County Court Claim - Old Life Boat House, Wells-Next-the-Sea

Brook80

Hello all
I am new to this forum and hoping you can help me with some advice.
I received a letter yesterday (29.3.2022) from the County Court Business Centre in relation to a claim made by CEL for breach of contract terms/conditions for parking in a private car park managed by Claimant on 29/8/2018 for 12 minutes (in: 17.58, out: 18.10)
The amount claimed is £233.98 plus court and legal rep fee. Total £318.98.
I am reluctant to pay such an extortionate amount but am worried about the potential for a CCJ.
Can any advise please?
Many thanks in advance. 

Le_Kirk

Yes, all the information you need at this stage is in the NEWBIE sticky, second post, one of the announcements on the first page of the forum.  From the tone of your post it seems like you have not received any letters before the N1 claim form.  Is this correct and if so, this leads me to believe that your V5C is not up-to-date with DVLA.  If so, this needs correcting.  What is the issue date of the N1 form?  If you tell us that then one of the regulars, @KeithP will be along to give you some pointers to how to find info how to construct a defence and your deadlines for completing the AoS and then your defence.

Brook80

Thank you for your responce.
I have received a couple of letters and ignored them They have received no acknowledgement at all from me. 
The issue date is 25 Mar 2022. 

KeithP

Brook80 said:

The issue date is 25 Mar 2022. 

With a Claim Issue Date of 25th March, you have until Wednesday 13th April to file an Acknowledgment of Service but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 27th April 2022 to file your Defence.

That's almost four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service instructions.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Brook80

Thank you @Le_Kirk and @KeithP
How likely is it to go to court in your experience?
It looks like there have been quite a number of issues with this carpark, and talk of bye-laws. The carpark is also called the Port of Wells Carpark. 
Will you guys be able to look over my defence? 

Coupon-mad

CEL might continue to a hearing or might discontinue just before, after seeing your WS and evidence. That's about 50-50.

Assume this will end up with you winning at a hearing, which is our normal outcome here.

Defend as normal. As per all the other CEL defence threads you need to read, to gain confidence.  Learn about their head honcho 'Wonga-man' and how crap their legal team is!

You only need show us your changes to para 2 and 3 of the template defence.

Brook80

Thanks @Coupon-mad.
If it goes to hearing and I lose, but then pay the fee, could I still get a CCJ? 

Coupon-mad

No.

The NEWBIES thread tells everyone that.  This is why everyone defends.  

Brook80

Sorry - I'm worrying! I will go back and read the thread. I made a start looking through :-) 

FrankCannon

To my knowledge, and from the cases we see on this forum, CEL have discontinued all defended claims for this site at Wells-Next-The-Sea. I can recall once instance of somebody getting a default CCJ for an undefended claim.

Brook80

AOS submitted online - thank you for the brilliant step-by-step guide, it is really easy to follow. Particularly liked the reference name suggestion!

Now to start work on the defence. Any Wells based tips welcome. 

Thanks all