VCS taking me to small claims court

Freddiewest

Hi,

I've recently received a court summons from small claims court for 8 unpaid parking tickets issued by VCS. I have ignored the majority of their letters as I know these companies are well known cowboys.

VCS "patrol" the car park of the block of flats where I live. Obviously, I am a resident of said flats and so I have a "permit" to park there.

The fines are due to non residents parking in my space which in turn has forced me to park elsewhere in the car park. I have always parked in another residents space, with their express permission, or in a safe place either on the end of a bay or slightly on a curb.

I've replied to the summons and I intend to dispute the entire sum of around £900.

Does anyone have any advice concerning this?

I assume VCS are just trying their luck hoping that I will ignore the court letter and they will win by default.

I have also contacted the management company for the building.

Ralph-y

Hi, and welcome to the forum .....

please have a read through the newbies thread ...

it has section on court cases ...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

and can you please look up and report back as to what your lease says ...

good luck

Ralph:cool:

Redx

my advice is to stop calling it a "summons" , it isnt one

its an MCOL , or court claim via the small claims court

a "summons" is used for criminal law or traffic laws etc

neitehr are they "fines" either , they are INVOICES , speculative invoices

so as this is getting serious and going to court , try to use the correct terminology from now one , this is Civil law and so no fines or summons exist in this topic

I hope you have read the court section of post #1 of the NEWBIES sticky thread

yes contact the landlord , landowner or MA and haul them up before the court if they dont cancel these charges and court claims, trying to get it in writing that they dont wish to pursue these in court

thereby meaning that VCS would have no locus standii , no contract to pursue in court

also contact the BMPA and see if they wish to get involved in helping you, plus contact the parking prankster as he may also help or put you in touch with people willing to help you, plus he may wish to blog about it too

Coupon-mad

You could contact the British Motorist Protection Association who have advised re similar cases recently. A BMPA approved representative posts here (it's a charity which fights these things).

You say you have replied to it (not a summons at all, it's not a criminal case). Hope you only acknowledged it and left the defence box completely blank? When is your 28 days from service of those court papers up?

You can also look at examples of recent defences as linked near the bottom of post #1 of the NEWBIES thread. I've pruned the section in that post about small claims, right down to just a few links because there is no template and you need to read up on the Beavis case to be able to argue well how different this situation is, to stop a Judge from just giving them the nod due to that Supreme Court case.

VCS have picked multi-ticket cases recently because they can get more money for just one court fee and they will refer to the Beavis case and try to paint it as a decision which affects all parking cases. Not so, but easily painted that way if not defended on that point.

Freddiewest

Coupon-mad wrote: »

You could contact the British Motorist Protection Association who have advised re similar cases recently. A BMPA approved representative posts here (it's a charity which fights these things).

You say you have replied to it (not a summons at all, it's not a criminal case). Hope you only acknowledged it and left the defence box completely blank? When is your 28 days from service of those court papers up?

You can also look at examples of recent defences as linked near the bottom of post #1 of the NEWBIES thread. I've pruned the section in that post about small claims, right down to just a few links because there is no template and you need to read up on the Beavis case to be able to argue well how different this situation is, to stop a Judge from just giving them the nod due to that Supreme Court case.

VCS have picked multi-ticket cases recently because they can get more money for just one court fee and they will refer to the Beavis case and try to paint it as a decision which affects all parking cases. Not so, but easily painted that way if not defended on that point.

I have acknowledge it but I've written a few paragraphs stating that I am a resident of the building attached to the car park and that these proceedings seem ridiculous.
I assume this was a mistake? The date on the papers was the 15th of Jan. I only discovered them yesterday evening.

I'll have a look at the sticky now.

Freddiewest

Redx wrote: »

my advice is to stop calling it a "summons" , it isnt one

its an MCOL , or court claim via the small claims court

a "summons" is used for criminal law or traffic laws etc

neitehr are they "fines" either , they are INVOICES , speculative invoices

so as this is getting serious and going to court , try to use the correct terminology from now one , this is Civil law and so no fines or summons exist in this topic

I hope you have read the court section of post #1 of the NEWBIES sticky thread

yes contact the landlord , landowner or MA and haul them up before the court if they dont cancel these charges and court claims, trying to get it in writing that they dont wish to pursue these in court

thereby meaning that VCS would have no locus standii , no contract to pursue in court

also contact the BMPA and see if they wish to get involved in helping you, plus contact the parking prankster as he may also help or put you in touch with people willing to help you, plus he may wish to blog about it too

So, if I contact the management company and my landlady to get letters confirming they do not wish to pursue the court case I'm sorted?

Coupon-mad

I have acknowledge it but I've written a few paragraphs stating that I am a resident of the building attached to the car park and that these proceedings seem ridiculous.

Oh...dear...oh...dear...you haven't sent the courts that 'defence' have you?

Coupon-mad

Freddiewest wrote: »

So, if I contact the management company and my landlady to get letters confirming they do not wish to pursue the court case I'm sorted?

Unlikely to be that simple and you MUST defend properly.

Freddiewest

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Oh...dear...oh...dear...you haven't sent the courts that 'defence' have you?

Yes. I've only submitted it online. No paper copies have been sent.

Am I screwed?

Coupon-mad

Oh dear. I would ring the court right now and ask if they've processed it yet as you clicked submit by mistake...try it...try it...

Tell them you only wanted to acknowledge and anything in the defence box is an error/draft. Maybe if they've not logged the acknowledgement they will let you resubmit the ack by post instead, then the defence. Never seen anyone do that before although there was a case when a person put 'TBA' or 'to follow' in the defence box which came back to bite them (defence was struck out I think).

Freddiewest

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Oh dear. I would ring the court right now and ask if they've processed it yet as you clicked submit by mistake...try it...try it...

Tell them you only wanted to acknowledge and anything in the defence box is an error/draft. Maybe if they've not logged the acknowledgement they will let you resubmit the ack by post instead, then the defence. Never seen anyone do that before although there was a case when a person put 'TBA' or 'to follow' in the defence box which came back to bite them (defence was struck out I think).

I'm waiting for the MCOL ref now. I'm at work and my gf is having to go home and get it. I'll ring them before 5pm today.