UKPC county court letter received

Sgmetro

Hello there, I'm wondering if anyone is able to help. I work in a shopping mall, staff keep getting ukpc parking tickets as they tell us we aren't allowed to park there. each time im at work iI have had a few and, the same as everyone else we all ignore the tickets and debt recovery letter that we receive. Today however I have received a Northampton county court letter, with a charge of over £1K this is a genuine letter and it has the option to file a defence. I would quite happily go to court even if I loose and have to pay the charges then pay up without a fight to this company! Has any one got any advice on this and also advice on my defence claim? All help and advice would be much appreciated as I'm fighting on behalf of a full department store. Many thanks in advance :T

bod1467

First I'd suggest is to check the LBA/LBCCC Fight Back sticky thread at the top of page 1 of this board.

Second comment is that UKPC have not previously gone to court (as a claimant anyway). If you do then you'd be the first. (Perhaps the claim value has enticed them out of their cesspool?)

4consumerrights

Firstly why did you ignore these parking charges when they are so easily challenged and cancelled using the appeals system and POPLA.

UKPC obviously see you as a soft touch with a claim of over £1K - that is a hell of lot of parking charges ignored! And possibly the first to issue court proceedings - worth it for that claim.

Did they send you a letter before action before court papers?

To defend this you will need to start reading a lot of threads and stickies for information and acknowledge the claim in time and file defence by deadlines otherwise you will receive a default CCJ.

Better start researching and post up skeleton defence if you like.

Finally who employed UKPC and which retail park is this as I believe they have been outed from several recently. Make a complaint to the managing agents of the retail park - you are all staff and therefore in gainful employment - no losss to the landowner - helping supporting business etc.

Coupon-mad

Sgmetro wrote: »

Hello there, I'm wondering if anyone is able to help. I work in a shopping mall, staff keep getting ukpc parking tickets as they tell us we aren't allowed to park there. each time im at work iI have had a few and, the same as everyone else we all ignore the tickets and debt recovery letter that we receive. Today however I have received a Northampton county court letter, with a charge of over £1K this is a genuine letter and it has the option to file a defence. I would quite happily go to court even if I loose and have to pay the charges then pay up without a fight to this company! Has any one got any advice on this and also advice on my defence claim? All help and advice would be much appreciated as I'm fighting on behalf of a full department store. Many thanks in advance :T

You need to read the 'Small Claims' section in the Newbies FAQs thread and follow the advice linked there. Is this definitely UKPC, not UKCPS? UKPC wouldn't normally go near a Court unless they were taken there (as they have been, at least twice!).

Please answer the above question:

'Did they send you a letter before action before court papers?'

And please confirm:

- is this real court papers from Northampton with the court seal?

- how many fake PCNs are we talking and exactly what date was the first and last issued? I do hope you haven't been binning them as that was NEVER the advice.

- which firm this is as I am amazed if you are the first if it's really UKPC!

- And tell us is this Scotland or NI or England or Wales please? We do need to know where you are because there are some pepipoo forum posters who can help in certain areas of England, sometimes.

- And please type out here the 'particulars of claim' - after you've read the sticky advice about when & how to respond.


Obviously the first thing as regards preparation (after reading the 'small claims' advice in the NEWBIES sticky) is to acknowledge the claim and say you will defend in full. Then check their NTK letters - surely not all binned? - against POFA 2012 as linked in the NEWBIES sticky thread. And to then work on a clear skeleton defence of bullet points that you will pick up from reading the links & other threads. Don't look for any UKPC Court claims as there are none - but just read other small claims threads here and on pepipoo.

Ensure you ONLY defend as KEEPER throughout (as this 'caps' the possible 'charges' they can claim at the full PCN amount - as stated in POFA 2012 - plus small court fees of maybe £75 for the whole claim). This needs defending but in an informed way - so get reading. You could also post for help on pepipoo forum, bearing in mind though, that most of us are on both forums anyway.


Also, in an attempt to drag this to POPLA instead, we suggest including the following in the initial 'brief skeleton defence' which you will be submitting within 28 days (after acknowledging it first):

"
The defendant requests the Court to stay this claim for 90 days, and make an order requiring the parties to resolve the dispute by referring the matter to POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals service), an independent tribunal set up for the specific purpose of adjudicating private parking matters. This would be in accordance with the directions given by Deputy District Judge Bridger at Southampton County Court on 21/01/2014 in case number 3JD05448 ParkingEye v Gilmartin. Also in accordance with a similar stayed claim on 13 Sep 2013, District Judge Mayor, 3JD00719 ParkingEye v Mr. O., Croydon County Court. Both were very similar cases to this claim, i.e. where the Claimant had alleged breach of contract regarding a private parking charge and where an appeal had not yet been considered and where POPLA - as the bespoke private parking ADR - had not been undertaken first.
"

Obviously that is in addition to the actual defence points and evidence/transcripts of other cases - why not read loads of other small claims threads where defence wording has been posted up recently? Such as the 'PCN(NW)' threads and the 'SIP' threads, easily found on the forum by searching for those PPC names as a single keyword. Of course I realise yours is either UKPC (or UKCPS)? but the defence argument is the same sort of thing for most PPCs.

But IMHO you need to read the Parking Prankster's Guide in depth first, linked in the 'NEWBIES' sticky thread paragraphs about small claims. Although it was written for ParkingEye cases, the advice will be useful to you in many respects.

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

Most likely will be ukcps, which county are you in? Ill help you defend this if you are local to me