Advice please: Empira notice of enforcement

bully74uk

Hello all
 I’m hoping you can give me some advice regarding an Empira notice of enforcement that my son has received.

 Some background, He received a PCN I think for over staying in a car park for 20 mins.
 He appealed it via the companies website we think, which was rejected but they offered to reduce the charge to the original amount if paid within a certain time. Before that time elapsed he then received one of the debt collector scaremonger letters.
He never received a letter with a POPLA reference it just went from the original PCN to an escalated debt collection letter.
 He therefore decided that he would ignore the debt collection letters and would deal with it if/when he received the official letter saying he would be taken to court (I can’t remember the name)
 He received a letter from Gladstone solicitors saying he needed to pay up or court action would be taken, and he ignored it on the basis that when he received an invitation for court he would attend and argue that the parking company didn’t follow procedure by not providing him with a POPLA number.
 No other letters were received until today when he received the EMPIRA notice of enforcement attached stating he now has a CCJ.
He was expecting the opportunity to defend himself at court in one way or another bit to me it seems like the court hearing has already happened hence the CCJ?
 Please can someone give us some advice on how to proceed and what his options are?

 Any advice greatly appreciated.

 Regards

Umkomaas

HX Parking - he was never going to get a chance to appeal to POPLA, HX are IPC AOS members who are linked to the IAS second stage appeals service. 

He (not you) needs to contact the CCBC at Northampton urgently tomorrow by phone (expect a looong wait, so do it as early as possible - from 9am I think their day starts) and find out to what address the court claim was filed. If it was served on his existing address and he ignored it, he's got a bit of a mess on his hands. 

bully74uk

Umkomaas said:

HX Parking - he was never going to get a chance to appeal to POPLA, HX are IPC AOS members who are linked to the IAS second stage appeals service. 

He (not you) needs to contact the CCBC at Northampton urgently tomorrow by phone (expect a looong wait, so do it as early as possible - from 9am I think their day starts) and find out to what address the court claim was filed. If it was served on his existing address and he ignored it, he's got a bit of a mess on his hands. 

@Umkomaas he called them up but they wouldn’t give him any info without the reference number of the CCJ. When he quoted the reference from the letter they told him that wasn’t what they need and he would have to get the number from a credit check. They also said he could access one of the free credit checks and get the number but when he tried that he could see the CCJ listed but there was no number against it.
 Will he need to get the number from a paid credit check?
 Just to confirm they wouldn’t tell him anything without a CCJ reference number and told him that the number on the letter isn’t the number they need.

Umkomaas

Will he need to get the number from a paid credit check?

Sorry, I don't know, but if that is what the CCBC have told him, then he might need to go back to them for further clarification. 

Fruitcake

The CCBC should at lease be able tell you the format of the number they want: how many digits, whether it starts with a letter or a specific number to at least give you a clue what to look for.

The Legal Beagles forum or, dare I say it, CAB may be able to help.

bully74uk

Fruitcake said:

The CCBC should at lease be able tell you the format of the number they want: how many digits, whether it starts with a letter or a specific number to at least give you a clue what to look for.

The Legal Beagles forum or, dare I say it, CAB may be able to help.

They did tell him the format of the number, but it wasn’t present on the free credit check site he tried to use.

What are his options with the CCBC? If they tell him the court claim was filed to his address then I’m assuming he’s screwed regardless of whether he received it and ignored it (he say’s he can’ hasn’t) or for some reason it wasn’t delivered?

 What other option is there? Are we asking for the address it was filed to in the event that it was sent to a wrong address or something? And if so what happens then?

 Going on the date that the letter was dated and the time given for him to settle we are conscious that he needs to sort something out quickly to avoid further escalation.

 Realistically, should we consider calling them, setting up a payment plan and taking the CCJ on the chin?

Umkomaas

For a debt of £268.34 he isn't going to get High Court Enforcement Officers calling - it needs to be £600+ before a HC warrant can be applied for. Get him to read up on what can and can't be done to enforce a judgment below £600. It seems to me that he needs to take more control of this himself rather than relying on you relying on us to guide him. 

With an unpaid by due date CCJ, his credit rating is already shot and other than obtaining a set aside nothing will change that for six years, either paying it off in full or on the drip. But he will only get it set aside if there is a reasonable reason why he didn't defend the claim.  Unless he qualifies for (part) relief to cover court fees, a set aside will cost him £275 and if the set aside is refused he's got £275 and £268.34 to find.

Before any of that he/you/we need to get to the bottom of this.  Have you asked him directly if he ignored the court claim form?

bully74uk

Thanks for the quick reply @Umkomaas
He said that ‘any’ correspondence he received he would have shown to me, like he had done for all previous.

i remember him showing me a Gladstones letter I think it was, a long while ago now threatening court action if the charge wasn’t paid, but because during the original pcn appeal they didn’t give him the correct time to pay before escalating it to a debt collection company he said that he would wait until a court form came through and try and defend himself on the basis that the pcn company didn’t follow process.

 He’s told me that the letter attached is the only letter that’s come through since the Gladstones one (which he ignored on the above basis)

So I guess the question still remains, did they issue the claim to his address, but in order to clarify the CCBC are saying they need the CCJ reference and at the moment he can’t find it via a free credit check company (its showing with a date but no number)

 Am I right from your post that he will have to pay more to apply for the set aside then time actual outstanding amount, and will still have to pay the outstanding amount if the set aside is refused? But, if accepted his credit rating won’t be wrecked for 6 years?

I won’t go into details on here but whilst frustrating, it’s easier if I communicate on his behalf on the forum

Thank you for your support

Umkomaas

Am I right from your post that he will have to pay more to apply for the set aside then time actual outstanding amount, and will still have to pay the outstanding amount if the set aside is refused? But, if accepted his credit rating won’t be wrecked for 6 years?

That about sums it up. Do you think he might qualify for relief, if he does then there would be no (or reduced) set aside court fee. Check it out via Google. 

Coupon-mad

 If they tell him the court claim was filed to his address then I’m assuming he’s screwed.

Possibly but you don't know this and he must find out.  Can be done easily. 

He should send a SAR to Gladstones asking for evidence of any Experian check, any LBCs and where they were sent, and the claim number and Particulars of Claim for the case, and when that was filed and what address they provided for him.

Am I right from your post that he will have to pay more to apply for the set aside then time actual outstanding amount,

Yes, the fee up front (unless someone has a low income/savings and qualifies for help with fees?) is £275, but that should be temporary.

If they didn't check and use his correct address, then that's defective service of the claim and it's dead - and he can ask in his application and at the hearing, for the £275 to be ordered to be paid by the Claimants to him, due to their unreasonable conduct in failing to check the address, contrary to their own Code of Practice (rules that are effectively regulatory on parking firms, so said the Supreme court) and contrary to the pre-action steps in the PAP for debt claims and the CPRs about good service.

bully74uk

@Coupon-mad thank you.

It seems that the SAR will take a while to get the info back from Gladstones, what should we do regarding the Empira letter in the mean time?
The 14 days notice to pay has expired, should we contact them and tell them we have requested the SAR from Gladstones as we don’t believe he received the court claim form, or do we do nothing regarding Empira for now?

 Regards