CEL CCJ at home address

tdynamic

I was just wondering if I could get some advice regarding getting a CCJ set aside as the circumstances seem a little different from examples I have read elsewhere on the forum.

I am a student who doesn't use my car at university, it stays at my families house where it is registered with the DVLA. I ignored the numerous letters regarding the original fine (which I have a solid defence against) as I have had these from similar companies before and they have gone away without proceeding to a CCJ.

The difference in this case is that I only come back home every few months so when I came home from university after Christmas, I found the letter from the Business Court in Northampton who had proceeded and filed a CCJ against me in the time that had elapsed.

So I was unaware of the CCJ until I came home and checked my credit rating. Would it be suitable in this case to use the "unaware of the judgement" argument? I did receive the letter, but only after a sufficient amount of time had passed that they had filed the CCJ anyway.

Fruitcake

It is not a fine.
The advice to ignore a PCN has not been given here since the law changed in 2012.

Your situation is no different to anyone else who has ignored a PCN.

PPCs have six years to start a claim so if you have ignored others during that timeframe you could still be in for a surprise.

If you believe you had a solid defence for this PCN, why didn't you use it at the time?
Why didn't you have post forwarded to you at your uni address?
Why did you ignore correspondence once you knew about the PCN

Unless you have a good reason to challenge the CCJ decision, these are the questions you will have to answer in order to get a successful set aside. It will also cost you £255 to do it.

Do a forum search for CCJ set aside, and have a trawl through the NEWBIES especially post 2 regarding this subject. Set your search to "show posts".

tdynamic

Thanks Fruitcake.

- I didn't use the defence at the time because I assumed (wrongly in this case) that they were just empty threats.
- I don't have post forwarded onto me at university simply because I receive barely any and come home every couple of months and check it.
- Same as above, I had read elsewhere to ignore such letters from companies such as Civil Enforcement.

DoaM

But you ignored court papers .........

tdynamic

Well, I was away from home so didn't open the court papers until after the CCJ had been made against me, or else I wouldn't have ignored them.

The_Deep

IMO you have shot yourself in the foot here. You might struggle to convince a judge that your actions were reasonable. Consider paying or try for a set aside with consent.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=set+aside+with+consent&qs=SC&pq=set+side+with+consent&sc=1-21&cvid=4D9197E39B2446CAADE2ECCBA90E3498&FORM=QBRE&sp=1

nosferatu1001

tdynamic wrote: »

Well, I was away from home so didn't open the court papers until after the CCJ had been made against me, or else I wouldn't have ignored them.

You ignored them, by conduct.
You cannot operate on this system. ITs just not going to work. If you had a speeding / red light NIP come through, you have 28 days to respond, fail and thats 6 points and a MS90 conviction that will see your insurance TRIPLE for 5 years, on average.

I suggest if you are outside of the 1 month deadline to PAY IN FULL and get it removed, that you look to get a set aside "with consent", meaning
- you offer to pay in full if they agree to the consent
- you draw up the consent order and get them to sign it
- you pay the £100 fee to get your application in front of a court.

If you are inside the 1 month, then pay in full, get a receipt, send it to the CCBC and ask for the judgement to be removed.

While it is not *directly* applicable here, as its crim law, I imagine any PPC would oppose a set aside without consent by simply pointing to Whiteside v DPP, which foudn *against* a motorist where they contributed to the failure to serve, and had no mechanisms in place to ensure post was dealt with. Yes, this means if you go on holiday for 5 weeks you better have someone at home to open yuor post!

Fruitcake

tdynamic wrote: »

Thanks Fruitcake.

- I didn't use the defence at the time because I assumed (wrongly in this case) that they were just empty threats.
- I don't have post forwarded onto me at university simply because I receive barely any and come home every couple of months and check it.
- Same as above, I had read elsewhere to ignore such letters from companies such as Civil Enforcement.

That is very, very bad advice as you have since found out, and is why it has not been advised on this forum since 2013 because of the change of law in 2012.