CCJ Hearing and Consent Order

dnonomore

I am just wondering if someone can give me some advice please?

I recently found out that VCS have issued a default CCj judgment of £277 on my account in regards to an apparent parking fine in 2020. The CCJ was filed in July 2022.  (I moved house in July 2020)

I only discovered this, after checking my credit score, so I rang the county court for details. It appears VCS had sent all correspondence to an address that I have not lived at for over 4 years. It was relating to a parking fine for a scooter that i used to own, but that my daughter had taken ownership just before we moved house. She filled in the DVLA V5C for new owner and posted it off. She never received a new V5C but admittedly, we didnt think to chase it up as we moved house. Consequently i didnt ever receive any fine relating to this and a CCJ was registered against me.

I submitted a N244 form and paid the court fee asking to set the judgement aside as I never received the fine or papers and was therefore not able to pay and settle the fine.

My application has been accepted and I have a court date (via telephone) on 28 August. However I have now received an email from a company called ELMS Legal Ltd saying if I pay the original fine of £277 they will draft a consent order to present and have assured me that the CCJ will get dismissed and i will incur no further costs.

Am I better off just taking it to court now as I have paid the court fee to get the judgement set aside or pay them and hope it comes off my file ASAP. I’m also sceptical of paying and then it looking like Iv agreed I’m in the wrong and the judge only making ccj as settled rather than removing off my file. I am a single mum of a disabled child and i have worked really hard to improve my credit rating following a divorce and this has really thrown me.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

LDast

Do not accept the Elm's offer. They realise they are likely to lose the claim if it is allowed to be re-served. Hopefully you requested that costs be met by the claimant in your draft order for the set aside.

If you were to accept their offer, you would be out of pocket for the cost of the set aside application due to their incompetence and then they would simply discontinue after the set aside.

Coupon-mad

Seconded.  DO NOT AGREE.

They are trying to get out of having to pay your £275 fee costs and the next thing they'll do is send the court an Order with your name on that mimics a Consent Order.

You need to take action to protect your hearing date.

I think this happened to @Harbmeister and/or @Khayman so read their threads because you MUST EMAIL THE COURT URGENTLY to tell the Judge that if Elms mock up a Consent Order this is FALSE. You have NOT consented and your application hearing (that you paid for) must not be vacated if Elms try to mislead the court at this stage.

dnonomore

Thankyou both for replying. I dont believe that i did request any cost to be met by the claimant in my request for the order to be set aside? would this make a difference?  This is the first time i have ever been in a situation like this and i am scared to do the wrong thing.  I am desperate to get the CCJ removed (ideally without having to  pay any more than i already have done) but i was tempted to pay it if it meant that the CCJ would be removed and that would be the end of it.   If i do not agree to a consent order, what is the likely outcome for me? I thought it might not go in my favour as i did not ensure the DVLA details were updated??? Thanks again people 

Coupon-mad

You will win, and can ask at the hearing for your costs to be awarded as the fault is theirs.

Do NOT NOT NOT agree to a Consent Order.

Harbmeister

Hello @dnonomore
I have not been this exact situation (per message from coupon-mad) but please please please do two things...
1/ Let the people here advise you - above all else and despite any post/letters/instructions/offers you receive these are people you can trust to give you the best advice.
2/ Be timely / vigilant in what you report here / what you do with advice you receive. There are deadlines and as an observer of other threads things go wrong mainly when people miss them.

Johnersh

Is this a residential site/PCN?

1. The PCN was issued in 2020. The fact is that if they chased for payment then, on balance of probability, the o/p would have responded. The corollary of that is that by chasing payment 18 months or 2 years later and receiving no response, the claimant should have considered the possibility that the defendant had moved and was not in a position to respond.

2. The info about the v5c is helpful to explain why the details were not corrected until recently, but even if it had been, the keeper search would still have shown the o/p address since the PPC normally request keeper details promptly at the time PCNs are issued, not at the time that proceedings are issued.

3. There has been a failure by the PPC to check the address of the defendant. It's not a last known address if there is any reason to suggest it may not be current (such as no response) and no additional checks are made.

4. The failure by the PPC has led to a ccj that should not have been entered as the claimant has not complied with their CPR obligations. If the court accepts that, the defendant should be awarded the costs of the application.

5. Google is your friend. In 2020 the deposit protection service (DPS) put the average tenancy length in the UK at 724 days. So even on an objective analysis, national data tells us that by the time proceedings were issued it was more likely than not the o/p was not resident at their former address.

dnonomore

Johnersh thankyou so much for taking the time to reply.  I dont think the dates i gave originally were correct? I have now finally been sent the original fine and notice to pay, etc from ELMS legal. It looks like the date of parking offence was 29.1.22. several letters were sent feb, march, april (obviously i never received any of these as i had moved house 18 months earlier. Court letter issue date was 29.6.22. It was feb of this year when i was made aware of the CCJ dated 20.7.22 when doing credit report. I went through "help with fees" in feb 2024 and submitted my N244 in feb. I heard nothing, only to be tolf upon chasing, that the email address had changed and i had toresubmit.  I did this in july this year and quickly recieved a court date hearing of 28.8.24.  
ELMs have now reduced their fee to £170 if i sign concent order.  Im so confused by the whole thing. Im tempted to pay the £170 if it means an end to it.  Will a judge agree to a consent order ? WIll i havemore fees topay if they do or dont accept? 

Coupon-mad

Do not sign the consent order.

Read other Elms Consent Order threads.

1505grandad

" I have now finally been sent the original fine and notice to pay...."

Numerous use of the word "fine"  -  it is only an invoice  -  you will not find "fine" in any of their comms.

Johnersh

so ignore 1 and 5 of my bullet points, but 2,3,4 probably still do apply?

if you benefit from HWF did you get a full fee remission? Cause if not, remember the document Elms want you to sign isn’t returning that money either.

i can tell you fwiw, I am suing an individual for whom the only address I have is his former work. I am therefore having to check the electoral role and probably will retain a tracing agent to find him. That is all pretty standard and it’s what any claimant is required to do if there is any doubt (such as multiple letters eliciting no reply).

A last known address is not license to be casual as to whether a defendant ever received the claim form.