To not understand why CCJs wreck your credit?

[whynotmethen]

So I have a CCJ pending - not sure if that is the right term.

If I lose the case I will pay it right away - though I obviously hope I don't and believe I don't deserve to.

But if I do lose it will be held against me? How is that right?

Surely it means if you are poor you should never contest anything otherwise you are fucked if you lose??

How on earth would someone be able to look at a multi storey and know from the outside it's full?

Do you use these powers in other ways? Perhaps looking at houses from the outside and knowing how many spare bedrooms they have? Looking at book covers and knowing how many blank pages are inside? Knowing how many malteasers are in an unopened packet?

@AgentJohnson what are you on about?

Not particularly, I’ve been a passenger in a car entering a car park...

You've known that upon entry. At which point if you were to change your mind you would have to filter round to the exit and leave. You cannot back out of a multi storey the way you came in. This sounds like what the OP did but there was then a queue at the exit.

I don’t drive but I find the sense of entitlement from some car drivers really bizarre.

What's "entitled" about going into a car park, having to leave and not wanting to pay a fine or fee for it? Ffs, yes you can tell you're not a driver. How bizarre

From the outside no but once you can determine how busy a car park is and she could have left immediately if she had wanted to. Even with my poor eyesight, I can determine if a car park is very busy or not. If the capacity signs weren’t working or weren’t visible, surely that would make the OP more alert?

OP some information on CCJs and getting one removed if you pay the debt

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/borrowing-money/county-court-judgments-and-your-credit-rating/

What's "entitled" about going into a car park, having to leave and not wanting to pay a fine or fee for it?. Really! A car park is a service and business, which just so happens allows its patrons a grace period.

she could have left immediately if she had wanted to. she has said the queue to get out took 40 mins! So no, she couldn't have left immediately, that's the issue...

Agent Seriously? You don't drive but you want to stick up for these companies? I couldn't see it was full until I had got through the barrier. I was in a strange city and had never been in that carpark before. Multi-storeys where I am close when full and you physically can't get in until someone leaves. I've never experienced anything like it. It was also pay and display, which again I've never experienced in a multi-storey before.

Once in I couldn't get out. It had ten floors and I was stuck in a bumper to bumper queue the whole time looking for a space and then queueing to get back out. I was thinking 'Fuck, when am I going to get out, I'm going to be late for X, where else can I park?' Once out, I was focused on finding a parking space and getting to the place I needed to be. No I didn't think, 'Oh, I must walk back to that full carpark and make a payment for the privilege of queueing in there for 40 minutes.'

There's not having a sense of entitlement and there's being completely batshit. I don't think it's entitled to expect a carpark to have spaces.

If it hadn't been pay & display and I'd needed a paid ticket to exit (like every other MS I've been in in 13 years of driving) I would have had to deal with it there and then with a human being who would have seen the queue, but then they wouldn't have been able to charge me £50 would they? It's almost like they have it set up like that on purpose. But I'm the entitled one. Ok then.

That's monstrous, OP. I hope you win.

Life nowadays is like playing minesweeper - trying to dodge all the sneaky ways people have to try to con money out of you.

Really! A car park is a service and business, which just so happens allows its patrons a grace period. yes and she couldn't get out in that grace period because of said queue. The company could make exceptions in situations rather than be greedy and squeeze every penny out of people. You know, good customer service? Otherwise peolle wont go back!

I totally understand why the OP thinks this is unfair. And it probably is. Most of the car parks round here give you 20 minutes between paying for your ticket at the machine and putting it in the exit barrier. If there's a massive queue and you can't get out, that's nobody's fault. The intention was there to leave on time.

However. There is a time and a place to make a stand. In my opinion, that time and place is not when there is a CCJ pending against you and you are worried about securing another rental property.

According to this, any judgment won't go against your credit record if it's paid within a month.

A car park is a service and business, which just so happens allows its patrons a grace period.

The OP didn’t get a service. That’s the point!

OP YANBU. I hate these parking companies and would love them to all go out of business, they’re a bunch of crooks and cowboys. I’d rather see reasonable parking charges introduced across the board than see these companies cream off profits for doing fuck all.

Exactly. agent has all the time in the world to take in all the surroundings, because theyre the passenger! Being a driver is a completely different experience. What a patronising, ignorant person.

Agent can also see to the tenth floor from the entrance to see if there are spaces. Amazing talent!

I'm guessing the parking rules stated that you have a grace period to leave without incurring a charge - once you knew that wasn't going to be possible you should have got out of the car and paid for 1hr parking and chaulked it up to bad luck and a lesson for next time.

The charge is fairly being applied by their rules - it's a bit shitty yeah but that life I guess

op from what you write I think you have a good case.

courts like court facts.
a summary statement, a timeline and the supporting documents.

good luck!

From the outside no but once you can determine how busy a car park is and she could have left immediately if she had wanted

Please explain, from your background as a non driver, how (for example) one would be able to tell shortly upon entering that there were no spaces in a large 7 storey car park, and how one would be able to exit quickly from said car park from 7th floor by the time she found this out?

I’ve been driving 26 years and can’t readily consider a way this could be easily and quickly done, perhaps you could enlighten me?

I appreciate that you feel this is unfair and I agree it does sound unfair. But please, please do not take that attitude into court with you. Judges will generally end over backwards to help (within the law) in these types of situations but they lose patience with stroppy people very quickly, even where it is born of frustration and a sense of injustice.

Plan what you want to say very carefully, gather any evidence you can and stay calm and clear.

I don't think it's entitled to expect a carpark to have spaces.

Genius! You’ve refuted your sense of entitlement by confirming it.

So it took forever to find a parking space and by that experience, it didn’t occur to you that it might take ages to leave.

Pick your battles, this just seems like a poor choice but you are entitled to your day in court.

wrt full car parks - many are not visible from the outside, so no chance to see if it's full.
plus the exit is often at the other side.
I like those car park that shows the number of free spaces before you turn in to enter.

Yes, the non driver is the expert here

from the outside no but once you can determine how busy a car park is and she could have left immediately if she had wanted to. Even with my poor eyesight, I can determine if a car park is very busy or not. If the capacity signs weren’t working or weren’t visible, surely that would make the OP more alert?

I think our Agent here needs to be a lot more alert. Because the Agent is coming across as being somewhat hard of thinking.

OP I wish you luck as the car parking people particularly in this case sound like thieving bastards. I'm very cynical about car parking generally ever since Parking Eye took over the NHS car park where I work. Utter shits and bastards - the lot of them - and they make PLENTY of money.

As other (more sensible) people have said - try and be calm in court and logical. With the evidence of what you have said, I don't understand how you could lose your case?

And to those idiots on this thread who said the OP just should have paid the fine initially anyway WHAT?? Are you all f**ing nuts?? Why should she pay anything for sitting in a queue for 40 minutes when their sodding sign was broken not informing 'customers' that the car park was full??

screaming , I so agree with you, it’s everywhere, phone companies, electric companies, BANKS (are the fucking WORST)it’s just endless! And its always such a fucking issue to get anything sorted, I had to call my phone company 3 times (am on holiday in Southern Europe) to get extended credit on my phone, 3 TIMES before they finally gave me the credit but not before charging me £30 for the extra usage! Even though I had called previously and they had told me I had received the extra allowances.