SIP/Gladstone Court Action

SebastiaanRos

I received a Small Claims Track letter!

Background - SIP Parking, Bootle St cap park in Manchester
Being charged for 19mins overstay - I paidbyphone 17:23-21:23, then due to being at work as manager on shift I was unable to topup on time, not doing so till 21:42 (It was a Saturday and I was managing the very busy BrewDog bar). NB - I didnt realise i'd been ticketed till i finished work at 2am

So they're doing me for 19mins, which suggests they were waiting for my parking time to lapse.

I appealed to them, to no response, not even an acknowledgement, so had assumed it had gone away after hearing nothing for several months, then a lovely Gladstone letter arrives. I once again explained this was absurd - how can they claim loss of earnings for such a tiny amount of time, 9 minutes if the grace period is accepted. Anyway, it's gone to Northampton Court, why do they use this one?

So I now have- a letter from Gladstone with a copy of their N180 form, a note requesting the court send me an N159 form to request that the case is settled on papers alone.

A court letter arrived a few days later, and is just the N180 form which I have to submit by the 17th November.

I can provide my parking receipts, which also show that I have regularly used that car park and spent LOADS in it.

Advice please!

Herzlos

Don't expect a parking company to make any sense, it's a totally incompetent scam.
That said, you've got court papers now, so you need to take them seriously, follow the court directions to the letter and defend robustly. There should be a section in the newbies thread explaining everything that you need to do.

You stand a pretty good chance of beating them in court, and even if you don't, you can rest assured that it cost them way more than they made, and you'll have paid less than if you were to try and settle now

SebastiaanRos

Thanks Herzlos.

What should I do concerning the paper process form - the N159? Anyone have experience of this? Or should I just return the N180 form to the court and follow procedure?

Cheers!

DollyDee_2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5546325

You do not want the case heard on papers.

The above link is included in the "NEWBIES" sticky which you should also read - scroll down to the part about court claims. NEWBIES sticky is second thread on Page 1 - where your post is now.

The_Deep

How much are Gladstones asking for? Do they give a breakdown?