Parking Eye threatening Court Action over car I do not own

Metochites

Hi there,

I have been advised by a friend to seek help on this forum as i am at my wits end regarding a parking fine that has been issued to me. The thing is the first knew about it was when I received a court summons issued by Parking Eye for a car I had sold a couple of weeks before the alleged offence took place. I was both mystified and stressed but duly wrote to the court explaining that I had sold the car and enclosed the relevant documentation.

I thought this would be the end to the matter but i have since received a barrage of letters which i have felt to be intimidating and threatening in their language, full of legal jargon i know nothing about, threatening that they will still proceed against be, that I had chosen to ignore all letters they had sent me, and that i can pay them £50 costs to avoid being taken to court. It has got to the stage where I have had a latter from the court stating it has been allocated to a small claims track and i have to fill in choice of court details, etc. I have since had another letter from Parking Eye stating that if it goes to court it is almost certain that they would win the case and i would be liable for all the costs associated with the case but they will accept £50 to avoid a court hearing.

My dad had recently died after a very long and protracted illness which has left me and the whole family emotionally and physically exhausted. I can't do with much more hassle and was going to pay the £50 for the sake of a quiet life. I happened to mention it to a friend who was adamant that I shouldn't be bullied in this way and that someone on here might be able to give me some advice as to how to proceed.

Many, many thanks in advance

reehsetin

I'm sure someone with more knowledge will be along soon but I'd think you can provide proof you've sold the car before the date of the offence to the court then they certainly would not win. I'd hope the court would also frown upon parking eye continuing to pursue you even after receiving the proof but that may be wishful thinking

spacey2012

You will need to answer questions and not get distracted.
first thing is to log in with court paper work select to defend the case, so this immediately, do not hesitate, this buys you more time.

Next : The question, did you fill in the VC5 correctly and did DVLA send you an acknowledgement of the transfer of keeper.

Answer quickly and STAY ONLINE !

Coupon-mad

You must reply to the court, urgently, or PE will get a default judgment. This is madness but you must reply each time to the court and you can separately send a letter to PE, marked for the attention of the Legal Dept ([Text removed by MSE Forum Team]) compaining about this matter.

spacey2012

Until we get his facts, not a lot we can do, but if he was the former keeper and paper work is in order, steps should include, a written warning of harassment to our friends, and a very heafty counterclaim for harrasment for ignoring the written warning and continuing to pursue, I would think we should be looking at not a penny less than £5k damages, this is for tort against persons as in personal injury cases.

Sooner or later you cut yourself waving legal swords, just hope the OP is up to punishing them.

Metochites

Thank you so much for your responses.

Many apologies for not responding sooner, I'm at work and have limited Internet access until I'm back home later today. I've sent all court documentation back promptly and made sure everything is posted registered delivery so I have proof of postage.

I have a copy of the DVLA slip that I sent when the car was sold plus a letter from DVLA confirming the date of the sale.

Apologies for being brief, work beckons :-( I can write in more detail tonight and let you know the contents of the letters they have written to me, etc..

Metochites

Following my earlier post I have now got all the paperwork in front of me:

I received a Claim Form from Northampton Court on 15 Aug 2013 which I replied to, explaining that I had sold the car prior to the alleged offence and enclosed supporting documentation. I sent this registered post and got an acknowledgement from the court. I also phoned DVLA to check that everything had been registered correctly and got a letter from them confirming that I had updated them regarding the sale of the car, and I forwarded a copy of this letter to the court.

I received a letter from Parking Eye in early September, telling me that they and sent me four letters which I "had chose to ignore" and that if they proceeded with the court case that "Parking Eye firmly believe that all the associated costs will be found to be owed by you" And that they would accept a £50 out of court settlement fee.

I wrote back to Parking Eye and explained that I had not received any correspondence from them prior to the court paperwork and that it would not have been in my interest to ignore a parking fine for a car I did not own. I said I thought it unfair that I should have to pay a £50 admin fee for something I knew nothing about and would it be possible for them to provide me with proof of postage for the letters they allege to have sent me.

On the same day I received a Notice to Proceed with an attached reply to the defence in long winded legal jargon. I can scan it if anyone would like to see it.

I received a further letter from them on 11 Sep stating that all letters had been sent to me by first class post and they attached copies of them to the letter. They said that they wanted proof that I had sold the vehicle prior to the PCN being issued and further that I should have informed them within 28 days of the first PCN being issued.

I wrote back enclosing a copy of the DVLA sale of vehicle slip and explained that I couldn't tell them within 28 days of the PCN being issued as I had not received any correspondence from them prior to the notice from the court.

I have now received a notice of Proposed Allocation to the Small Claims Track where I can choose the court I wish to hear the case, etc. I have got another week before the return deadline so I will fill it in and send it registered post tomorrow morning requesting it is at my local court.

I have also received a further letter from Parking Eye repeating the offer of a £50 out of court settlement figure and stating that they find it "highly unlikely" that I not not received any of the PCNs they had issued. This settlement figure is the "cost associated with my inaction" and again they state that they "firmly believe that all the associated costs would be found to be owed by you".

I feel totally bullied and harassed and subjected to a systematic campaign to intimidate me into paying money that I don't owe them. As I said in my first post, I've had a huge amount on my plate from a personal perspective and these threatening letters have really affected me. I really appreciate the advice given so far and apologies that I did not have much Internet access today to respond more promptly and fully.

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

You have two choices.
Pay the £50 "admin fee"
Defend it in a court hearing as parking eye are unlikely to withdraw. The choice is yours

Umkomaas

Even if you did receive the letters why the hell should you reply to them. Their letters didn't relate to anything you owned, why does PE think it has the right to receive anything from you, they are not a statutory body.

It's no different to a Nigerian prince emailing you with a 419 scam which you ignore (and anything that follows) because it has nothing to do with you, then he demands you cover his costs because you failed to respond - you'd be telling him to FRO!

If anything you should be suing them for harassing you over something that has nothing to do with you.

Have you asked the DVLA why, given they agree you had undertaken all the paperwork correctly and on time, did they give YOUR details to PE instead of the correct RK details (the new owner of your previous car)?

If anyone should be covering the PE costs it should be the DVLA.

jkdd77

The courts are not meant to be for "fishing expeditions"; it's Parking Eye's responsibility to be sure that they sue the right defendant. Having failed to meet this basic condition, the costs Parking Eye incurred on their "fishing expedition" are entirely their own fault.

If the claim for the substantive invoice had failed (as it would most certainly have done), then Parking Eye presumably wouldn't have received a penny of their costs, but instead would have had to pay the defendant's costs, so why should the cancellation of the claim make any difference?

I certainly wouldn't pay a penny, and indeed I believe that PE will probably withdraw this specific claim; if they don't, I would ask the judge to make a costs order under Rule 27.14(g) of the Civil Procedure Rules citing PE's unreasonable behaviour in pursuing a frivolous and vexatious claim: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part27#27.14

Metochites

I regard to the DVLA I think the problem arose because the alleged parking offence only occurred 10 days after I had sold the car so although the paperwork had been forwarded to the DVLA the relevant changes hadn't been made on the car's documentation. I provided all the details of who I sold the car to when I filled in the court documentation so it has really got to me that they are still chasing me in such a bullying manner.

Thank you so much for your advice, it is very reassuring to me.