Backdoor UKCPS CCJ for 7 PCNs 4 years after I changed address

[Michael1990]

hey guys,  this is the touched up and reduced version. I've tried to make it as straight forward as possible hitting the important parts. Any improvements just let me know, thanks!

 

DRAFT ORDER

IN THE COUNTY COURT AT: COUNTY COURT BUSINESS CENTRE

UK PARKING CONTROL  LTD (Claimant)

And

MR. XXXX (Defendant)

CLAIM No: XXXX

IT IS ORDERED that:

1. The default judgment dated 02/01/2019 be set aside.

2. Costs to be reserved.

3. Unless the Claimant serves a copy of the claim form on the Defendant by 4pm on 29/03/2019 paragraph 2 shall cease to have effect and the Claimant shall pay the Defendant's costs summarily assessed at £255 and the claim shall be struck out.

4. If the Claimant serves the claim form as directed in paragraph 3 the Defendant shall file and serve a defence by 4pm on 11/04/2019.

5. Should the Claimant discontinue the Claim after the CCJ is set aside, paragraph 2 shall cease to have effect and the Claimant shall pay the Defendant's costs summarily assessed at £255 plus the Defendant's costs for attending the hearing.

6. All enforcement to be put on hold pending the outcome of the application.

 

 

DEFAULT JUDGMENT

1. I understand that the claimant obtained a default judgment against me on 02 January 2019. However, it was not served at my current address therefore I was not aware of the county court judgment until I received my latest credit report where my credit was severely compromised. I understand that this claim was served at XXXX – The address of the offence is shown to be XXXX where I was a tenant. However, I moved to a new address on 05 June 2015 which can be proved by the presence of my name on the electoral register.

2. Although I had changed address no attempt was made to contact me via alternatives to my previous address such as email to which UKPC was in possession. Furthermore they could have tracked my new address via the electoral register.

 

DEFENCE

1.       1. At the time of the claimant issuing the tickets, I was a tenant on the property which provides me with supremacy of contract. The tenancy agreement has precedence over the contractual agreement that UKPC issued the charge under.

2.       2. I had corresponded with the claimant regarding the original PCN’s where they cancelled two of the charges. I had written to them demanding evidence for the other tickets, which they did not provide and I had given them 14 days from 31/03/2015 to supply all evidence to myself and if they did not I would consider this as an admission by the claimant that the PCN’s were incorrectly issued and I would consider the matter concluded. I moved from that address 66 days after the deadline I provided in my final letter and had received no further correspondence and therefore considered the matter concluded.

3.      3. Two of the parking tickets (pcn ref. XXXX and pcn ref. XXXX ), which form part of the judgment, had in fact been cancelled by UKPC on 11 March 2015 therefore the claim made against me is not valid as two of the pcn’s have been cancelled and the claim is for all 7 tickets.

4.      4. I did have in my vehicle the permit on display which could be seen.

5.       5. No Loss Suffered by Claimant: Their claim is presumably based on damages for alleged breach of contract. It is a fundamental principle of English Law that a party who suffers damages through breach of contract can only seek through court action to be put back in the same position as they would have been if the breach had not occurred. In order to do so they must demonstrate their actual or genuine pre-estimate of loss. I submit that no loss has been suffered by the claimant as a result of any alleged breaches of contract on the part of any driver of the vehicle of which I was the registered keeper. I further submit that any loss to the landowner (which would be the only party able to claim such losses) would be minimal.

6.      . 6. I believe the claimant has behaved unreasonably by not ensuring they used my correct contact details, which are available through, Electoral Register or emails that were made in the appeals process. According to publicly available information my circumstances are far from being unique. UKPC’s persistent failure to use correct and current addresses results in an unnecessary burden for individuals and the justice system.

7.      . 7. Considering the above I was unable to defend this claim. Therefore, I believe that the default judgment against me was irregular and I respectfully request it is set aside.

 

Statement of Truth:
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.

 

Then i will include my evidence needed for section 10 of the application as follows;

I am the defendant XXXX and I have compiled the following information for the purpose of providing evidence as to why I believe the default CCJ should be set aside. 

y

2.      1.The practice direction on pre-action conduct was not followed. I was not provided with any documentation regarding the alleged offences, despite requesting it (as seen in evidence referenced page 1).

3.      2. Although I had changed address no attempt was made to contact me via alternatives to my previous address such as email to which UKPC was in possession (as seen in evidence referenced page 2). Furthermore they could have tracked my new address via the electoral roll.

4.      3. Two of the parking tickets (pcn ref. XXXX and pcn ref. XXXX ), which form part of the judgment, had in fact been cancelled by UKPC on 11 March 2015 (as seen in evidence referenced pages 4, 5 and 6), therefore the claim made against me was not valid as two of the pcn’s have been cancelled and are no longer valid.   

Below is the chronological order of events as they took place.

 

I lived at the address XXXX between 6 December 2014 and 5 June 2015 (as seen in evidence referenced page 3), where there was private underground parking which was Managed by UKPC, which was locked off by an automatic shutter gate which required a remote to unlock. This is where i received a total of 7 parking charges in the space of 1 month - despite displaying a valid residents parking permit. The tickets were issued on the basis of "Not Clearly Displaying a Valid Parking Permit". After appealing (via email) the first 2 that came through the post (pcn ref. XXXX and pcn ref. XXXX), I received no leeway, no evidence and was denied the appeal instantly. The two tickets which were originally £15 had then increased to £160. After asking for the evidence (as seen in evidence referenced page 1) - which they refused to provide, they then sent the case to a debt recovery agency to which I started the appeal all over again. After going through the appeal process once again with the debt recovery agency, it resulted in the agency being given instruction from UKPC to cancel the charge for both tickets (as seen in evidence referenced pages 4, 5 and 6) and that they will be cancelled off of the debt agency’s system as well. I then received yet another 5 tickets and after numerous correspondence back and forth where they refused to provide me with the evidence (as seen in evidence referenced page 1), at this stage the cost escalated from £15 to £160 for the 5 tickets and they stated that they felt the tickets were issued correctly then refused any more correspondence regarding all tickets. I responded with a final letter in retaliation (as seen in evidence referenced page 1), stating that if they did not provide me with any and all evidence for each ticket within 14 days (from 31st March 2015) I would consider it an admission of incorrectly issued tickets and would consider the matter concluded. I never heard from them again and assumed the matter was closed. My latest credit report which is usually very good, was all of a sudden extremely low. After looking into this I found out that I have a CCJ against me by default for all 7 tickets totaling £1,270 including costs. Apparently the claim was completed 1st January 2019 and i had no idea this was going on as i never received any letters - due to not living in that address for 4 years and i did not receive any correspondence from them - yet they have my email from when i was appealing the tickets and corresponding with UKPC.

[Michael1990]

oh and in the section 10 part as well, the first point is:

 

1.1.      Supremacy of contract due to being a tenant on the property (as seen in evidence referenced page 3).

[ericsbrother]

Ok being picky in your second point 2 you say offences. this is not a criminal matter, use the term breaches.

in part 3 as DCA's have nothing to do with anything dont mention them.

likewise your credit report is irrelevant unless you can prove they have deliberately made false or reckless statements and they havent, the poor score is a result of the CCJ itself. Once that has gone then your credit files will be altered to reflect this..

 

 as said earlier try and get a proper hearing so you can go for a summary trial of the evidence and make sure you have all of yours  lodged with the court in the correct time beforehand. They will undoubtedly not have theirs or even want to turn up so it them becomes probable they will drop the entire thing once they get the court letter about the set aside to save costs

[Michael1990]

Right, thanks for that. I will change offences to beaches and I will remove the mention of my credit report and the debt collection agency. 

 

I already have all my evidence that I could dig up and as soon as I get the seal of approval from you all I will send it. I have already paid the set aside fee so hopefully by Monday I will get this sent off

[Mrs O'Frog]

Do you have a copy of your lease/tenancy agreement?

[Michael1990]

As far as I'm aware I do, I have everything in my emails still

[Mrs O'Frog]

Just that you ought to be 100% certain the parking is in there. Wouldn't want you to trip up. I'm in work atm but will have a bit more time  later to "twiddle " with bits - couple of things niggling me, but I can be a bit of a pedant.

[Michael1990]

Ok I will have a look into all the emails I have and see if I can find anything specific that states about parking. 

 

And that is no problem at all, I appreciate all the help, couldn't do it without all your help     

[Michael1990]

@Mrs O'Frog I have found my tenancy agreement and did a search within the document to find any information around the words "park" or "parking" and there was no results in the search which leads me to believe there is nothing specific stated in the agreement regarding parking.

[Mrs O'Frog]

You may need the landlord's lease. Look for the definition of "Property" in your agreement. You may be able to get a copy of the lease from land registry if necessary.

[Mrs O'Frog]

Okay - bit of time now. I'll do these 1 box at a time from the N244:

 

3. Set aside - Claim form not served at your current address and claimant did not follow CPR 6.9(3) when they (either "should have had reason to believe" or "should have known" if they did have lists of tenants) that you no longer resided at this address and they made no attempt to contact you through the alternative details that they hold.

 

 

[Mrs O'Frog]

On 15/03/2019 at 17:51, Michael1990 said:

 

DRAFT ORDER

IN THE COUNTY COURT AT: COUNTY COURT BUSINESS CENTRE

UK PARKING CONTROL  LTD (Claimant)

And

MR. XXXX (Defendant)

CLAIM No: XXXX

IT IS ORDERED that:

1. The default judgment dated 02/01/2019 be set aside.

2. Costs to be reserved.

3. Unless the Claimant serves a copy of the claim form on the Defendant by 4pm on 29/03/2019 paragraph 2 shall cease to have effect and the Claimant shall pay the Defendant's costs summarily assessed at £255 and the claim shall be struck out.

4. If the Claimant serves the claim form as directed in paragraph 3 the Defendant shall file and serve a defence by 4pm on 11/04/2019.

5. Should the Claimant discontinue the Claim after the CCJ is set aside, paragraph 2 shall cease to have effect and the Claimant shall pay the Defendant's costs summarily assessed at £255 plus the Defendant's costs for attending the hearing.

6. All enforcement to be put on hold pending the outcome of the application.

 

 

 

 

This is for box 4 as a separate attachment.

 

[Mrs O'Frog]

 

10. In 2 parts really, sticking to their terminology it's "witness statement" and "statement of case"

 

Witness statement

(This is about not getting the claim form rather than the actual defence of the claim. Keep your points brief, numbered preferably. This is your witness statement so is written in the first person)

1. I moved into xxxxx, xxxxxx on xx/xx/xxxx.

2. Between xx/xx/xxxx and xx/xx/xxxx I received x parking charge notices from UKPC.

3. I contested the charges and corresponded with the claimant by post and email on several occasions, an example of both can be seen in the attached supporting evidence ref M?/001 and M?/002

4. My appeal was upheld for the first two charges and these were cancelled (by email?) ref M?/003

5. I wrote to UKPC on xx/xx/xxxx and said that (whatever the crux was - their admission of error?, you now expected them to apply the same reasoning to the other 5?) and if I did not hear from them by xx/xx/xxxx I would consider the matter closed.

6. I had no further correspondence from UKPC and assumed the other 5 charges had been cancelled

7. I moved to my new address on xx/xx/xxxx

8. I do not know if UKPC sent further correspondence to my former address, but if they had, as I had always corresponded with them in a timely fashion previously, in the absence of a response, they should have had a reason to doubt that the address was still good. My address could have been verified by writing to me at the email address that they have.

9. (If you know this to be true also say about them having tenant/white list so should have been aware that you no longer lived there)

 

Statement of case

(This is your defence - usually written in the 3rd person. This is where you stick the legal points ref your lease etc. Numbers, short points backed up with the legal points where you can. Convince the judge you would have kicked them into touch if you'd had your chance in court)

 

I'm off to watch the F1 now and do my chores. I'll look back in later to see how you're doing.

 

[Michael1990]

Thanks a lot for that information! I have just finished 5 15hr night shifts so once my brain has recovered I will fix everything up with all the new information and I will let you guys have another look in the hopes it is satisfactory and I can get it sent off!  Thanks so much guys.

[ericsbrother]

dont forget that when you are givena  date for the hearing you will need to submit everything you intend to use and that will include pictures of the sigange, previous case reports that are persuasive ( screen shot from parking pranksters blog will suffice) and so forth. Eveything you would want to use at a normal hearing so you can use the time to your best advantage.

[Michael1990]

hey guys, I just finished the new draft, please have a look and let me know what improvements/ changes i can make Thanks!

 

Draft order: im not going to include this as it is exactly the same as above which @Mrs O'Frog had included.

 

Section 10 of N244 form, Evidence for Application

Claim from: County Court Business Centre

Claim No. XXXX

Judgment Date: 02/01/2019

Claimant: UK Parking Control Ltd

Defendant:  XXXX

 

 

I am the defendant XXXX and I have compiled the following information for the purpose of providing evidence as to why I believe the default CCJ should be set aside.

 

 

Witness Statement

 

1. I lived at the address, XXXX from 06/12/2014 to 05/06/2015.

2. Between 20/12/2014 and 10/01/2015 I received 7 parking charge notices from UKPC.

3. I contested the charges and corresponded with the claimant by post and email on several occasions, an example of both can be seen in the attached supporting evidence pages 1 and 2.

4. My appeal was upheld for the first two charges and these were cancelled by email as can be seen in the supporting evidence pages 4, 5 and 6, yet they were included in the claim.

5. I wrote a final letter of correspondence to UKPC on 31/03/2015 requesting that before the matter escalates any further, I would like UKPC to send me all relevant evidence regarding the alleged breach of contract and if I did not hear from them within 14 days ( by 14/04/2015) I would consider the matter closed.

6. I received no further correspondence from UKPC and assumed the other 5 charges had been cancelled.

7. I moved to my new address on 05/06/2015 which was 66 days after my final letter of correspondence.

8. I am unaware of UKPC having sent further correspondence to my former address, but if they had, I was not aware of this. I had always corresponded with them in a timely fashion previously. In the absence of a response, they should have had reason to doubt that the address was still my place of residence. My address could have been verified by writing to me at the email address that they have.

 

 

Statement of Case

 

Below are the key points which constitute my defence regarding the alleged breach of contract.

1.       1. Supremacy of contract, due to being a tenant on the property (as seen in evidence referenced page 3).

2.       2. The practice direction on pre-action conduct was not followed. I was not provided with any documentation regarding the alleged breaches, despite requesting it (as seen in evidence referenced page 1).

3.       3. Although I had changed address no attempt was made to contact me via alternatives to my previous address such as email to which UKPC was in possession (as seen in evidence referenced page 2). Furthermore they could have tracked my new address via the electoral roll..

4.       4. Two of the parking tickets (pcn ref. XXXX and pcn ref. XXXX ), which form part of the judgment, had in fact been cancelled by UKPC on 11 March 2015 (as seen in evidence referenced pages 4, 5 and 6), therefore the claim made against me was not valid as 2 of the pcn’s have been cancelled and are no longer valid.

 

 

Below is the chronological order of events as they took place.

I lived at the address XXXX between 6 December 2014 and 5 June 2015 (as seen in evidence referenced page 3), where there was private underground parking which was Managed by UKPC. The parking provided was closed off by an automatic shutter gate which required a remote to open. This is where i received a total of 7 parking charges in the space of 1 month - despite displaying a valid residents parking permit which was provided to me by the letting agency as part of my lease agreement ( as seen in evidence referenced page 3). The tickets were issued on the basis of "Not Clearly Displaying a Valid Parking Permit". After a lengthy and unnecessarily difficult appeals process, the first 2 that were issued (pcn ref. XXXX and pcn ref. XXXX ) were cancelled by UKPC (as seen in evidence referenced pages 4, 5 and 6). I then received yet another 5 tickets and after numerous correspondence back and forth where they became uncooperative and failed to provide me with the evidence requested (as seen in evidence referenced page 1), at this stage the cost escalated from £15 to £160 for the 5 tickets and they stated that they felt the tickets were issued correctly then refused any more correspondence regarding all tickets. I responded with a final letter in reply (as seen in evidence referenced page 1), stating that if they did not provide me with any and all evidence for each ticket within 14 days (from 31st March 2015) I would consider it an admission of incorrectly issued tickets and the case closed. I did not receive any further correspondence from UKPC and assumed the matter was closed. In February 2019 during a routine check of my credit report, I found that I have a default CCJ had been issued against me due to court action taken by UKPC without my knowledge, for all 7 tickets totaling £1,270 including fees.

[ericsbrother]

that will get you the set aside but you will need to collate all of the bits of evidenece such as pictures of signage etc before the earing date so you can stuff them at the first attempt.

[Michael1990]

That is awesome, as long as I can get the set aside approved then I can deal with everything else at the hearing and absolute worst case, if I have to pay something I at least can have the CCJ removed and not have the next 6 years of my life financially burdened    

[Michael1990]

I will get all this printed, send it off and if the set aside is permitted, when I know when a hearing will take place, i can come back to you guys for more advice to try and ensure I win it thanks everyone, I really do appreciate the help where I don't have a lot of knowledge in this area 

[ericsbrother]

you want the hearing there and then. that is the point I have banged on about, the other side wont be prepared and you will stuff them. you donmt want to drag it out to another hearing but if they are there with some decent evidence then that is what will be ordered.

Go large on this.

dont worry, you will be given a hearing date for the set-aside and you will have to submity your evidnce as ordered before that. The date for submission can be  as little as 7 days before the hearing so you will get plenty of notice as usually the court date is set a couple of months ahead.

[Michael1990]

Ah right! Ok, I'll get this sent off and compile  all my evidence in order so it's ready to send straight away   

[ericsbrother]

you dont send it until you are told to by the court Once you have a date for the hearing you pile in with everything you have got, until then you use what you have written to get past the front desk

[Michael1990]

Ok, that's brilliant. Hopefully will be  no problem then

[Michael1990]

Hi guys! So I've heard back from the court and a hearing to have the set aside removed has been set for the 24th. So apart from everything that I have already provided them, what suggestions do you have for me to take to the hearing? I appreciate all the help

[Mrs O'Frog]

Everything you can think of. Then tell us what you have and we'll maybe come up with bits you might have missed. Seriously, this is the "unbolt the kitchen sink" time. Photos, leases, contracts, precedents etc etc. You need to engage and interest the judge on the day, don't pee them off with fumbling and faffing so know your stuff inside out.

 

Have they requested any further submissions prior to the hearing? Any deadlines to meet?