URGENT: UKPC trying to claim £1270

sketch13

Hi there and thanks in advance for any help.

I'm not entirely sure what information you need to be able to advise me on this but I'll do my best - let me know what else you need in order to help.

I've received a Claim Form from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton stating that UKPC are trying to £1120, which goes up to £1270 with the court fee (£70) and legal representative's costs (£80) added to the total.

In total they are claiming this due to 7 PCN's from the same location (University car park) for parking without a valid permit. Four of which are within the same week. I still have all the NTK's (except for the first one) and the letters from the debt collectors (Zenith Collections) if this helps in any way.

I've read through most of the cases on the FAQ but I'm still looking for some advice.

I intend to fill out my Acknowledgment of Service form and intend to defend the whole claim. This should get me 28 days rather than 14 days to work out my defence shouldn't it?

As for the defence, what is my best approach?

I feel that the fact that the parking is on a university campus, rather than a retail area, means my case differs to ParkingEye Ltd vs Beavis as I'm not sure how I could have incurred a loss of income to the University by parking there.

Thank you again for any help and I look forward to your responses!

pappa_golf

well the facts are , even if you lost the figure is 7 x £100 or whatever it said ON THE SIGN , and only a fool of a company would try to claim £80 fees for legal costs when the max allowed is £50


why did you continue parking without a permit after the first ticket ?

Coupon-mad

I intend to fill out my Acknowledgment of Service form and intend to defend the whole claim. This should get me 28 days rather than 14 days to work out my defence shouldn't it?

Yes, 28 days from service of the court papers. Not 28 on top of the acknowledgement date.

As for the defence, what is my best approach?

Search the forum for 'UKPC defence'.

DO NOT reply to any private messages from anyone with less than a thousand posts to their name, offering to 'help' as they could be anyone with a vested interest. We will assist on the open forum here. Find some examples from 2016 by searching and adapt a defence to suit, then show us.

sketch13

Okay, well that fills me some hope that they can't claim that full amount so thank you for that information, Pappa Golf.

I needed my car on campus as I would regularly commute home and was unable to buy a permit due to living on campus accommodation. A permit costs £90 for the year and I met with university staff to argue my case for one, but was told that no exceptions could be made. Nothing was said in writing. I was also told that ignoring them should be enough, but having looked into it further I now know that this was bad advice.

But it has been done now, so I am looking at how I can best defend this case moving forward.

Thanks Coupon-mad. I'll do this and get back to you with a defence. Really appreciate the help.

Redx

you can best defend it by reading the parking pranksters court guide

reading the court sub-section in post #1 of the NEWBIES sticky thread

and by searching the forum using the forum search box and suitable search words for the dozens of 2016 court cases that have ongoing threads about them on here , especially UKPC court cases

reading all of the above will help you formulate the initial holding defence and tell you how this progresses from now on

Grimble

These will help as well http://www.bmpa.eu/

Castle

If parking is only offered to those with a valid permit then the signs are forbidding to non permit holders; therefore leaving only a claim for trespass by the University. (Of course 7 tickets is a few too many!)

Umkomaas

Ask the University to intervene. Surely they can't just stand by when one of their students is being hounded for over a grand for simple parking issues by a parking company that has been issuing fraudulent tickets only a few months ago?.

You're already committed to enough debt by undertaking your course at that University - do the want to subject you to the possibility of being saddled with even more?

Do you have a Students' Union? Get them involved to press the University.

surveyor_101

I wouldn't use the argument your case differs from Beavis as its uni carpark. The Beavis case hinges on the land being free parking within certain terms, the reasoning I believe for allowing the charge was that on a free parking site the £100 or so pounds claimed was the operators ONLY income. Unless you get a copy of the operators landowner agreement you can possibly prove that the fines are their only source of income as you don't know if the Uni pay the PPC or whether they received all or part of the permit monies.

BobJameson

Give the BMPA a shout - they are looking for a case like this.

Depending on your location, you may get either Mr Carrod or Mr Wilkie involved.

Mr Wilkie says Mr Carrod is the best lay-rep in the Parking industry... :beer:

Nor sure what Mr Carrod says about Mr Wilkie :rotfl:

The_Slithy_Tove

surveyor_101 wrote: »

I wouldn't use the argument your case differs from Beavis as its uni carpark. The Beavis case hinges on the land being free parking within certain terms, the reasoning I believe for allowing the charge was that on a free parking site the £100 or so pounds claimed was the operators ONLY income.

But in that case there was clearly a contract to park (or so said the Supreme Court). In this case, it is highly unlikely that there was any offer to park for non-permit holders, making it trespass.

Having said that, the defence needs to cover all bases: contractural charge, breach of contract and trespass, unless UKPC has broken the rule of their lifetime and actually produced specific Particulars of Claim.