Judgement for Claimant (default): Gameover? or alternate solution?

subsidel

Well i parked in the DW Sports car-park (for the first time) in Blackburn (in July this year) as my friends had pre-booked a football match at 17:30. I was running late so i arrived at 17:34 and sprinted in without reading the signs above the front door of DW Sports building that stated: all customers who park have to enter their registration number which i failed to do. I stayed in the building playing football for 1:30hrs and left the place straight away. The car park is run by parking eye. (During the 1:30 hr stay in DW Sports i left the site).

Anyway so about a few weeks later i start getting these parking eye letters saying i have to pay £100 which i thought at the time was a scam and stupid me decided to just ignore- i didn't feel i did anything wrong anyway. Anyway i realized things were for real (not a scam) as soon as i received some court summons papers (about 2 months ago) and i started to panic so i decided to go to straight away to DW sports to complain and i spoke with the manager at the time. I handed in the court summons/ my fines- explained i had parked there to use their facilities only- is it too late to cancel? or i have to go through with this. After they read the letters i had received- the manager stated that they will email them right away telling them to cancel this + for me not to worry about getting any letters again. I waited for them to email and again reassured me nothing was to happen. (so i left things how it was)

Today i get a letter:

Judgement for Claimant (in default)

To the defendant
You have not replied to the claim form.
It is therefore ordered that you must pay the claimand £100.00for dept [and interest to date of judgement] and $100.00 for costs [less £0.00 which you have already paid].

You must pay the claimant a total of $200.00

If you ignore this order your goods may be removed and sold, or other enforcement proceedings may be taken against you. If this happen further costs will be added. If your circumstances change and you can not pay, ask at the court office what you can do.

Shocked, but now i guess i feel stupid for not filling in that claim form anyway... i contacted DW sports today and they tell me again they will speak to parking eye and will phone me back (which they haven't done yet).

My questions: Should i just pay it anyway and stop delaying the inevitable? Can DW sports actually cancel this judgement or somehow convince parking eye to end this?

The_Slithy_Tove

Pay up. It's all you can do now (apart from learning a few valuable lessons).

subsidel

The_Slithy_Tove wrote: »

Pay up. It's all you can do now (apart from learning a few valuable lessons).

Yeah i guess i will, i'm just annoyed so much with DW sports for telling me they will cancel it all (while knowing i had the court summons). If DW sports own the private land that parking eye manage- you would trust them to cancel it if they told you they would?

Meh this is almost as much as an iphone 5 dam you parking eye.

Half_way

You will need to pay up, to prevent a CCJ, however its far from game over.

Do you have it in writing the DW would cancel the charge?

you said this

the manager stated that they will email them right away telling them to cancel this + for me not to worry about getting any letters again. I waited for them to email and again reassured me nothing was to happen. (so i left things how it was)

Go back and see that manager, remind him of the above and then tell him that as a result of his actions and negligence his agents ( for whose actions he is responsible for ) have obtained a default judgement against you and as a result you are now out of pocket. And as such you want him to re-fund you £200 there and then, in cash - you may need to provide proof such as any court papers etc.
If He refuses then you have the option to take things further but these may/will incur extra costs for the manager

subsidel

Half_way wrote: »

You will need to pay up, to prevent a CCJ, however its far from game over.

Do you have it in writing the DW would cancel the charge?

you said this


Go back and see that manager, remind him of the above and then tell him that as a result of his actions and negligence his agents ( for whose actions he is responsible for ) have obtained a default judgement against you and as a result you are now out of pocket. And as such you want him to re-fund you £200 there and then, in cash - you may need to provide proof such as any court papers etc.
If He refuses then you have the option to take things further but these may/will incur extra costs for the manager

Unfortunately i don't have anything in writing ... i didn't feel this was going to be a problem because he was so confident this would be canceled and he was advising his colleague what to put in the email he was sending to parkingeye. Surely they have proof of that email? They could easily deny all of this i guess, unless they had cameras that recorded our conversation. I will speak to the manager again but i'm very doubtful they will pay anything... i'll pay this fee and never again parking in any car park controlled by Parking Eye. Dangerous.

Umkomaas

I'd also be writing to DW Sports to tell them that you will provide them with no further custom (and if you're a member, that won't be renewed) as a result of this fiasco. You'll also be telling friends and family of the problems you've had and recommending them to give DW Sports a very wide berth.

Don't mention any money dues or you just might expose chinks in Dave's armour! :rotfl:

Coupon-mad

Send a very assertive complaint to DW Sports (the CEO of course) and consider publicity in the papers (try not to kick yourself). But you do NOT ignore court claim forms, you have to defend and could have tried getting the case stayed due to the PE v Beavis case going to the Court of Appeal in the Spring. You could have beaten this you know.

You could sue DW Sports for this loss, they caused it. But based on what you did with these court forms I am not confident you can do what's needed - sorry. Hope you prove me wrong or achieve something by complaining to the CEO. Don't ask who that is - the means to research is right at your fingertips (always was, for the sake of a Google search and coming here earlier). Such a wasted opportunity.

You do realise you are not going to achieve anything on the phone.

Umkomaas

Send a very assertive complaint to DW Sports (the CEO of course) and consider publicity in the papers

Dave Whelan has had more than his share of front-page publicity as a result of his hiring of MalkyMac!

subsidel

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Send a very assertive complaint to DW Sports (the CEO of course) and consider publicity in the papers (try not to kick yourself). But you do NOT ignore court claim forms, you have to defend and could have tried getting the case stayed due to the PE v Beavis case going to the Court of Appeal in the Spring. You could have beaten this you know.

You could sue DW Sports for this loss, they caused it. But based on what you did with these court forms I am not confident you can do what's needed - sorry. Hope you prove me wrong or achieve something by complaining to the CEO. Don't ask who that is - the means to research is right at your fingertips (always was, for the sake of a Google search and coming here earlier). Such a wasted opportunity.

You do realise you are not going to achieve anything on the phone.

Thanks for your advice. Shame i didn't do things differently + i lacked the knowledge/ research to know you had to fill in these claim forms- even if the company's land you parked on tells you its been sorted and not to worry! Well if they said: we can't do much now- you've left it too late, i would have filled in them forms to make some kind of defense... i mean i showed them these claim forms i had to fill in and they told me not to bother... grrr. Anyway, lets see what happens. If some miracle happens- i'll post it on here.

Coupon-mad

... i mean i showed them these claim forms i had to fill in and they told me not to bother...

Like I say, you were naïve but this can be argued as their fault you suffered this loss. Complain in writing to the CEO assertively spelling this out. Their employees cannot tell consumers to IGNORE small claims court papers then wonder why the customer complains when they then get a flippin CCJ and have to pay.

bargepole

subsidel wrote: »

... Anyway, lets see what happens. If some miracle happens- i'll post it on here.

Yes, the Ministry of Justice might announce a change in the Civil Court structure on Monday.


The new hierarchy might have the County Court as the lowest court, then the High Court above that, then the Court of Appeal (Civil Division), then the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and finally, right at the top of the tree, DW Sports.