Surprise CCJ after address change - try for a 'consented' set-aside?

stwg842

Have read through the forums as best I can since first receiving this parking ticket back in November 2021. Know this situation is common, but cannot quite find guidance specific enough to my own situation: namely, whether I ought to contact the claimant to try to get them to agree to a 'consented' set-aside (with, I presume, a payment from me up to the full amount of the CCJ - just over £300), or whether I should instead pursue some other course.

Initial timeline:

1. PCN given after staying too long in Nov 2021 in a private car park with a 20-minute limit (which I didn't realize had a 20-minute limit as it was dark and I didn't manage to notice any signs; I stayed for about 15 minutes longer while waiting on a cheap fish and chips takeaway, of all things)
2. Over next seven months, received several pieces of correspondence (which I no longer seem to have) from issuer of PCN; I ignored this correspondence as I thought the 'fine' was extortionate and ignoring it, while waiting to see if a claim was raised in court, seemed to be the guidance I read online
3. Changed address in mid-July 2022; changed address with DVLA once I had permanent address in Sept 2022, and also had Royal Mail forwarding in place from late Oct 2022 to late Jan 2023
4. Found out about CCJ, with judgment for claimant in default, in Sept 2023 after denied on a housing rental application; my credit has been devastated in the time since (had no adverse credit of any kind before this, but relatively limited credit history)

Subsequent timeline (and something which makes my case a bit unusual):
5. Received a message from current occupier at old address who had a large pile of unopened mail in my name; they sent it to me, received 26 Aug 2024. In that package is the following:

i. Correspondence from DCBL dated Sept 2022, Oct 2022, and Nov 2022 (the third of these despite mail forwarding being in place)

ii. Letter Before Action from Civil Enforcement dated March 2023

iii. Claim form from County Court Business Centre dated May 2023

iv. Judgment for claimant from County Court Business Centre dated June 2023

v. Correspondence from Civil Enforcement relating to that judgment/CCJ dated June 2023 and October 2023

It appears I have three options (?):

a. Contact Civil Enforcement, try to get them to consent to a set-aside (perhaps by immediately paying a lower amount than the £300+ of the CCJ), then pay (I think roughly £115?) court for application for 'consented' set-aside. Not sure what my odds are here.
b. Pay higher amount for (non-consented) set-aside, go to court to argue that CCJ should be set-aside on grounds that I didn't have knowledge of the action because Civil Enforcement did not take reasonable measures to find my correct address (I never responded to anything, including correspondence from DCBL), which they could have via DVLA info. This seems risky - and is potentially much more expensive (£275 for non-consented set-aside plus potentially the full £300+ owed for CCJ?).

c. Pay the £300+ owed per the CCJ and have CCJ marked as 'satisfied' after getting certificate from court. This retains a huge negative effect on my credit through July 2029.

Any advice on how best to proceed? I'm worried about the claimant and/or court arguing that because I received correspondence prior to changing my address with DVLA in Sept 2022, I should have contacted DCBL to give them my new address once I moved.

Coupon-mad

Just do what the NEWBIES thread says, starting with the email suggested by @troublemaker22 but DO NOT AGREE to any consent order that requires you to pay three figures.

stwg842

Thanks for your reply - by the email suggested by @troublemaker22, do you mean modifying for my case (fairly heavily, since I only caught the CCJ on my credit report when applying for rental housing) and then sending (by email?) this: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80636476/#Comment_80636476

Am I right to think that Civil Enforcement (and/or DCLB - I'm still not sure how the latter relates to CE) should have done some kind of tracing/research to find my address when I didn't respond to anything which had been sent before I moved address? Would that include checking my details (again?) with DVLA before sending the Letter Before Action (or, at least, before actually bringing the action)?

stwg842

Sorry, @Coupon-mad - still not sure what you're referring to from the Newbies thread, exactly.

Coupon-mad

The advice about setting aside a CCJ

stwg842

Rest through that (incl links to profiles to see more threads), but I'm not sure what you meant by the email suggested by @troublemaker22. I can't find their username anywhere in the Newbies thread.

KeithP

Just a guess, but perhaps @Coupon-mad means the thread by @Troublesum1.

Coupon-mad

Nope.

The advice for setting aside a CCJ explains about the first email to send. It's the first link given (not to a username).

stwg842

Thanks, @Coupon-mad - that's what I thought, just wanted to be sure. Below is a draft of what I will email to Civil Enforcement. I have tried to modify it for the specifics of my own 'case' (as outlined above), but would appreciate any guidance on whether further changes ought to be made?

Two further questions: 

1. I have found three email addresses for them on this forum, so I suppose I will send the below as a PDF attachment to all three addresses (office@ce-service.co.uk; Legal3@ce-service.co.uk; dataprotectionofficer@ce-service.co.uk)?

2. Should I provide my current mailing address in either the below (which will be attached as a PDF) or else in the body of the email?

-----------

URGENT 

Dear Sirs,

CIVIL ENFORCEMENT LIMITED (THE ‘CLAIMANT’) V [XX] CLAIM REFERENCE [XX]

It has come to my attention, after failing referencing as part of an application for rental housing, that there exists a County Court Judgment against me, after judgment was entered in default on XX June 2023. This came as a tremendous shock as I have received no communication from the Claimant or any organisation representing the Claimant in relation to this claim.

I made immediate enquiries of the County Court Business Centre, from which I was able to establish that: 

1.       the claim relates to an alleged parking event in November 2021;

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, not even a letter of claim as required by the PAP. Nor did I receive the claim form or any particulars of claim; I 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 then-current address would have been found easily and 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 13 September 2024. 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.

Please respond by immediate return.

Yours faithfully,

XX

Coupon-mad

That's fine and I would put your correct postal address at the bottom under your name.  I would not attach that as a PDF, it's meant to just be in the body of the email. No attachments.

DO NOT AGREE TO A CONSENT ORDER THAT REQUIRES YOU TO PAY CEL MONEY.

Use all their email addresses.

stwg842

Thank you again - massively appreciated to you and everyone else offering guidance here (incl @troublemaker22 for providing that text to use)! Will email this tomorrow, setting response 'deadline' as Monday 16th at 4pm, and then post here whatever response I get (before I do anything further).