Parking charge CCJ upheld - Set aside refused

parkingccjupheld

Hi all,
Looking for some help please! I've just had my court hearing to have my parking charge ccj set aside. I completed the N244 form and used the witness statement template as well as the draft order after reading the hundreds of comments on various threads on how to get these awful things set aside. I was confident I was going to win my case after reading all of your fantastic advice however sadly the CCJ was upheld, the judge did not find any reasonable grounds to allow me to set aside so I lost my case and am also £290 after paying the court fee :-( I am super upset and bummed out about it. I received notification of the claim on 6th October and registered to appeal it, however I didn't lodge my defence in time as I was trying to find out how to defend this claim and didn't realise the date I needed to submit by. The CCJ was automatically issued on 18th October 2023 and I filed the N244 etc on 3rd November 2023 so in good time. I have no idea how or why I didn't receive the original parking charge as they allegedly issued it to my current correct address. Is there anything I can do to appeal this decision or get this pesky CCJ removed from my credit score? 
Any help would be greatly appreciated! TIA

Coupon-mad

I think the only way you can possibly look to overturn that would be to ask Contestor Legal if they think you have grounds.  You'd need experienced legal support.

Which court?

Did the Judge deal with the whole claim and say your defence had no legs?

parkingccjupheld

OK thank you, I'll contact them.

It was at Horsham County Court in West Sussex. She dealt with the whole claim and yeah essentially said my defence that I was not at the address when the judgement was set due to ill health couldn't stand. 

Am really disappointed, wish I didn't defend the claim and just paid the CCJ as at least it would have been wiped from my record if i'd paid it within the month

Coupon-mad

She dealt with the whole claim and yeah essentially said my defence that I was not at the address when the judgement was set due to ill health couldn't stand.

I think she's possibly wrong in law, particularly if the ill health is chronic / long-term: i.e. fits the definition of disability as per the Equality Act 2010.

But IANAL.

You have to be very quick if Contestor Legal think they see grounds for appeal.  You need to ask them now if they can help to appeal this.

Nellymoser

Sorry to read your about your court hearing, hope you can appeal...and get the desired result.

When you're less stressed would you consider supporting this

So many people don't receive 1st and/or 2nd pcn but the £170 payment due letter often manages to drop through letter boxes. PPCs always claim discounted/full rate pcns/court claim letters were sent as dated though they offer no evidence to prove this.

Since they CHOOSE NOT to provide evidence of their posting we must continue to press gov to ensure they do and see it included in the new Parking CoP. Please sign/share @jmccabe petition closes 22nd june 2024.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652355
Require communications from Private Parking companies to be traceable/trackable
Thank you. Good luck

D_P_Dance

This appears to me a case that your MP might be interested in.

fatbelly

Is it the case that you did not pass the 'defence with a reasonable prospect of success' test?

If you can get advice about whether you can have a second bite at this,you may need to challenge the invoice on a more fundamental level - one that would require a court to assess the merits of your argument

Olive_j

parkingccjupheld said:

Hi all,
Looking for some help please! I've just had my court hearing to have my parking charge ccj set aside. I completed the N244 form and used the witness statement template as well as the draft order after reading the hundreds of comments on various threads on how to get these awful things set aside. I was confident I was going to win my case after reading all of your fantastic advice however sadly the CCJ was upheld, the judge did not find any reasonable grounds to allow me to set aside so I lost my case and am also £290 after paying the court fee :-( I am super upset and bummed out about it. I received notification of the claim on 6th October and registered to appeal it, however I didn't lodge my defence in time as I was trying to find out how to defend this claim and didn't realise the date I needed to submit by. The CCJ was automatically issued on 18th October 2023 and I filed the N244 etc on 3rd November 2023 so in good time. I have no idea how or why I didn't receive the original parking charge as they allegedly issued it to my current correct address. Is there anything I can do to appeal this decision or get this pesky CCJ removed from my credit score? 
Any help would be greatly appreciated! TIA

I also had a similar situation. Parking charge sent to our old, old address as my husband hadn’t changed our v5. I parked in a car park which the day before had changed their parking from 3 hours to 2 and had paper signs up. A similar case in the same car park had their ccj removed. I had proof that my husband got the train to work (it was him who got the ccj) so wasn’t driving, the parking company even agreed to remove the charge so I did the easier route to setting aside (forgot the correct term as it was a few years ago) & the judge upheld it. We got the letter on the day of going into hospital to deliver my baby (totally ruined my pregnancy spending hours & hours on all the paperwork) & stayed in hospital for 8 days so missed the 7 days of appealing. Still another 2 years of it impacting my husband’s credit file. Very upsetting. I hope you can get sorted! X

Coupon-mad

Olive_j said:

parkingccjupheld said:

Hi all,
Looking for some help please! I've just had my court hearing to have my parking charge ccj set aside. I completed the N244 form and used the witness statement template as well as the draft order after reading the hundreds of comments on various threads on how to get these awful things set aside. I was confident I was going to win my case after reading all of your fantastic advice however sadly the CCJ was upheld, the judge did not find any reasonable grounds to allow me to set aside so I lost my case and am also £290 after paying the court fee :-( I am super upset and bummed out about it. I received notification of the claim on 6th October and registered to appeal it, however I didn't lodge my defence in time as I was trying to find out how to defend this claim and didn't realise the date I needed to submit by. The CCJ was automatically issued on 18th October 2023 and I filed the N244 etc on 3rd November 2023 so in good time. I have no idea how or why I didn't receive the original parking charge as they allegedly issued it to my current correct address. Is there anything I can do to appeal this decision or get this pesky CCJ removed from my credit score? 
Any help would be greatly appreciated! TIA

I also had a similar situation. Parking charge sent to our old, old address as my husband hadn’t changed our v5. I parked in a car park which the day before had changed their parking from 3 hours to 2 and had paper signs up.

A similar case in the same car park had their ccj removed.

I had proof that my husband got the train to work (it was him who got the ccj) so wasn’t driving, the parking company even agreed to remove the charge so I did the easier route to setting aside (forgot the correct term as it was a few years ago) & the judge upheld it.

We got the letter on the day of going into hospital to deliver my baby (totally ruined my pregnancy spending hours & hours on all the paperwork) & stayed in hospital for 8 days so missed the 7 days of appealing. Still another 2 years of it impacting my husband’s credit file. Very upsetting. I hope you can get sorted! X

So you went for the 'Consent' route (relying entirely on the Claimant's own wording) which is sadly always risky and not what we recommend. You should have gone for a contested set aside hearing, but it is too late now. I'm so sorry.

Glad you have only 2 years left of this crap but isn't it a complete & utter scandal that this can even happen to good people in this Country?

This OP had their wrong judgment happen to them a year ago and they never came back here. So sad.

Johnersh

Hard to tell without being there, but if one has to accept that the default judgment was correctly given (the o/p received pleadings but failed to respond).

The *only* avenue is to assert a complete defence to the claim which is more than merely arguable and to seek good reason to set aside (which is discretionary) using the ill health as mitigation for the failure to respond/confusion. That would require the o/p to have filed a detailed defence for the judge to consider (on the facts of the claim not the default judgment itself).

If the DJ felt the criteria weren't met to exercise discretion an appeal to this might be difficult.