Hi All,
I am currently in the position of buying a house and have discovered a County Court Judgement in relation to a parking fine. I no longer live at the address (due to COVID-19) that the correspondence from the parking company was sent to and therefore never recieved the final County Court Judgement. As you can imagine this has significantly affected my credit score which is making it increasingly harder for me to get a mortgage.
Once I discovered the County Court Judgement, I immediately emailed the parking company with a draft consent order requesting that they sign it, so I can then send this to the court for the CCJ to be set aside. After nearly a month of waiting the parking company has responded, please see below for their response:
We refer to your recent correspondence.
The claim was issued in relation to a parking violation that took place on the date and location provided
above. Following the violation, the DVLA provided us with your name and address as the registered
keeper of the vehicle.
We note that you state you moved address and refer you to the information provided on the gov.uk
website (https://www.gov.uk/dvla-change-address) which stresses that drivers MUST inform the DVLA
of any change in address.
Numerous letters including, but not limited to, the PCN, PCN Reminder and letter before action were
sent to you, however, as the debt remained outstanding, we were left with no alternative but to
commence legal proceedings. As you are aware, a County Court Judgment was obtained in the sum of
£295.36.
As you were not at the address at the time of the violation and were therefore unaware of the claim
made against you, we are willing to accept £197 in full and final settlement of the judgment debt.
Payment of the full amount outstanding can be made by calling or via our website,
In order to make payment, you will be required to provide the PCN number
(quoted above) and vehicle registration.
The CCJ will be marked as satisfied once payment is received in full, however it will not be removed
unless an application to have the Judgment set aside is successfully made with the Court.
There are particular circumstances in which the Court may set aside judgement – the main reason is
where it appears to the Court that there is a good reason for setting aside Judgment. An example of a
good reason is that you did not receive the claim form and were therefore unaware of the claim. The fact
that you have subsequently settled the Judgment debt is not ordinarily a good enough reason to allow the
Court to set aside Judgment.
Once payment of the full amount has been received, we will provide you with a draft Consent order
which you can file with the County Court Business Centre (CCBC). You will need to sign and date the
draft Consent Order and then send it by post/email to the CCBC with the filing fee of £100. A District
Judge at the CCBC will then make a decision regarding the removal of the judgment when reviewing
your application. Please note that removal of the Judgment is not automatically granted. The outcome of
your application is at the discretion of a District Judge or a court-appointed Legal Advisor.
If you are in any doubt about the content of this letter, you should seek independent legal advice.
My question is, should I pay the reduced fee and then ask them to sign the consent order? Or should I respond by asking them to sign the draft consent order that I originally sent them? In my original email to them, I stated that I would pay the original balance (not the reduced fee) and the £100 filing fee. My only concern is with paying the reduced fee first before receiving the draft consent order is that the court will not set the judgement aside as it has already been paid. I have read up on set-asides and I understand that it puts the CCJ back to how it was before it was automatically placed on my credit file, therefore if I was to pay it before applying for a set aside it wouldn't make much sense to the court to set it aside.
I'm completely at a loss at what to do, so any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated. I am considering taking legal advice before I proceed. However, if someone on here could advise me first I would be grateful.
I am currently in the position of buying a house and have discovered a County Court Judgement in relation to a parking fine. I no longer live at the address (due to COVID-19) that the correspondence from the parking company was sent to and therefore never recieved the final County Court Judgement. As you can imagine this has significantly affected my credit score which is making it increasingly harder for me to get a mortgage.
Once I discovered the County Court Judgement, I immediately emailed the parking company with a draft consent order requesting that they sign it, so I can then send this to the court for the CCJ to be set aside. After nearly a month of waiting the parking company has responded, please see below for their response:
We refer to your recent correspondence.
The claim was issued in relation to a parking violation that took place on the date and location provided
above. Following the violation, the DVLA provided us with your name and address as the registered
keeper of the vehicle.
We note that you state you moved address and refer you to the information provided on the gov.uk
website (https://www.gov.uk/dvla-change-address) which stresses that drivers MUST inform the DVLA
of any change in address.
Numerous letters including, but not limited to, the PCN, PCN Reminder and letter before action were
sent to you, however, as the debt remained outstanding, we were left with no alternative but to
commence legal proceedings. As you are aware, a County Court Judgment was obtained in the sum of
£295.36.
As you were not at the address at the time of the violation and were therefore unaware of the claim
made against you, we are willing to accept £197 in full and final settlement of the judgment debt.
Payment of the full amount outstanding can be made by calling or via our website,
In order to make payment, you will be required to provide the PCN number
(quoted above) and vehicle registration.
The CCJ will be marked as satisfied once payment is received in full, however it will not be removed
unless an application to have the Judgment set aside is successfully made with the Court.
There are particular circumstances in which the Court may set aside judgement – the main reason is
where it appears to the Court that there is a good reason for setting aside Judgment. An example of a
good reason is that you did not receive the claim form and were therefore unaware of the claim. The fact
that you have subsequently settled the Judgment debt is not ordinarily a good enough reason to allow the
Court to set aside Judgment.
Once payment of the full amount has been received, we will provide you with a draft Consent order
which you can file with the County Court Business Centre (CCBC). You will need to sign and date the
draft Consent Order and then send it by post/email to the CCBC with the filing fee of £100. A District
Judge at the CCBC will then make a decision regarding the removal of the judgment when reviewing
your application. Please note that removal of the Judgment is not automatically granted. The outcome of
your application is at the discretion of a District Judge or a court-appointed Legal Advisor.
If you are in any doubt about the content of this letter, you should seek independent legal advice.
My question is, should I pay the reduced fee and then ask them to sign the consent order? Or should I respond by asking them to sign the draft consent order that I originally sent them? In my original email to them, I stated that I would pay the original balance (not the reduced fee) and the £100 filing fee. My only concern is with paying the reduced fee first before receiving the draft consent order is that the court will not set the judgement aside as it has already been paid. I have read up on set-asides and I understand that it puts the CCJ back to how it was before it was automatically placed on my credit file, therefore if I was to pay it before applying for a set aside it wouldn't make much sense to the court to set it aside.
I'm completely at a loss at what to do, so any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated. I am considering taking legal advice before I proceed. However, if someone on here could advise me first I would be grateful.
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