Vehicle Control Services - Court Claim Form

rjr2016

Hi Everyone,
I parked at the Exeter Arms in Derby in April 2015 whilst having dinner there. I came out to my car afterwards and found a PCN from Vehicle Control Services. It said I could pay £60 within 2 weeks otherwise it would go up to £100.

I then looked around the car park and realised there were some small signs up saying that the area was subject to parking controls. These signs were not visible on entering the car park.

I subsequently phoned the pub and they told me that it is a scam and not to respond to any letters from Vehicle Control Services (VCS). I also read a lot of forums online and found that the majority of the advice said not to respond and VCS would give up in the end. Based on this, I have never responded and the frequent letters I used to receive did stop for a while.

Today I have received a Claim Form from Northampton County Court Business Centre with a claim from VCS for £238.72 (amount claimed = £163.72, Court fee = £25, Legal representative's costs = £50).

I definitely do not want to pay the extortionate amount they are claiming but I'm not sure what to do. Has anyone on these forums received a Claim Form for a similar matter before? I need to understand how worried I should be by this as I'm not sure if it's another one of their scare tactics.

Many thanks in advance.

Quentin

This is not a scare tactic.

You need to treat this seriously.

Read up in the newbies FAQ thread towards the top of the forum the advice for dealing with court claims and check the links there to further help and advice.

You can put your defence up here before you send it for comments.

First job is to acknowledge the claim which buys you more time to submit a defence

beamerguy

rjr2016 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,
I parked at the Exeter Arms in Derby in April 2015 whilst having dinner there. I came out to my car afterwards and found a PCN from Vehicle Control Services. It said I could pay £60 within 2 weeks otherwise it would go up to £100.

I then looked around the car park and realised there were some small signs up saying that the area was subject to parking controls. These signs were not visible on entering the car park.

I subsequently phoned the pub and they told me that it is a scam and not to respond to any letters from Vehicle Control Services (VCS). I also read a lot of forums online and found that the majority of the advice said not to respond and VCS would give up in the end. Based on this, I have never responded and the frequent letters I used to receive did stop for a while.

Today I have received a Claim Form from Northampton County Court Business Centre with a claim from VCS for £238.72 (amount claimed = £163.72, Court fee = £25, Legal representative's costs = £50).

I definitely do not want to pay the extortionate amount they are claiming but I'm not sure what to do. Has anyone on these forums received a Claim Form for a similar matter before? I need to understand how worried I should be by this as I'm not sure if it's another one of their scare tactics.

Many thanks in advance.

you must acknowledge the claim. Others here will tell you what to do

If the pub said it is a scam, (we all know it is), who actually owns the car park ???

Check this out so you know what the vermin are all about

VCS spanked in court. Judge sees through obvious charade
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=vcs

System

Try the pub themselves and see if they can get this sorted. They may not own the car park but they may know who does and get them to cancel.

http://www.exeterarms.co.uk/contact-us.php

The_Deep

Put something on Tripadviser and various pub websites. You do not need to blame the pub, but iut should spur them into action to get this sorted.

fisherjim

Looking at streetview I would guess the car park is nothing to do with the pub, and the signage would be your main point, it's virtually non existant.

In April after dark, you would never see any signs here, and it does give the impression of being available for pub customers.

I would imagine a good defence would see these Muppets off.

Would also explain why the landlord of the pub, who misled you appears to tuck his car right up the corner on his land!!

System

There's a big clamping sign far right saying "Don't risk it".

You might want to try a "without prejudice" offer of say the £100 plus £25 costs to date. Taking it all the way to court, costs them more than they would get so the £125 is generous.

The_Deep

I agree with FJ, it does not appear to have any connection with the pub.

Quentin

IamEmanresu wrote: »

There's a big clamping sign far right saying "Don't risk it".

You might want to try a "without prejudice" offer of say the £100 plus £25 costs to date. Taking it all the way to court, costs them more than they would get so the £125 is generous.

What's the relevance you see in an out of date clamping sign that leads to advising the op to contact them and offer £125??

The_Deep

£125 does seem a bit steep. If the landowner did not want people to park there they could easily fence it off.

Herzlos

You're only looking at paying £175 in court if you lost, so £125 seems steep for an offer when the signage is that bad.

If you were going to make a settlement offer, I'd be going in at £50, because it's about £40 more than it's actually cost them so far.

The signage is pretty much non-existent (I can see a small sign on the fence, but it's unreadable from street view and wouldn't even be visible in the dark), there's no commercial justification regarding turn-over or access (it looks like it's a derelict site).
They might be able to claim Trespass if they were the landowner, but it'd be for a nominal fee (how much does a parked car cost in damage to a derelict site?) and as said, if the aim was to prevent people parking there, that could be achieved for little more than the ticket price using some posts and chain.

It's clearly an entrapment operation. I'd be firing off a complaint to the DVLA and your MP. Send one to the IPC too but they encourage that sort of thing so don't expect any action.