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Hi,
I have already read and started writing out my Draft Order, Witness Statement and filling in the N244 thanks to the fantastic guide on here and some other places online.
The claim was through the Northampton County Court Business Centre which I understand is a fairly recent set up. A lot of the advice guides I have read are about the old County Court system but I assume the same procedures still apply because of CPR.
Does anyone have any experience with dealing with the CCBC as they do seem to work differently? I need help with these aspects of my application:
Some background:
I lived with friends in a property from November 2013 - March 2014 when I moved into my own place and they stayed on with their partner in the property. I was joint tenant with my friend and then when I moved out I was taken off the tenancy and her partner added. The water bill was in both my name and my friends name but by some oversight my name, unbeknownst to me, remained on the account.
My friend got into money trouble and the account is in arrears. In November 2015 they set up a payment plan with the water company to pay off the arrears and finally got them to take my name off the account.
However, before that in October 2015 the water company put in a county court claim IN MY NAME ONLY and got a Default Judgement against me for £591. I think this covers November 2013 - May 2015 based on the information I have managed to get from the water company and the court.
From November 2013 - March 2014 I was paying money into my friends account for the water bill but they can't remember whether they paid it or not. I realise I shouldn't of just trusted them to pay it but the bills came every 6 months and I wasn't even there that long.
The first I and my friend knew of the court action and the CCJ was when I checked my credit file on 23rd March 2016! They say no post came about it and nothing in my name not even junk mail, has turned up for well over a year. They have mental health problems so I can't completely trust this but they are still good friends of mine and wouldn't deliberately not tell me. I think they may have just not realised how serious it had got. They can't find any paperwork from 2015 except the one with the payment plan.
My friend is willing to take full liability for the debt and has signed a Witness Statement and made a complaint to the water company stating this.
The water company have not consented to my application to set aside and are being very awkward by stalling my Subject Access Request (Data protection) for all information by asking me to fill in a form with my name and address (which they sent to my address....). They have also not provided me with copies of the bills etc that I am supposedly meant to pay them. I've sent them council tax bills to prove I didn't live there. The council tax bills state "your liability at this property ended" etc But because I didn't call the water company within 2 days of the date I moved out they say they can ignore this information because of Section 143 of the Water Industry Act 1991.
The court tell me that they can't reproduce the Claim Form but have sent me information in emails and a scanned copy of the Judgement Notice. I never received either of these despite the address on them being the one I was resident at, at the time. I find it weird that the Water Company had this address anyway because I never told them (I've moved twice since I lived at the property with the debt) so I think it was obtained from the Electoral Roll.
Thank you in advance for any help!
Good Afternoon,
In reference to your enquiry unfortunately the claim form is only generated at the date of issue and we are unable to reproduce this document.
I can provide you the claim details as follows:
Claimant name and address:
DWR CYMRU CYFYNGEDIG
LINEA
FORTRAN ROAD
ST MELLONS
CF3 0LT
Claim Particulars as follows:
WATER CHARGES AND SEWERAGE CHARGES (WHERE APPLICABLE) UP TO 5 MAY 2015, IN THE SUM OF £484.71 INCLUSIVE OF ANY ARREARS, FULL PARTICULARS WHEREOF HAVE ALREADY BEEN DELIVERED.
Claim amount: 484.71
Court Fee: 35.00
Solicitors Costs: 50.00
Claim total: 569.71
There was no certificate of service required to be filed on this case.
I hope this assists you with your query, please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information.
Regards,
I have already read and started writing out my Draft Order, Witness Statement and filling in the N244 thanks to the fantastic guide on here and some other places online.
The claim was through the Northampton County Court Business Centre which I understand is a fairly recent set up. A lot of the advice guides I have read are about the old County Court system but I assume the same procedures still apply because of CPR.
Does anyone have any experience with dealing with the CCBC as they do seem to work differently? I need help with these aspects of my application:
- Please see the email at the end of my post. I asked for copies of the Claim Form and Particulars of Claim so I can prepare a defence. Is this literally all the water company had to say to get the Default Judgement?
- Why is there no certificate of service, does this mean the documents were court issued? How can I prove I wasn't served as this is the basis for my Application to Set Aside and will it be a problem?
- As the claimant won't consent to my application I have to pay £255 - how do I claim this back?
Some background:
I lived with friends in a property from November 2013 - March 2014 when I moved into my own place and they stayed on with their partner in the property. I was joint tenant with my friend and then when I moved out I was taken off the tenancy and her partner added. The water bill was in both my name and my friends name but by some oversight my name, unbeknownst to me, remained on the account.
My friend got into money trouble and the account is in arrears. In November 2015 they set up a payment plan with the water company to pay off the arrears and finally got them to take my name off the account.
However, before that in October 2015 the water company put in a county court claim IN MY NAME ONLY and got a Default Judgement against me for £591. I think this covers November 2013 - May 2015 based on the information I have managed to get from the water company and the court.
From November 2013 - March 2014 I was paying money into my friends account for the water bill but they can't remember whether they paid it or not. I realise I shouldn't of just trusted them to pay it but the bills came every 6 months and I wasn't even there that long.
The first I and my friend knew of the court action and the CCJ was when I checked my credit file on 23rd March 2016! They say no post came about it and nothing in my name not even junk mail, has turned up for well over a year. They have mental health problems so I can't completely trust this but they are still good friends of mine and wouldn't deliberately not tell me. I think they may have just not realised how serious it had got. They can't find any paperwork from 2015 except the one with the payment plan.
My friend is willing to take full liability for the debt and has signed a Witness Statement and made a complaint to the water company stating this.
The water company have not consented to my application to set aside and are being very awkward by stalling my Subject Access Request (Data protection) for all information by asking me to fill in a form with my name and address (which they sent to my address....). They have also not provided me with copies of the bills etc that I am supposedly meant to pay them. I've sent them council tax bills to prove I didn't live there. The council tax bills state "your liability at this property ended" etc But because I didn't call the water company within 2 days of the date I moved out they say they can ignore this information because of Section 143 of the Water Industry Act 1991.
The court tell me that they can't reproduce the Claim Form but have sent me information in emails and a scanned copy of the Judgement Notice. I never received either of these despite the address on them being the one I was resident at, at the time. I find it weird that the Water Company had this address anyway because I never told them (I've moved twice since I lived at the property with the debt) so I think it was obtained from the Electoral Roll.
Thank you in advance for any help!
Good Afternoon,
In reference to your enquiry unfortunately the claim form is only generated at the date of issue and we are unable to reproduce this document.
I can provide you the claim details as follows:
Claimant name and address:
DWR CYMRU CYFYNGEDIG
LINEA
FORTRAN ROAD
ST MELLONS
CF3 0LT
Claim Particulars as follows:
WATER CHARGES AND SEWERAGE CHARGES (WHERE APPLICABLE) UP TO 5 MAY 2015, IN THE SUM OF £484.71 INCLUSIVE OF ANY ARREARS, FULL PARTICULARS WHEREOF HAVE ALREADY BEEN DELIVERED.
Claim amount: 484.71
Court Fee: 35.00
Solicitors Costs: 50.00
Claim total: 569.71
There was no certificate of service required to be filed on this case.
I hope this assists you with your query, please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information.
Regards,
