Set Aside Satisfied CCJ?

[nlntr79]

Hello,

I have recently been working with a private parking company to get a consent order to set aside a CCJ that was made in default, having been served to an incorrect address. I only learned of it when a debt collector (DCBL) miraculously traced me at my new address, just after the 30 day limit had passed to pay the CCJ! I felt sick, I have worked really hard on my credit score over the last few years and was finally in a good place after some troubles in the past.

The parking company agreed to provide consent if I paid the balance. Stupidly and out of panic, I paid them. They stuck to their word however, and I now have a consent order, but they dragged their feet with it, taking 3-5 days between each communication. In the time it has taken to get the consent order, the judgement has been marked as ‘satisfied’ on my report (those boneheads known as ClearScore are even telling me it has been removed from my file which is impossible, as I paid it about 45 days after the judgement was entered, not 30).

My question is, will the set aside prospects now be dead in the water due to the CCJ being satisfied? Or have people still managed to get set aside with consent. I’m tempted to pay the £108 to find out, unless someone tells me I have no chance.

[R0b]

Firstly, you should be aware that as a general position, when you pay the debt from the CCJ you are deemed to have admitted liability. If you didn't want to admit liability you shouldn't have paid the debt and challenged it to set aside the default judgment. Also the £108 fee is based on a consent order, not a full application fee which is £275 absent any signed consent order. In short, if you are going to seek to set aside a default judgment, never pay the creditor.

That being said, without more information, it's hard to say whether or not you have a case to set aside. Given that they are dragging their feet with what should be a very simple and straightforward request, you could drop them an email to tell them that they basically need to speed up or you will submit an application to set aside the judgment, seek an order for your costs and also the return of the PCN fee you paid because when the judgment is set aside, it goes back to the defence stage and there is no longer judgment that the parking co. is entitled to those sums.

It's unsurprising that DCBL were suddenly able to trace you soon after the right to enforce the debt, giving a reasonable presumption that they knew that you may no longer be at the address but they chose to take advantage of that and mislead the court by suggesting you still lived there when the claim form was served. Basically, they didn't take reasonable steps to ascertain your current place of residence and therefore according to the rules, the claim form was not validly served at your last known or usual address which in turn means the default judgment must be set aside on a mandatory basis because the time for filing an acknowledgment or defence never expired.

Some questions to help decide if you have a case:

- What date did the PCN arrived at the address

- What was the date you moved out of the old address?

- If you moved out of the address after receiving the first letter, did you respond to the parking co.? If you did, did you tell them you were moving and the new address, if not why not?

- What was the date of the claim form or when proceedings started?

[nlntr79]

Hello. Thank you for your detailed reply.

So I moved to my new address on 09.01.2023. Was present on electoral roll at new address from 01.02.2023.

I don’t actually remember receiving a first letter from the parking company, I do remember getting a note on my windscreen, which was like a data protection notice informing me that images had been recorded of my vehicle. This was around October 2022.

Thank you