Set aside CCJ: Consent from claimant

Sillyminkey12

Hello there,

Love this forum and thread and appreciate all the great info here.

Over Christmas I was shocked to  discover a CCJ on my credit file issued in November 2024 to my previous address which I left 15 months ago.  I have since paid the court fee to Civil National Business Centre to request the set aside judgement and am about to submit form N244 to them.  Do I need to seek consent from the claimant and if so what form of words should I use?  

In due course I  would be happy to pay the full amount Civil Enforcement Ltd claim I owe (£304) once the judgement has been set aside.

I had received a PCN about two years ago, by post and several letters to my previous address but did not respond.  This was for entering a car park to drop someone off and wait for them to return (10 mins).

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks!

Coupon-mad

In due course I  would be happy to pay the full amount Civil Enforcement Ltd claim I owe (£304) once the judgement has been set aside.

No you wouldn't because:

1. - if you contact CEL by email next week, using the suggested email that we provide in the NEWBIES thread, then if they filed this claim WITHOUT A SOLICITOR FIRM, then CEL will offer to settle for £95 and will consent;

or

2. - if you instead do as we advise, and ignore that offer of settlement and go ahead with the N244 and pay £303 to court for a set aside hearing, you will be asking for your £303 fee to be paid by CEL and the entire claim struck out.  End of scam.  No monies paid at all by you.

First job is you must phone the CNBC first thing in the morning and ask:

a).  whether CEL used a solicitor (DCB Legal) and

b).  what was the Date of Issue of the claim, and

c).  ask to be emailed a copy of the Particulars of Claim while you are on the phone.  DO NOT SAY THIS WRONG. DO NOT ASK FOR 'THE CLAIM FORM'.

ChirpyChicken

Why on earth would you be happy to pay CEL.

Sillyminkey12

Incredibly helpful thanks Coupon-mad (and Chirpy Chicken!).

Will take those next steps.

Nellymoser

Have you informed involved parties of your current address? See post 4 in NEWBIES thread  Changed address?
Also DVLA for your V5C document and driving licence.

Sillyminkey12

Hi everyone,  I submitted my N244 in Jan and now have a court date of 10 March.

I have pasted my submission below.  Hope that’s okay - it’s all sourced from this excellent forum.  I wanted to ask about my skeleton argument.  I plan to argue that since the PCN was issued over two years ago I cannot say with confidence that I was the driver of the vehicle on that date.  Can anyone help with the language I should use for this or if there is a better argument to use?

Also, I copied in the parking company in my original e mail to the court but did not e mail them separately.   I am surprised they have not been in touch to offer to consent to set aside for the fee of £95.  Is that normal practice or have I misunderstood?

And finally, will the court hearing definitely go ahead even if CEL don’t show up?

Thanks so much for you help and sorry for a long post.

 

Name of court: Civil National Business Centre

Claim No. xxxx

 

WITNESS STATEMENT OF DEFENDANT

1.         I am xxxxxx and I am the Defendant in this matter. 

2.         This is my supporting statement to my application dated 06 January 2025 requesting to:

a.         Set aside the default judgment dated 21 November 2024 as it was not properly served at my current address.

b.         Order for the original claim to be dismissed.

c.         Order for the Claimant to pay the Defendant £303 as reimbursement for the set aside fee.

DEFAULT JUDGMENT

3.         I was the registered keeper of the vehicle at the time of the alleged event.

4.         I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgment against me as the Defendant on 21 November 2024. I am aware that the Claimant is Civil Enforcement Ltd and that the assumed claim is in respect of an unpaid Parking Charge Notice  (xxxx ) dated 05 December 2022.

5.         The claim form was not served at my current address, and I was therefore unaware of the Default County Court Judgment against me until I received correspondence from my credit card company that they had reduced my credit limit by 90%.  I investigated further and discovered they had become aware of a default CCJ of £304.16 marked on my credit file.

6.         The address on the claim is xxxxx. I moved to my current address xxxxx on 15 September 2023. In support of this,  I can provide evidence of my change of address as required, including council tax bills.

7.         In addition to the above, it should be highlighted that the integrity and law-abiding intention of the Defendant should be taken into consideration.

  

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

8.         I first discovered there was a default County Court Judgment against me when I reviewed  correspondence via my xxxx banking app which informed me that my credit limit was to be reduced by 90% on 23rd December 2024. 

9.         On 23 December 2024, I undertook a review of my credit score via credit reference agency Trans Union where I discovered a CCJ was linked to my name. I note that the judgment is registered to my former address.

10. On 30 December 2024 I contacted the County Court Business Centre to obtain relevant information relating to this default judgment. I received information about the claimant and I paid the fee of £303 to request the judgement be set aside.

11.     On 03.01 2025, I contacted the County Court Business Centre to obtain further information relating to this default judgment. I requested and received an email containing the Particulars of the Claim   

11.   On January 06 2025 I submitted my case in order to set-aside this judgment and fairly present my case.

13.      I believe the Claimant has behaved unreasonably in pursuing a claim against me without ensuring they held my correct contact details at the time of the claim. I was therefore denied the opportunity to defend the claim. 

14.      On that basis, I believe the Claimant has not adhered to Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) 6.9 (3) where they had failed to show due diligence in using an address that the Defendant no longer resides. The Claimant did not take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of my current residence despite having a significant period of time to establish an address. This has led to the claim being incorrectly served to an old address and an irregular judgment.

15.      Under CPR 13.2 The court must set aside a judgment entered under part 12 if judgment was wrongly entered.  Given that CPR 6.9 (3) was not met, CPR 13.2 applies and the CCJ must be set aside.  In the alternative, CPR 13.3 applies due to the circumstances, which represent good reasons to set the CCJ aside, and in view of the fact that the Defendant acted promptly and has good prospects of defending the claim in the event that the court does not strike it out for want of service within 4 months.

16.      Under Clause 24.1 C of the BPA Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice Version 8 (January 2020), “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.” The Claimant failed to take reasonable endeavours to ascertain my correct current address prior to issuing proceedings and is therefore in breach of the Code of Practice. 

17.       The Defendant was 'there to be found' for the sake of a 29 pence bulk Experian trace or similar very inexpensive and immediate credit reference agency address check. I would then have been notified of this judgment and could have taken action to prevent it. 

18.       Given that more than 4 months has passed from issue of proceedings and service of the claim was defective (i.e. it was never served) the Defendant submits that this particular claim is dead and the period for service cannot be extended by this application process.  The Defendant has no details of this claim, therefore, if the Claimant believes there is a cause of action then the correct procedure would be to file a claim afresh and to the right address, after furnishing the Defendant with the information required under the pre-action protocol for debt claims, issued this time to the correct address for service for this Defendant, which is xxxx

19.      According to publicly available information my circumstances are far from being unique. The industry’s persistent failure to use correct and current addresses results is an unnecessary burden for individuals and the justice system across the country.

20.      Furthermore, former Prime Minister May publicly pledged to investigate ‘abuse’ of the CCJ System and so called ‘Credit Clamping’ as reported in the Daily Mail article dated 12 September 2016. 

The Right Honourable Sir Oliver Heald on 23 December 2016 "announced a crackdown on unresolved debts which can damage people’s credit ratings without them knowing. The action comes after concerns were raised that companies were issuing claims to consumers using incorrect addresses." The Minister added, "It cannot be right that people who are unaware of debts can see their lives and finances ruined by county court judgments. That in the digital age, we must ensure companies pursuing unpaid debts make every reasonable effort to contact individuals, rather than simply relying on a letter to an old address.” 

21.      In the alternative, CPR 13.3 applies and there are very good reasons to set aside this exaggerated claim. The Defendant has good prospects of defending a claim, if served with one, but has seen no evidence, basis nor particulars of claim and the Claimant should be required to file afresh, if they believe they have a cause of action. 

22.      Considering the above, I was unable to defend this claim. I believe that the Default Judgment against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside, and I ask the Court to kindly consider the reimbursement of the fee of £303 from the claimant should this request be successful.

 

Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. 

Signed  xxxx

Date  06.01. 2025

DRAFT ORDER

CLAIM No: xxxx
BETWEEN:
CIVIL ENFORCEMENT LIMITED (Claimant)
-- and --
xxxx (Defendant)

UPON reading the defendant’s application dated 06 January 2025

IT IS ORDERED THAT:

1. The default judgment dated November 2024 be set aside. 

2. The claim struck out due to the claim form having not been served within 4 months of issue

3. The Claimant do pay the Defendants costs of this application of £303 on an indemnity basis.

 

Castle

What date did they issue the Court Claim?

Sillyminkey12

Can’t dig out the exact date but it was definitely May 2024.  Thanks.  Will keep digging for that.

Sillyminkey12

Found the date:  13/05/24 

Coupon-mad

 I am surprised they have not been in touch to offer to consent to set aside for the fee of £95.  Is that normal practice or have I misunderstood?

It's normal but if they try it now (late) it's too late! It would be a flat NO from you! It would say 'no order as to costs' which means you'd be left £303 out of pocket PLUS your loss of leave for attending a hearing, all caused by CEL neglecting to follow the CPRs and BPA CoP by checking for a new address.

That's mandatory - they CANNOT ever sue just by running with an old DVLA car address - so make sure your Judge knows this (many local Judges get this wrong and need disabusing of the wrong presumption that 'parking firms only need to get the DVLA address').

You must state to the Judge at the start that you CATEGORICALLY DO NOT ACCEPT - if one appears late - the C's proposed Consent Order because they clearly know about the persuasive authority against them (same Claimant) in the appeal case of CEL v Chan, and are merely trying to avoid paying your costs AND are trying their best to duck a 'strike out' of the Claim!  No...

CEL did not use a solicitor... will the court hearing definitely go ahead even if CEL don’t show up?

Yes because this is your application hearing that YOU paid for.  Of course it proceeds.

I assume that WS and draft Order has already been filed & served with your application bundle last month?

And did you attach evidence of having moved?

If yes, now just add:

- a costs schedule adding your costs or loss of leave for travelling/attending court (attach proof of daily or hourly pay if not self-employed);

- a short skeleton argument attaching the actual court transcripts of CEL v Chan, CPMS v Akande and also the Court of Appeal preliminary permission in VCS v Carr, and a link to the BPA Code of Practice to link the Judge straight to Clause 24.1 C about checking the address before litigation

- also observe in the skelly, that not only are the POC a mirror image of those seen in CEL v Chan (a clear breach of the CPRs & Part 16) but the signature on the unserved claim form is also in breach (whether you've seen it or not). CEL's supposed Head of Legal signs off all their generic claims with an initial: 'S Wilson' not the full name mandated by the CPRs.

- and you need URL links & wording about several other authorities that your WS seems to have missed. Check out all the authorities and wording used by @icy_fox

State in the body of your covering email (cc in CEL) that your hearing that you've paid for must go ahead, and the court must not be misled by the Claimant because there is no agreed consent order in this case and the Defendant seeks full costs, CCJ set aside and a strike out of the claim. 

Sillyminkey12

I very much appreciate receiving such a comprehensive response Coupan-mad.  Thank you thank you!  I will read this and development my skeleton argument, costs etc.  Will keep you update.