CCJ from Civil Enforcement - I don't feel I did wrong

Tliffo

Hi, i would like to know if I have a leg to stand on in my situation. I parked at Wolviston services off the A19 nearly 2 years ago (6/02/2023) and got a ticket for staying over max time limit 60 min.   

I came there because I had a work meeting at Toby Carvery on the services. Toby had a large car park in front of the restaurant, but I was running late and I missed the turn to their car park, instead, I parked in another car park which said max stay time is 60 min, and was just a little strip of grass away from Toby's (it's quite big services with Toby, Mcdonalds, KFC Costa, gas station and many spots to park near each other).
When came to Toby I signed in as a guest, so I get unlimited parking. I asked a bar lady if it's ok that I parked across the street and she told it's ok as there's one camera for cars in and out.
When I got a ticket, I appealed to POPLA, but I didn't mention that the bar lady told me it was ok to park because I thought I couldn't prove it - however I provided the confirmation that my car was registered as a guest at Toby (I emailed Toby asking me to send this confirmation and they did).

POPLA rejected my appeal. I didn't know what to do, and left it there. At some point, Civil Enforcement sent me a pre-CCJ letter, but I was busy with other things in life and ignored it.
Now I got a letter telling me that I have 14 days until CCJ is issued.
I really would not like CCJ on my file I also don't want to pay £290 for something that I don't feel guilty about - how would anyone expect that single services would have areas for different restaurants that don't communicate with each other? It was only natural and intuitive to expect that once you are in the services and you are a guest, your stay applies to all the service car parks. There were no written notices that would indicate otherwise.
Also, we did have work meetings in these services in other restaurants - once I parked at Costa, but there were no spaces, and we all went next door to McDonalds leaving our cars at Costa, and nothing happened, so I really didn't expect any repercussions.
I do admit the signs in this little sectioned car park I left my car indicated max stay 60 min - but I thought signing in as a guest would override the sign. 
Is there anything I could do in this situation, and what would be the next step?
The options on the letter are to agree and pay or make a claim against the claimant which would be my preferred action. Would you have advice please, many thanks!

Gr1pr

If you ignored a county court claim from the CNBC in Northampton, which would incur a default CCJ, the only real option for you is to pay it, IN FULL , before the deadline, after which it will trash your credit rating for the next 6 years 

The background story is irrelevant if you were too busy to defend the court claim , but if you parked in a different car park then I think that you could have lost anyway, like happened at Popla 

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

Your thread repeatedly mentions a CCJ.
Forgive me for saying this, but we often see people write CCJ - which stands for County Court Judgment - when they actually mean they have a County Court Claim that they need to defend themself against.
So the first question is... do you have a County Court Claim or do you have a County Court Judgment against you?

Tliffo said:

Now I got a letter telling me that I have 14 days until CCJ is issued.

Who is that letter from? Can you show us that letter... with all personal information hidden of course.

KoalaMSEF

The first thing is to check if you have received any court letter from CNBC in Northampton. 
If you did receive, you will need to respond to the court claim. 

The second thing is to show your letter here, with all your personal information redacted, so people can give you advice. 

In reality, CCJ happens when (1) County court sends you a claim that you fails to respond or (2) after the court hearing, the judge orders you to pay but you fail to pay. In either case, CCJ must go through the real court.

The parking cowboys cannot issue a CCJ on you without going through the court system (Thank goodness!)

Tliffo

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

Your thread repeatedly mentions a CCJ.
Forgive me for saying this, but we often see people write CCJ - which stands for County Court Judgment - when they actually mean they have a County Court Claim that they need to defend themself against.
So the first question is... do you have a County Court Claim or do you have a County Court Judgment against you?

Tliffo said:

Now I got a letter telling me that I have 14 days until CCJ is issued.

Who is that letter from? Can you show us that letter... with all personal information hidden of course.

Thank you so much for a quick response. I attach the letter with personal info hidden. Whilst on the cover letter it mentions CCJ, the actual form is a Claim. Really appreciate advice. Many thanks

[Images removed by Forum Team]

Tliffo

KoalaMSEF said:

The first thing is to check if you have received any court letter from CNBC in Northampton. 
If you did receive, you will need to respond to the court claim. 

The second thing is to show your letter here, with all your personal information redacted, so people can give you advice. 

In reality, CCJ happens when (1) County court sends you a claim that you fails to respond or (2) after the court hearing, the judge orders you to pay but you fail to pay. In either case, CCJ must go through the real court.

The parking cowboys cannot issue a CCJ on you without going through the court system (Thank goodness!)

ok I see - Thank you for explaining the process. I think I am at stage 1 at the moment. I uploaded the letter

Castle

OP
I have reported your post at 8.33am as it contained the claim number, password and VRM.

Gr1pr

So not a CCJ, but an N1SDT claim form pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL, a live court claim, no CCJ yet 

CEL DCB Legal claim form issued 28 November 2024 for £280

Presumably an overstay, it mentions 60 minutes maximum stay 

fisherjim

I assume you mean here (Toby is in background), the signage is abysmal as always, easily missed, but that's how the scam works!

But to compound matters it looks like you have UKPC monitoring some parking, CEL and Euro Car Parks monitoring others.

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 28th November, you have until Tuesday 17th December to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 31st December 2024 to file a Defence.

That's almost four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Coupon-mad

DCB Legal claims (non-ParkingEye case): little or no discussion of the defence is needed

Copy any other one that denies the POC paragraph by paragraph. Read some.

We can't keep doing these by unnecessarily chewing over paragraph 3. It's just not needed.

Copy others you see by skim-reading down page one or two of the forum right now.  See my signature for how to click straight to page one in a nano-second.

Job done.

Nothing about the detail is needed except if there's something specific like a double dip or a broken pay & display machine.  Otherwise the generic para 3 is fine (please don't ask for a link. Read a few cases like yours. We have hundreds).

NB: for the other regulars:
I'm saying this so we can easily cope with the Xmas claims onslaught. I strongly suggest we always look at POC (and give bespoke AOS & defence deadlines) but otherwise stop looking at paragraph 3 on thread after thread of DCB Legal claims (ParkingEye ones are different as they normally lend themselves to the Chan defence).  That's it.