Unknown CCJ from UK Parking Control

Hotpoint1234

Hi all,

Hoping for some of the excellent support and guidance that has been given on these forums. I recently checked my Experien credit report on 9th March 25 and found that I have a CCJ from UK Parking Control that I didnt know about dated xx May 24. The address against the CCJ is my current address but I have never received any letters or documentation to my address. I would have thought at least for the CCJ I would have received court documents or a notification of judgement or something similar.

I moved home before covid and with the move and everything else going on I forgot to update my drivers license and V5C. The address on my drivers licence is my parents address and I haven't lived there for years. Yes, I should have updated this with the DVLA but never got round to it at the time of moving out and haven't remembered to do it since. My drivers license just sits at the back of my wallet if I ever need it.

From reading these forums I understand the parking companies often only use the DVLA address to sent out notices. My parents say they haven't received anything either but my father has had strokes and has a bunch of associated issues like memory loss, vision loss, mobility issues, etc so I cant entirely rule out he hasn't put some post somewhere and promptly forgotten about it.

In the opinion of this forum do I have a good change of getting the CCJ set aside given i have received no documentation and have not hand a chance to defend the claim?

I have spent the last couple of weekends doing my research (my job involves long hours and international travel so during the week is difficult for me) and have put together a witness statement and draft order from various sources on this forum which I will share below.

Many thanks for any advice in advance!

Hotpoint1234

WITNESS STATEMENT OF DEFENDANT 

 

1.         I am XXXXXXX of XXXXXXX, and I am the Defendant in this matter.  

2.         This is my supporting statement to my application dated xx March 2025 requesting to: 

a.         Set aside the default judgment dated xx May 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 xx May 2024. I am aware that the Claimant is UK Parking Control Limited and that the assumed claim is in respect of an unpaid Parking Charge Notice from xx April 2022. 

 

5.         The address on the claim is XXXXXX which is my current address which I moved to in XX December 2019 In support of this, I have provided evidence through a copy of my Experian credit report that I registered my current address with the electoral register in XX December 2019. I also provide a water utility bill registered to my current address dated xx February 2025   

6. I have never received any court documentation making me aware of proceedings or a notification that a County Court Judgment has been made against me to my current address. 

7. 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 looked at my Experian credit report for the first time on xx March 2025. 

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

   

SEQUENCE OF RECENT EVENTS 

 

9.         I first discovered there was a default County Court Judgment against me when I looked at my Experian credit report for the first time on xx March 2025. 

10.         On xx March 2025, I purchased the County Court Judgment report from the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines for England and Wales via the TrustOnline website in relation to claim XXXXXXX to confirm that this CCJ was linked to my name.  

11.      On xx March 2025, I contacted the County Court Business Centre to obtain relevant information relating to this default judgment. I was told I would receive an email containing the Particulars of the Claim which I duly received on the same day. 

12.      On XX March 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 contacted me at my current address 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 take reasonable steps to ascertain the Defendant’s current residence. The Claimant did not take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of my current residence despite having over 24 months to establish an address. This has led to the claim being incorrectly served to an unknown 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 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 XXXXXX. 

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, which includes a disproportionate and indeed, false 'debt recovery' sum.  In fact, no debt recovery occurred nor cost the Claimant any money whatsoever, in addition to £100 parking charge.  The Government has described the false fixed 'fee' of £70 as 'designed to extort money from motorists' in the new statutory Code of Practice in February 2022 and has banned it.  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 ________ 

Date __________ 

Hotpoint1234

DRAFT ORDER 

CLAIM No: XXXXXX 

BETWEEN: 

UK Parking Control Limited (Claimant) 

-- and -- 

XXXXXXXX (Defendant) 

 

UPON reading the defendant’s application dated XX March 2025 

IT IS ORDERED THAT: 

1. The default judgment dated XX May 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.

Hotpoint1234

CNBC Particulars if it helps:

Claim No: XXXXXXX

 

Claimant: UK PARKING CONTROL LIMITED

 

Claimant solicitor: DCB LEGAL LTD (7451)

Telephone: 0203 434 0433

Reference: XXXXXXXXX

 

Judgment amount:£ 306.96

 

Particulars of claim:

 

1. THE DEFENDANT (D) IS INDEBTED TO THE      CLAIMANT (C) FOR A PARKING CHARGE(S) ISSUED  TO VEHICLE  XXXXXXXXX AT XXXXXXXXX.              2. THE PCN(S) WERE ISSUED ON  XX/04/2022     3. THE DEFENDANT IS PURSUED AS THE DRIVER OF THE VEHICLE FOR BREACH OF THE TERMS ON THE   SIGNS (THE CONTRACT). REASON:NO PARKING OUT  OF HOURS                                     4. IN THE ALTERNATIVE THE DEFENDANT IS       PURSUED AS THE KEEPER PURSUANT TO POFA 2012, SCHEDULE 4.                                  AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS                      1. £170 BEING THE TOTAL OF THE PCN(S) AND    DAMAGES.                                     2. INTEREST AT A RATE OF 8% PER ANNUM        PURSUANT TO S.69 OF THE COUNTY COURTS ACT    1984 FROM THE DATE HEREOF AT A DAILY RATE OF £.02 UNTIL JUDGMENT OR SOONER PAYMENT.       3. COSTS AND COURT FEES                                        

Coupon-mad

Are you sure the claim form went to your current address? If not, ring the CNBC on Monday and ask exactly which address the claim went to.

Recent CCJ set asides are mainly about the use of an old address so they're not fully relevant but what you've prepared is good. I suspect the claim didn't go to the right address (needs checking as it leads to a far easier application). 

Le_Kirk

5.         The address on the claim is XXXXXX which is my current address which I moved to in XX December 2019 In support of this,  

6. I have never received any court documentation making me aware of proceedings or a notification that a County Court Judgment has been made against me to my current address. 

7. 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 looked at my Experian credit report for the first time on xx March 2025.  

The above is confusing, you say the address on the claim is your current address BUT no claim was served to your current address!  You need to make it clear for the judge.

Hotpoint1234

Coupon-mad said:

Are you sure the claim form went to your current address? If not, ring the CNBC on Monday and ask exactly which address the claim went to.

Recent CCJ set asides are mainly about the use of an old address so they're not fully relevant but what you've prepared is good. I suspect the claim didn't go to the right address (needs checking as it leads to a far easier application). 

Thanks - I will check this on Monday. The TrustOnline report gives the address for the unsatisfied record as my current address so that was what I was basing my understanding on. I will call the CNBC and check

Hotpoint1234

Le_Kirk said:

5.         The address on the claim is XXXXXX which is my current address which I moved to in XX December 2019 In support of this,  

6. I have never received any court documentation making me aware of proceedings or a notification that a County Court Judgment has been made against me to my current address. 

7. 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 looked at my Experian credit report for the first time on xx March 2025.  

The above is confusing, you say the address on the claim is your current address BUT no claim was served to your current address!  You need to make it clear for the judge.

I was assuming the address on the unsatisfied claim from the TrustOnline report would be the one that the courts have registered the CCJ default judgement against and that the courts would use the same address to send court documentation to prior to the case and a notification of judgement against me after the default? Would the address change half way through a case or are all records in the Trust Online report simply logged against me as an individual against my current address? Forgive my ignorance, this is all very new to me.

I'm sure my assumption is wrong - either way I have not received any documentation to my current address and I will need to check with the CNBC on Monday on the address the claim went to.

Coupon-mad

I think it's worth calling.  Ring on the dot of 8.30am, or you"ll be in a queue of hundreds.

Hotpoint1234

I have spoken to the CNBC and the address used to send the claim forms is the same as my current address which means I should have received them here. As I havent received the claim forms they advised me to contact Royal Mail to see if there were any issues with post around that time.

Looking at the info on https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6579664/ccj-claim-form-received-after-deadline-judgement-is-n244-worth-it (slightly different as the defendant recieved the forms late) there can also be issues with the CNBC sending the forms out?

I imagine my options are:

1) Contact royal mail to see if there were any delivery issues around the time of the default judgement and up to a month before that

2) Make a complaint to the CNBC stating that I havent received the claim forms and ask when the forms were sent to see if there was an issue with sending the forms from their side

I imagine complaints of documentation not received dont wash very well with the courts. I genuinely havent received any documentation but can see how there would be people who would try the same whether they have or not. Do I have much of a chance of getting the CCJ set aside?

Otherwise is my best option to contact the claimant and agree to pay the money if they agree to have the CCJ set aside? I have a remortgage coming up and I cant have the CCJ on my credit file long term

Coupon-mad

You can try an application under CPR 13.3  if you have good prospects of successful defence. That should be enough but is at the court's discretion. Not guaranteed. Goes up tomorrow I think from £303 to £313, takes months and requires a hearing.

Or

Email DCB Legal who issued that claim (NOT DCB LTD). Tell them that you are putting in a complaint to Royal Mail because you have not moved house but the supposed Claim Form never arrived and you have good prospects of defence. However, you are a pragmatic person and rather than take time over a hearing you are prepared to pay the lower court fee of £129 to submit a joint consent order to set aside the CCJ under CPR 13.3, if they will agree.

(DO NOT OFFER TO PAY THE PCN. SEE WHAT TERMS THEY COME BACK WITH).