Claim Form received from UKCPS

Gily

Hello guys,


I have been reading how these parking tickets don't go to court or very rare. But probably I am "lucky" one to received one.


I got a parking ticket in Nov 2015 and received NTK in Jan 2016. I ignored them and there was no following letters from debt collectors or solicitors so I started to think that was it. But 2 weeks ago I have received a Court claim form. I have acknowledged it and now I have to write a defence.


The ticket is on the ground DRIVER - PASSANGERS OBSERVED LEAVING SITE.
It was 1 hour free parking and the car stayed there less than an hour.


I am planning to defend on those reasons:
1. The sum sought is not representative of any genuine pre-estimate of loss flowing from any breach of terms and conditions.( It was Sunday 3.08pm and car park almost empty)
2. You allege 'Driver - Passengers observed leaving site' however you have provided no evidence of this nor, if this was the case did your employee/representative take any steps to mitigate the loss.
3. Signage at Site ( no proper sing at the entrance)


Any advice from you will be much appreciated.
I have to send the defence by 15.07.16


Thank you very much in advance.

Quentin

First increase your window for submitting an initial defence by 14 days by sending in an acknowledgement of the claim


Then go to #1 in the newbies faq thread for advice on building your defence

Coupon-mad

Gily wrote: »

I am planning to defend myself on those reasons:
1. The sum sought is not representative of any genuine pre-estimate of loss flowing from any breach of terms and conditions.( It was Sunday 3.08pm and car park almost empty)
2. You allege 'Driver - Passengers observed leaving site' however you have provided no evidence of this nor, if this was the case did your employee/representative take any steps to mitigate the loss.
3. Signage at Site ( no proper sing at the entrance)

Thank you very much in advance.

Same advice as on every other UKCPS court thread. Here's yesterday's one for starters:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5486817

Your planned defence needs serious work.

point #1 - NO, don't even go there with GPEOL, things changed last year with PE v Beavis.

point #2 - YES

point #3 - YES

others could be:

no landowner authority so UKCPS have no standing; also compare it to the Beavis case and show this charge is a penalty; you could also show that the sign is prohibitive and makes no offer of parking to people who (allegedly) leave the site.

To find out more, search the forum for other defences, or search for obvious keywords like 'prohibitive sign'.

Oh, and first things first, assuming you have acknowledged this claim online now and have 28 days from service of the papers, your urgent action is to EDIT your first post which makes an admission on a public forum that anyone could read. Change it!

And do not respond to any private message offering to 'help'. Anyone with less than a thousand posts isn't a regular and someone pm-ing you when you have a court claim, is after your money/has another agenda, you can be sure.

Gily

Oh, and first things first, assuming you have acknowledged this claim online now and have 28 days from service of the papers, your urgent action is to EDIT your first post which makes an admission on a public forum that anyone could read. Change it!


Sorry I am obvious newbie here. Which part of my first post to change or delete?
Thank you coupon-mad

Redx

anything saying what "I" received or did

"the driver" may have done something, or not , but not you

never heard of "no comment" (hint)

The_Slithy_Tove

It's worth reading up on VCS vs Ibbotson to realise they don't have a hope. The transcript can be found here -post 26 (and elsewhere I guess). Do take the time to read the transcript; it's actually quite funny.

Gily

I have read that, it is quite good.
My problem is how to structure the defence.

Redx

look at other recent 2016 defences drafted on here for similar court cases about parking (use the search box to find them)

Coupon-mad

Search the forum for the word 'defence' or 'UKCPS defence' and read the most recent results till you find some with example defence wording shown. We have some from this past week, easy to find.

Gily

Hi guys
I got a brief defence.
I would like your opinion on it please.
Thank you.




Claim No: xxxxxx

Claimant: UKCPS Ltd

Defendant: xxxx


I wish to defend this claim in its entirety on the following grounds:


1. No Contractual Authority


The respondent has not provided me with any evidence that it is lawfully entitled to demand money from the driver/registered keeper of the vehicle. That is to say, that it has the necessary legal capacity to enter into a contract with a driver of a vehicle parking in the car park; it is the properly appointed agent of the landowner or has been properly authorised by the landowner to recover unpaid parking charges from the driver/registered keeper. Accordingly, the respondent should be required to provide a copy of its contract with the owner of the land on which the car park is situated and evidence of the land ownership of the party with whom the respondent is contracted.





2. Signage at Site


The signage at the site fails to meet the standard required by Regulation 7 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and as such it cannot be relied upon to demand a parking charge.


The signage is an invitation to treat and not an offer of a contract.


The signage is contradictory and confusing so cannot be said to be a unilateral contract.


The boundaries of the car park are not clearly defined.


3. Failure to mitigate loss


It is the respondent’s responsibility to avoid avoidable losses by taking reasonable steps to do so. The respondent is not permitted to stand aside and let damages accrue with a view it will simply be recovered in due course.


It is asserted that the respondent’s representative had a duty (and failed in that duty) to take reasonable steps to prevent avoidable losses occurring, which, as with the case of VCS vs. Ibbotson, if as alleged the driver of the vehicle was observed leaving the site would have been to advise the driver of the vehicle in question that to step off the site would incur a punitive penalty charge.


I believe the facts stated in this defence are true.

Name & Signature
Date

Coupon-mad

No, you need more because you can't add points later. As explained on pepipoo. You only need to search either forum for 'defence' and read some more detailed examples of how to set it out.