DCBL Private parking (eurocarparks)

[b789]

Hi @merweetntr. Tuesday is not ideal, but it is not too late. The important thing is that you act promptly once you are able to speak to the court. The court can set aside a judgment if it was wrongly entered, and in discretionary cases the court will also look at whether you acted promptly once you found out about it.

Do not pay it blindly just because you are panicking about the credit file. You first need to find out exactly what has happened. A credit agency alert does not tell us whether this was:

• a default judgment;
  
• a judgment after some later procedural step went to the wrong address; or
  
• some other order. If a defence had already been filed, default judgment should not be entered after that.
  

The change of address may explain why later court documents did not reach you, but it does not automatically mean you should just accept the judgment. If the claim or later notices were sent to an old address, that can be relevant to a set-aside application, and one recognised reason for set aside is that the defendant did not receive the claim or later could not defend because documents went to a previous address. 

So, for now, I would suggest this:

1. On Tuesday, call CNBC as early as possible and keep trying until you get through.

2. Ask them:
  

•  what exactly was entered on 24 March;
  
•  whether it was a default judgment or some other judgment;
  
•  what address the court had for you when the relevant notices were sent;
  
•  whether your defence is still showing on the court record;
  
•  whether the claim was ever transferred or allocated;
  
•  and ask them to email you a copy of the judgment or order immediately.
  

3. Once you have that order, post it up redacted. Until then, nobody can safely tell you whether the right remedy is a mandatory set aside, a discretionary set aside, or something else.

As for payment: there is a fallback position. If a CCJ is paid in full within one month of the judgment date, it is removed from the register; if paid after one month, it remains for six years but can be marked 'satisfied'.

So if the judgment date really was 24 March, there is still a short window before 24 April to preserve that option. But I still would not advise paying first and asking questions later. The immediate priority is to find out what the judgment actually is and how it came about.

My present view is:

• do not ignore it;
  
• do not assume you must simply pay it;
  
• get the order from CNBC first;
  
• then decide whether this is a set-aside case or whether payment within the calendar month is the safer fallback.
  

The key missing document is the actual court order. Without that, you are guessing.