Is this a genuine court letter ?

bigDduble1

Hi guys so my partner left our car at a KFC parking lot (next to a kids fun house) there are signs there which state customer's can only park here for 1 hour I believe, & our car was left for a bit longer.

We received fines which we ignored, & then received a 'Claim form' which looks a bit more serious. We decided to ignore this too, and the next letter we received was enough to worry my partner enough to make a post here. 

Is this a fine I need to pay? Should I keep ignoring? Is it even a court judgement? 

If anyone could help me on this matter it'd be hugely appreciated.


(The bottom picture is the 1st claim form we received) 

fatbelly

Yes it's a ccj in default because you didnot respond to the claim within 14 days of service.

Le_Kirk

bigDduble1 said:

Is this a fine I need to pay? Should I keep ignoring? Is it even a court judgement? 

Yep, it states clearly on the letter that it is a judgment in default!

bigDduble1

OK just a bit confused as I've read somewhere these guys are just scammers and they send threatening letters that appear to be genuine court orders, but are infact just threats & to ignore them.

Debszzzz2

Sadly, you have been ordered to pay the debt you allegedly owed CEL. By ignoring everything (not advised since 2012) and in particular the claim which, whilst served correctly, was defective, you now have a CCJ. If you pay the sum within 30 days of the judgment, it will not appear in your credit record for the next 6 years.

Had you responded to the claim within the required timeline with a robust defence and still lost, you would have likely paid at least £60-£70 less than the total claim. Had you been luckier and found this forum much earlier, you would have been advised to defend using the template defence with the CEL v Chan transcript and more likely than not, you would not have to pay a penny due to the defective PoC in the claim.

The only way you can now avoid a damaging CCJ on your credit record is to either pay the CCJ in full within 30 days of judgment or you can apply to have it set aside for a £275 fee with no guarantee that it will succeed. You would have to convince the court that you have good prospect of defending the claim, which from the sparse information we have, so far, is not particularly likely to succeed.

if you were to try and get this judgment set aside and you were successful, you would almost certainly not get your £275 fee returned and would still have to defend the original alleged debt.

So…

1. Pay the CCJ in full within 30 days of judgment and that’s the end of the matter and credit record remains clean. Down around £300.

2. Pay £275 and try to get the CCJ set aside with the CCJ going on to your credit record in the meantime. Very high risk of trashed credit record for the next 6 years and still having to defend the original alleged debt. Down around around £500 and trashed credit record.

3.Pay £275 to try and get the CCJ set aside with the CCJ going on to your credit record in the meantime. If by some miracle or a lottery winning level of luck you succeed in persuading the court that you have a good prospect of defending the original claim… Down at least £275 plus possibly around another £250 if you lose the subsequent defence but an eventual clean credit record.

4. Pay nothing and still be in debt to the tune of c£300 and increasing daily and have a trashed credit record for the next 6 years.

Those are your current options and the price for ignoring a court claim. Hopefully, you have at least learnt a life lesson.

Coupon-mad

bigDduble1 said:

OK just a bit confused as I've read somewhere these guys are just scammers and they send threatening letters that appear to be genuine court orders, but are in fact just threats & to ignore them.

But if you had come here you'd have seen from the NEWBIES thread that you do not ignore a court claim. You'd have won and paid nothing.

Sadly, you ignored a court claim form so you have no choice but to pay in full immediately.

[Deleted User]

bigDduble1 said:

OK just a bit confused as I've read somewhere these guys are just scammers and they send threatening letters that appear to be genuine court orders, but are infact just threats & to ignore them.

I can understand your thinking, such things are not unheard of. 

However, the original claim form points you towards using a government website for defending the claim. That’s a massive flag to it not being a fake court letter. I would have, at the least, gone on to that website and had a look at what’s what. And, if still in doubt, contacting the court itself to ascertain its validity.

D_P_Dance

bigDduble1 said:

OK just a bit confused as I've read somewhere these guys are just scammers and they send threatening letters that appear to be genuine court orders, but are infact just threats & to ignore them.

They are  scammers but this court claim is not just a threat

Fruitcake

D_P_Dance said:

bigDduble1 said:

OK just a bit confused as I've read somewhere these guys are just scammers and they send threatening letters that appear to be genuine court orders, but are infact just threats & to ignore them.

They are  scammers but this court claim is not just a threat

Obviously it is not just a threat, because it has been to court and the OP lost because they failed to defend it.