URGENT - Help please? CCJ for parking ticket

u2_storm

Hello,
I wonder if anyone has any advise?

A friend of mine has just had a letter today from the "Count Court Business Centre"
The letter reads:
to the defendant,
you have not replied to the claim form, it is therefore order you must pay the claimant £152.5 for debtand £97 in costs.

Back story - my freind lives in a block of flat and has a permit, the car park is managed by parking & property Management LTD. She was issued a parking ticket but did not dispute it to them put filled in the respose to the claim form.

She's been really silly ignoring the ticket until sending the claim form back but the court from the text are saying that haven't got it. She has been in hospital for a few months so I'm not sure of any other letters. I can upload the signage etc but she threw away the original ticket away as she didn't hear from them after that until the court letter.

Does she just pay the court now and then try and claim it back later?

u2_storm

Hello again,
I have just got a copy of the PCN.
IT was issued 17/10/16 with an issue reason 1. permit obscured - cannot ascertain validity.

The permit was in the car!

DoaM

#1 If this is notification of the default judgment then she should pay it within the stated timescale to avoid a CCJ being registered on her credit file.

#2 She could apply for a set-aside to allow her to defend the claim. However she'd need to have a good reason why the set-aside should be granted, and it costs £255 anyway. (The £255 may be recoverable)

u2_storm

Hi DoaM,
I was wondering if she just pays it will it just stop her from being able to recover it.

I was considering to have it set-aside but the cost is more than the actual ticket is worth, it's slightly frustrating that she burried her head with this but nevermind!

She had no parking details in her tenancy and she had the permit displayed so surely this should have been winnable?

DoaM

I'm sure it would have been winnable, but not following it through properly has cost her.

She should pay the judgment. If a set-aside is applied for and granted, and she wins the subsequent hearing then what she has payed would be recoverable. She's already buried her head in the sand once - don't let her do it again and sleepwalk into a CCJ which may impact her ability to get credit (loans for furniture, mobile phone contracts, etc. etc.) for the next 6 years.

Coupon-mad

It will stop her recovering her money I think, although it is unclear whether a set aside can still be done of the sum has been paid under protest. I don't know. that answer.

Whereas setting it aside, using N244 form plus a witness statement talking about the fact she was in hospital at the time of the letter from the parking firm but DID reply to the claim form. She should also attach a Witness Statement using the 'Jopson' residential car park appeal case and her lease agreement or tenancy proof, to prove 'primacy of contract' as a resident - read this:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/residential-parking.html

She should have no issues getting it set aside as she has good reason to and prospects of defending the claim as a resident of the location. Lots of threads show defences using the Jopson case and 'PACE v Mr N' to argue that their lease has never been varied and does not require permits or impose parking charges, and a third party like PPM can't unilaterally vary a lease that is none of their business. This is usually argued as a matter of 'derogation from grant' by the managing agents/landowner (i.e. they can't take away or charge for a right of parking already offered or implied in a lease or AST).

Read the Jopson case and PACE v Mr N court transcripts from the Prankster's own 'case law' page. She really must fight this and also she may have grounds to counter-claim against the parking firm and landowner/agent for misuse of data under the DPA, obtaining it without reasonable cause.

I think she should seriously consider fighting back and setting this aside - although as a cautionary tale, read BonClark88's thread on pepipoo who set aside a CCJ and when defending in the eventual hearing they lost (at least no CCJ though, that stays wiped but it meant they had to pay and were out of pocket too, by the £255). That's quite rare but worth reading the thread.