Recently discovered CCJ. I'm leaving the country soon and want to deal with it ASAP

etrodai77

A few days ago I received a notification from my bank that my credit score had changed. Upon checking it I found a CCJ (I didn't even know what a CCJ was) had been marked against me from April this year.

I called the court and DCBL had filed against me for an overstay in a McDonald's car park from May last year. The incident took place in England, but I've been living in Scotland for almost a year now and didn't receive any notifications at my new place of residence.

I've read through the forum for the past couple of days and I've built up a reasonably good idea of how these things are dealt with. I've requested an NT44 from the court and I'm planning to file it to ask for the judgement to be set aside (though I have no idea how strong my case is as I don't know what evidence the PPC has against me for the alleged offence).

My issue is I'm due to leave the country soon, and I'll be gone for most of the rest of this year. I want to deal with this promptly, as it will obviously affect my ability to get a mortgage. I'm planning to move house when I return to the UK, so this is something I really want to fight.

Is the quickest route to request a set aside with a consent order if I can get DCBL to agree to that? I've seen a lot of information here about fighting for a set aside without consent, but there seems to be much less about set aside with consent. Is this because consent isn't usually given? Or is it a more costly route to go down?

Thank you in advance for any help 

B789

Why do you think you didn't receive any communication about this claim? Is your V5C logbook up to date with your correct address? Is the address used by DCB Legal an old English address rather than your Scottish address that wasn't updated on your V5C?

Had your V5C been updated with your Scottish address, they would not have been able to get a CCJ against you in an English court. However, you are where you are.

You must get this CCJ set aside under CPR 13.2 which is a mandatory set aside. You probably have other arguments too as you are/were a resident of Scotland at the time and the Claimant had no jurisdiction to sue you in an English court. I'll leave that bit to others more experienced than I to comment on. You will also argue that the CCJ should be set aside under CPR 13.3 as you have a very good chance of defending the original defective claim.

As for a set aside with or without consent, you are dealing with an intellectually malnourished claimant and their equally deficient solicitors. If you go for a set aside with consent, you are likely to have the eejits demand that you agree to forfeit the costs. Without consent, which is the more likely scenario, you will be able to apply for the cost of the set aside (£275) to be refunded as the claim was defectively served.

I doubt one type of set aside will happen much quicker than the other. How soon are you expecting to be moving abroad? Whilst it is always best if you can attend any hearing in person, you can also attend by phone/video link. Obviously, a with consent set aside would probably be achieved without a hearing but, as I mentioned, you are unlikely to get what you want in respect to costs.

Does the Claimant need to know that you will eventually be returning to the UK? Might it be better to let them think you are moving abroad permanently?

etrodai77

Thank you for the response B789.

My V5C still has my English address. I moved back to Scotland for a new job and I'm currently living with family. My property in England was put on the market and I had some difficulty selling it (I had a sale fall through), so it's currently sitting unoccupied. I haven't updated my V5C as my current place of residence was supposed to be temporary. 

It seems fighting for a set aside without consent is the cheaper option, and I certainly don't want to be paying any money to this company as I know every payment they receive is incentive for them to continue.

But would trying to negotiate for set aside with consent be a simpler process as I wouldn't have to write a witness statement and then face a hearing? If I end up paying the £108 court costs I can live with that, but will I also need a solicitor to write the consent order?

I plan to leave the country within the next 3 weeks. With my current plans I may end up coming back for a few months and then leaving permanently, so there's every possibility I will genuinely be gone long term

B789

You won't need a solicitor to write up a consent order. There are plenty of set-aside samples on here if you search. You are assuming that the claimant will agree to a consent order. As I mentioned, you are dealing with intellectually malnourished eejits who are only interested in getting your money if at all possible.

If you can be persuasive that it is in their best interest to have this set aside, then who knows, they may agree but it'll cost you and they will probably still re-serve the claim. Whilst probably winnable, you will still be at least £108 down.

The without consent order means that there is a good possibility that the judge would order the PPC to pay your £275 fee or at least reserve that cost for when the claim is heard.

If your current address for service is in Scotland, you should write to the PPC and their solicitors and instruct them to update their records with your Scottish address and for them to "ERASE" your old address.

This should be set aside because the claimant had no jurisdiction to sue the RK in Scotland and therefore the court lacked the authority to issue the CCJ. There is no RK liability in Scotland (for now). The claimant could make a claim in the Sherrif court but is highly unlikely to do so because they cannot recover any costs.

etrodai77

I've been putting off contacting the claimant to request consent until I feel adequately prepared to speak with them. When I first became aware of the CCJ I did call them to ask for details as I was unsure of what was going on, but when they tried to convince me to pay I said I wasn't sure that was in my best interest and that I'd be taking legal advice before taking any action.

I'll do some searching in regards to the set aside samples.

Do I have to prove I was living in Scotland at the time? I've been living with family on an informal basis, so I assume the claimant could argue my official address was still in England?

B789

etrodai77 said:

Do I have to prove I was living in Scotland at the time? I've been living with family on an informal basis, so I assume the claimant could argue my official address was still in England?

Why did you receive a CCJ by default? Was it because you were living in Scotland at the time? If you had been at your English address, you would have had ample time to respond to an LoC and the subsequent claim. You said your English home was on the market at the time, unoccupied I presume.

Do you have any proof that you were living in Scotland? Any correspondence to the address you were staying at?

You should not be "speaking" with "them". All comms should be, preferably, by email. A phone call is not worth the paper it is written on.

Coupon-mad

You will not be phoning anyone!  

This is never something to discuss by phone.  They will just demand the money.

We believe that DCBLegal won't deal with you reasonably, in our long experience of their conduct.

will I also need a solicitor to write the consent order?

No you can ask their legal to do it.

They will sometimes draw it up if you argue it well that you did not receive the claim and this is better for them than having to foot the £275 bill when you win at a hearing.  But it's DCBLegal so I predict it will be like trying to get blood out of a stone.

Don't waste more than a week trying.

Such a shame (assuming you knew about the PCN and early demands) that you didn't just email and tell the PPC that you were living in Scotland, which would have prevented them filing a claim.   This is now very complicated & expensive to unpick.

But no phone calls.  You don't chat to such "bloodsuckers" (MP's word - 2018 - source: Hansard).  You'd get nowhere.

I predict you will have to do a contested set aside for £275 and choose a convenient(ish) English court.

etrodai77

B789 said:

Why did you receive a CCJ by default? Was it because you were living in Scotland at the time? If you had been at your English address, you would have had ample time to respond to an LoC and the subsequent claim. You said your English home was on the market at the time, unoccupied I presume.

Do you have any proof that you were living in Scotland? Any correspondence to the address you were staying at?

At the time any LoC would have been sent out I was living in Scotland and my English home was unoccupied and listed as for sale. This is assuming the court letters would have been sent out around a month before the ccj hearing? 

I don't think I have any letters of correspondence from the home I'm living at in Scotland (with family), but my full time employment is in Scotland and has been since last year 

etrodai77

Coupon-mad said:

You will not be phoning anyone!  

This is never something to discuss by phone.  They will just demand the money.

We believe that DCBLegal won't deal with you reasonably, in our long experience of their conduct.

will I also need a solicitor to write the consent order?

No you can ask their legal to do it.

They will sometimes draw it up if you argue it well that you did not receive the claim and this is better for them than having to foot the £275 bill when you win at a hearing.  But it's DCBLegal so I predict it will be like trying to get blood out of a stone.

Don't waste more than a week trying.

Such a shame (assuming you knew about the PCN and early demands) that you didn't just email and tell the PPC that you were living in Scotland, which would have prevented them filing a claim.   This is now very complicated & expensive to unpick.

But no phone calls.  You don't chat to such "bloodsuckers" (MP's word - 2018 - source: Hansard).  You'd get nowhere.

I predict you will have to do a contested set aside for £275 and choose a convenient(ish) English court.

I assumed dealing with dcbl in a reasonable manner would be difficult, but I'm happy to try as a first port of call. 

Knowing I can have their solicitor draft the consent order if we agree is useful, I didn't think of that.

I didn't know about the pcn. If any notifications did come to the house I wasn't aware of them, so they've either been sent after I've left or they've been discarded as junk mail. I've had a parking charge from the council before (on my windscreen when I was parked in the lake district in an area I assumed I could park) and I dealt with it promptly.

If I have to do a contested set aside then it's likely I'll have to do it via telephone as there's a real possibility I won't be in the UK 

B789

As long as the argument is that the claim was issued defectively, the set aside is mandatory under CPR 13.2.

How far is it from your new place of work in Scotland to your English home? If it is an unrealistic distance for commuting and you can prove you work there, that should be enough to show you are residing in Scotland.

etrodai77

My workplace is around 2.5 to 3 hours from my property in England, around 130 miles. So not feasible for a daily commute