Parking Fine CCJ? How To Set It Aside With Form N244

When the First You Hear About It Is the CCJ

You check your credit file for a mortgage application. There is a £427 County Court Judgment from eight months ago in the name of an operator you have never heard of. You moved house two years ago. You never saw a parking ticket, never saw a Letter Before Claim, never saw a court claim form. The first you knew about any of it was a six-year scar on your credit file.

This is the default CCJ trap, and it happens to thousands of UK drivers a year. The good news: there is a formal route to remove it. The route is Form N244, an application to set the judgment aside under Civil Procedure Rule 13.3. It costs £313 to file and, done properly, succeeds in the majority of well-evidenced cases.

What a Default CCJ Actually Is

When a private parking operator (or their solicitor, often DCB Legal or Gladstones) issues a County Court claim, the court posts the claim form to the address listed on DVLA records. You have 14 days to acknowledge and 28 days to file a defence. Miss both, and the claimant applies for judgment in default under CPR Part 12.

Default judgment is administrative. There is no hearing, no judge weighing the merits, just a clerk checking the box that the deadline expired. The operator wins by silence.

The CCJ is then registered with the Registry Trust within one month, where Experian, Equifax and TransUnion pick it up. It stays on your credit file for six years from the judgment date, even if you pay it off (though paid CCJs are marked "satisfied").

Why CPR 13.3 Is Your Route Back

Civil Procedure Rule 13.3 lets the court set aside a default judgment in two situations:

(a) the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; or

(b) it appears to the court that there is some other good reason why the judgment should be set aside or the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim.

You do not need both. One is enough. The court must also consider whether the application was made promptly under CPR 13.3(2).

For a parking CCJ, the typical winning combination is:

1. You did not receive the claim form (you had moved, post was misdirected, the operator served the wrong address).
2. You have a real prospect of defending (POFA non-compliance, signage failures, the contravention did not occur).
3. You applied promptly once you discovered the CCJ.

What You Need To File

The bundle has four parts:

The £313 fee is the standard application fee for a hearing. Help with Fees (EX160) can reduce or eliminate this if your income is below the threshold (broadly, under £1,420 a month gross with no savings over £4,250).

Form N244 Itself

You can download N244 from gov.uk (Civil Procedure Rules forms page). The key boxes are:

• Box 3: What order you are asking for. Write: "An order setting aside the default judgment dated [date] under CPR 13.3."
• Box 4: Why you are seeking the order. Write: "I have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim and there is good reason for the judgment to be set aside. Full grounds in the attached witness statement."
• Box 5: Hearing or no hearing. Tick "with a hearing". Set-aside applications are usually heard.
• Box 10: Witness statement. Tick "yes, attached".

The Witness Statement

This is the heart of the application. It must be in numbered paragraphs, signed with a statement of truth, and contain:

1. Your name, address and the case reference.
2. The chronology: when the alleged contravention happened, when you moved, when you discovered the CCJ.
3. Why you did not receive the claim form (proof of address change: tenancy agreement, council tax bills, utility bills).
4. Why you have a real prospect of defending: the parking event itself. POFA Schedule 4 non-compliance, ParkingEye v Beavis 2015] UKSC 67 distinguishing facts (excessive charge, no genuine commercial interest, defective signage), grace period under the [single Code of Practice.
5. Why you acted promptly once you found out.
6. The order you are asking the court to make.

Sign with a statement of truth in this exact form: "I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth."

The Draft Order

A short document the judge can sign. It should ask the court to:

1. Set aside the default judgment dated [date].
2. Allow the defendant to file a defence within 14 days.
3. Reserve costs to the substantive hearing (or order costs in the case).
4. Order the claimant to remove the CCJ from the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines.

The Three Tests You Must Pass

Test 1: Real Prospect of Successfully Defending

The bar is lower than it sounds. You do not have to prove you would win. You have to show a real, not fanciful, defence. For parking claims, real prospects include:

• POFA Schedule 4 non-compliance: Notice to Keeper sent outside the 14-day window, missing required wording, wrong recipient. See our POFA 2012 explainer.
• Signage failures: Signs not visible at point of entry, font too small, contradictory wording. ParkingEye v Beavis turned on adequate signage; if yours was inadequate, Beavis cuts your way.
• Charge not a genuine pre-estimate of loss and not commercially justified: Beavis is not a free pass for any operator.
• Wrong driver, no transfer of liability: If the keeper informed the operator who the driver was within the POFA window, keeper liability falls away.
• Limitation: Claims for breach of contract must be issued within six years under the Limitation Act 1980 Section 5. See our parking fine statute of limitations guide.

Test 2: Good Reason

Not receiving the claim form because the operator served the wrong address is itself a good reason. So is being on hospital admission, abroad with no forwarding address, or the victim of identity issues.

Test 3: Promptness

The clock starts when you discovered the CCJ, not when it was made. Courts have set aside judgments years after issue when the applicant only just discovered them. But once you know, file within 14 to 30 days. Sitting on it for six months after discovery is the single most common reason set-asides fail.

Costs and What Happens Next

If the judge grants the set aside:

• The CCJ is removed from your credit file (the operator must notify the Registry Trust).
• You file a defence within 14 days.
• The claim continues. You may settle, win at hearing, or lose at hearing.
• Costs are usually reserved to the final hearing.

If the judge refuses:

• You can appeal under CPR Part 52, but the bar is high.
• The CCJ stays on your file.
• The £313 fee is gone.

If the operator does not oppose (which is more common than people expect), the application is granted on the papers.

What If You Are Already Inside 30 Days of the CCJ?

If less than 30 days have passed since the CCJ was made and you pay the full amount in full, the CCJ is removed entirely from your credit file under the Registry Trust rules. This is faster and cheaper than N244 if you simply want it gone and have the money. After 30 days it can only be marked "satisfied" not removed.

If you cannot or will not pay, N244 set aside is your route.

Watch Out For Reclaim Operators

A growing industry of "CCJ removal" companies charges £500 to £2,000 for what is essentially a copy-paste N244. Some are legitimate; many add little value over a self-prepared bundle. The court does not care who drafted the witness statement, it cares whether the contents satisfy CPR 13.3.

Related Reading

• Parking Fine CCJ: County Court Process Explained
• POFA 2012 Explained
• What Happens If You Lose Your Parking Appeal
• Parking Fine Statute of Limitations