Advice for CCJ - Not in country when served

Le_Kirk

Worth a try then!

NotAnotherOne

Coupon-mad said:

Depends, might just be, by the time the OP has tried for consent to set aside, been knocked back, then put in their N244 for a contested application.

Have to say, it's disappointing and unfortunate that a poster who knew a claim was imminent and likely, would not have asked someone to open his/her post, if abroad for 4 months.  Or had all post redirected by Royal Mail (costs very little) to a relative's house to open it.

It was always going to happen around Xmas, the scammers' favourite time to strike.  This could easily have been avoided and was inevitable.

Yes, it was complacent of me. In your opinion, do I still have a right to argue my case against them? Is it still worth trying? 

Coupon-mad

Yes definitely.

You were abroad so there is good reason to set aside the CCJ as long as you act promptly this month.

NotAnotherOne

Coupon-mad said:

Yes definitely.

You were abroad so there is good reason to set aside the CCJ as long as you act promptly this month.

I am currently spending my time gathering as much information from this forum as possible before preparing my request for a set aside.

(I am hoping to draft something in the next day or two)

After reading a few different situations I am just wondering if there is anything I can do in the mean time to get the wheels in motion..

please forgive me if this questions have already been answered in previous post here but after trolling through so many pages I have yet to come across a clear answer on these two.

Should I contact DCBL and inform them that I will be preparing a request to set aside? Should I ask for it with consent? I read this could be the easier route to have the CCJ removed but also very like they will not respond. However, at least it will show I have taken immediate action. 

I am assuming it will also be a good idea to send over a SAR to UKPC? In order the gather all the documents for a defence further down the line? Since the parking ticket was received in 2017, I have to be honest and say I can not recall every exact point of contact made by the UKPC since then and do not currently have the all documents to hand (naively may have disposed of them) I can say I certainly did not make contact with the UKPC or the DCBL. I have looked up the location on Google Street View back in 2017 and It shows the area I parked does not have any UKPC sign post but at present day they now have their UKPC sign post. 

I would be curious to see the photos they collected at the time of giving me the PCN, I do believe this area was very poorly sign posted back in 2017. Hence all the new sign post they currently have.

Coupon-mad

Should I contact DCBL and inform them that I will be preparing a request to set aside? Should I ask for it with consent? I read this could be the easier route to have the CCJ removed but also very like they will not respond. However, at least it will show I have taken immediate action. 
I am assuming it will also be a good idea to send over a SAR to UKPC? 

Yes to ALL your questions.

NotAnotherOne

Hey guys,

As I was advised by you guys to spend some time to on this forum researching recent CCJ set aside, I have spent as much time as I could last week doing research to see how different CCJ's have been requested to be set aside. Yet to find one which relates to being out the country while the judgement was ordered (which is my case) but have read enough information to now know what is required in order to get a set side. 

FROM THE BEGINNING

I received a PCN from UKPC on 06/02/17 for a 'Breach of the terms and conditions of parking occurred on private land' 'Parked in a permit area without displaying a valid permit' the area in question is Kendall Avenue (W3 0XA)

At the time, Upon returning to my car I found the PCN on my windscreen, having now gone back through my archives of photos and documents I do recall receiving this ticket and being completely confused to why I had received it, this particular area was extremely misleading with its sign posting. There was one sign which appeared to be in an individual private car park, not on the side or area I parked. I have searched on Goole Maps to see pictures of this area now in 2021 and there are now far more sign post by UKPC which make it more obvious for anyone parking in the area, including a sign post on every lamp post. They did not have this at the time when I received the PCN which is also shown on Google Maps in 2017. I did also take a picture at the time (quality is not great) and I will hope to use all of these images as my defence. 

Being naive and misinformed at the time I ignored all contact from UKPC and the multiple letters from debt collects which they initially sent to my parents address (I still have them) they stopped sending letters to my parents address in 2017. In more recent times DCBL have sent multiple debt collection letters to my current address which I continued to ignore. There has been no contact between myself and UKPC or any debt collectors during this time. Had I known better at the time I would have appealed the invoice and contacted the land owner with a view to have the invoice removed. 

Current day

Moving on to current day. I was recently out of the U.K from October 2021 to end of January 2022. During this time, I was sent a letter of claim from DCB Legal on 8th November 2021, followed up by a claim form from County Court Business Centre on 08 December 2021, and then Judgement for Claimant (in default) 30/12/21. Following this I have received 2 letters from DCBL 'Notice of Debt Recovery' and 'Referral for Enforcement' 

I returned to the U.K on 31/01/22. After initially visiting my parents, I returned to my home address on 05/04/22 to find these above letters.

My response

So now I am requesting to have this CCJ set aside. 

Last week I sent a SAR to UKPC and received a copy of the ticket and multiple pictures of my car with the PCN on the windscreen and a very low quality picture of their signage which could have been taken anywhere. (I will post these if you would like to see for yourself) 

I have so far wrote a draft WS a draft defence and a draft DO I am hoping to send these with my N244 by Friday this week. (Please let me know if any of these documents are not necessary to send with N244)

I was wondering whether to send a SAR to DCBL to retrieve all letters they have sent me, the oldest one I have is March 2021. Since the last letter I received at my parents address was 2017 I am wondering if there was more sent to my address which I have misplaced. 

Should I also send an email to DCBLegal to ask for a consent to set aside? 

I was unsure on what basis I am asking for the set aside other than I was absent from the country and that on the basis of CPR 13.3 (i) the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim and CPR 13.3 (ii) the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim.

If there is anything else I should be aware of that I can add I would appreciate if anyone could inform me. I kept in the text about the industries failure to use correct and current address, since they did not receive contact from me how could they be 100% sure they had the correct address. But then again this can all be made irrelevant upon the fact that, yes they did have the correct address. It just so happens that when the claim was served I was taking an extended stay out of the country. 

I have uploaded the documents to dropbox, if someone could kindly make the links live. 

Things to note: I departed the U.K in October 2021 and returned on 31st January 2022 (evidence will be provided) However in my WS I have wrote I found the letters on the 5th February 2022, which is of course 5 days after I arrived, since I went to stay with my parents for a few days first. Should I mention this in the WS just so the timeline makes complete sense?

I have uploaded WS Draft Defence & Draft Order here and would be extremely grateful if someone could check through them. 

Witness Statement 
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/s/0nhz119s0x1c5sl/My%20Witness%20statment%20Draft%20.docx?dl=0

Draft Defence
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/s/uw6dvkue12lcs4u/My%20Draft%20defence%20.docx?dl=0

Draft Order
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/s/q9ex403tp388q2o/Draft%20order%20%28draft%29.docx?dl=0

Pictures of location I parked and pictures UKPC took and PCN
hxxps://www.dropbox.com/sh/udsi5nwm1fqm486/AAB-c7Tj0bCi0GnTXoaYp8uFa?dl=0

Any help would be much appreciated.

Le_Kirk

Your links made live: -
Witness Statement 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0nhz119s0x1c5sl/My Witness statment Draft .docx?dl=0

Draft Defence
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0nhz119s0x1c5sl/My Witness statment Draft .docx?dl=0

Draft Order
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0nhz119s0x1c5sl/My Witness statment Draft .docx?dl=0

Pictures of location I parked and pictures UKPC took and PCN
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0nhz119s0x1c5sl/My%20Witness%20statment%20Draft%20.docx?dl=0

1505grandad

They all seem to be for the WS only.

Please proof read for accuracy  -  dates in future and consistent spelling of Judgment (no middle "e" in this contrext)

NotAnotherOne

1505grandad said:

They all seem to be for the WS only.

Please proof read for accuracy  -  dates in future and consistent spelling of Judgment (no middle "e" in this contrext)

Amended the links.

@L@Le_Kirk Can you repost the links again. Thanks!

Le_Kirk

Here we go: -
Witness Statement 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0nhz119s0x1c5sl/My Witness statment Draft .docx?dl=0

Draft Defence
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uw6dvkue12lcs4u/My Draft defence .docx?dl=0

Draft Order
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q9ex403tp388q2o/Draft order (draft).docx?dl=0

Pictures of location I parked and pictures UKPC took and PCN
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/udsi5nwm1fqm486/AAB-c7Tj0bCi0GnTXoaYp8uFa?dl=0