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

YellowBananas

Hello,
Just an update on my quest to have my CCJ set aside and a plea for a little more help if possible. To recap briefly - found out I had a CCJ last month, which was issued in July through a parking charge notice from CEL of which all details (including the court stuff) went to my previous address and was never forwarded on to me. I discovered CCJ during a routine credit check.

I've finally had my set aside court case date confirmed for mid January. The court have sent me a notice of hearing, but nothing else - I thought I'd also get some documentation and / or details of what I needed to prepare for the hearing. Will that come closer to the time? I think I have to prepare my defence and print it out three times, is that right?

I still haven't heard anything from CEL at all, though the court have now told me the date and location of the alleged offence. I have since found out (and have evidence from a local councillor who is also Vice President of the Planning and Highways Regulations Committee) that the CEL cameras and notices were placed on council land, rather than the private land, at the time of the alleged offence. Does anyone know if this would be a reasonable defence to put to the judge, alongside my other defence of not receiving the details?

Additionally, I have also found out that CEL requested my address details on the 16th and I moved out on the 22nd so the only thing I have done wrong is to not forward my mail, though I had left fowarding addresses. Not sure how relevant this is.

Many thanks in advance for any responses.

Quentin

They only get one chance to get your address.

Thus the one they used at the time was correct and it was down to you to have arranged mail forwarding.

Unlikely cel will attend the set aside hearing

Include the info regarding the signs in your outline defence you show the judge.

You need to show why this should be set aside (due to you being unaware of the claim) as well as an outline of the defence you would have used had you responded to the claim

YellowBananas

Great, thanks Quentin - I'll include the signage information.

Planning to follow Saggi / Jeff's threads on how they prepared their defence for their hearings too, so hopefully I'll get this right!

Umkomaas

I have since found out (and have evidence from a local councillor who is also Vice President of the Planning and Highways Regulations Committee) that the CEL cameras and notices were placed on council land, rather than the private land, at the time of the alleged offence. Does anyone know if this would be a reasonable defence to put to the judge, alongside my other defence of not receiving the details?

Do you have this in writing under official LA letterhead? Have the council ordered the cameras removal? Are the council prosecuting?

The answers to those questions might be of more interest to a small claims court Judge than you reporting hearsay. But no case I've ever seen on here where 'no planning permission' has been proffered as part of a defence has sparked any form of interest from a Judge.

Additionally, I have also found out that CEL requested my address details on the 16th and I moved out on the 22nd so the only thing I have done wrong is to not forward my mail, though I had left fowarding addresses. Not sure how relevant this is.

That is very relevant to you seeking the granting of a set aside.

I'm sorry, but I don't know whether you actually need to prepare a defence (anticipatory) in the event of the court not formally requiring you to do so, or whether there is more to come from the court in that regard. But unless you have the details of the Particulars of Claim from the Claimant, how can you form a defence against those Particulars? I'm sure others will help out in this context.

YellowBananas

Hi UmKomaas - I have a copy of the letter (on Council letterhead) from the Councillor confirming that the cameras etc were on council land and that he had asked for them to be removed on many occasions, and I have an email to me confirming he wrote the letter. He is also willing to accompany me to court (though I won't ask him to do this). He's been campaigning against CEL and the particular spot the charge relates to, because he thinks CEL are corrupt. I guess I'll use it, in the hope that the Judge might see it as a possible defence that I could have used to defend the claim, if I'd known about it.

My biggest concern is a) that the judge might not grant the set aside, because I didn't forward my mail - but there is no legal requirement to do so and b) preparing a defence against something I don't know the details of, as you point out!

YellowBananas

Just an update from me - I’m delighted to say that today my CCJ was set aside. Thought I’d post a summary to help others in similar situations. Firstly, CEL didn’t turn up, but they did send an email (this morning) stating that they didn’t object to the CCJ being set aside. The judge remarked on this but said he would have set aside anyway.

The judge set my judgement aside based simply on the fact I didn’t know about the claim, and on my ability to defend it. I had to justify both of these things (and I had supplied evidence). Re the defence, he didn’t want me to discuss how I hadn’t seen the original claim, but was more than happy for me to just say “I presume they didn’t comply with notice to keeper” and I also had one other defence - signage illegally placed which the judge agreed was a robust defence.

For those of you who didn’t update your V5, be mindful of using the ‘service was defective’ as a line of defence. The judge was very clear that, as my address was still wrong on my V5 by the time the original judgement was made, that the service was not defective. I did raise the fact that I believed that parking companies could only request information from DVLA once which he said was incorrect. And he felt strongly that service was defective was not a good enough defence in this case.

However, the judge clearly stated that he would have accepted it as defence if I had changed my V5 to my new address BEFORE the original default judgement was made. And in that case, he would have set aside and awarded costs (both set aside fee and my costs to be paid by CEL).

Judge was great - clear, open and not wanting to scare me (I was v nervous) and clearly happy to set the judgement aside - if you are in a similar situation, I would say go for it but seek as much advice as possible. If I hadn’t done my research I may have come unstuck.

Now onwards for me to defending the original claim. Thanks again to any responses thus far.

Coupon-mad

That's good. And thanks for the summary which will help newbies. :T

Which site is this where the cameras and signs were on Council land?

And are they still?

sha09

Hi, I am just stuck in a similar situation. I came to know that I have CCJ default judgment on 26th November 2019. The claimant is BW Legal on the behalf of Premier Parking Limited. I contacted the court and the court provide the brief details, including claimant name, their legal representative name, the amount, the date, place and time of the PCN. 

I contact the BW legal and found that they sent all the documents to my previous address. I told them this is not my current address, they said they got it from credit reference agency equifax. Well I contacted the equifax and they said that not my current addresss which BW Legal is claiming to have as a current address. 

I want to apply for set aside. The grounds are, I did not received the claim form from court, and the parking charge notice they served should be dismissed as I can recall that was issue to unauthorised parking at my friends place where private parking monitoring was active. However, it was allowed to stay 15 minutes for loading and if you want to stay more the you have to take permission from the reception that my friend took.

i filled up my N244 form, drafted my statement and acquired the equifax report showing my recent address from last 4 years.

however, I received a call from BW this morning and they said they will send me the copy of all the correspondence at my new address but they did not confirmed the proof that they got my prebioia address details from equifax. 

I was to ask if I should wait for their document to receive and apply for n244 after that OR apply for n244 set aside today? I also sent them an email this morning saying that I need the proof that you guys got my previous address as my current address from equifax. 

Kindly suggest your expert opinion ASAP 

many thanks 

nosferatu1001

Yes, our expert opinion is that, despite agreeing NOT to hijack others threads, you have done so
NO MORE posts on this thread. Start your OWN thread if you want advice
But for this question: you have a duty to file your applicaiton promptly, meaning 3 weeks at most. Thats your ABSOLUTE deadline. Use that info wisely

sha09

I am really sorry, actually i was trying to post a new thread but i was unable to find the topic where to start this thread. Again i am sorry i am new to this forum and a bit panicked due to the this CCJ. I will try to find out again to start a new thread.