Wife didn't update DVLA with new address. Got a parking ticket we didn't realise which is now a CCJ!

Coupon-mad

The bigger failure is the claimant's failure to make ANY effort to trace people:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/12/government-announce-ccj-review-due-to.html

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-measures-to-protect-consumers-from-debt-claims

The consultation will look at ways to:

better protect consumers who are sent mail to inaccurate addresses
verify addresses again before a claim is sent
protect people’s credit scores from being damaged if they resolve outstanding debts quickly
consider how modern communication could notify people of outstanding debts
assess the role of parking companies and examine how drivers are informed of fines

So bad are parking firms that they have caused a review, at great cost.

They KNEW from the DVLA that they were expected to trace people before suing, there is an FOI about that somewhere. So by carrying on regardless, parking firms are acting unreasonably.

You, on the other hand, made a perfectly human error or omission and did NOT know.

nosferatu1001

You need to stress that they
1) waited X months to initiate court action
2) Had not had ANY response to ANY letter, so had NO indication the address they held was *ever* a good address for service
3) that you were "there to be found" at your new address - council tax, utilitiy bills etc
4) They should have used some reaosnable diligence to ensure they had the right address *before* filing the claim, and were expected to do so.

Sam_Brown

Thanks for the heads up. We’ve got proof from previous letting agency and electoral role she moved out. In fact half the proof we got didn’t even require us going out of our way to find the proof! If we could find out her address at that point in time with only one email then I’m sure a respectable company like NPM could have done so in the 12 months or so between first contact and arranging the ccj.

Sam_Brown

Coupon-mad wrote: »

They KNEW from the DVLA that they were expected to trace people before suing, there is an FOI about that somewhere. So by carrying on regardless, parking firms are acting unreasonably.

If you or anyone has a link to the FOI I'd love to see it to add some weight to my case

Sam_Brown

Ok. Good news everybody. Had the hearing today and the CCJ has been wiped and we have another hearing scheduled in 4 weeks time.

The parking company actually sent someone but it was just a young girl who looked like she had no idea what she was doing 🤔.

All over in about 5 minutes and the judge basically said we want a CCJ removing and the parking company want a hearing so let’s just cut to the chase and remove the judgement and a hearing in a months time for the original claim. Got the feeling he didn’t have much time for the girl and he’d seen her lots of times before.

Thanks for all the help to date. All good for round two soon. Didn’t even need to give my little speech I was up until 3 am prepping 🤯

beamerguy

Sam_Brown wrote: »

Ok. Good news everybody. Had the hearing today and the CCJ has been wiped and we have another hearing scheduled in 4 weeks time.

The parking company actually sent someone but it was just a young girl who looked like she had no idea what she was doing 🤔.

All over in about 5 minutes and the judge basically said we want a CCJ removing and the parking company want a hearing so let’s just cut to the chase and remove the judgement and a hearing in a months time for the original claim. Got the feeling he didn’t have much time for the girl and he’d seen her lots of times before.

Thanks for all the help to date. All good for round two soon. Didn’t even need to give my little speech I was up until 3 am prepping 🤯

These companies tend to send rookies to court because they are cheap. Sounds like the judge is on your side and he will apply notes to your file. The parking company will lose regardless what they say, that's if they even turn up

What about the £255 ?

Sam_Brown

It was only 50 in the end. Did mention it but he said that would be sorted out during the hearing. Only issue I have is that taking the day off work ends up costing me a fair bit of money so I’m half tempted to offer to settle out of court for a small amount and seeing what they say.

Apparently we now need to provide a defence to the court and the claimant moving forwards so need to work out how to do that as well.

Le_Kirk

Plenty of defences are shown as examples in NEWBIE post # 2 written by Bargepole and others.
I think you would be wise to turn up and defend and that way you can ask for costs for the original case and the set-aside fee. If you are not there you cannot argue it!

Sam_Brown

Ok finally getting round to the defence. I’m happy looking up the defences at this point.

What I’m not sure is the process for actually submitting the defence. Is there a specific form we have to use and is there another fee to pay? Also we have to submit the defence to the claimant as well?

KeithP

Sam_Brown wrote: »

Ok finally getting round to the defence. I’m happy looking up the defences at this point.

What I’m not sure is the process for actually submitting the defence. Is there a specific form we have to use and is there another fee to pay? Also we have to submit the defence to the claimant as well?

Look again at your Court Order on whether you have to send a copy of your Defence to the other party. I suspect you do.

No specific forms. Look at some of the examples linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES thread for layout etc.

You can email your Defence to the court that is dealing with your case. Lookup the email address on courtfinder. Maybe chack with the court beforehand.

Use this as guidance:

When you are happy with the content, your Defence should be filed via email as suggested here:

Print your Defence.
1. Sign it and date it.
   
2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to [the email address on courtfinder]
   
4. Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.