i have had a ccj filed against me

chrisski961

i have had a CCJ posted against me as a result of a PCN issued by CEL. I initially appealed against it (not admitting i was the driver just the registered keeper) which was summarily rejected.

The incident occurred at The Ibis hotel in Shipley where i was instructed to park while visiting another office and pay £2 at reception which i duly did. There is a chance that i entered the wrong reg no (incorrect 2nd character) and i did query this with the receptionist and was told not to worry.

When the appeal was rejected i rang the hotel who were quite sympathetic and told me they had cancelled the charge and not to worry. Every subsequent threat letter from CEL i rang the hotel to confirm it had been cancelled. This was on at least 4 occasions. I had assumed that as a reputable company they and their staff were competent and kept their word therefore would have done this. i did take names on each occasion but when i hadn't heard anything for a number of weeks i destroyed the paperwork.

Much to my shock and horror i then received a county court letter telling me that judgement had been passed in favour of CEL and i owed over £200 and had a county court judgement against me. I did not receive any letter from the court re the action/hearing date, no statement of facts etc and have not been able to present any defence whatsoever about this.

This will have a significant effect on my finances as we are due to remortgage soon and a CCJ will have a significant effect on that. I have found that it will cost me £250 to get the judgement set aside and that there is no reasonable chance of getting that £250 back.

Any advice or help would be gratefully received as i'm at my wits end with this and don't know what to do! apologies if this should have gone on an existing thread but i couldn't find any that has got to this stage.

Redx

first , edit the above into readable paragraphs , using the RETURN key (new line key)

secondly, go to the top of the forum , look at the third thread down with NEWBIES in the title , click on it

scroll down to post #2 and read the part about SET ASIDES

its £255 for a set aside, and no guarantee it will be granted, nor any guarantee that your future defence will be successful

so think carefully, after carefully reading about this process , because there are NO quick fixes, so stop looking for one


what is the date of the CCJ ?

zap99

I'm in a similar position, so I'm going to save you some time. Nearly every response will be to "read the newbie thread", which is very useful, but also *very* time consuming.

Right now, you need to worry about getting the CCJ set aside. The actual 'defence' part can come later.

In order to do that, you need to file an N244 form, which will cost you £255. You can attempt to recover this via costs, but you really have to ask yourself if it's worth your time.

You need to file the N244 along with a witness statement. In order for a judgment to be set aside, the judge will look for the following:

1) Was the CCJ correctly served? (This is the point I'm going for - I was also literally unaware until a mortgage application)
2) Can the case be defended?
3) Was the N244 filed promptly?

If you can satisfy one (or all?) of these points, then you have a case.

CEL are serial offenders, and thankfully, this business of issuing CCJs without people being able to defend them will soon come to an end.

The newbie post is *very* helpful. Get a template for a witness statement, and concentrate solely on the points to get the CCJ set aside. Don't focus on things like 'contacting Ibis' etc, just focus on anything that will strengthen your case around not receiving the CCJ.

Once you've filed that, issue a Subject Access Request to CEL. You can do this electronically, and the link can be found under 'Privacy Terms' on their website. This will allow you to see all the information they hold on you, and build a realistic defence.

That's about as far as I can get. If you're successful with the CCJ, the state of the claim will be reset to its state right before the CCJ was issued. You will still owe the money, but it'll be up to you as to whether or not you fight the case in court, or you pay up.

Note: this information is given in good faith, and is everything I've learned from these forums. There may be additional things you need to do, but I thought I'd offer some info other than "read the newbie post".

Hope this helps!

tboo

chrisski961 wrote: »

i have had a CCJ posted against me as a result of a PCN issued by CEL


What date is the CCJ and the date you found out you had one?


I did not receive any letter from the court re the action/hearing date, no statement of facts etc and have not been able to present any defence whatsoever about this.


Why is this - Have you moved since the parking incident?
What does your VC5 (log book) address state?

..........................

chrisski961

The date of the ccj is 25th March

chrisski961

No i havent moved. The V5C shows my current address. I didnt receive any notice of court hearing from the court which they say was posted on 25th of Feb. I cant act on what i dont receive.

Redx

well , its either pay IN FULL within one month of this judgment , or you would have to file for a set aside and try to prove non-receipt of the papers etc

the pay in full will stop the CCJ being registered and so your credit rating would be unaffected

so think carefully about these options , and read post #3 above carefully as it does explain what needs to be done and proven


and you have still not edited post #1 above , using a laptop

chrisski961

Your help and advice is appreciated.
Not too sure about the grammatical advice though from someone who doesnt capitalise each paragraph?

Redx

its about spacing your text and making it easy to read on all devices , nothing to do with capitalising or punctuation marks etc

if you want help, make it easy for people to read on various devices instead of one great wall of text that is difficult to read, hence why you were told to add paragraphs in order to add white space between the sections, the same as in the replies you received

being facetious wont help your case , and making fun of people with mild dyslexia wont either !!

chrisski961

Fair enough and duly done. I was not making fun nor being facetious. I apologise if it seems that way. My wife has dyslexia as does my son. I found your initial reply while helpful quite rude and unfriendly.

twhitehousescat

you should have received both a letter before court , and then the official court papers , you say you have not moved address ,

when you appealed to them was it by mail , did you get letter back from them


and have you actually checked address on v5