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Dear members, I'm new to the forum and posting first time.
I've received 2 x CCJs from CEL for last 5 months, one after another. Both were for alleged unpaid Parking Charges and were judgements by default, because they kept sending letters and notices to my old address. They then took this to court and since the address on the claim was same old address, court sent the letter to same address as provided by the claimant. As a result of no response, Northampton county court issued CCJ on both occasions.
I came to know about both of these CCJs whilst checking my Credit file which was luckily only few days after the date of judgement. I contacted court on priority and because there were no details of place, reason etc. in the claim form copy I requested from the court, I decided to make payment in full for both CCJs within 1 month of their respective date of judgements for sake of having clean records.
Having received 2 claims from same company I decided to investigate and recently found out that this parking firm managed the car park of the establishment I was member of and hence visited regularly. The signage said "All Visitors must register for a permit at reception". Which I took as being a member to be done once and hence didn't do it every time which is what they seem to be expecting (speaking to the manager of the centre), which potentially would have been the reason they sent notices in first place. I’ve now brought these to attention of the Branch manager of establishment asking to intervene with the parking firm and make sure if there is any more such parking fines (it’s a free car park) they’ve issued for me to be made void on basis of above explanation. I’m awaiting response on this regard from them, but I did notice that after my conversation about this, the establishment has put clear signs near reception to make "every time" clause to their members/customers clearer, which I never noticed before when CEL started managing the car park to start with.
So as you know, I (I curse myself for this everyday now) didn't update address on V5C for a few months after moving from that address but the reason was when I was about to do so, couple months after moving, I found that the agent via whom we were renting the new place was fraudulent due to which our tenancy there became uncertain. Though eventually we reported the fraud to police and sorted a new agreement direct with landlord. But since the new contract was signed on a rolling basis for every 3 months, I didn't change the address in case we were to move out soon again. In brief, the address on V5C wasn't changed for nearly a year. Its been upto date as we moved to our new permanent address since November 2016.
I've now noticed a 3rd one on credit file and it has left me so worried and wondering if my future is all going to be full of these judgement because of this company! I've never had to deal with such things ever before.
I have a few questions please, before I decide to take a way forward, but it would have to be fairly quickly as its been around a week since last CCJ was issued:
1. Does the establishment whose car park they manage, being the landowner have to help me cancel any more of these which might be on way, on ground of my confusion over unclear sign? Or am I being total stupid to misinterpret the signs?
2. Before progressing I'd like to check some facts regarding court process. If I apply for set aside,
a] and court doesn't accept set-aside request- which means I'd have to pay. Would it be shown as "Satisfied" if I pay after, because it would be out of one month period and original date of judgement will remain in place?
b] and CCJ gets set-aside for further hearing - and I lose in subsequent hearing - Would it be shown as "Satisfied" if I pay after, because it would be out of one month period and original date of judgement will remain in place?
c] failing the challenge in court - would it mean I can't even get CEL to send the notices to my new address, so that I can defend them via POPLA etc. before they become judgements?
3. Does failure to change V5 supersede any subsequent chance of winning this although the whole confusion would have been because of unclear signs, as I understood them to start with?
4. In any case, because I know there could be more of these fines resulting to default judgements in coming months, I'd at least like to find the best way to legally notify CEL that any subsequent notice they MUST send to my new address, so that I can avoid more of these becoming judgements !!
Where do I stand? Please can I seek help?
I've received 2 x CCJs from CEL for last 5 months, one after another. Both were for alleged unpaid Parking Charges and were judgements by default, because they kept sending letters and notices to my old address. They then took this to court and since the address on the claim was same old address, court sent the letter to same address as provided by the claimant. As a result of no response, Northampton county court issued CCJ on both occasions.
I came to know about both of these CCJs whilst checking my Credit file which was luckily only few days after the date of judgement. I contacted court on priority and because there were no details of place, reason etc. in the claim form copy I requested from the court, I decided to make payment in full for both CCJs within 1 month of their respective date of judgements for sake of having clean records.
Having received 2 claims from same company I decided to investigate and recently found out that this parking firm managed the car park of the establishment I was member of and hence visited regularly. The signage said "All Visitors must register for a permit at reception". Which I took as being a member to be done once and hence didn't do it every time which is what they seem to be expecting (speaking to the manager of the centre), which potentially would have been the reason they sent notices in first place. I’ve now brought these to attention of the Branch manager of establishment asking to intervene with the parking firm and make sure if there is any more such parking fines (it’s a free car park) they’ve issued for me to be made void on basis of above explanation. I’m awaiting response on this regard from them, but I did notice that after my conversation about this, the establishment has put clear signs near reception to make "every time" clause to their members/customers clearer, which I never noticed before when CEL started managing the car park to start with.
So as you know, I (I curse myself for this everyday now) didn't update address on V5C for a few months after moving from that address but the reason was when I was about to do so, couple months after moving, I found that the agent via whom we were renting the new place was fraudulent due to which our tenancy there became uncertain. Though eventually we reported the fraud to police and sorted a new agreement direct with landlord. But since the new contract was signed on a rolling basis for every 3 months, I didn't change the address in case we were to move out soon again. In brief, the address on V5C wasn't changed for nearly a year. Its been upto date as we moved to our new permanent address since November 2016.
I've now noticed a 3rd one on credit file and it has left me so worried and wondering if my future is all going to be full of these judgement because of this company! I've never had to deal with such things ever before.
I have a few questions please, before I decide to take a way forward, but it would have to be fairly quickly as its been around a week since last CCJ was issued:
1. Does the establishment whose car park they manage, being the landowner have to help me cancel any more of these which might be on way, on ground of my confusion over unclear sign? Or am I being total stupid to misinterpret the signs?
2. Before progressing I'd like to check some facts regarding court process. If I apply for set aside,
a] and court doesn't accept set-aside request- which means I'd have to pay. Would it be shown as "Satisfied" if I pay after, because it would be out of one month period and original date of judgement will remain in place?
b] and CCJ gets set-aside for further hearing - and I lose in subsequent hearing - Would it be shown as "Satisfied" if I pay after, because it would be out of one month period and original date of judgement will remain in place?
c] failing the challenge in court - would it mean I can't even get CEL to send the notices to my new address, so that I can defend them via POPLA etc. before they become judgements?
3. Does failure to change V5 supersede any subsequent chance of winning this although the whole confusion would have been because of unclear signs, as I understood them to start with?
4. In any case, because I know there could be more of these fines resulting to default judgements in coming months, I'd at least like to find the best way to legally notify CEL that any subsequent notice they MUST send to my new address, so that I can avoid more of these becoming judgements !!
Where do I stand? Please can I seek help?
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