CEL CCJ Set Aside - Support Please!

redredelise

henrik777 said:

1. The Claimant to pay the Defendant’s costs of this application to the sum of £255

Then you ask for the same sum again if they fail to serve particulars and then again if they discontinue. These are only terms you'd seek to add IF you don't get outright costs and they are reserved.

So better to remove remove these and just request once? 

henrik777

redredelise said:

henrik777 said:

1. The Claimant to pay the Defendant’s costs of this application to the sum of £255

Then you ask for the same sum again if they fail to serve particulars and then again if they discontinue. These are only terms you'd seek to add IF you don't get outright costs and they are reserved.

So better to remove remove these and just request once? 

Yes, but be prepared to ask for it if costs are reserved rather than awarded.

redredelise

Thanks @henrik777

Coupon-mad

...an alleged twelve minute overstay based on images of the vehicle in transit, captured by two unsynchronised 'in/out' ANPR cameras.  No evidence of parking time has been provided.

SayNoToPCN

For your defence, just shorten it a bit; you need to show a short background to the claim, ie what kind of car park is it, the alleged reason for the charge being issued (If you know it! its not always clear)
You do not need to give war and peace, and it must all be numbered para; any time you put a new paregraph in, that has a new sequential number, and you renumber ther remaining para to suit. You do not ever use sub para (no 3.1, 3.2 etc) 

Le_Kirk

... as well as numbering as indicated by @SayNoToPCN, you do not apply for a SAR, you submit a SAR and it is the results of that SAR that provide evidence.

redredelise

This is all extremely helpful.
I'm working on these edits now.

redredelise

Here is the edited Draft Defence...

The facts as known to the Defendant:

1.     It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question, but liability is denied as it is not known who the driver was at the time of the incident. 

2.     The Defendant first became aware of the PCN when applying for a mortgage in principle. It was declined due to the presence of a CCJ on the Defendant’s credit file. A quick investigation revealed an unpaid PCN from an alleged twelve minute overstay in a small customer car park for xxxxxxxxxxxx on 14/08/2018. The alleged twelve minute overstay was based on images of the vehicle in transit, captured by two unsynchronised 'in/out' ANPR cameras.  No evidence of parking time has been provided. 

3.     The Defendant believes that the PCN issued by the Claimant does not adhere to the ‘Keeper Liability’ requirements set out in the Protection of Freedom Act 2012, Schedule 4, and so cannot be held liable.

 

4.     The Defendant believes that the alleged twelve minute overstay by the driver in any case should not have been issued with a PCN as that time would be considered to be part of a ‘consideration period’ and/or a ‘grace period’ as set out by the BPA Code of Conduct and raised in the POPLA Annual Report 2019. 

5. continues with the rest of the template...

Is this improved enough and ready to go?

redredelise

This is edited Witness Statement..

Is it good to go?

Thanks so much again for your continued support 🙂


I've omitted the top section to save space/reading unnecessary text


SET ASIDE THE DEFAULT JUDGMENT

 

1.1. I was the registered keeper of the vehicle at the time of the alleged parking event.

 

1.2. I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgment against me as the Defendant on 19/06/2019. I am aware that the Claimant is Civil Enforcement Limited, and that the assumed claim is in respect of an unpaid Parking Charge Notice from 14/08/2018 at the car park foxxxxxxxxxx. I contest this charge for the reasons outlined in the attached Draft Defence. I also understand that this Claim was served at a previous address xxxxxxxx where I have not lived since April 2017 and not at my then current address xxxxxxxxxx. Confirmation of my address at the time of the claim are in the form of a solicitor’s letter, NHS letter, pension letter, and bank statement, all from around the date the PCN was issued. See Exhibit A.

 

1.3. Since the claim form was not served at the correct address, I thus was not aware of the Default Judgment until 22nd February 2021. 

 

1.3.1. I discovered a CCJ was lodged onto my name on the 22/02/2021 following a telephone call from my mortgage broker who was organising a mortgage in principle for me to purchase a property. I immediately began contacting the relevant organisations to remedy the situation as the offer I had made had been accepted. I needed to act quickly if I was to hold on to the property. Due to the CCJ I was unable to go ahead with the purchase and I have lost any prospect of buying anywhere for some time.

 

1.3.2.  22/02/2021 Registration with ‘Check My File’ (an online credit file company) to gather any information about the CCJ. It was visible on TransUnion’s credit report but very few details were available.

 

1.3.3. 22/02/2021 Purchase of a search report from ‘Trust Online’ to see if there was any information regarding the CCJ. This gave the case reference number and the name of the court that dealt with the judgment.

 

1.3.4. 23/02/2021 Telephone call to County Court Business Centre. They explained that the CCJ was for an alleged parking penalty notice. It was served at a previous address. They advised to apply for a set aside and to contest the PCN via form N244. 

 

1.3.5. 24/02/2021 Email received from County Court Business Centre confirming points discussed in our telephone conversation.

 

1.3.6. 27/02/2021 Telephone call to xxxxxxxxx – manager not available.

 

1.3.7. 02/03/2021 Telephone call to xxxxxxxxxx – manager not available.

 

1.3.8. 04/03/2021 Telephone call to Civil Enforcement Limited. Received no answer. Message left with contact details. Still no response after seven days. Noted some wording taken from their Privacy Policy on their website as follows, ‘In circumstances where we have not received any response from you to our PCN or debt recovery correspondence and in line with the latest BPA Code of Practice, we will undertake a trace to confirm you are still at the address provided to us by the DVLA before we issue a county court claim against you’.

 

1.3.9. 04/03/2021 Visit to the car park to view any signage. There is no way of knowing if the signs currently placed are the same that were present the date of the alleged parking event.

Email sent to Lewisham Council to ask if Civil Enforcement Limited had planning permission to place the signs on private land. 08/03/2021 Email response to confirm that planning permission was not required.

 

1.3.10.  11/03/2021 Work began on researching the process of how to fill in form N244 and to construct the relevant additional documents of a Draft Order, Witness Statement and Draft Defence. I would like to bring to the court’s attention that I am not a lawyer or solicitor and so the research has taken some time. Work completed is done to the best of my ability.

 

1.3.11. 27/03/2021 Email to the Data Protection Officer at Civil Enforcement Limited to submit a Subject Access Request and attached proof of ID and the registration number of the car concerned.

 

1.3.12. 01/04/2021 Telephone call with manager at xxxxxxxxx – he said he would have been happy to cancel the original PCN at the time but, as such a long time had passed, he would not be able to do that. We discussed that both my partner and I use the shop and so I was unsure of who the driver was at the time. He asked me to come to the shop where he would provide a letter of support for my defence in this case, explaining that both my partner and I were regular customers at the time and ask that the CCJ be set aside.

 

1.3.13. 01/04/2021 Results of SAR received by Civil Enforcement Limited. It was noted that over a period of 11 months CEL sent a total of nine correspondence in relation to the alleged incident. It would be reasonable to believe that CEL would assume that they would have an out-of-date address, having at no point received a response, and should have looked to obtain a current address in order to rectify this.

 

1.4. Above entails, as per Civil Procedure Rules 6.9 (3,4), that proceedings were not validly served because the Claimant was incorrect in assuming that this was my last known address and did not take reasonable steps to ascertain my current address, despite claiming on their website that they do (see 1.3.6.). This leads to no service; they were not entitled to judgment and the court must set aside the claim.

 

1.5. I submit that by the virtue of the Claimant sending the letters to my previous address, I was not afforded any method by which to appeal, nor any information about complaints procedures to the landowner xxxxxxx. This omission prevented me from being able to get this charge cancelled by the landowner (xxxxxxxxx). If I could have appealed to POPLA or had known about the charge and been able to contact the landowner (xxxxxxxxxx) who could deal with such complaints and cancel charges, I would have done so.

 

1.6. I have at no time tried to avoid paying for any known debt, and was at all times there, to be found by a simple trace. It is submitted that the Claimant should have taken those reasonable steps, and would have known or should have surmised that it was likely that I was not at the previous address, given the length of time from the alleged parking event and the fact that the Claimant was receiving no reply from me.

 

1.7. I believe the Claimant has behaved unreasonably in pursuing a claim against me without ensuring they were using my correct contact details. According to publicly available information, my circumstances are far from being unusual. The Claimant appears to have consistently failed to reasonably pursue the claim, as has been referred to as the practice of ‘Credit Clamping’, which several members of the Government have strongly condemned. Theresa May had pledged to investigate the "abuse of” the CCJ system, while The Rt Hon Sir Oliver Heald QC MP has been quoted as saying on 23rd December 2016: "It cannot be right that people who are unaware of debts can see their lives and finances ruined by county court judgments. In the digital age, we must ensure companies pursuing unpaid debts make every reasonable effort to contact individuals, rather than simply relying on a letter to an old address." and announced “a crackdown on unresolved debts which can damage people's credit ratings without them knowing.” The action comes after concerns were raised that companies were issuing claims to individuals using incorrect addresses.

 

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

 

1.9. Considering all of the above, I was unable to defend this claim properly. I believe that the Default Judgment against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside.

 

 

 

Statement of Truth:

 

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.  I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

SayNoToPCN

Defence looks good
Not going to have chance to review WS tonight, sorry