Gatwick Airport - Drop Off Parking Defence

B789

qwertyoffice said:
Should I accept this refund or request the additional £108 for the N244 form and the £276.74 I had to pay BWlegal to get the CCJ removed in time?   Total £584.74 including the £200 compensation they have already offered.

Do you understand the difference between an "ex-gratia payment" and a "refund"?

Coupon-mad

Depends if the £108 and/or the £276.74 flowed from the erroneous actions of the CCBC?

I'd say the £276.74 does (because you were NEVER intending to pay this claim but were forced to, only by the error by the court).  I would ask for that loss which was caused by the CCBC and no-one else.

...what about the £108, remind us why the local court insisted on an application, was it because the local Judge didn't order BW to return your money?  I don't think that's caused by the CCBC?

qwertyoffice

Coupon-mad said:

Hmmm...three things spring to mind now that @bargepole and @Johnersh have helpfully replied.

The OP has options:

(a) email the Court URGENTLY - this week - and object to the January Order (you might well have to fill out a N244 application and pay £100 fee which you can ask to be ordered against the Claimant).  Object to the order because it makes no mention of the fact that the Defendant has had to temporarily pay the Claimant £xxx.xx to avoid a CCJ being on the register whilst the court sorted out their error over a period of weeks.  The Claimant is now acknowledging that the defence is reinstated but (see attached BW Legal letter) is unreasonably refusing to pay that sum back, which was never paid with any admission of liability.  Not only does that mean this Claimant will almost certainly now discontinue and entirely get away with this conduct, but it appears to fly in the face of the overriding objective to achieve justice at low cost to the parties.

As such, the Defendant respectfully asks that this order should be set aside and replaced or amended with an added clause in order to put both parties back in the position they would have been in, had the court not made the error with the mislaid N180 form.  Namely: the Claimant do reimburse the Defendant the sum of £xxx.xx in order to allow the case to continue as a defended claim without monies having been paid by either party.  Thus avoiding placing the Defendant at risk.  Clearly, the current order leaves the Defendant at immediate risk of a discontinuance which would end the litigation and the Defendant will never be able to recover the monies (that were temporarily paid to 'hold' the CCJ and prevent the court's error from affecting his credit file).

(b) the OP could also reply to BW telling them the payment was clearly not an 'admission of liability' (because the Defendant had defended the case in full) and it was merely to protect his credit rating (temporarily) until the courts sorted out their error and both parties were placed back in the position they would have been.  BW's reply appears to place the wishes of their client before their first duty (to the court) and pays no regard to the overriding objective which requires cases to be dealt with justly.

(c). The OP in the long run (not as urgent and only to be done if you end up out of pocket) should make a complaint to the HMRC Customer complaints team, whose email appears in the thread by @jag_run who was awarded £150 in compensation to address his losses caused by a similar error by the CCBC.



Questions:

- when you emailed the DQ that the CCBC lost, did you copy in BW Legal TO THE SAME EMAIL?  Did they know you had filed & served your DQ all along?  Did you get an acknowledgement email from BW Legal, to the DQ?

- was this BW letter - or the email attaching it - marked WITHOUT PREJUDICE SAVE AS TO COSTS, or nor?

This was the reason I had to pay the extra £108, to get the set-aside order revised to stop BW Legal running off with my money and closing the claim down

B789

What does the order/N244 you paid £108 for actually say? Has it actually been so ordered by the court already?

Coupon-mad

Hmmm I remember now.  OK I would try to get a higher offer from the complaints team by telling them about both losses they caused and pointing out that their first offer goes nowhere near restoring the position.

qwertyoffice

Just to update you all on this.  Here is the new reply from the court to my ongoing complaint which I will accept....

Without prejudice

Complaint ref: ####

Your ref:  #####

Dear Mr ######

Our final reply to your complaint

Thank you for your email of 31 March 2023 about the County Court Business Centre (CCBC). Your

complaint has been passed to me to consider at the final stage of our complaints process. I’m sorry to

hear you’re unhappy with our replies so far. I can see you’re concerned that your defence was struck out

and a county court judgement was entered against you because we didn’t refer your directions

questionnaire to a judge.

I’ve checked all the details and based on the information I have; I’d like to increase out previous offer of

a goodwill (ex gratia) payment to £400 in respect of the judgement that was entered against you

because of our mistake and the distress this has caused you. I’ve explained my decision in more detail

below.

How I made my decision

I’m very sorry that we struck your defence out. I’ve looked into this and I can see that you did sent your

directions questionnaire to the court on 8 November 2022, overlooked your email and it wasn’t added to

the court file. On 15 November 2023, your case was referred to a Judge who entered a default

judgement against you. I appreciate that this was distressing for you and I’m very sorry for the frustration

it has caused you.

You called on 5 January 2023 to inform us that you had already sent in your directions questionnaire

and following your call we’ve managed to locate it. Your case was referred to a Judge on 10 January

2023 for directions, after reviewing the court file and your emails, Judge Ogden ordered that the county

court judgement against you should be removed, we’ve updated the court system to reflect this and

notified the Registry Trust of this on 16 January 2023. Once again, I’m very sorry for our mistake and the

impact it has had on you. I can see that you’re case has now been transferred to Basildon County Court

where your application to set aside the default judgement has been listed for a hearing on 8 August

2023.

Coupon-mad

Good!

And you have a hearing (TO SET ASIDE THE CCJ? NOT A HEARING FOR THE PCN?) *

...and it happily falls AFTER the DLUHC's Announcement due any week now, that may well help your position.

Read this as if I wrote it for you:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80160565#Comment_80160565

See you at the end of the month, when the Government's final private parking Code Consultation will be open, we understand.  We need EVERYONE to push the new law over the line. 

And you need to be appraised as it might help you at the hearing.


* PLEASE SHOW US THE HEARING ORDER

qwertyoffice

@Coupon-mad Here is the hearing order....

Coupon-mad

Ah, no hearing yet then but you are £400 up!

I’ve checked all the details and based on the information I have; I’d like to increase out previous offer of a goodwill (ex gratia) payment to £400 in respect of the judgement that was entered against youbecause of our mistake and the distress this has caused you. 

Thanks CCBC!

Oh wait, you have a hearing to set aside the CCJ next week, did you pay a fee for the application?  Have you told Basildon to cancel the hearing because the CCBC has reinstated the defence or are you unsure if the CCJ is gone and want to have that confirmed by a Judge?

I can see that you’re case has now been transferred to Basildon County Court

where your application to set aside the default judgement has been listed for a hearing on 8 August 2023.

qwertyoffice

So if you remember, I got a CCJ and had no choice but to pay BW Legal the funds they were demanding to get the CCJ removed because I was applying for a new mortgage and did not have time to wait for the judge to fix it.

I also paid £108 for the N244 form to get this set aside based on your advice.