Just to clarify for the OP and anyone else who gets to read this, here are the steps that should normally be taken when disputing a PCN issued by an unregulated private parking company. It outlines the four plans and why, if you follow the advice we provide, you cannot get a CCJ recored on your credit file.
Unfortunately, far too many people out there have absolutely no idea of the process that has to be gone through to actually have a CCJ recorded on their credit file with many, gullibly believing that just because they receive a letter from a useless Debt Recover Agent (DRA), a debt collector, that their credit record is somehow damaged.
If our advice is followed and in the extremely unlikely event that nothing goes your way and you lose a claim in the county court, you still cannot get a CCJ recorded unless you fail to pay the judgment amount in full within a calendar month. A CCJ, if paid in full within a month of judgment is completely expunged from the record as though it never existed.
So, for reference:
If you receive a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) issued by an unregulated private parking company and dispute it, there are four main ways to fight it before it ever gets to the stage of a County Court Judgment (CCJ).
Plan A – Complain to the Landowner (Best Chance to Get It Cancelled Early)
Before doing anything else, try to get the landowner (or whoever hired the parking company) to cancel the charge. Supermarkets, shopping centres, and hospitals often have the power to cancel tickets if you were a genuine customer or had a valid reason. If this works, the problem ends here.
If that fails, move on to Plan B.
Plan B – Appeal to the Parking Company
You can send an appeal directly to the parking company, explaining why the charge is unfair. However, since these companies make money from issuing tickets, they usually reject appeals with a generic response. If they refuse to cancel, they must give you details of the next stage of appeal.
This leads to Plan C.
Plan C – Appeal to an 'Independent' Appeals Service
Most private parking companies belong to one of two trade bodies:
• BPA members use POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals)
• IPC members use IAS (Independent Appeals Service)
POPLA sometimes rules in favour of motorists, but IAS rarely does. These appeal services are supposedly meant to be neutral, but they often side with the parking company who are their paymasters and definitely anything but 'independent'. If they reject your appeal, their decisions are not binding on you and the parking company may start chasing you for payment.
At this point, they will send letters from debt collectors, but these companies are powerless – they cannot take you to court. They can only send you worthless bits of paper which you must ignore. The debt collectors are not a party to the contract allegedly breached by the driver and are powerless to do anything but try and scare the gullible into paying out of ignorance and fear.
If the parking company is still saying that you owe them money, the final stage is Plan D.
Plan D – County Court (The Ultimate Dispute Resolution Service)
If the parking company is seriously greedy and really wants your money, they may send a Letter Before Claim (LBC), warning that they might take you to court. This is the first step in the litigation process. They hope that you are low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree and will capitulate and pay up at the first sign of litigation.
You have 30 days to explain why you dispute the charge. If you don’t respond or they disagree, they might file a county court claim against you. The vast majority of these disputes are handled by a small group of bulk litigation firms, all of them staffed by stunningly incompetent wannabe legals. However, most people are not aware of this and are intimidated enough to capitulate at this stage.
Those that capitulate and pay up at this stage of the process are wasting their money. They will be paying an amount that could not be legally claimed and would never be allowed if it went all the way to a hearing with a judge.
If/when they finally issue a court claim, you will receive an N1SDT Claim Form from the Civil National Business Centre (CNBC) which is the administrative centre for handling all county court claims before they are processed and then passed to the defendants local county court. You must respond within 14 days or request extra time by submitting an Acknowledgement of Service (AoS). You can either:
• Defend the claim and argue why you don’t owe the money
• Settle the claim if you decide to pay
• Ignore it (not recommended – this can lead to an automatic default judgment [CCJ] against you)
If you defend the claim, there is another process that you have to go through before it ever gets to a hearing in front of a judge. The claimant has to acknowledge the claim and confirm whether they intend to proceed. You will then have to complete a Directions Questionnaire (DQ) which is for administrative purposes and lets the CNBC know which is your local county court and any dates you would not be available for a hearing in the next 6 months. You then have to "attend" a telephone mediation call which is not part of the judicial process as no judge or solicitor is involved but you simply offer £0 and it is over in minutes.
After this, the claim is assigned to your local count court (in a civil debt dispute where an individual is being sued by a company, the hearing is always assigned to the individuals local court, not the businesses) and a 'procedural judge' at the local county court will check the claim and either strike the claim out if there are any procedural errors made by the claimant or may order that the claimant submit further or more detailed Particulars of Claim (PoC) or schedule a hearing date.
In the majority of cases that are not dismissed or struck out before the hearing date, the claimant will have to pay a hearing fee. It is at this stage that most of these claims are then discontinued by the claimant. They will have been hanging on up to this point hoping that the defendant will capitulate and pay up out of ignorance and fear.
In the unlikely event that the claim goes all the way to a hearing, you would have to submit a Witness Statement (WS) that basically fleshes out your defence. The claim is heard by the judge and a decision is made as to whether you owe the parking company a debt or not. Costs are fixed as this is the small claims track and the fake added charges that the parking companies have tried to claim for are not usually allowed.
In most cases where the claim is actually tried at a hearing and lost, the amount the judge awards is less than the original claim amount. A typical single PCN claim that is lost in court will amount to around £200 all in.
If you win, you pay nothing. If you lose, you must pay the amount ordered by the court. Even at this stage, if it ever got this far, you would still not have a "CCJ" on your credit file.
When Does a CCJ Get Recorded?
A CCJ (County Court Judgment) is only recorded on your credit file if:
• You lose in court, AND
• You don’t pay the full amount within 30 days.
If you pay the fill amount within 30 days, the CCJ is expunged, and it won’t affect or harm your credit. But if you ignore it or don't pay it in full within 30 days, the CCJ will be recorded and stay on your credit file for six years, making it almost impossible to get loans, mortgages, or even mobile phone contracts.
Summary
Plan A: Try to get the landowner to cancel the PCN.
Plan B: Appeal to the parking company (low chance of success).
Plan C: Appeal to an ‘independent’ appeals service (often biased).
Plan D: If all else fails, the parking company might take you to court.
A CCJ only happens if you go through the process and lose in court AND don’t pay it in full within 30 days.
