

After receiving another email from them we wrote a letter and sent by recorded delivery explaining what happened and included a cheque for £4.20 to cover the parking fee, which they cashed and then they sent me another email telling me the balance £55.80 I still owe them.


them MIL lied to the court , they asked for £100 + costs , the true figure was £55.80

Steve59

Thanks for your reply. Are you saying I should pay £255 to the court? I don't understand all the wordings (set aside etc) its all new to me as I've never had to do anything like this before.

Redx

most people havent (I know I havent) , if you had done it before you wouldnt be here

this is where GOOGLE search is your friend, search for "set aside" which went up from £155 to £255 this year (a few months ago)

you apply to the court for a "set aside" giving reasons why, plus paying £255

System

Are you saying I should pay £255 to the court? I don't understand all the wordings (set aside etc) its all new to me as I've never had to do anything like this before.

Go and see your local Citizens Advice if you do not know what you are doing. You want the "debt" section since as thing stand, you have a clear instruction from the court to pay MIL something (Its what the court says and not MIL)

You appear to have ignored the court which you should not have done but the CAB advisors see these CCJ's every day, so are best placed to help face-to-face.

Don't part with any money to MIL or to the Court until you've had a word with CAB but do it ASAP.

HO87

Did you by any chance make it clear that your offer - the £4.20 - was in full settlement of the debt?

If PAS were playing by the rules they should have rejected your cheque if they actually wanted more.

Let me guess. Was this Glovers Court or Syke Street? PAS have a real problem with their machines mysteriously failing at times when their attendants are about. Of course it isn't a problem for them because they then get to issue PCN's.

PAS's paperwork is a joke as is their standard landowner contract.

If CAB can help you secure a set aside (it isn't actually that difficult but you do need your ducks in a row) come back here and we can help with a defence against MIL.

Steve59

Yes it was Sykes street 28th december 2015. There were quite a few vehicles with notes on the dashboard saying "machine not working will try again when we come back" we did the same.

Steve59

Yes I agree I need to see Citizens advice asap.

Steve59

I have just spoken to CAB at Blackburn as I couldn't get through at Preston. They said someone from the debt team will ring me within 3 working days

Coupon-mad

OK, do not let them suggest you ring MIL. That is NOT an option, MIL are scumbags who have no case against you...spend those days reading about them by Googling 'Parking Parkster MIL'.

You need this set aside so you can start again and defend this. If the CAB offer an opinion that these 'parking cases' can't be defended any more due to the 'Beavis case in the Supreme court' put your fingers in your ears, sing 'la, la, la' until they stop spouting that rubbish then reiterate 'I can defend this, there are several grounds and I've researched this - in no well-defended case has MIL won'.

Then remind the CAB that you merely want help to set aside the judgement to start again, on the basis that in the interests of justice you should be entitled to defend because you have extremely high prospects of success.

Start reading up about MIL Collections now, on here and in the Prankster's blogs. You need to learn if you are to defend this, once reset.

DO NOT ring MIL. Come back here if the CAB say anything silly.

DO NOT respond, if any poster with less than 1000 posts send you a pm (private message) offering to 'help' with the defence off-forum. People with few posts could be anyone, and not acting in your best interests/could even be from the dark side! Regulars with thousands of posts (like me, HO87 or IamEmanresu who has less posts but is 100% trustworthy) would be different. You can trust a pm from a real regular - but right now we are too busy to deal with these by pm, so to get help you will need to keep updating this thread and we'll all chip in.