County court claim for SIP ticket

ld123 · 9 August 2017 at 5:52PM

Hello,

I am hoping that posting a new thread is correct - I have read through the newbies thread and have come to this conclusion as my case has got to a county claims court!

I have received a County court claim letter stating I owe £242 for breaching the terms of parking outside my apartment last year. However, I have always been paying £50 a month (for approximately a year) via the mobile app for my parking, which is why I ignored all previous communications regarding this (stupid in hindsight, I know)

The only thing I can imagine that may have happened is I missed the deadline to renew the monthly lease (this would have been by a matter of minutes, no more than an hour or two) or a malfunction with the app. I am sure I will be able to provide evidence from the monthly payments via my bank statements.

The charges are £167 for the claim, £25 court fee and £50 legal representatives costs. The car park has since been closed (around 3 months now) and I have had to find alternative parking.

The car is a company car which I am the keeper - letters have been going to my parents as I presume my work have this address registered so I don't often get them in time either; I believe they contacted my workplace who ignored the previous letters too. I just wondered if I should go ahead and pay this fine or if I can challenge it?

Any advice would be much appreciated, I don't want to give too much away on here as advised previously so if I have missed any vital information please let me know! And apologies if I should not have started a new thread - I couldn't see anything about county claims court, only a brief mention of CCJs?

Thanks in advance

Redx · 9 August 2017 at 5:55PM

please edit the above into paragraphs so people can actuallly read it

thank you

(ps:- dont write your defence etc in the same manner as the above, judges expect proper paragraphs with spacing)

ld123 · 9 August 2017 at 5:57PM

Thank you - I'm typing on the go on my phone so apologies - of course defence would be better written

Redx · 9 August 2017 at 6:10PM

these charges are not "fines" you made that word up because no private parking company can "fine" anyone at all in this country , they have no authority to do so

they are INVOICES or Parking Charges Notices for perceived rule breaking or breaking a contractual obligation

there are dozens and dozens of county court claim threads on here, quite a lot from this year alone, so I suggest you use a laptop and find them and read them

also read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread too , it has the advice you need

once you have found and read a dozen or more court claim threads , especially GLADSTONES threads and SIP Parking threads , start to draft your defence

also acknowledge AOS online on the mcol website , leaving the defence box blank for now

you then have 28 days from the service date on the claim form to submit your defence

if in doubt , there are a couple o GLADSTONE template defences on here you can adapt

you were quite right in starting a new thread

The_Deep · 9 August 2017 at 6:26PM

The courts have come down hard very recently on PPCs who ticket motorists parking correctly in their own spaces and some motorists have made PPCs pay dearly for interfering residents' leasehold right to quiet enjoyment of their own property, possibly an offence under The Landlord and Tenants Acts. They may also be committing offences under Data Protection laws,

Please google Davey v UKPC and Jopson v Homeguard, there may be a few bob in it for you.

ld123 · 13 August 2017 at 6:14PM

Hello,

Thank you for the advice so far! Having spent some time doing my research I am working on drafting a defence. I just wanted advice on what angle to go for with the rebuttal if anyone can advise;

- The previous and following monthly payments I made via the app proving I was paying regularly for the parking space. I have receipts for 10 payments (this is all the app saves) and fortunately the earliest one to date is the date in question, where I paid at 8am the morning after the ticket was issued, the reason for which being;

- The failure of the app to notify the parking had expired (this was set up to notify a few hours in advance, to avoid these problems, and is a service the company offers which has failed to work correctly)

- The app regularly failing to take payment, meaning it was not easy to ensure prompt renewal each month as I had to keep re-attempting payment each month

-!The land is wasteland with no marked bays and no clear signage as to where the carpark starts and ends, whilst the car park is no longer there as it is now undergoing planning for building works on the site - therefore I cannot be confident of the signage/T&Cs as it has now been removed

Are these valid rebuttals? They are all of course 100% true.

Thanks in advance

Coupon-mad · 13 August 2017 at 6:53PM

Yes they all sound like valid defence points.

But have you ever said who the driver was?

Better to defend as lessee/hirer (no admitted driver, there are more than one possible for that car) because no way has any PPC transferred liability to you as lessee, from the company/lease firm whose data they would have originally got from the DVLA.

Unless you gave SIP your name and address early on in a PCN appeal, saying who was driving?

ld123 · 13 August 2017 at 7:57PM

Thank you! We have never contacted them at all and the app never states the driver name, just the registration.

Redx · 13 August 2017 at 8:00PM

for all they know , i could have been driving said vehicle, as could millions of other people here in the UK

yes you are KEEPER, as lessee or hirer, but there has been no proof of who was driving and there is no law compelling you to do so

read the lamilad posts about his court battles with excel on this very point

so you have not contacted any of them and they have NO IDEA who was driving, so keep it that way , stay as keeper/lessee/hirer only

Coupon-mad · 13 August 2017 at 8:02PM

Look at para 13 and 14 of the POFA schedule 4 - you are the hirer/lessee and you are not the only possible driver; a great position to maintain in defence, using other points too, of course.

But you can't be held liable in law, because SIP will not have served the necessary documents to you with the first NTK. Hence why DO NOT say who was driving - edit your posts here, NOW.

The_Deep · 13 August 2017 at 8:12PM

Not sure I agree, I would say that inmost "own space" cases it is immaterial whether they know the name of the driver or not. It is what the lease/AST says which matters.

County court claim for SIP ticket

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