CCJ vs CP Plus Ltd (DCBL) Applying for Set-Aside

NahkoMed

No update yet, I've been running the clock down a little, now intending to reply as follows:

********************************************

Dear ********

I acknowledge receipt of your message dated 17th January 2024.

You said:

"Please note, the HMRC ‘VAT Supply and Consideration manual’ (VATSC06140), which was last updated on 02 September 2020, confirmed that parking charge notices fall out of the scope of VAT."

This does not address the question which I asked, namely:

1. Is the additional £70 added to the claim nett or inclusive of VAT?

I am well aware that parking charges fall outside the scope of VAT, but this is not the case for DRA fees. I want to know, and am entitled to ask, whether the DRA fee add-on is nett or inclusive of VAT and

2. If so, why am I being asked to pay the VAT associated with this?

Might I remind you that the Pre Action Protocol for Debt claims states that you should provide "details of any interest and administrative or other charges added" and it is in this spirit that I request a clear answer to the above questions.

In addition, you missed another question, which I will repeat here:

3. Is the principal sum (£100) claimed for damages, or will it be pleaded as consideration for parking?

I find it incredible that I should receive a response from, purportedly, a firm of solicitors, which not only fails to answer my very reasonable and unambiguous questions, but also contains several mistakes of grammar and sentence construction. Please understand that, in the event of a claim, I will submit a robust, coherent and well argued defence, against which it is unlikely that your -apparently careless- copy-and-paste approach will stand. Perhaps you would like to save yourselves the court fee, and discontinue now.

Sincerely,

*****************************************

Any comments gratefully received. Thanks again.

Coupon-mad

Great stuff!!

Would look better moving 'Please understand...' etc. down with a line break, to be a new paragraph.

NahkoMed

Coupon-mad said:

Great stuff!!

Aw thanks! Means a lot coming from you! Thanks again for all your help, as I've said before, I was so stressed out about this and now it feels actually ok.

Noted the paragraph change, thanks. Will amend.

NahkoMed

@Coupon-mad, thought you'd like to know that having sent them this response I've not heard another peep out of them in over a year. Perhaps I can finally consider this unpleasant chapter closed... Thanks again for all your help. Literally couldn't have done it without you, and others on this forum. Solid stuff.

NahkoMed

Hmmmm... It seems I spoke too soon. I've recently moved and this morning I got a letter from DCBL (the collection agency, not the 'law firm') at my new address informing me that there was an unpaid CCJ against me which they were authorised to collect. 

Sure enough when I checked the records, there is indeed a CCJ. It seems that, having issued an LBC all the way back in January last year, and ignored my response to it, they've waited until January THIS year to file a claim. I called the court, they say they wrote to me on 12 January this year, and again when I didn't respond after 14 days, then issued the Judgement. I now have the option to pay £330 and ask for it to be "set aside" (as I'm sure a lot of you know) and I have the forms for that. I'd just really appreciate any guidance you might have for that process. Specifically:

1. Did I have a responsibility to inform them that I was moving or should they have checked with me that my address for service was the same given the length of time they waited before filing?

2. Does waiting that long and/or ignoring my letter to them constitute a violation (in letter or in spirit) of the PAP, and is this the kind of thing that might lead to a successful request to set aside?

3. What are my chances of getting the judgement set aside and/or my fees returned?

Thanks in advance, gutted that this has happened tbh.

NahkoMed

Some more specific information that may be useful:

1. I moved on 7th December, well before the claim was filed

2. My V5 (for a different car since I sold the one that the orginal PCN is based on ages ago) and Driver's license were up to date with my new address at the time the claim was filed

3. Having read further into this, I've redrafted the suggested letter to the claimant as follows:

URGENT

Dear Sirs,

DCB Legal Limited (THE ‘CLAIMANT’)  V ******** CLAIM REFERENCE ************ Your Reference *********

On 11th April 2025, I received the attached letter dated 4th April 2025 from Direct Collection Bailiffs Limited (‘DCBL’). This came as a tremendous shock as it is the first and only communication I have received from the Claimant or any organisation representing the Claimant in relation to this claim since my last email to the Claimant - also attached - dated ******** in respect of the Letter Before Claim dated ****** 2023. In this email, I made clear reference to the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt claims and asked for clarification on a number of matters which fall entirely within the scope of that document. I did not receive a reply.

Having received the letter in question, more than a year later, I made immediate enquiries of the CNBC from which I was able to establish that: 

1.       the claim relates to an alleged parking event in ******* 2022;

2.       the claim form was sent to an old address at which I no longer reside; and 

3.       if I had been given the opportunity to do so, I would have successfully defended the claim.

I did not receive any pre-claim correspondence after your last email to me on ***** January 2024, not even a letter of claim as required by the PAP. Nor did I receive the claim form or any particulars of claim and was thus deprived of the ability to defend the claim. The Claimant is well aware that people move home from time to time. They also know that I did not respond to any communications sent to me at my old address.

This situation is explicitly dealt with in the Civil Procedure Rules which provide at CPR 6.9(3):

 (3) Where a claimant has reason to believe that the address of the defendant … is an address at which the defendant no longer resides or carries on business, the claimant must take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of the defendant’s current residence or place of business (‘current address’). 

The Claimant is a member of the British Parking Association (the ‘BPA’) and is bound by the BPA’s Code of Practice which gives voice to CPR 6.9(3) in the following terms:

 24.1c Before serving a Letter Before Claim and prior to the issue of proceedings, Operators must, if no responses have been received to the NTD/NTK/reminder letters, take reasonable endeavours to ensure that the contact details for the person you are writing to are correct.

 If the Claimant had taken the actions required by the Civil Procedure Rules and the Code of Practice, my current address would have been found easily, which is obviously what DCBL did before sending their letter dated 4th April 2025.  If those actions had been performed at the correct time rather than after judgment, I would not have been deprived of the ability to defend the claim. 

By reason of the Claimant’s breach of the Civil Procedure Rules, which amounts to an abuse of the process of the Court, the claim form was never properly served and the judgment must be set aside at the Claimant’s expense and the claim dismissed because it is now too late for the particulars of claim to be re-served.

In view of the foregoing, I invite the Claimant to join with me in an application to set aside the judgment and dismiss the claim, with the Claimant paying the court fee and no order as to costs.

Please respond to the above offer as soon as possible so that, if the offer is acceptable to the Claimant, we can work together to right the wrong that the Claimant has done to me. 

To give you a reasonable time to take instructions and for us to agree a suite of documents for the Court, I am willing to defer making a unilateral application to set aside the judgment until 4 pm on 25th April 2025. If a joint application has not been made by that time, I intend to instruct a solicitor to apply to the Court unilaterally for an order setting the judgment aside, striking out the particulars of claim, dismissing the claim and awarding costs against the Claimant on a full indemnity basis.

Pease respond by immediate return.

Yours faithfully,

cc DCBL

Coupon-mad

Arrrrrrrgh...you moved house and didn't tell them? That's the one thing you have to do.

NahkoMed

Oh no. Is there anything I can do? I just didn't know! They waited for a YEAR to file the claim after issuing the LBC, is it not reasonable to expect them to check my address after that long? - Not to mention the fact that they're supposed to act in a timely manner... right? Uuurrgh!

Coupon-mad

I now have the option to pay £330 and ask for it to be "set aside" (as I'm sure a lot of you know) and I have the forms for that. I'd just really appreciate any guidance you might have for that process. 

£313 fee, not £330.

And you will be asking for the Judge to order that fee and all your costs against the Claimant. Look how easily DCB found you AFTER the CCJ.

Utter abuse & scammery IMHO.

But I so wish it had occurred to you to tell them in December to erase your old address, or at least to set up mail redirection... ouch!

What a mess for the sake of missing one simple email. Clearly you had to tell them you'd moved. You have a CCJ now for the next few months until it's set aside.

Yes send the email.

But they won't agree , so get ready to do the n244 as seen in other threads such as @icy_fox and @Brightonrock123

NahkoMed

Coupon-mad said:

I now have the option to pay £330 and ask for it to be "set aside" (as I'm sure a lot of you know) and I have the forms for that. I'd just really appreciate any guidance you might have for that process. 

£313 fee, not £330.

But I so wish it had occurred to you to tell them in December to erase your old address, or at least to set up mail redirection... ouch!

What a mess for the sake of missing one simple email. Clearly you had to tell them you'd moved. You have a CCJ now for the next few months until it's set aside.

Yes send the email.

Ok, great, thank you. This is actually a big relief. I thought at first you were saying I had no chance of getting the set-aside which sent me into a bit of a spin tbh. I agree that now in hindsight it's obvious that notifying them was the right thing to do, I made the assumption that since they'd ignored the PAP process and gone quiet, it was over. Should have known better.

That said, I can (just about) cope with applying for the set-aside and going through that process. Ouch, as you say.

Yes, £313.

Once again, thanks for your wisdom and support. It really means a lot.