Recent CCJ (CST LAW)

LL123LL

I am hoping someone may be able to provide some advice please. I have been issued a CCJ from the Civil National Business Centre (at least that’s what the document states it is, unless it is fake which I doubt) which I have just found out about 2 days ago from the buyer of my house. It was only issued on 23 January so very recently so I am in the 30 day period where I need to either pay or fight. The Claimant is MET Parking but payment is to be made to CST Law.

My situation is as follows: I moved house 17 months ago and this CCJ has alerted me to the fact that I never updated either my driving licence or my log book. This is totally my fault, I simply forgot. I have just updated my driving licence yesterday and going to do the log book today when my husband returns with the car. 

The other matter is that it was actually my husband who was driving and got the “parking fine” at a Leisure Centre in Battersea, London, where he was a member of the gym. The manager on site told him to ignore it on the basis that they don’t have a legal right to claim the money (which is of course incorrect as we now know) but my husband told me this and therefore I binned the letter and didn’t think about it again. We moved house about 8 weeks after that letter came and we have therefore not received anything else until our buyer has told us about the CCJ 2 days ago, as she opened it by mistake. She has not told us about any other post and likely has been throwing everything away. I do not therefore know whether a claim form was submitted or when but I know it would all have been to our old address on the basis that I never updated it (and I now also know from this forum they only access the address once which they did when they sent the first letter to us which we ignored on the advice of the manager of the leisure centre so at the time of the very first letter they were sending to the correct address).

I am tempted very much to just pay this despite it being unfair as I’m extremely limited on time and my life is hectic as I am working whilst looking after two toddlers as well as my mum who is not well and my husband works away most of the time, and I have no idea where to even begin. I have read the newbies threads and I understand the set aside process and associated cost, but I am nervous about being that unfortunate person who gets the unreasonable judge who places weight on the fact I still haven’t even updated my log book 17 months later, albeit I will today. I have no excuse for that other than being a busy working parent of young children, as we all are. I understand a soft search should have been carried out by the firm but it appears that some people have not had success despite making that point. My main and specific query really is whether the fact I was not the driver has any legs and whether a CCJ against me can actually be valid if I was not even the person who breached the supposed contract with the car park? I have tried to research this point on the internet and have found conflicting information.

I know you will tell me I should fight this and rightly so but without it being a slam dunk I don’t want to end up with even more costs and more stress than the current CCJ or risk it not being overturned when currently I am in the timeframe where I can pay and have it “go away” which is tempting even though morally is not the answer! But our mortgage is due for renewal in 3 years so I have to consider that as the most important factor. But as I was not the driver, I wonder if this gives me a bolstered defence? That could impact my appetite to fight this. 

Thank you all very much in advance. 

Grizebeck

Do the AOS today informing the court of your new address (done on the AOS).  That automatically updates the address the court uses. You do this on the MCOl system

Inform CST of the new address litigation@cstlaw.co.uk
And no your not to busy to defend this. 

LL123LL

Grizebeck said:

Do the AOS today informing the court of your new address (done on the AOS).  That automatically updates the address the court uses. You do this on the MCOl system

Inform CST of the new address litigation@cstlaw.co.uk
And no your not to busy to defend this. 

Thank you, I will do this. Do you know whether the fact I was not the driver makes any difference, or can the CCJ be given to the keeper or driver? I am the keeper, my husband was driving and I was not present at the time of the “offence”! I thought for private car parks only the driver could be the subject of a CCJ, not the keeper, and I’m wondering if it can be set aside on that basis alone (regardless of the issues re service at incorrect address). Thank you. 

LL123LL

I’ve just found info on the BPA website stating that I can be issued with a CCJ as keeper if the claimant did not know who was driving. However, I’m wondering once they know what I was not driving, that the CCJ must be automatically set aside? IF that is the case, do they then pursue my husband as driver from scratch ie with the very first letter or is the CCJ just automatically transferred to him? Thank you. 

LL123LL

Grizebeck said:

Do the AOS today informing the court of your new address (done on the AOS).  That automatically updates the address the court uses. You do this on the MCOl system

Inform CST of the new address litigation@cstlaw.co.uk
And no your not to busy to defend this. 

What is the MCOI system? Thank you 

LL123LL

Sorry one final thing, in the absence of any of the previous correspondence from the parking firm/debt collectors about this, I just want to make sure this CCJ is not a scam and is a genuine document? It includes the court address and telephone number so presumably real but is this how they usually look?

Coupon-mad

That is a CCJ.

Sadly, you could have defended this easily in January.  We do this every day.

What grounds might you have to set the CCJ aside?

Difficult if you received and ignored a claim form I'm afraid unless you have something compelling that means you aren't liable or the PCN was wrongly given (e.g. a double visit wrongly taken by ANPR to be one long overstay).   

Not being the driver would have had legs as part of a defence, yes, IF the PCN wasn't worded for keeper liability. We've no idea as you didn't show us the PCN.  And it is too late to defend.

If you are within the 30 days, to wipe it off completely, with no effect on your credit rating, the usual advice (sadly) is pay IN FULL immediately, on the solicitor's portal.

DO NOT RING THEM.

LL123LL

Coupon-mad said:

That is a CCJ.

Sadly, you could have defended this easily in January.  We do this every day.

What grounds might you have to set the CCJ aside?

Difficult if you received and ignored a claim form I'm afraid unless you have something compelling that means you aren't liable or the PCN was wrongly given (e.g. a double visit wrongly taken by ANPR to be one long overstay).   

Not being the driver would have had legs as part of a defence, yes, IF the PCN wasn't worded for keeper liability. We've no idea as you didn't show us the PCN.  And it is too late to defend.

If you are within the 30 days, to wipe it off completely, with no effect on your credit rating, the usual advice (sadly) is pay IN FULL immediately, on the solicitor's portal.

DO NOT RING THEM.

Thank you Coupon-Mad. I was hoping you specifically would reply! Unfortunately when we received the very first PCN (about 19 months ago) we threw it away as my husband had been told by the leisure centre to ignore it, so I no longer have it and I don’t know how it was worded i.e. keeper liability or otherwise. He was a member of the gym and I believe forgot to put his numberplate into a computer and when the letter came he asked the manager about it and he said not to worry as nothing would come of it. 

We then moved house about 8 weeks later, so any subsequent letters including any Claim Form were never received as if they were sent, and presumably they were, they were sent to our old house and no doubt binned by the new owner. 

It’s my fault for not changing the address in the log book (although I understand they would have likely continued to use my old address even if I had if they can only access it once). 

So since that very first PCN, this is the next thing I have seen. The owner of my old house obviously realised it looked important being from a court and opened it (she said she opened it by mistake not realising it wasn’t addressed to her) and then she sent me a photo of it, just 3 days ago. So I never had opportunity to defend as I didn’t know about it until the CCJ was posted to my old address and she opened it.

I wasn’t sure whether the fact I wasn’t driving so wasn’t the person who committed the “offence” might mean that they can’t actually legally enforce a CCJ against me and that might be a simple way to set it aside after the event, but perhaps they can enforce against me as I am the keeper even though it wasn’t me who entered into the “contract” with the leisure centre. Is that correct?

In light of all the above, is your advice to still just pay them? I don’t think there’s not much else I can do now and I don’t want to risk my credit score for when we need to remortgage. I will have to just put it down to a lesson learnt about updating my log book immediately in the future and setting up a Royal Mail redirection for longer than just 3 months next time I move so that this can never happen again!  

Thanks again in advance for your help. 

Coupon-mad

"I don’t want to risk my credit score".

Then sadly, the straight advice is pay them IN FULL (not instalments), even though you could almost certainly get the CCJ set aside if you choose that route).

The system is so broken that a Claimant's solicitor can set aside a CCJ the same day if they make an 'admin error' (we saw a case this week where DCB set aside a CCJ and the CNBC jumped to do it the same day) yet Defendants have to risk their credit rating and pay £275 fee just to be allowed to apply.

And in the meantime, the CCJ is not frozen, so it IS risking your credit rating; you have to take the hit for a few months if you choose to apply to set aside this CCJ. Terrible situation.  And if you then get a bad Judge. that CCJ remains for 6 years.

You COULD sue the gym.

They caused this loss.

LL123LL

Thank you. It is very unfair but I think the lesser of two evils is to pay it. Out of interest, I presume you cannot pay it and then apply for a set aside after paying it, so that you are not at risk of credit score? I imagine paying it must count as a form of “acceptance” after which point set aside is not possible, but I would be grateful if you could kindly confirm that. Many thanks. 

Coupon-mad

LL123LL said:

Thank you. It is very unfair but I think the lesser of two evils is to pay it. Out of interest, I presume you cannot pay it and then apply for a set aside after paying it, so that you are not at risk of credit score? I imagine paying it must count as a form of “acceptance” after which point set aside is not possible, but I would be grateful if you could kindly confirm that. Many thanks. 

@henrik777 often posted, a few years ago, that in theory you should be able to pay it and still get it set aside.  This is because your application is to set aside the Order.

We have seen mixed results.