Found out about CCJ through debt collection agency after moving - help!

DryShake

I've just opened a letter from DCBL (Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd) about £400 owed for a CCJ and have been pouring through this forum but am quite intimidated about what to do!

I responded to challenge a PCN from Excel Parking back in 03/2020 relating to an incident 11/2019 and never heard anything back in the 6 months I was still living at that address so assumed they were not going to pursue it anymore. But essentially they claim I spent ~15 minutes in a car park, I lived ~200m away and have never used that car park, the only times I had been through it was because has 2 entrances/exits that can be used as shortcut, I believe the term is "double dipping"? 

In 10/2020 I moved to a new address and the date of the CCJ is 08/2021, over a year after I sent a response? 

The only details I have from the letter are a claim number, date of CCJ and Excel Parking as a client, so the rest I have to pieced together the timeline.

I understand I need to fill out a N244 form but I have been a bit confused with a few things!

I tried putting the claim number as the case number in trustonline site and it didn't come up with anything, should I look myself up and put in my current address? or previous address? or do I not need to bother?

Should I contact DCBL directly by phone or try to get more details from them? I only have a few days before DCBL say they will take further action.

I believe I can do all this online, but is it ok to put an email address for contact details for Excel as that's what their website suggests? 

I am slightly confused by the terms "with" and "without consent" that I've read here, can I do this without a hearing? I'm a bit intimidated if I need to go to one and I really want to get rid of this ASAP as I'm currently applying for jobs and really don't want a CCJ to cause problems.

I understand that after filling having the CCJ set aside I would be back to square one with Excel Parking, I really do not want this hanging over my head for several more years if Excel decide to continue to pursue me in a years time sending legal documents to old addresses. Can I order for this whole thing to just disappear? Should I? The wording for the "order" is also quite intimidating, I'm getting familiar with all the terminology but I feel like I've been thrown into the deep end and it's pretty overwhelming right now.

 

Le_Kirk

DryShake said:

I am slightly confused by the terms "with" and "without consent" that I've read here, can I do this without a hearing? I'm a bit intimidated if I need to go to one and I really want to get rid of this ASAP as I'm currently applying for jobs and really don't want a CCJ to cause problems.

This refers to whether or not you have the consent of the parking company/solicitor (i.e. do the PPC agree).  If they agree (with consent) to the set-aside, you only pay £108 but if they do not agree (without consent) you pay £275.  Be aware though that if they go for a "with consent" set-aside, they may submit a draft order that they will expect you to sign and they want you to pay the £108 PLUS the original PCN plus court costs.
Do NOT phone DCBL, as a phone call is worth the paper it is written on, everything in writing - e-mail.
Check the NEWBIE sticky for help with set-aside it is in the second post, also search the forum using "set-aside" as your search terms and read posts by other posters and also by @henrik777

Coupon-mad

Read the thread by @Brokenchief which walks you through everything.

DryShake

Great thanks, that looks perfect.

I'm going to spend some time reading through everything, the only thing that is not clear to me right now - do I need to register for e filing service and also send a copy of the N244 separately to Excel at the same time? 

Coupon-mad

No and no.

DryShake

Update:

I've filled out the N244, emailed and paid for it, everything seemed fine and they told me that a district judge would look over it for me or something along those lines.

I just got a letter where the judge has commented "The defendant to file a draft order he seeks in connection with his set aside judgement" Upon receipt of the draft order the matter will be refered back to the district judge for reconsideration.

I'm very confused, because when I emailed it, the attachments were N244.pdf, Draft_Order_and_Witness_Statement.txt and Defence.txt

I feel like it was quite clear, however maybe I've made a mistake or I'm missing a numbers somewhere? My best guess is that the witness statement and draft order should be separate attachments? The court people seemed fine with it until that point so I really don't know.

I had a similar issue where I was "missing" a signature and sending a screenshot showing the signature in plain view and got no response so I just guessed at another way of inserting the exact same signature and that was "not missing" somehow. I just don't know how I'm possibly supposed to send a correct draft order if this is the response I get.

Any help would be appreciated.

My N244 had this in the order box and had draft order is attached ticked.

"An order that the judgement in default is set aside pursuant to CPR 13.2, alternatively 13.3, and the defendant be allowed to file a defence in the case. The defendant only discovered the judgment when they received a letter from Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd on XX ."

My Draft order and witness statement was:

WITNESS STATEMENT

I am XXX and I am the defendant in this matter. This is my supporting statement to my application dated XX/XX/XXXX requesting to:

a. Set aside the default judgment dated XX/XX/XXXX as it was not properly served at my current address.

b. Order for the original claim to be dismissed.

c. Order for the claimant to pay the defendant £275 as reimbursement for the set aside fee.

DEFAULT JUDGMENT

1.1. I was the registered keeper of the vehicle at the time of the alleged event.

1.2. I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgment against me as the Defendant on XX/XX/XXXX. I am aware that the Claimant is Excel Parking Services Limited, and that the assumed claim is in respect of unpaid Parking Charge Notices.

1.3. The claim form was not served at my current address, and I thus was not aware of the Default Judgment until I received a letter from Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd.

The address on the claim is X. I moved to my current address at XX/XX/XXXX. In support of this, I can provide a copy of my bank statement showing my last rental payment at X and first Payment for X.

1.4. In addition to the above, it should be highlighted that the integrity and law-abiding intention of the Defendant should be taken into consideration on the basis that;

1.4.1 I discovered a CCJ was lodged on XX.

1.4.2 On the XX I contacted the County Court Business Centre to obtain relevant information relating to this default judgment.

1.4.3 On the XX I have willingly submitted my case in order to set-aside this judgment and fairly present my case.

1.5. I believe the Claimant has behaved unreasonably in pursuing a claim against me without ensuring they held the Defendant’s correct contact details at the time of the claim.

1.6. On that basis, I believe the Claimant has not adhered to CPR 6.9 (3) where they had failed to show due diligence in using an address at which the Defendant no longer resides. The claimant did not take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of my current residence, despite having some 12 months to establish an address. This has led to the claim being incorrectly served to an old address and an irregular judgment.

1.7. According to publicly available information, my circumstances are far from being unique. The industry’s persistent failure to use correct and current addresses of results is an unnecessary burden for individuals and the justice system across the country.

Furthermore, Prime Minister May publicly pledged to investigate ‘abuse’ of the CCJ System and so called ‘Credit Clamping’ as reported in the Daily Mail article dated 12 September 2016. The Right Honourable Sir Oliver Heald on 23 December 2016 "announced a crackdown on unresolved debts which can damage people’s credit ratings without them knowing. The action comes after concerns were raised that companies were issuing claims to consumers using incorrect addresses."

The Minister added, "It cannot be right that people who are unaware of debts can see their lives and finances ruined by county court judgments. That in the digital age, we must ensure companies pursuing unpaid debts make every reasonable effort to contact individuals, rather than simply relying on a letter to an old address.” Furtherance to points raised in 1.3 above.

1.8. Considering the above, I was unable to defend this claim. I believe that the Default Judgment against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside, and I ask the Court to kindly consider the reimbursement of the fee of £275 from the claimant should this request be successful.

DRAFT ORDER

CLAIM No: XXXX

BETWEEN:

XX

-- and --

XX

______________________________________________

DRAFT ORDER

______________________________________________

IT IS ORDERED THAT:

1. The default judgment dated on XX/XX/XXXX be set aside.

2. The Claimant do 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 XX/XX/XX paragraph 1.2 shall cease to have effect and the Claimant shall pay the Defendant's costs summarily assessed at £275 and the claim shall be struck out.

4. Should the Claimant discontinue the Claim after the CCJ is set aside, paragraph 1.2 shall cease to have effect and the Claimant shall pay the Defendant's costs summarily assessed at £275

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 it's claim.

Coupon-mad

Did you attach the Draft Order as a separate word document on its own page, as our guidance says?

Were you not wanting to ask for the Claim to be dismissed for want of service within 4 months of filing it?

As per the example shown in the thread by @Brokenchief

DryShake

I attached the draft order and witness statement together as one document, so you're saying they should be separate attachments. Ok that should be fine.

I tried to follow the other examples of draft orders and but isn't that what my order does?

In 3. I put "the claim shall be struck out." but I do not know what the technical differences is between something being struck out and dismissed are. 

In my skeleton defence I do use the template and the 4 months of filing is part of the defence.

When I initially submitted the defence to the court initially rejected the other attachments related to the defence as they were above the page limit of the court and I removed references to the documents/those docs. I presume at some other stage I would need to submit those documents, but I'm unsure about the page limit being an issue.

I'm also unsure about how I update the court with the new information, do I send all documents again with updated dates on everything? or do I just keep the signed dates and update the attachments? I don't want to be out another £275 for doing that...

Coupon-mad

@Brokenchief's draft order has different wording, more simple.  That's why I gave you his username as a link, so you can go and read his discussion thread & copy what he did.

The Draft Order can't have been the same document as your WS because one has to be a Word doc and the latter a PDF.

Which 'evidence' documents did you leave out, the four case authorities? You can just attach them to a Skeleton Argument the week before your hearing, and if necessary post it, snail mail.  Exactly as shown in the thread I signposted you to.

Le_Kirk

You seem to have attached some as .txt.  What you need are witness statement, N244 and defence as .pdf and the Draft Order as .doc or .docx.

DryShake

So I got the letter a couple of days ago for a hearing date (next monday). I need to send the files to the court by email today and would very much appreciate if you could tell me how what the subject/contents of the email should be. 

The letter I got was dated 2 weeks ago but took over a week to arrive and I've just started a new job this week so I just don't have time to go through everything. 

Should I follow the guidance on this link here or the guidance on this site? Is the signature thing important? I don't have a printer/scanner.

(remove spaces from:) www. justice . gov . uk / courts/email-guidance 

Also all of the correspondence so far has been to manchester court (not ccbc), I don't know if that makes a difference to anything