Devere Court Letter Recieved

avanquest

Hello, first post on here but I have researched the “NEWBIES” section and feel my issue will need more specialist guidance.

Returning from holiday I received a County Court Claim letter from Devere Parking Services for the non payment of 2 parking tickets. This is for parking in the parking space of the block of flats I live in. In the past I have received a ticket from Devere and a follow up letter which I paid. But after the stories I have heard about this company I have been pointed in the direction of this site. The letter just has a claim no and issue date, with the court address as Northampton.

I live in a block of flats but as I have been allocated a garage I do not qualify for a parking permit. Unfortunalty these garages are old and therefore very tiny and my car will not fit in as it is very wide. So the driver of my vehicle has to park in different “spots” around the car park of the block of flats which is certainly an issue.

One of the tickets was put on the windscreen and I am not aware of the second. I never received a letter from Devere about either ticket, but in the County Court letter it states “Subsequent correspondence has been sent, but no response received”. Which is not the case. So I do not have an NTK, a notice or any reminders, just straight to a court letter.


The “offences” date back to last year and the other is a good few month’s back. I did not receive any follow up or any reminder for either. But I presume in a court of law Devere can say they sent this. I also have not received any photo evidence. To confirm the drivers car is not a lease car and the driver is over 18.

I have pictures of the 3 notices around the car park, but I have been informed that Devere look at this forum so not sure whether to put this up as it states the address of the block.
In regards to the court letter, I couldn’t respond in time as the date to respond was whilst I was away, the thread states strike while the iron is hot, but thoughts are now that the iron has gone cold! So now I am unsure about my options. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance

Coupon-mad

avanquest wrote: »

In regards to the court letter, I couldn’t respond in time as the date to respond was whilst I was away, the thread states strike while the iron is hot, but thoughts are now that the iron has gone cold! So now I am unsure about my options. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance

Unless your court papers were dated more than 33 days ago you are not too late but should have acknowledged this claim online within 14 days - so do that NOW stating you intend to defend in full. Do not delay or you are about to get a default judgment against you for the whole amount.

Then work on your defence - start by reading all the links in post #5 of the NEWBIES sticky thread at the top of this forum (ONLY read post #5 and the links in that section about small claims).

You have to get the defence in (bullet points) by 28 days from the service of the court papers which is assumed to be 5 days after the court papers date. To help you we will need to see 'your' signs, yes. Devere will have already seen this thread anyway and the guy who runs it isn't the sharpest but he does have friends in the right places. Don't tell me - the car park is in Bournemouth isn't it and that's your local court? Oh dear. Is it the car park with an NHS building on site?

hoohoo

If you are out of time file a defence immediately on the grounds
1) You have not received a letter before claim, or indeed any correspondence at all. Therefore the particulars of claim do not provide enough information to file a full defence
2) Once you have the full details from devere you will file a defence on one or more of the grounds
a) the requirements of the protection of freedom act have not been complied with and therefore you are not liable as the keeper
b) devere do not have standing to bring the claim as they act as agent to collect the charge on behalf of the landowner
c) the charge is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss and is therefore an unenforceable penalty

If you more time, file a fuller defence

Redx

as a side issue , if no parking space has been allocated to you - stop parking there !

this issue of a garage being allocated is no reason to just park where you like and seems to have led to this situation (sorry to be blunt and judgmental here)

only park on these spaces if you have the landowners permission to do so !

a small garage and large car is no reason to just decide you can park where you like so please stop doing so , otherwise this will repeat itself over and over again , like groundhog day

good luck with your court case

avanquest

guys this is really good advice, thanks so much. I have sent the above, I will let you know how I get on. No the car park is in Westbourne / poole. No NHS building. I would park somewhere else if I could but there is no off road parking. Just have to change my car!

The_Deep

My son has the same problem, 1960s garage for 1960s cars. However, because of this the Council issued him with a Residents' permit. Perhaps your council would do likewise.

avanquest

great idea, thank you

ColliesCarer

Another suggestion on the side issue of small garage, large car, therefore no permit

Might it be worth seeing if you can interest another resident (with no garage, small car but a permit) in doing a swap?

Coupon-mad

avanquest wrote: »

guys this is really good advice, thanks so much. I have sent the above, I will let you know how I get on. No the car park is in Westbourne / poole. No NHS building. I would park somewhere else if I could but there is no off road parking. Just have to change my car!

We know how you will get on - Devere (run by a 'wisened old janitor-type' allegedly - not my words, but according to one person who is defending a case right now!) will take you to small claims court. That court will be Bournmouth/Poole where he was a JP. You can guess what happens next unless you manage to win by robustly researching how to proceed with a Part 18 request of Devere and later a very detailed full defence blowing the claim out of the water. Don't be bullied but don't think this will go away. It won't.

Read all the links now, in post #5 of the NEWBIES thread (ONLY post #5 of it). This is not a matter to dip in and out of with updates about what letters you get and when your hearing date comes around. This is something you must be very proactive about now as your chances of defending would normally be good if it wasn't for the Bournemouth connection, allegedly.

So prepare now to send a Part 18 request - read about it in the sticky thread post #5 links and Google it, then send the old janitor a letter. You need full particulars, including but not restricted to: a true copy of the PCN and the Notice to Keeper sent for each charge (all wording, all pages), a copy of all photo evidence, a list of the case law he intends to rely upon, a copy of the contract he has there seeing as Devere don't own the land, and anything else you can think of once you start really researching your defence and realise you want to know something about the basis of their claim.

You'll probably get a nasty or unhelpful reply like the other guy I read about recently whose Devere case is due in court soon - oh, and he likes to hand deliver things to make you feel jumpy. Get photos of all signs now in case they change, show us them please.

avanquest

you guys are really helpful on this I appreciate it. I think I know what I am going to do, as I am far to busy at work to gather this information, and either way looks like I will end up paying the fine! How come being in Bournemouth makes it less likely to win?


Also I have two pictures but I have no idea how to upload! keeps asking me for a URL for my images???

bod1467

Upload images to a hosting site (e.g. photobucket) then post broken links to them in a reply here. Example:

/s123.photobucket.com/name/image.jpg