Excel - County Court Claim

juke_joint

Apologies if this has been covered anywhere else - I've exhausted my search and understand capabilities.

My wife received a parking "fine" from Excel in August last year for parking in a retail park. We'd visited Sports Direct late on a Sunday afternoon. We were the last in the store which was just about to close so we quickly bought some items and left. I can't recall the exact length of time, but it can't have been longer than 15 minutes. Excel say the fine was issued at xx Sports Direct closes at 16:30. We were the only car in what is a fairly large car park and to be honest we both forgot to buy a ticket. We'd usually buy a ticket there - maybe we wrongly assumed it was free on a Sunday - maybe we were distracted by my daughter who wasn't well and wanted to stay in the car.
So - all the usual letters started coming - and as from previous experience (from an Asda ticket) and the general opinion of most of the forums -and even a staff member at Sports Direct - we chose to ignore all of them.
Until we got the County Court Claim Form last week demanding Over £200

Given that we we don't have much of a defence for not paying the original ticket - and have missed all the appeal options - Should we accept part of the amount claimed - and how much should I admit to?
I'm loath to pay these cowboys anything, but it looks like we lost the lottery this time.

Fruitcake

juke_joint wrote: »

Apologies if this has been covered anywhere else - I've exhausted my search and understand capabilities.

My wife received a parking "fine" from Excel in August last year for parking in a retail park in west Yorkshire. We'd visited Sports Direct late on a Sunday afternoon. We were the last in the store which was just about to close so we quickly bought some items and left. I can't recall the exact length of time, but it can't have been longer than 15 minutes. Excel say the fine was issued at 16:34. Sports Direct closes at 16:30. We were the only car in what is a fairly large car park and to be honest we both forgot to buy a ticket. We'd usually buy a ticket there - maybe we wrongly assumed it was free on a Sunday - maybe we were distracted by my daughter who wasn't well and wanted to stay in the car.
So - all the usual letters started coming - and as from previous experience (from an Asda ticket) and the general opinion of most of the forums -and even a staff member at Sports Direct - we chose to ignore all of them.
Until we got the County Court Claim Form last week demanding £234.96

Given that we we don't have much of a defence for not paying the original ticket - and have missed all the appeal options - Should we accept part of the amount claimed - and how much should I admit to?
I'm loath to pay these cowboys anything, but it looks like we lost the lottery this time.

Ignoring private parking tickets has not been advised, certainly not on this site, since the law changed in 2012.

Have you looked at the Sticky thread for NEWBIES yet? There is advice how to deal with court near the top, and you can buy a very good guide to court from the Parking-Prankster's website for a few quid.

I'm not an expert but hopefully more experienced posters will be here soon.

Meanwhile, have you contacted the landowner or Sports Direct, especially as you were advised by an employee do erroneously ignore the original ticket.? This is the best way to get this cancelled.

Umkomaas

You need to defend this, otherwise, if you do any more 'ignoring' there'll be a default judgment against you, with a CCJ and potential endorsement of your credit rating.

Please read the newbies FAQ sticky, post #1 - the section headed 'Small Claim?' in red and follow the link which will explain the process. This has been written by Bargepole who has wide experience in defending private parking charges court claims.

You might also do some research via the BMPA website which has a section devoted to court claims.

http://www.bmpa.eu/court.html

But your very first task is to acknowledge service of the court papers which will give you an additional 14 days to prepare your defence. In acknowledging service you must leave the defence box absolutely blank at this stage.

If papers have been served from the Northampton County Court bulk handling department you can register online and acknowledge electronically.

You will be able to defend the claim at your local county court. Are you far from Sheffield (Excel's base)? - ultimately they may be loathe to travel far to chase £100!

bengalknights

I would suggest pay it and forget about it especially if its at CC level

Umkomaas

bengalknights wrote: »

I would suggest pay it and forget about it especially if its at CC level

Why? .

catfunt

To the OP - Please edit your post and remove specifics relating to your case - exact times and amounts of claims.
WE don't need to know that, and too much info could identify you.

Coupon-mad

bengalknights wrote: »

I would suggest pay it and forget about it especially if its at CC level

Blinking heck, how did you find your way here if you can't see what's in front of your face on this forum?! This isn't a real fine you know. These are still defendable.

To the OP, the above opinion is NOT from a regular poster with any experience of this sub-forum.

Presumably this OP has got a claim after ignoring BW Legal letters. So, search this forum for 'BW Legal' and also read the shedloads of similar Excel cases discussed on pepipoo forum here:

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

Given that we we don't have much of a defence for not paying the original ticket - and have missed all the appeal options - Should we accept part of the amount claimed - and how much should I admit to?

This is covered already in the NEWBIES thread under 'Small Claim?' where the links will help you, including a post by Bargepole I've linked there which tells you how to complete each stage of paperwork.

You tick 'defend in full'. Please read Bargepole's summary now (NO LINK) and come back and re-read it at each stage of court paperowrk.

I'm loath to pay these cowboys anything, but it looks like we lost the lottery this time.

You do not have to pay until the fat lady (or male) Judge sings. The fact that small claims IS a lottery in itself, can assist a defendant.

juke_joint

Thanks for all the advice. I guess we don't have anything to lose in defending it, although we are a bit nervous about the possibility of doing this. We live around 60 miles from Excel btw.
We can provide proof of purchase in the store and will be contacting the store for their help. I'll also need to try and digest all the info on the links you've posted and take it from there, but my first job will be to respond to the county court claim. So finally - given the human error in not purchasing an initial ticket on entering the car park am I doing the right thing by ticking the box stating I intend to defend all of this claim?

Umkomaas

am I doing the right thing by ticking the box stating I intend to defend all of this claim?

Yep, get that off soonest. Remember - nothing, nada, rien, zilch in the defence box. That's for later.....

Coupon-mad

Yes, but bargepole's post tells you that. You need to read his sage advice.

juke_joint

I've just noticed they spelt my wife's surname wrong on the Claim Form! A good start!