PLEASE HELP PCN County Claim form

lorenjane

Hi there

I am after some advice regarding a county claim form I received recently.

The claimant is vehicle control services, and they are taking me to court over eight PCN's, the total amount of the claim is now £947.65. All the PCN's were issued for parking in the service yard area of the Grosvenor Hotel in Sheffield. They have sent plenty of threatening letters - all ignored.

Unfortunately the claim form arrived at my house whilst I was on holiday so the 14 days elapsed to reply to the claim form. This now means a warrant has been issued. I have double checked with the courts that the claim form is genuine and it is.

If I wish to fight this I need to pay £150 to the courts to get the judgement temporarily halted whilst I prepare my case. I will get this money back if I win.

Just wondering what my chances are of beating this in court. Also I think they may back out if I reply to advise I wish to defend myself.

A few other details regarding the 'car park':
• There is currently no signage up - although they claim there was at the time
• There are no pay machines
• You enter the car park with a code which raises a roller shutter
• I know someone who pays for four spaces with a yearly permit - he only pays for the spaces to reserve them
• The car park is not a proper car park and apparently does not pay business rates - unconfirmed
• There is a car park above the service yard which is ran by a charity

Finally, in the 'Particulars of Claim' document they have spelt the name of the building wrong on the paperwork, Grovenor instead of Grosvenor.

Any advice much appreciated. I'm just trying to figure out what to do.

salmosalaris

With a grand at stake they will be unlikely to drop it because you submit a defence .
You need some decent defence points to succeed , you may have some , especially if you have not contacted them as VCS do mot rely on POFA.
You could try negotiating and see if they will settle out of court .

Ralph-y

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

the forum elders will soon be along to help ...

until they get here ..... (remember that all the people here are volunteers )

have a read through the newbies thread ... in particular the section on court stuff

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

and

http://www.parking-prankster.com/court-claim.html

they will give you a good grounding as to what you must do ...

good luck

Ralph:cool:

Coupon-mad

Although this (first link below) is about PE, the info is the same about the set aside procedure:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/prankster-guide-to-getting-parkingeye.html

And you should google 'VCS Parking Prankster' to read his blogs about VCS - you can defend this and for nearly a grand, I would spend some hours researching it if I were you!

You could also post about this on pepipoo for more help:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60

and you could look through the info on the BMPA site about claims/defences:

https://bmpa.zendesk.com/hc/en-us


HTH

lorenjane

Thanks for the advice so far, been reading through quite a few forums but can't seem to find anyone else with the same case experience of having missed the 14 days to reply to the claim form so will now have to pay £150 in order to defend case.

Quentin

The fee (£155 not £150) is for applying for a set aside.


If you are successful, then the CCJ is removed from the record. (You will need to outline your reasons why you don't owe them the money to get the set aside)


That won't mean you have won. They can still reissue the claim, which means you start again from the beginning with the court process.


(So unless you win the second time round, getting a set aside will just have cost you an extra £155)

lorenjane

So I can still fight the case and not pay the £155? I thought the £155 was if I wanted to fight it given the 14 days elapsed for replying.

The_Slithy_Tove

lorenjane wrote: »

So I can still fight the case and not pay the £155? I thought the £155 was if I wanted to fight it given the 14 days elapsed for replying.

IF the case has already been awarded against you (for not submitting a defence), then you MUST pay £155 to have it set aside. Is this where you are? Can you provide dates and actions, please? date(s) of parking events, date of VCS's money claim, dates of any further correspondence from the court or VCS.

Coupon-mad

lorenjane wrote: »

Thanks for the advice so far, been reading through quite a few forums but can't seem to find anyone else with the same case experience of having missed the 14 days to reply to the claim form so will now have to pay £150 in order to defend case.

What about this one:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=104266

and this one:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=104311

and this one:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=104037&st=40&start=40

All current threads on that forum, about setting aside a CCJ from a parking firm - but later than yours (they already have a CCJ - do you?).

Unfortunately the claim form arrived at my house whilst I was on holiday so the 14 days elapsed to reply to the claim form. This now means a warrant has been issued. I have double checked with the courts that the claim form is genuine and it is.

So something in the court 'warrant' (order?) must tell you how to set aside or disagree with the order if you didn't receive the court papers (in your case as you were out of the Country).

What does this latest form say about that and what deadline do you have to apply to the court?

Quentin

lorenjane wrote: »

So I can still fight the case and not pay the £155? I thought the £155 was if I wanted to fight it given the 14 days elapsed for replying.

Well....


You have received a CCJ in default.


You either pay up (or don't pay but expect enforcement) or if you believe you can successfully defend the claim and would have done so if you were at home during the 14 days allowed to submit a defence or acknowledgement then you can apply to have the CCJ "set aside"


That costs £155 for a set aside hearing.


If you want to defend this, then you first must go through a set aside hearing. There you will have to outline why you don't owe the money.


If that is successful, you would still then have to defend the claim (assuming they reissued it) in another hearing

Coupon-mad

You have received a CCJ in default.

Possibly. She called it a warrant...but what was it (an order)? What did that say about the Defendant's right to set aside/timeline to apply ?