Received Notice of Debt Recovery - Unpaid County Court Judgement from dcbl

Gr1pr

Thanks for clarifying that aspect,  So how much is the amount on the CCJ letter that the OP is dealing with. ? ( I don't remember seeing a redacted picture of the CCJ letter. )

It won't be £120, that was on the Letter of Claim from DCB legal 

Given the location, ( Forestry Commission. ) it sounds like a similar case on here near the Clifton suspension bridge that incurred a PCN for £50 and was reduced to £25 for early settlement , so a £70 debt collectors fee would increase the default tariff of £50 to the £120 claimed 

The CCJ is likely to be say £220 or more 

confusedparking

I am happy to call the CNBC back if that is the correct procedure, the advice I saw above was to just get the PoC.

The amount on the CCJ is £236.69 and there is no breakdown on the charges.

All they sent me today was the details in the post https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81047936/#Comment_81047936

Gr1pr

No need to call the CNBC in view of what Ldast stated earlier, just a shame that you didn't tell us the total showing on the CCJ letter 

I would break it down as £50 due to non payment of the PCN, plus they £70 as a debt collectors fee, making the £120 as shown on your LoC, the rest is interest, Court fees and legal fees etc, totalling £116.69p added to the £120, making £236.69p

Date of county court judgement 28/08/2024

Claimant is Group Nexus 

Lawyers were DCB Legal acting on behalf of Group Nexus. (. C P Plus. )

confusedparking

Yeah I'm sorry about that, I've never had one before so I thought they would be a flat fee - which looking at it now makes no sense.

So yes with that breakdown, do you recommend I begin requesting them to set aside the CCJ? 

Gr1pr

That is your choice to make, which you were given advice on by coupon mad, costing you £303 if you choose the contested route 

If you don't get it set aside, it will cause you financial problems for the next 6 years 

You should be thinking of the legal reasons why it should be set aside, if you have any ? ( Such as the claim form going to the incorrect address, or whatever, if true. )

Its a complicated business, getting a set aside and fighting the original claim, so a lot of work, a lot of research and effort and money up front, so be aware of the enormity of the process you would be taking on, people without personal problems find it stressful, your disability could be a problem, but it is achievable 

So think about it, read other cases. ( It does not matter what I think, I was trying to get at the facts of the case so far.  )

The charge for parking there is a few pounds, say £5 to park all day, the PCN they issued, probably for non payment or for insufficient payment was probably £50 , its now inflated to £236.69

Ps, I have never been to court or had a CCJ either, never had a private parking charge notice , never seen any of these issues personally, most people haven't , that is why good research and good advice are useful tools 

confusedparking

Thank you, yes I am ready to try and clear my name and understand how much work there is.

I don't feel the original PCN is valid, I would have paid to pay and use cash to do so, so I don't have the ticket anymore, I don't use apps so don't have the payment history on there.

For the CCJ, I didn't have a chance to defend myself, they found my address after it was judged, and made no real attempt to contact me beforehand.

I have looked through some threads with my partner, and we have been reading Zbubuman's thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6518614/2-x-ccjs-that-i-was-not-aware-about/p2 and it has been very eye opening.

Based on a template I have taken from a thread I have put this together to contact Group Nexus (the only email addresses I can find is info@groupnexus.co.uk or nexuspay@groupnexus.co.uk) and would send this:

Dear Sirs,

GROUP NEXUS (THE ‘CLAIMANT’)  V (my name) CLAIM REFERENCE L7KF5T41

On 11 October 2024, I received the attached letter dated 09 October 2024 from Direct Collections Bailiffs Limited (‘DCBL’). This came as a tremendous shock as it is the first and only communication I have received from the Claimant or any organisation representing the Claimant in relation to this claim.   

I made immediate enquiries of the CNBC from which I was able to establish that:

1.       the claim relates to an alleged parking event in September 2023;

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 and 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 current address would have been found easily, which is obviously what DCBL did before sending their letter dated 09 October 2024.  If those actions had been performed at the correct time rather than after judgment, 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 25th October March 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,

How does this seem?

Thank you all again I really appreciate your time in replying.

Gr1pr

Did the CNBC tell you the address that the claim pack was sent to. ?

If yes, was it an old address and not your current address. ?

If yes, you can apply for the set aside on the basis of incorrect service of papers ( they should have traced you at your current address, BEFORE issuing the claim , not afterwards. )

Bear in mind that its a 2 stage process, set aside hearing first, then a hearing later on ( so 2 separate distinct hearings, one for the set aside, the other to deal with the original claim and PCN. )

Coupon-mad

Remove "instruct a solicitor to".

Apart from that, email it to DCB Legal. It looks reasonable to do that first.

Don't wait longer than 2 weeks to do your application.

Don't offer money.

Don't get duped into a Consent Order.

confusedparking

Gr1pr said:

Did the CNBC tell you the address that the claim pack was sent to. ?

If yes, was it an old address and not your current address. ?

If yes, you can apply for the set aside on the basis of incorrect service of papers ( they should have traced you at your current address, BEFORE issuing the claim , not afterwards. )

Bear in mind that its a 2 stage process, set aside hearing first, then a hearing later on ( so 2 separate distinct hearings, one for the set aside, the other to deal with the original claim and PCN. )

Thank you. No they didn’t but I didn’t ask I’ll call again tomorrow and ask. 

confusedparking

Coupon-mad said:

Remove "instruct a solicitor to".

Apart from that, email it to DCB Legal. It looks reasonable to do that first.

Don't wait longer than 2 weeks to do your application.

Don't offer money.

Don't get duped into a Consent Order.

Thank you for that, I’ll do that now and email it across now.