Advice on just discovered CCJ from old address? Did not change V5.

YellowBananas

I know - though I did actually leave my address with the tenants but they obviously didn’t forward any mail. I still had access to the house until 10 days after I moved, but was so sure I’d changed all my addresses (I had a spreadsheet and everything!) that I didn’t forward my mail. Kicking myself now of course.

twhitehousescat

if this was an ANPR type ticket , the company had to write and you receive there "invoice" within 14 day (if they wish to invoke POFa - hold you liable)

although stupid lack of, mail forwarding is not mandatory nor a legal requirement

you asked new tenants to forward mail

the fact that you did not update your v5 has nothing to do with your situation , as under current UK law CEL can only ask for your details ONCE , they cannot go back to the DVLA 6 mths later and ask again

perhaps the dropping of "I failed to update my V5 " and more of , " the day after the incident I moved house , CEL were given my address at the time of the incident , no mail was forwarded , CEL could not get my new address from DVLA as this is not allowed under law"

if you've got a bad judge , - forgot to update v5 , stupid , pay up , dont let this happen , as judges do not understand DVLA data "date of incident"


the correct wording / terminology os KADOE

Keeper At Date Of Event

parking Cos sign this contract with the DVLA in order to use electronic method of obtaining info

YellowBananas

Hello,
Okay now I'm in full possession of the facts, please could someone take a look at my proposed draft order and witness statement? It's largely cribbed from others on here, so hopefully should make sense. I'm just concerned whether I'm being clear enough on the fact the incident happened a day before I moved? Also, have I got all the details for the defence right? It's a parking fine for CEL and I know which road it was on, but that's all the details I have (I've done my SAR to them today).

Any advice would be very gratefully received, as I'd like to send this off ASAP so I can finally sleep at night. (I've removed any identifying details but will obviously fill those in!)

Draft Order
IN THE COUNTY COURT BUSINESS CENTRE

Claim No. XXXXXXXXXX

BETWEEN:

XXXXXXXXX Claimant


-- and --


XXXXXXXXXXX Defendant


_____________________________________


DRAFT ORDER

______________________________________


IT IS ORDERED THAT:

Upon reading the Defendant's application dated XXXXXXXXXX.

It is ordered that:

1. The judgment dated XXJULY2018 be set aside.

2. The Defendant shall file and serve its Defence by 4pm following 14 days after the date on which the judgement is set aside.

3. The Claimant do pay the Defendant's costs of this application to the sum of £255.

4. The Claimant has permission to file and serve a reply if so required.

---

Witness statement text is here: -

IN THE COUNTY COURT BUSINESS CENTRE

Claim No. XXXXXXXXX

BETWEEN:

XXXXXXXXXX Claimant


-- and --


XXXXXXXXXXX Defendant


_____________________________________


WITNESS STATEMENT

______________________________________




I am XXXXXX and I am the Defendant in this matter.
This my supporting Statement in support of my application dated XXXXXXX to:
· Set aside the Default Judgement dated XX July 2018 as it was not properly served at my current address;
· Order for the Claimant to pay the Defendant £255 as reimbursement for the set aside fee;
· Order for the original claim to be dismissed.

1. Default Judgement
1.1. I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgement against me as the Defendant in XXXXXX. However, this claim form has not been served at my current address and I thus was not aware of the Default Judgement XXXXXX when I was doing a routine check on my credit file. I understand that this Claim was served at an OLD ADDRESS (XXX) and relates to an alleged incident on the 11th October 2017. However, the day after the alleged incident, I moved to a new address (I moved on 12th October 2017). In support of this I can provide confirmation from Stockport County Council showing my updated details for the purposes of paying Council tax, notification of change of address to the DVLA and letters from my solicitors confirming the date I purchased my new house, as well as messages from my old landlord to confirm when I left my old address (See attached evidence).

1.2. I have also never received any previous documentation from the Claimant in this matter and I thus was never able to properly challenge the Claimant’s claim.

1.3. At the time of the County Court Judgement, I was on the electoral roll at my new address, and was registered at the new address for council tax, banking, bills, my driving licences and with the HMRC. As Civil Enforcements Ltd had received no correspondence from me at any point, and I had not responded to the court summons, I believe they had reasonable cause to question whether they were using an accurate address and that simple searches could have provided them with the correct address.


1.4. On the 19th October 2018 (evening) I undertook a soft search in order to look at loan and credit card offers and discovered that I was not eligible for these. Upon investigating this, I found that my credit score had decreased significantly due to a CCJ I was unaware of that had been issues against me by the claimant on the XX July 2018. That same day I downloaded the Clear Score app and paid Trust Online to get details of the CCJ (see attached evidence).

1.5. On the 22nd October 2018, I contacted County Court Business Centre (Northampton) to find out details of the Default Judgement. The court papers contain only the date and road name where the alleged incident took place and I do not know what the Default Judgement relates to.

1.6. On 22nd October 2018, I attempted to contact the Claimant using information given to me by County Court Business Centre. I was not able to get through to a member of the Claimant’s staff to discuss, nor have I received a response to my answer phone message left on the Claimant’s legal department answer-phone, or, at this stage a response to my subject access request letter (emailed and posted). This means as the Defendant, I do not have any details of the incident the Claimant alleges has taken place, other than the summary of charges now owed, which is shown on the Court papers.

1.7. I believe the Claimant has behaved unreasonably in pursuing a claim against me without ensuring they held the Defendant’s current and correct contact details. According to publicly available information my circumstances are far from being unique. The Claimant’s persistent failure to use correct and current addresses results is an unnecessary burden for individuals and the justice system across the country.

1.8. On the basis provided above I would suggest that the Claimant did not fulfil their duty to use the Defendant’s current address when bringing the claim.

1.9. Considering the above I was unable to defend this claim properly. I thus believe that the Default Judgement against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside. I ask the Court to kindly also consider my request for the reimbursement of the fee of £255 from the claimant should this set aside request be successful.



2. Order dismissing the Claim

2.1. I further believe that the original Claim by the Claimant has no merit and should thus be dismissed. I understand that the Claimant is a Parking Company which seeks to claim for “Parking Charge Notices” which the Claimant believes are due as a result of an alleged breach of contract for parking by a motorist.

2.2. If the Claimant has obtained details of the vehicle for which the Defendant is the Registered Keeper, and used those details to make a claim for a “Parking Charge Notice’’, I thus dispute the claim in its entirety as I do not know the wording of the contract nor do I know the means by which the contract was alleged to come into force.

2.3. If the Claimant can evidence that the alleged incident relates to a vehicle for which the Defendant is the Registered Keeper, any Notice to Keeper served by the Claimant would have needed to comply with the requirements of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Otherwise, the Claimant is required to prove the driver of the vehicle they claim was involved in the alleged incident. I submit that the Claimant cannot provide such evidence and further submit that the Claimant does not include ‘Protection of Freedoms Act 2012’ wording on the Parking Charge Notices they issue and therefore cannot hold the Defendant automatically liable for the alleged incident merely for being the Registered Keeper of a vehicle.

2.4. A requirement of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is that this any Notice to Keeper served by the Claimant must be served within 14 days of the date of the alleged incident. Since I have not received any documentation from the Claimant prior to finding out about the Default Judgement, I submit the Claimant will not have complied with the requirements of the Act and thus cannot claim this charge against me as the Registered Keeper in any case.

2.5. I further submit that the Claimant’s claim is without merit due to substantial issues in law. This is for the following main reasons:
2.5.1. Lack of Standing by Claimant: The Claimant is unlikely to be the landowner of the car park in question and will have no proprietary interest in it. This means that the Claimant, as a matter of law, will have no locus standi to litigate in their own name. Any consideration will have been provided by the landholder, and only they would have been able sue for any damages or trespass.
2.5.2. No Loss Suffered by Claimant: Their claim is presumably based on damages for alleged breach of contract. It is a fundamental principle of English Law that a party who suffers damages through breach of contract can only seek through court action to be put back in the same position as they would have been if the breach had not occurred. In order to do so, they must demonstrate their actual, or genuine, pre-estimate of loss. I submit that no loss has been suffered by the Claimant as a result of any alleged breaches of contract on the part of any motorist of the vehicle of which I am the Registered Keeper. I further submit that any loss to the landholder (which would be the only party able to claim such losses) would be at most a few pounds.
2.5.3. No contract with the claimant: Any contract must have offer, acceptance and consideration both ways. There would not have been consideration from the Claimant to the motorist; the fee for parking benefits the landowners, not the Claimant. Therefore, there is no consideration from the motorist to [name of claimant].

2.6. On this basis I believe that the Claimant has not provided any reasonable cause of action and thus the claim should be dismissed in its entirety.
2.7. In order to make informed decisions and statements in my defence as keeper of the vehicle, I will require copies of all paperwork and pictures of all signs from the Claimant.




Statement of Truth:
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.
Full name: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dated: XXXXXXXXXX

Signed: ________________________________

KeithP

Have you seen how others have approached this?

For example, this poster, and many others, have also provided a six point Draft Order to help the Judge:

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=74830861#post74830861

You will see that one of those points is to halt any enforcement of the current Judgment. Quite important that.

YellowBananas

Thanks KeithP - I've looked at lots of peoples, just feeling a bit overwhelmed by how many their are and which bits I should use! I'll take a look at that draft order and see if I should change this one a bit.

YellowBananas

Hello, I've updated my draft order and witness statement, if anyone has a chance to have a look at it before I send it in? I'd be very grateful.

IN THE COUNTY COURT BUSINESS CENTRE

Claim No. E

BETWEEN:

Civil Enforcement Ltd Claimant


-- and --


XXX Defendant


_____________________________________


WITNESS STATEMENT

______________________________________




I am XXX and I am the Defendant in this matter.

This my supporting Statement in support of my application dated XX requesting to:

· Set aside the Default Judgement dated XX as it was defectively served using an old address.

· Order for the Claimant to pay the Defendant £255 as reimbursement for the set aside fee;

· Order for the original claim to be dismissed.

1. Default Judgement

1.1. I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgement against me on 11th July 2018. However, this claim form has not been served at my current address and I thus was not aware of the Default Judgement XX until XXth October 2018, when I was doing a routine check on my credit file. I understand that this Claim was served at an OLD ADDRESS (XXX) and relates to an alleged incident on the 11th October 2017. However, the day after the alleged incident, I moved to a new address (I purchased my new home on 12th October 2017) and I therefore believe that this disruption resulted in correspondence being served to the wrong address. In support of this I can provide confirmation from Stockport County Council showing my updated details for the purposes of paying Council tax, notification of change of address to the DVLA and letters from my solicitors confirming the date I purchased my new house, as well as messages from my old landlord to confirm when I left my old address.

1.2. On the XXOctober 2018 (evening) I undertook a soft search in order to look at loan and credit card offers and discovered that I was not eligible for these. Upon investigating this, I found that my credit score had decreased significantly due to a CCJ I was unaware of that had been issues against me by the claimant on the 11th July 2018. That same day I downloaded the Clear Score app and paid Trust Online to get details of the CCJ.

1.3. On the XX October 2018, I contacted County Court Business Centre (Northampton) to find out details of the Default Judgement. The court papers contain only the date and road name where the alleged incident took place and I do not know what the Default Judgement relates to.

1.4.On XX October 2018, I attempted to contact the Claimant using information given to me by County Court Business Centre. I was not able to get through to a member of the Claimant’s staff to discuss, nor have I received a response to my answer phone message left on the Claimant’s legal department answer-phone, or, at this stage a response to my subject access request letter (emailed and posted). This means as the Defendant, I do not have any details of the incident the Claimant alleges has taken place, other than the summary of charges now owed, which is shown on the Court papers.

1.5. I have never received any correspondence from the Claimant in this matter and I thus was never able to properly challenge the Claimant’s claim or the judgement.

1.6. At the time of the County Court Judgement, I was on the electoral roll at my new address, and was registered at the new address for council tax, banking, bills, my driving licences and with the HMRC. As Civil Enforcements Ltd had received no correspondence from me at any point, and I had not responded to the court summons, I believe they had reasonable cause to question whether they were using an accurate address and that simple searches could have provided them with the correct address.

1.7. I believe the Claimant has behaved unreasonably in pursuing a claim against me without ensuring they held the Defendant’s current and correct contact details, especially considering they had good reason to believe they did not hold my current contact details. According to publicly available information my circumstances are far from being unique. Civil Enforcement LTDs persistent failure to use correct and current addresses results is an unnecessary burden for individuals and the justice system across the country.

1.8. On the basis provided above I would suggest that the Claimant did not fulfil their duty to use the Defendant’s current address when bringing the claim.

1.9. Considering the above I was unable to defend this claim properly. I thus believe that the Default Judgement against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside. I ask the Court to kindly also consider my request for the reimbursement of the fee of £255 from the claimant should this set aside request be successful.



2. Order dismissing the Claim

2.1. I further believe that the original Claim by the Claimant has no merit and should thus be dismissed. I understand that the Claimant is a Parking Company which seeks to claim for “Parking Charge Notices” which the Claimant believes are due as a result of an alleged breach of contract for parking by a driver.

2.2. If the Claimant has obtained details of the vehicle for which the Defendant is the Registered Keeper, and used those details to make a claim for a “Parking Charge Notice’’. I dispute the claim in its entirety as I do not know the wording of the contract nor do I know the means by which the contract was alleged to come into force.

2.3. If the Claimant can evidence that the alleged incident relates to the vehicle XXX, for which the Defendant is the Registered Keeper, any Notice to Keeper served by the Claimant must comply with the requirements of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Otherwise, the Claimant is required to prove the driver of the vehicle they claim was involved in the alleged incident. I submit that the Claimant cannot provide such evidence and further submit that the Claimant does not include ‘Protection of Freedoms Act 2012’ wording on the Parking Charge Notices they issue and therefore cannot hold the Defendant automatically liable for the alleged incident merely for being the Registered Keeper of a vehicle.

2.4. A requirement of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is that this any Notice to Keeper served by the Claimant must be served within 14 days of the date of the alleged incident. Since I have not received any documentation from the Claimant prior to finding out about the Default Judgement, I submit the Claimant will not have complied with the requirements of the Act and thus cannot claim this charge against me as the Registered Keeper in any case.

2.5. I further submit that the Claimant’s claim is without merit due to substantial issues in law. This is for the following main reasons:

2.5.1. Lack of Standing by Claimant: The Claimant is unlikely to be the landowner of the car park in question and will have no proprietary interest in it. This means that the Claimant, as a matter of law, will have no locus standi to litigate in their own name. Any consideration will have been provided by the landholder, and only they would have been able sue for any damages or trespass.
2.5.2. No contract with the claimant: Any contract must have offer, acceptance and consideration both ways. Whilst I am still unclear of the circumstances, I doubt that the Claimant’s terms on signage were clear and I do not believe any driver of my car breached any clearly displayed terms or agreed to pay a 3 figure sum. As the Claimant is a BPA member and maximum ceiling for a ‘parking charge’ is £100, I dispute that there can be a ‘parking charge of £346’.

2.6. On this basis I believe that the Claimant has not provided any reasonable cause of action and thus the claim should be dismissed in its entirety.

2.7. In order to make informed decisions and statements in my defence as keeper of the vehicle, I will require copies of all paperwork and pictures of all signs from the Claimant.




Statement of Truth:
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.
Full name: XXX

Dated: XXXXXXXXXX

Signed: ________________________________

Quentin

Why not use the six point draft order you were pointed to above??

nosferatu1001

INdeed, use the SIX POINT one

Few judges will immediately Order costs to be paid. They prefer them to follow the claim. HEnce "costs are reserved" as para 2, then if they disconiute you make it so para 2 has no effect and instead they then pay your set aside costs at that point.

YellowBananas

Ah thank you Nosferatu - I'd try to find out what Costs are reserved meant everywhere and couldn't, so I hadn't included it because what I really don't want is to submit something I don't understand. Will put it in now, then I've used all the six points suggested above.

nosferatu1001

It means the decision on costs doesnt happen at the set aside, it is reserved for later.
Instead of not putting it in, asking about it would have been more sensible. Its why you were poiinted to it, after all.