Help Needed Please......Missing Post Dec 2010

[Jemjubs]

Hello

I am in need of advice from postal staff who remember the snow chaos of December 2010

A month ago, I had a knock on the door from a High Court Enforcement Officer stating that I had a CCJ against me dating from December 2010 / January 2011.

I genuinely had no knowledge of this whatsoever and have certainly never received any court papers regarding this. The HCEO are not really as official as it sounds, just agents (bit like car clampers) that are trying to charge me £2800.00 against a claimed debt of £600.00 !!!

A simple case of pay the money or lose the car, this combined with my wife in tears, compelled me to pay there and then.

I have a court hearing to appeal this on the grounds that I had no knowledge off the CCJ but what I need to do Is to prove or at least support my witness statements.

I live on the Kent / Surrey border and our local sorting office is Tonbridge

The papers were sent out in early December 2010 and I look back at photos and realise that we had snow of 2ft deep (which lasted all month), on the 2nd of December and we received no post for over a week, I also remember that we were receiving letters dated early December well into January 2011.

Can anyone remember just how bad things got in the Sevenoaks, Edenbridge and Tonbridge areas during this period?

Anything that you tell me here could really support my case.

Thank you

[Stormproof]

Yes the weather was bad but there was only about 3 days that the mail did'nt get delivered on time. When we did go out the office was clear of mail.
Sorry not much help to you.

[clashcityrocker]

Would a CCJ not have to be sent by a tracked method - i.e Special Delivery or Recorded Delivery?

[Lounge Lizard]

Surely it's the High Court's responsibility to get the CCJ to you, they choose to entrust this to Royal Mail, and if RM fail somehow it's then up to the High Court to take this up with Royal Mail with whom they had a contract to deliver it. It can't reasonably be your responsibility to receive it when its transit is beyond your control.

[stokes11eg]

Hello

I am in need of advice from postal staff who remember the snow chaos of December 2010

A month ago, I had a knock on the door from a High Court Enforcement Officer stating that I had a CCJ against me dating from December 2010 / January 2011.

I genuinely had no knowledge of this whatsoever and have certainly never received any court papers regarding this. The HCEO are not really as official as it sounds, just agents (bit like car clampers) that are trying to charge me £2800.00 against a claimed debt of £600.00 !!!

A simple case of pay the money or lose the car, this combined with my wife in tears, compelled me to pay there and then.

I have a court hearing to appeal this on the grounds that I had no knowledge off the CCJ but what I need to do Is to prove or at least support my witness statements.

I live on the Kent / Surrey border and our local sorting office is Tonbridge

The papers were sent out in early December 2010 and I look back at photos and realise that we had snow of 2ft deep (which lasted all month), on the 2nd of December and we received no post for over a week, I also remember that we were receiving letters dated early December well into January 2011.

Can anyone remember just how bad things got in the Sevenoaks, Edenbridge and Tonbridge areas during this period?

Anything that you tell me here could really support my case.

Thank you

It should at least have been sent recorded delivery---

[arnold cheshire]

Would a CCJ not have to be sent by a tracked method - i.e Special Delivery or Recorded Delivery?

no

[Hitcher]

Ask to their proof of posting and proof of receipt?

[Jemjubs]

Thanks for the replies

No the UK Court Service just sends out all papers by standard Royal Mail and as we all know, nothing ever goes missing

Regarding High Court, that is a separate issue for a debt over £600.00, where an unpaid CCJ can be transfered to the high court for enforcement and there is no need for them to notify you that a Writ of Fi Fa Has been issued and in most cases HIgh Court Enforcement Officers (don't be misled by the posh title), would never notify the debtor in writing in case they hide their car and don't answer doors etc.

In my case the claimed debt is from a Water Board Utility and to get to the magic £600.00 they even included charges in advance of services provided ???

Obviously I am a little raw about this but the enforcement officer did say that occurrences of court papers not being received is becoming more and more common and not everyone can be lying.

What really annoys me is that the Water Board also maintain that they sent me an obligatory letter of action before the court case. I never received this and I have it in writing from them that they also only use standard post and that in my case, they did not ring, did not use recorded delivery, did not use a process server, did not send and agent to knock on the door, I fact they did nothing at all!

Rant over and I welcome all and any views

[arnold cheshire]

if you havent paid anything on the ccj why has it took 14 months for them to contact you ?

[hantsman]

There would have been more than 1 letter from the courts, ie around 3 so they must have all gone missing.

[clashcityrocker]

There would have been more than 1 letter from the courts, ie around 3 so they must have all gone missing.

Or they don't have the correct address

[Jemjubs]

There would have been more than 1 letter from the courts, ie around 3 so they must have all gone missing.

In theory two...... The first would be one with details of claim and your chance to defend or admit it, which should have been posted to me in early December 2010

The 2nd would be notification of Judgement and that should have been posted to me in early January.

None of that proves it was sent though and as far as I can see, they had the right address from the case details but no one including the water board or court can provide me with a copy of the court papers I should have received.

if you havent paid anything on the ccj why has it took 14 months for them to contact you ?

Good question....... Apparently the High Court route for debt collection is common with water boards because they can't legally disconnect service, so they go for the throat with HCEO's trying to get away with charges of £900.00 per visit !! This really is very common practice.

Regarding why they waited, I don't know, I had a Subject Access Request done to the water board that proves there were no purposeful attempts from them or a solicitor to follow up on court action and I was told that they tend to get the CCj's saved up and then they get farmed out in a batch to High Court Enforcement Officers.

[DGP1]

Have you contacted the CAB? Always the best place to start.

[keithposty]

this one is right up my street

as stated, the county court claim,N1, does not have to be sent by recorded mail. the ministry of justice rely on the interpretations act.

when the claim was issued, thy defendant would have had 14 days to acknowledge the claim and a further 14 to submit a defence. if the claim was not acknowledged in the 14 days a judgement by default would have been issued.

YOU NEED TO SUBMIT A N244 form to the court requesting the judgement be set aside, that is, returned back to the issue stage where you can then do a defence and the ccj quashed.

YOU NEED TO SEND THE WATER COMPANY A DATA SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST AND BE SPECIFIC IN ASKING FOR THE DOCUMENTS STATING THEY HAVE COMPLIED WITH
PRACTICE DIRECTION-PRE-ACTION CONDUCT

this deals with letter before action etc

if you need help with the data subject access request let me know

[Jemjubs]

this one is right up my street

as stated, the county court claim,N1, does not have to be sent by recorded mail. the ministry of justice rely on the interpretations act.

when the claim was issued, thy defendant would have had 14 days to acknowledge the claim and a further 14 to submit a defence. if the claim was not acknowledged in the 14 days a judgement by default would have been issued.

YOU NEED TO SUBMIT A N244 form to the court requesting the judgement be set aside, that is, returned back to the issue stage where you can then do a defence and the ccj quashed.

YOU NEED TO SEND THE WATER COMPANY A DATA SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST AND BE SPECIFIC IN ASKING FOR THE DOCUMENTS STATING THEY HAVE COMPLIED WITH
PRACTICE DIRECTION-PRE-ACTION CONDUCT

this deals with letter before action etc

if you need help with the data subject access request let me know

Thank you for this, yes I did two N244 forms at the end of January 2 days after the first visit, one was for Set Aside (hearing now set for early May) and the other was for Stay of Writ....... Unbelievably, the judge did not notice the second N244 for Stay of Writ when they were been dealt with, hence the 2nd visit and an extra £1000.00 bill from the High Court Enforcement Officers. The clerk of the court has admitted what happened but other than a strange irony about things going missing, it does not help me very much as it meant enforcement action could still take place and the money held by the HCEO's until the hearing outcome. That is exactly what happened and is why I had to pay out £2800.00 as they were not going to allow me the 48hrs it took to find out what had happened to the missing Stay of Writ / N244.

Yes also done the SAR to the water board and which was interesting as it showed they had an in house DCA (Debt Collection Agency) and some very dubious paperwork and admissions.

Also paid £5.00 for case details from the court which is how I discovered the fact that the water board had included charges before service was provided for 4 months to get the magic £600.OO + figure.

So state of play at the moment is I am £2800.00 down on a claimed debt of £600.00 and I have also paid out £200.00 for court paperwork, £40.00 in phone calls and I have lost over £1000.00 in earnings taking time off to research and fight this.

Hence that is why I am on here trying to find out what postal workers remember of the horrendous weather in December 2010, as it may give possible reasons behind the non receipt of court paperwork.

Thank you everyone for your help and comments