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Received a claim? Yes
Issue Date: 8th September
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: CCJ already passed 14th October, acknowledged with Claimant's solicitor on 15th November
Total Amount Claimed : £2500
Claimant’s Name: FirstPort
Solicitors Firm: PDC Law
Original Creditor:
Original Debt (eg. Credit card/Loan/Overdraft) : Service Charge
Particulars of Claim: See below
Is the debt Statute Barred (have you had any contact with the creditor or claimant over the last 6 years?): No
List any letters you have sent (eg: CCA/ CPR ): None
Any Other Information or Background Details:
Hi guys - in 2018 I moved to the US and I had a late payment of service charge on a flat that I own in London. They e-mailed me a final notice and I made the payment within 2 hours of the e-mail and asked to be notified of all future payments by e-mail as I did not have access to physical post from being abroad. The same thing happened again in 2019 after which the building manager confirmed they had my e-mail on file. The building manager was acquired by a new manager. In May 2021 I had a service charge payment due, while still being abroad, and they did not e-mail me. All correspondence was by post which I did not have access to. They then appointed debt collectors and basically I've ended up with a CCJ because all communication was sent to an address which I did not have access to the post for and despite me having made two requests to be contacted via e-mail.
I know I have a duty to stay on top of payments but I wanted to ask a couple of questions
1. I should be able to get the CCJ Set Aside under CPR 13.3 on the grounds that the Claim Form was not sent to my current address? (I have all the proof including flights and tenancy agreements of my current address that prove I have not lived at the address the post was sent to for the last 3 years).
2. Do I have a reasonable defence case against paying the legal and court fees that the Claimant is billing me for? My argument is that I had been requested to be notified via e-mail and had they just contacted me that way I would have made the payment within a few hours. Instead, they opted to take legal action against me without me knowing about it.
I've read online that this is a common scam that building service managers do in partnership with debt collectors to rack up fees and deliberately not contact people via post. Most people don't hire a solicitor to fight the claim because the legal costs usually outweigh the amount to settle the claim, but I just hate to see them get away with something like this so will be fighting it myself. I've filled out the N244, created a Draft Order, Witness Statement and Draft Defence all of which I intend on sending to the Court (I did request that the Claimant/Solicitor agree to consent to the Judgement to be Set Aside but they have not responded for over a week).
If anyone else has any advice for me it would be greatly appreciated. It's become a very stressful situation, at the original fault of myself but I feel these people have really exploited me here.
Thanks!
Issue Date: 8th September
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: CCJ already passed 14th October, acknowledged with Claimant's solicitor on 15th November
Total Amount Claimed : £2500
Claimant’s Name: FirstPort
Solicitors Firm: PDC Law
Original Creditor:
Original Debt (eg. Credit card/Loan/Overdraft) : Service Charge
Particulars of Claim: See below
Is the debt Statute Barred (have you had any contact with the creditor or claimant over the last 6 years?): No
List any letters you have sent (eg: CCA/ CPR ): None
Any Other Information or Background Details:
Hi guys - in 2018 I moved to the US and I had a late payment of service charge on a flat that I own in London. They e-mailed me a final notice and I made the payment within 2 hours of the e-mail and asked to be notified of all future payments by e-mail as I did not have access to physical post from being abroad. The same thing happened again in 2019 after which the building manager confirmed they had my e-mail on file. The building manager was acquired by a new manager. In May 2021 I had a service charge payment due, while still being abroad, and they did not e-mail me. All correspondence was by post which I did not have access to. They then appointed debt collectors and basically I've ended up with a CCJ because all communication was sent to an address which I did not have access to the post for and despite me having made two requests to be contacted via e-mail.
I know I have a duty to stay on top of payments but I wanted to ask a couple of questions
1. I should be able to get the CCJ Set Aside under CPR 13.3 on the grounds that the Claim Form was not sent to my current address? (I have all the proof including flights and tenancy agreements of my current address that prove I have not lived at the address the post was sent to for the last 3 years).
2. Do I have a reasonable defence case against paying the legal and court fees that the Claimant is billing me for? My argument is that I had been requested to be notified via e-mail and had they just contacted me that way I would have made the payment within a few hours. Instead, they opted to take legal action against me without me knowing about it.
I've read online that this is a common scam that building service managers do in partnership with debt collectors to rack up fees and deliberately not contact people via post. Most people don't hire a solicitor to fight the claim because the legal costs usually outweigh the amount to settle the claim, but I just hate to see them get away with something like this so will be fighting it myself. I've filled out the N244, created a Draft Order, Witness Statement and Draft Defence all of which I intend on sending to the Court (I did request that the Claimant/Solicitor agree to consent to the Judgement to be Set Aside but they have not responded for over a week).
If anyone else has any advice for me it would be greatly appreciated. It's become a very stressful situation, at the original fault of myself but I feel these people have really exploited me here.
Thanks!
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