Urgent help please. Small claims court summons from Horizon in scotland

bod1467

Looks like they think the total value is worth the punt. So you'll need to follow the proper Scottish legal process and defend this ... and you have a slam-dunk winning defence - there is no keeper liability in Scotland so the claimants are pursuing the wrong party. (There is no requirement for a keeper to identify the driver).

Obviously you also include the other usual defence points - no authority/standing as they are not the landowner, and the contract with the landowner does not confer the right to pursue claims through the courts; the sum being pursued is a disguised penalty and so breaches the UTCCR etc. (See the Parking Prankster's Guide to Defending PE Court Claims ... a lot of the content will apply equally here).

I note the thread is titled UKPC but you mention Horizon Parking Ltd in post #10 ... what gives?

Bourbon1967

I mistakenly typed ukpc as they were the owners of a car park that was previously used thanks for your help it's really appreciated

Umkomaas

Strange that a PPC from Chelmsford, Essex that has never issued court proceedings in England/Wales, is chancing its arm well outside its 'own manor', and pursuing the RK in Scotland where no keeper liability exists.

There's possibly more to this than immediately meets the eye?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322893/british-parking-association.doc

ManxRed

Hmmmm... also, of the dozen or so known cases to be brought so far, the PPC has been either VCS or UKPC.

Bourbon1967

Umkomaas wrote: »

Strange that a PPC from Chelmsford, Essex that has never issued court proceedings in England/Wales, is chancing its arm well outside its 'own manor', and pursuing the RK in Scotland where no keeper liability exists.

There's possibly more to this than immediately meets the eye?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322893/british-parking-association.doc

I'm confused as to you above thread should I be worried that it's unusual ?

Redx

Bourbon1967 wrote: »

I'm confused as to you above thread should I be worried that it's unusual ?

any court claims for parking are unusual if its in scotland, as they are a rarity due to no keeper liability , whereas in england and wales there are tens of thousands every year - do the maths

ManxRed

If you want my opinion, this is either a wild punt to see if you'll cave in and pay up, and hence they can do a business model on how many pay and how many defend (and they lose) and do the maths, OR, they're incredibly thick and have received very poor legal advice.

If defended, they'll run a mile.

I would advise contacting Scotland Citizens Advice, to see if they can help - they appear to have assisted in getting some or all of the other VCS and UKPC claims dropped.

Herzlos

You said this was for 9 violations of parking where the day fee was £12, so was a fee due for the 9 parking incidents or are they of the type where it's free for a while and then has fees later?

Not that it's particularly important, there's no keeper liability and they can only chase you for genuine losses and reasonable costs. If the cost of parking was free and there's no loss, any costs chasing it are unreasonable. If you should have paid them £108 (9x£12) then they should be claiming a lot closer to that figure than the £1350, and the onus is still on them to prove that you owe them the initial £108 (for each instance) as well as that their expenses are reasonable.

The odds are that it'll be dropped before it makes it to court, but you'll need to defend it thoroughly in advance so that they don't think they can just win by default.

There should be an option to put your case forward in writing (there's no keeper liability, it's not a genuine loss) as well as to request some sort of mediation. It'd also be worth making a "drop hands" offer, acknowledging that you'll both lose money persuing it, and in the spirit of mitigating losses you can agree to just drop it and walk away. They'll refuse, but it'll give you something else in your faviour to show to the judge (that you've tried to be reasonable, and they haven't).

So your only option at this stage is 4: dispute the claim and attend court

Umkomaas

It's not even £118. It's £108.

Herzlos

So it is, my bad. It's still less than 10% of what they are trying to claim for.