Ccj for UK parking services

roxtinkalbeck

Can any body advise or help? Thanks in advance to anybody who comments.

I received a court order (which stated I had 14 days to reply) on the 20/04/2023 for a PCN from UK Parking Services - the PCN dates back to June 2020 which I don’t recall although it is for parking in a local shopping complex which is free parking for up to 3hrs. I read a few threads online advising to ignore parking tickets of this nature as there are many fraudulent companies spamming people with this stuff so I decided not to reply to the initial court order (in hind side I wish I had replied now as although these organisations are fraudsters to an extend I feel I’m now stuck in between a rock & a hard place). 

Follow the above I received another letter dated 12/05/2023 from county court business centre advising I have not replied therefore I am ordered to pay the claimant £318.28.

I can’t imagine I have overstayed the 3 hours although I have no recollection of a Parking ticket or what happened on that day almost 3 years ago. My frustration is I was of the opinion this was fraudulent which is why I ignored. I have called Northampton county court business centre the lady advised my only options are to pay the amount £318.28 to avoid this going onto my credit file and avoid further costs/bailiffs or I can apply to set the judgement aside which is a cost of £275 although the lady did advise this will just go back to court for me to defend myself - not sure how I would defend myself either as I simply have nothing to back my defence up other than there is only one shop I would look in on that complex and I couldn’t possibly spent over 3hrs in there.

So my question is are the above my only two options? And If I did apply for a set aside what does this entail? Would I have to put a case together?

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

From what you have written, it appears that you have received a County Court Claim Form and decided to ignore it.
You now have a Judgment by Default because you didn't defend yourself.
Is that right?

If that's right, I cannot see that you have any option other than paying what the Judgment orders you to pay.
If you do not pay that amount within the timescale allowed, then your ability to obtain credit for the next six years will be severely hampered.

Having ignored a County Court Claim Form, I cannot see that you have any grounds for a set aside.

B789

You could apply for a set aside under CPR13.3 but it would be at the court's discretion and you'd need a really good excuse as to why you didn't respond to the claim.

It certainly wasn't on this forum that you read about ignoring claim forms. Whoever advised you of such should not remain on your Xmas card list. This will have been a very expensive mistake. Even if you'd acknowledged service of the claim and submitted a defence and then lost, you would have paid less than the default judgment has now ordered.

You should get back in touch with the court and request a copy of the PoC before deciding to either pay it or consider a set aside under CPR13.3.

Coupon-mad

You'll have to pay in full.

roxtinkalbeck

Thanks for your comments. I’m not great with these types of things hence why I’m on here asking for advice and why I’m in this situation to start with. 

So if I apply for a set aside giving the reason I thought the parking ticket was a scam and this is why I didn’t reply to the court order, would this be suffice or is the court likely to reject?

I’m wondering because the set aside is £275 (could I later end up paying further costs with this option also?) or the debt of the PCN £318, is the logical option to be grudgingly pay the PCN learn the less and just have done.

Grizebeck

Just pay it

Umkomaas

If you lose your set aside application (very likely) you not only lose the £275 paid for it, your £318 is still due making the whole fiasco a very expensive £593!

B789

Take the advice offered above. To persuade the court to set aside under CPR13.3 you would need much more than an excuse that you thought an official county court claim form was some sort of scam. Ignorance of basics and not even trying to research whether a court document is fake or not, if there was any doubt, will get you spanked in court.

For now, take this as a valuable life lesson, albeit more expensive than it ever needed to be and pay the CCJ within the 30 days of issue to get it expunged from your credit record and move on, wiser but poorer.