Received court papers for CEL parking fine. Please help

buildingblocks

Hi,

I am looking for some guidance as after a year of ignoring parking charge notices, I have now received court papers from Civil Enforcement Limited for Northampton county court.

The funny thing is I did in fact pay for my parking when the alleged "offence" happened so I am unsure as to what angle I need to go at this...

Apparently I did not make payment in accordance with terms displayed on the sinage, so I was wondering if anyone can pick holes in whether I correctly did this or not. The details are as follows:

Firstly the signage states in bold. 90 minutes free parking £1 per hour thereafter.

in the small print it states that if the car is parked for longer than 90 minutes then payment must be made before leaving the car park.

I stayed for 3 hours and 11 minutes. Before leaving the car park I used the phone and pay option and paid £2. I believed at the time that this was the correct payment because I included the 90 minutes free parking and added £2 for the extra 1hr and 40 minutes.

The parking charge notices I received are vague in explaining what I have done wrong.....

My 2 concerns are that either I should have paid £4 which would have covered the 3hrs 11 mins. (the small print sinage does not clarify if you should include the 90 minutes free parking or not, I just assumed it did going by the bold instructions)

OR it could be that the receipt on the phone and pay website shows that yes I paid £2 but also states start time 13:10 expires 15:10. (I left the car park 13:15 after staying for 3hrs 11 mins, so therefore paid before I left ) making it look like I didnt pay for the hours that my car was parked there.

The fact is though, I did pay. its just not clear whether I needed to discount the 90 minute free period or whethere I needed to state somewhere the time I parked there....

I'm really confused. I am not sure whether I need to respond to the claim by acknowledging and asking for an extension, or just go straight in with my defence, in my knowledge that I paid in accordance with the signage.

Please could someone shed some light. thanks

Stroma

Okay a few questions, when was this parking event? Was it outside a coop ? And did you appeal this at all?

buildingblocks

Hi,

The event happened in may 2013.
I looked on here when it first happened and took the advice on just to ignore the letters/invoices.

Now I recently received a county court claim form giving me the option to admit and pay damages from breach of contract. Or to defend the claim.

I have not responded yet, as I wanted to seek advice first.

Yes it was in a coop car park.

Half_way

you should get in touch with the CO-OP ASAP as they are cancelling these things even at the stage you are at once people start complaining, search the forum for CEL+co op

buildingblocks

Thanks thats good to know.

However I'm a little hesitant to leave this in the CO-OPS hands to deal with, this is because I've only got 10 days left (I've been given 14 days to prepare defence and contest the courts jurisdiction) and a little worried that if the co-op does nothing within this time limit then I may be liable, as stated in the claim form.

I will email the co-op now and see what they say, but I think I will at least have to defend myself to the courts as well just to cover my back.

Stroma

The OP hasn't said if this coop yet, can you please confirm this. You need to defend against this, so acknowledge the claim, say you will defend in full and ask for 28 days to get your defence together. This is unlikely to go court if cel see what you are defending against. But you still must go through the process.

Stroma

Teach me for skim reading, coop are paying these invoices left right and centre, you must contact them with this, they will sort it for you. But you must deal with the claim as if they are not helping you

buildingblocks

Thanks, I am emailing this person now (found on a similar thread)

[EMAIL="steve.murrells@co-operative.coop"]steve.murrells@co-operative.coop[/EMAIL]

With my defence statement do I just explain that I paid for my parking before I left the car park, and therefore I refuse accept damages?

I'm baffled why they have targeted me. Maybe I should ask for a detailed explanation before I put in my defense........?

Half_way

I'm baffled why they have targeted me. Maybe I should ask for a detailed explanation before I put in my defense........?

They are not targeting any one person they are targeting lots of people, some claims even go back years.
the sad fact is that enough people will pay up to make this a very profitable business model, even off setting cases that actually do go to court and CEL do a no show.

buildingblocks

Half_way wrote: »

They are not targeting any one person they are targeting lots of people, some claims even go back years.
the sad fact is that enough people will pay up to make this a very profitable business model, even off setting cases that actually do go to court and CEL do a no show.

Sadly I probably would have been one of those that would pay up....but I paid for my parking, hence why I am baffled by all of this. They wont get a penny from me unless the courts make me.

Stroma

I do advise reading this
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822
And looking at this
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/
And having a look at a defence is made up here, it does say parking eye, but it applies to CEL as well
http://parking-prankster.com/court-claim.html