CCJ Set aside

[mrtutz]

Hello All.

My wife recently discovered that she had a CCJ against her. The claim awarded in default as we had moved address and my wife hadn't updated the new address details with the DVSA. The claimant is Civil Enforcement limited, which was for a PCN in late August 2017.

As Civil Enforcement were unobtainable through the phone or e-mail, we sent them a letter via recorded delivery, which arrived with them on the 8th of June. The letter informed them that my wife had no details of the case against her, as all evidence had gone to the previous address. We asked for them to assist in setting aside the CCJ with their consent, and that we would be prepared to come to an agreeable solution to both parties which would prevent the hassle of going to court.

We then found the guide on the Legal Beagles forum, which was a fantastic resource in preparing the N244 form and the associated paperwork to defend the claim. As we were conscious of dealing "promptly" with the claim, we waited about 10 days before sending the N244 into the Northampton County Court.

We received correspondence at the start of last week confirming that the hearing had been transferred to St Helen's county court, who would schedule the hearing and confirm the date and time with all parties.

Today we received a letter from Civil Enforcement, dated 7/7/2020

Dear Mrtutz

We refer to your correspondence with regards to the above

The claim was issued in relation to a parking violation that took place on the date and location stated above. Following the violation the DVLA provided us with your name and address as ************
as the registered keeper of ******** on ****2017. We note in your correspondence you state that you moved address in June 2016, and refer you to the information provided on the gov.uk website which stresses that drivers must inform the DVLA of any change of address.

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 £*** (£120 discount off the claim) in full and final settlement of the debt. 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 judgement set aside is successfully made with the court.

They go on to say that if we pay the settlement figure requested, they will send us a draft consent letter which we fill in and send to CCBC with £100 for them to process.

Civil Enforcement appear to have taken a good few weeks to come up with this offer, which is a bit late as we have already paid £245 for the N244!

Could anyone help with the following questions please?

1. My wife obviously didn't update the DVLA with the new address details. Is that error enough for the Judge at the hearing to find in favour of Civil Enforcement? Or do we still have a valid argument as the Claim form was sent to the wrong address?
2. If we decided to take up Civil Enforcement's offer, do we lose the £244 we have already paid to the court, or can a portion of it be used to pay the £100 set aside with consent fee?
3. If we went for option 2, (which I don't want to do) how do I know that Civil Enforcement will be as good as their word and send us the draft consent order?

My gut feeling is to carry on with the hearing.

Best Regards

[mrtutz]

UPDATE: There have been two hearings following my post from a few months back. The first hearing was adjourned to give my wife chance to file a defence, as the judge was not satisfied that she had one.

We filed a defence 7 days later which consisted of the following points:

> A letter from the hospital confirming my wife was a patient there at the time of the parking infringement
> The hospital staff have the power to contact Civil Enforcement and inform them of late stayers because of medical reasons.
> Photo's of the poor quality signage in the car park (very faded and illegible), however as the infringement was 2 years ago, it could have been in better condition
> Copy of the BFPA's approved code of conduct, which states that Civil Enforcement should have used other means to search out my wife's contact details before issuing a CCJ
> Print out from Civil Enforcement's website stating that they will use a 3rd party to track someone before they issue a CCJ.

On the date of the phone hearing, my wife was waiting for a call that never came. Unfortunately we were unaware that we had to submit contact numbers twice? Apparently the court do not keep records.

As a result the court decided on the case without my wife's verbal evidence.

"Pursuant to CPR PD 51Y this hearing took place in private, the court taking the view that it was necessary to do so to secure the proper administration of justice.

Upon there being no attendance by either party (no telephone numbers)

Upon reading the 2nd witness statement of the defendant and a letter form the claimant dated 1 September 2020.
IT IS ORDERED that

1. Judgement be set aside
2. Application and witness statement of the defendant do stand as her defence of the claim
3. Court to issue directions questionnaires"

While I'm chuffed to bits that the CCJ has been set aside, in an ideal world we wanted the £255 in court fees back from Civil Enforcement. We were hoping that the costs would be awarded to us, as we asked for in our draft order.

Can someone confirm what the "Directions Questionnaires" are? We have not been sent any in the post from the court.

Regards

mrtutz

[ostell]

These are standard forms from the court that ask questions about where the hearing will be held and what track you think the claim should follow. You can wait for the court to issue the forms or get a copy online so you can see what it is about.
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...l-claims-track

You can ask for your costs when you win, and include the £255.