Surprise CCJ from Parking Eye wanting to get it set aside and overturn the original PCN

aMulqus

Hello all,

Having been reading through this forum and legal beagles, I see that I am one of so many people this has happened to! 

My Time Line.
Moved home May 2020
30th July 2020 
Took my daughter for a day out at the seaside. Start of summer holidays, more restrictions being lifted and a very sunny day. Lead to a very busy seafront and me driving around for ages struggling to find somewhere to park.
Eventually pulled into a small carpark and joined a queue of cars waiting for spaces to become available.
Finally managed to park, went to the 'pay and display machine' and saw I could pay via the 'Paybyphone' Parking App. After a couple of attempts to log in I paid for 3 hours parking. 
Arrived back at car before the 3 hours expired. Loaded my daughter into the car, allowed another driver to exit a space then left the car park.

Around the 10th of August paid a visit to my old address and was given some mail that had been delivered there addressed to me. This included a Parking Charge Notice from Parking Eye for "not having purchased the appropriate parking time, or by remaining at the car park for longer than permitted, in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in the signage" at the car park on the 30/07/2020.

Very confused about this, I found the receipt for the ticket I purchased via the App and completed their online appeals process.

According to Parking Eye's ANPR camera I entered the car park 22 minutes and 35 seconds before I purchased the ticket.
And I exited the car park 3 minutes and 38 seconds after my time expired.

I received one email from Parking Eye on the 11/08/2020 to say that my appeal had been logged and a second email from them on the 27/08/2020 to say my appeal had of course not been successful.
I then appealed via the online POPLA process.
I received an email from POPLA on the 4/09/2020 to say Parking Eye had uploaded their evidence. Which I logged in to see and downloaded.
I then received an email from POPLA dated 24/12/2020 saying they had been unable to open the document I sent detailing my appeal and asking me to resend within 7 days.
I resent it on the 28/12/2020.

I then heard nothing from Parking Eye or POPLA.

Jump forward to last Thursday the 27/01/2022. When deciding to check my credit score I found a CCJ made against me on the 21/09/2021 against the address I had moved out from in MAY 2020. I immediately called the courts to find out what it was and of course it was related to the Parking Charge Notice from Parking Eye. The person I spoke to agreed to send me a N244 form.

I have spent the last week reading through the threads on here and legal beagles forum. Trying to get my head around it all and wishing I had known about these amazing forums at the start of this whole process. This has not been easy as a self-employed single parent trying to understand what to do and be prompt in my response.

I am wanting to get the Judgment set aside and to defend my side to hopefully get the original PCN overturned.

Actions I have taken:
I spoke to the person living at my old address and asked if they had received any post addressed to me over the last year and a half. They said anything that they did receive was immediately returned to sender marked "Not Known at this Address". They agreed to sign a letter on the 30/01/2022 to this affect.

I have filled in the N244. 

I have filled in a EX160 (I believe I should be able to get help with fees as I do receive some universal credit.)

I have drafted a Draft order, a Witness Statement and a Draft Defence, using as much examples of content that is similar to my situation on the two forums. 

I have not sent any of these to the court yet.

Questions I have.

Given that I am wanting to appeal the original PCN, should I still email Parking Eye and ask for a Consent Order? From what I understand this action is only taken if the defendant is agreeing to settle and to pay the fee to have it set aside. Is this correct?

If I should email them; Can anyone give me a template of how to word that email and the Consent Order I should attach? Every example I have found so far has been entering into a negotiation with the PPC and I am sure I can not ask them to draft a consent order if I am not agreeing to pay.


I would also really appreciate feedback on my Draft order,  Witness Statement and Draft Defence. I do have some specific questions relating to each of them. As I can't see a way to attach files to this post, Should I copy and paste them all of them here as one long post or as a separate posts? 

Any help, guidance, feedback is very much appreciated.

Redx

Host files on a file hosting site such as Dropbox or similar , add a link but change http to hxxp , to make it a dead link

You can only attach Redacted pictures here , nothing else

aMulqus

Redx said:

Host files on a file hosting site such as Dropbox or similar , add a link but change http to hxxp , to make it a dead link

You can only attach Redacted pictures here , nothing else

Thank you very much Redx.

Draft order:
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/51ezgeu2u7gifx3wnddm7/Draft-Order-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=y5nahimghrxs52vb17hw3elhl

Draft Witness statment:

hxxps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/azqng805gliz0oyretmhk/Witness-statment-2nd-draft-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=ms7c4owzduec1l7zfgen8pvs2

Draft Defence:
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8ervkcvhxiv8660uhafzg/Draft-Defence-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=dxkyhxy7tqv4xz551cdm7317l

Draft N244:
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/s/sf5i1ozal5xvujw/n244-eng%20DRAFT.pdf?dl=0

Draft EX160:
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/s/blv5ayl43ylle6d/EX160_form%20DRAFT.pdf?dl=0

Parking eyes Evidence submitted when I made the appeal to POPLA. I have just noticed that the time stamps on their photos of the signs in the car park are from over a year before the PCN was sent. I don't know if that is also useful?

hxxps://www.dropbox.com/s/3bstickztv1q13n/Parking%20Eyes%20evidence%20when%20I%20first%20appealed%20the%20PCN.pdf?dl=0

Le_Kirk

Your links made live - please note that I have not sense checked them for any private information that you did not redact.  If there are any let me know and I will take down the links until you have amended them
Draft order:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/51ezgeu2u7gifx3wnddm7/Draft-Order-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=y5nahimghrxs52vb17hw3elhl

Draft Witness statement:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/azqng805gliz0oyretmhk/Witness-statment-2nd-draft-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=ms7c4owzduec1l7zfgen8pvs2

Draft Defence:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8ervkcvhxiv8660uhafzg/Draft-Defence-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=dxkyhxy7tqv4xz551cdm7317l

Draft N244:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sf5i1ozal5xvujw/n244-eng DRAFT.pdf?dl=0

Draft EX160:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/blv5ayl43ylle6d/EX160_form DRAFT.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3bstickztv1q13n/Parking Eyes evidence when I first appealed the PCN.pdf?dl=0

aMulqus

Le_Kirk said:

Your links made live - please note that I have not sense checked them for any private information that you did not redact.  If there are any let me know and I will take down the links until you have amended them

Thank you Le_Kirk.

I have double checked and I believe I had redacted any private information that could be an issue. Fingers crossed.🤞

I am very grateful for your effort and time to have reposted them as live.

D_P_Dance

Have you seen this?  They have done nothing so complain to yur MP>

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3786132/I-ll-end-credit-rating-scandal-pledges-PM-acts-Mail-exposes-rulings-ruined-lives.html

Coupon-mad

Draft order:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/51ezgeu2u7gifx3wnddm7/Draft-Order-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=y5nahimghrxs52vb17hw3elhl

Draft Witness statement:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/azqng805gliz0oyretmhk/Witness-statment-2nd-draft-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=ms7c4owzduec1l7zfgen8pvs2

Draft Defence:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8ervkcvhxiv8660uhafzg/Draft-Defence-copy.docx?dl=0&rlkey=dxkyhxy7tqv4xz551cdm7317l

Draft N244:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sf5i1ozal5xvujw/n244-eng DRAFT.pdf?dl=0

Draft EX160:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/blv5ayl43ylle6d/EX160_form DRAFT.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3bstickztv1q13n/Parking Eyes evidence when I first appealed the PCN.pdf?dl=0

A lot to look at for us all but we'll come back to it over the weekend for you.

aMulqus

Coupon-mad said:

A lot to look at for us all but we'll come back to it over the weekend for you.

Thank you. Yes, I appreciate it is a lot. So any guidance really is appreciated.

Le_Kirk

Regarding your draft order, leave the dates as DD/MM/YY or __/__/__ for the judge to fill in.  Leave in the item about costs as you don't know whether you will get help with fees or not and the claimant will only pay such fees as you incur.  The rest, in my opinion, is fine.
Regarding your witness statement you might want to look at CPR 13.2 as, if the claim form was not served at your current address the set-aside is mandatory, you should refer to the CPRs in your WS.  You might want to look at the spelling of correspondents; did you mean correspondence?  You might want to look at some replies posted by one of the regulars @henrik777 who is an acknowledged expert on set-asides.
Your draft defence looks more like a witness statement.  Look at the standard template defence to see an example of style and format.  You cannot use it in its entirety because your case is ParkingEye and they do not charge the spurious £60 debt admin costs.

Coupon-mad

I'd search for set aside CCJ dead 4 months for the latest examples of CCJ set aside wording.

aMulqus

Le_Kirk said:

Regarding your draft order, leave the dates as DD/MM/YY or __/__/__ for the judge to fill in.  Leave in the item about costs as you don't know whether you will get help with fees or not and the claimant will only pay such fees as you incur.  The rest, in my opinion, is fine.
Regarding your witness statement you might want to look at CPR 13.2 as, if the claim form was not served at your current address the set-aside is mandatory, you should refer to the CPRs in your WS.  You might want to look at the spelling of correspondents; did you mean correspondence?  You might want to look at some replies posted by one of the regulars @henrik777 who is an acknowledged expert on set-asides.
Your draft defence looks more like a witness statement.  Look at the standard template defence to see an example of style and format.  You cannot use it in its entirety because your case is ParkingEye and they do not charge the spurious £60 debt admin costs.

Coupon-mad said:

I'd search for set aside CCJ dead 4 months for the latest examples of CCJ set aside wording.

Thank you both so much for the feedback.

I have found the standard defence template and will look at adapting it to meet my case, given that it is against Parking eye.

I will also adapt the WS adding in the CCJ dead 4 months text and adding in a reference to CPR13.2

Do I need to do the acknowledge the service of a claim on the MCOL, that is talked about on the standard defence post? I don't have a claim number etc as I never received that information. Or is that the next step after the CCJ is set aside and then it progresses to me defending my case against the PCN?

It also seems to me that I do need to email Parking eye to ask for a consent to set aside. Even though I am wanting to defend against the original PCN. I gather they are unlikely to respond or agree but I guess it shows I have given them the opportunity to pay less.

Is that correct? 

If so, could you please check my wording for the proposed email I will send them and the consent order I will attach to the email.

To whom it may concern,

Re: County Court Claim No. XXXXXX 

Re: Charge Notice Ref No. XXXXXXXX

On 21/09/2021 you were awarded a county court judgement against me to recover the outstanding amount for a charge notice relating to a parking event that took place on 30/07/2020.

The judgement was sent to an address I had not lived at for some time.

I have a signed letter from the resident of that address confirming any and all mail sent to me at that address, was returned to sender, marked “Not Known at this address”.

You had an email address for me, which you had used to contact me. The last email from you was dated the 27/08/2020.

For this reason it is clear that you failed to take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of the defendant’s (myself) current residence or place of business (‘current address’).

As service was defective and not valid, the court must set aside your judgment pursuant to CPR 13.2

In light of the above, and the over riding objectives (CPR 1) I invite you to consent to a mandatory set aside, with the costs borne by yourselves which will be cheaper than obtaining the same result without consent.

I have attached a consent order to this email which we can use, or if you have a template of your own making which you are happy to use I am willing to consider it.

Please respond within seven days.

Yours Faithfully,

IN THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COURT BUSINESS CENTRE	CLAIM NO: XXX
B E T W E E N

	Parking Eye Ltd
		Claimant
	-and-
	XXXX
		Defendant

	CONSENT ORDER

UPON the application of the Defendant to set aside a default judgment dated 21/09/2021

 

AND UPON the Claimant and the Defendant having agreed that the Claim Form was not served at the Defendant’s last known address

BY CONSENT IT IS ORDERED THAT:- 

1. The judgment dated 21/09/2021 be set aside.

2. The Claimant to pay the Defendant’s costs of this application on an indemnity basis. 

3. Unless the Claimant serves a copy of the Claim Form on the Defendant by 4pm on __/__/__ the claim will be struck out without further order

4. If the Claimant serves the claim form as directed in paragraph 3 the Defendant shall file and serve a defence by 4pm __/__/__

5. All enforcement be put on hold pending the outcome of the application.

6. Should the court reserve costs in the case as an alternative to paragraph 2, such costs of this application will become payable if the claimant discontinues its claim.

Dated this 8th day of February 2022

Signed ………………….………………….		Signed ………………….………………….
For and on behalf of the Claimant		The Defendant