Northampton County Court Claim from ParkingEye

Holepunch

Last year I got a Parking Charge from Parkingeye for staying too long in the Supermarket car park. I took the general advice and ignored the succession of letters that followed.

Today, I received a claim form from Northampton County Court for the Parking Charge from ParkingEye (Plus court fees and Solicitors Costs).

I figure the days when I can just ignore this have now passed?

The form lists 5 options:
- Admit all the amount claimed and request time to pay
- Admit part of the amount claimed
- Dispute the whole claim or make a counterclaim against the claimant
- Request 28 days instead of 14 to prepare my defence
- Do nothing, in which case judgement may be entered against me

I presume I wish to "dispute the whole claim" on the basis that the parking charges are unreasonable (£90 for just under 5 hours parking + £65 costs). Is this right?

Should I attempt to counterclaim at all? I'm presuming not, but I've no idea.

Would it be an idea to try and get the supermarket involved at this stage wanting to know why their representatives are issuing court claims to customers for excessive parking charges? Or has that opportunity gone?

Anything else I should consider/worry about? Is it common for Court Claims to be issued like this?

Holepunch

I've just found the sticky - "Small claims and PPCs".
I should have read this before I panicked :$

Stroma

A few things, you need to defend the whole claim, you need to ask for the additional time to do a defence, and please register with https://www.pepipoo.com and post your situation there, they will help you with a defence for this outrageous claim .

In terms of which supermarket, is it Aldi by any chance?

Coupon-mad

Acknowledge the claim which buys you more time to prepare your defence and gets the case allocated to your 'home' county court. Tick the box to say you are going to defend in full.

Send that off and then if PE don't bother to send full 'Particulars of Claim' within 14 days take the matter up with the court I think. Check with pepipoo, I think that's the way to play it - they no longer rush a full defence out - but am unsure by when you then have to put in a defence (even if PE don't submit particulars of claim).

Holepunch

Cheers both - I'm trying to send Stroma specific details by PM, but your quota is exceeded and I cannot send you PMs at the moment.
Sending to Coupon Mad as well.

Guys_Dad

The POPLA RESULTS sticky has some of the generic appeal points that would also apply to court.

Obviously challenge on PPC has no authority to levy charges - show me
Then on proving genuine loss (Paragraph 19.5 of the BPA Code of Practice provides:
If the parking charge that the driver is being asked to pay is for a breach of contract or act of trespass, this charge must be based on the genuine pre estimate of loss that you suffer.) So demand a break down.

Signs - they must have failed somewhere!

etc etc

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

Holepunch

I will help you defend this claim in full

Therefore send me a copy of the claim form to info@popla.me.uk and i shall sort the full defence for you.

Please ensure the form is unredacted.

If however it was Aldi then still do what i suggest but also call aldi parking team on 0179 3836313. Complain and they will get the whole claim canceled, you may need proof of purchase
Aldi have had a bad day publicity wise today and have lost a lot of face on Facebook, they have acknowledged the problem

Coupon-mad

Yes complain VERY LOUDLY to Aldi first if it was Aldi!

Here's what I was told by another poster about Aldi:


• Aldi have a “parking management” department on 01793-836-317
o Staffed by Rachael and Laura – refused to give surnames
• They gave a robust defence of their / PE parking policy … (“we visit all the aldi PE sites, signs are totally clear, you broke the rules, therefore you pay the charges” - no effort at all at customer service – even though I could prove I was a customer at the time) so much so that I thought they were PE employees
o but checking phone numbers, as far as I can tell – it is part of aldi Swindon!
o They weren’t happy local store manager said it should be cancelled
• They seem to have online access to the PE systems (they were able to check immediately if/when my correspondence had been received by PE)
• Let slip that if I had spent £25 with them then they could have cancelled it there and then on the phone (I spent less that £10 – but only stayed an hour… non customer charge is £2/hour)
• Interestingly after I wrote to PE (“You issued me with a parking ticket on date DD MMM YYYY ref XXX but the Aldi Store Manager has confirmed that I did actually shop on the date/time referred to (see receipt attached) and that the ticket be cancelled forthwith”), PE cancelled it themselves…
o this caught Rachael (of aldi’s?) out by surprise as she was going to make me produce receipts for the last 6 months to prove I was a regular shopper with them… and then “would consider” cancelling it.

Holepunch

kirkbyinfurnesslad wrote: »

Holepunch

I will help you defend this claim in full

Therefore send me a copy of the claim form to ********* and i shall sort the full defence for you.

Please ensure the form is unredacted.

Many thanks - I'll get details across to you.

For the record, this wasn't Aldi (I'm trying to avoid saying who it was in public to avoid identifiable information)

Coupon-mad

Holepunch wrote: »

Many thanks - I'll get details across to you.

For the record, this wasn't Aldi (I'm trying to avoid saying who it was in public to avoid identifiable information)

OK so if it was a Supermarket, complain in writing to them and say if they do not call PE off, once you have won/lost/PE have dropped the case, you will counter sue the Supermarket for any losses. And that you will publicise it and they may like to check out Aldi's facebook page right now as an example of the power of customers complaining about this scam...