Private Parking Charge - Court - Company

TylerDurden_2

Hi Folks

I work for a small company that hires cars to taxi drivers.

A while back we got a parking invoice from ES parking for one of our drivers.

Company policy is to name the driver and let them deal with it, so i initially sent a letter naming the driver.

ES weren't happy with this (or felt i didn't give enough info, i cant remember exactly) and kept writing to me asking for more details, at this point i ignored their communication.

A solicitor then got in touch asking for payment, i wrote the solicitor stating that;

1. The car was on a hire agreement
2. I had provided the drivers details to ES already out of courtesy
3. We were not responsible for the charge, as it was not us doing the parking.
4. If they could tell me what legal offence the drivers had committed, or could provide legislation that said we had to name the driver, then we would do so.

The solicitor is now taking us to court and we have a date in January.

The court documents state i have to send any documents i intend to use at court to the other party.

The documents i will be using are

1. Hire agreement between us and the driver
2. Copies of letters between us, solicitor and ES parking.

However this means the solicitor will now have the details they were requesting from us originally, making the court case pointless?

I am just wondering if my approach is the correct way to approach this? or if there is a better way? and if anyone else has any other advise that may be relevant?

thanks in advance.

Carthesis

So you've provided the name and address of the person to whom your company hired the car? You aren't *ABLE* to name 'the driver' as you don't know who it was. Or are your hire agreements worded in such a way that only the hirer is allowed to drive the vehicle?

What extra details were they asking for?

Coupon-mad

The solicitor is now taking us to court and we have a date in January.

The documents i will be using are

1. Hire agreement between us and the driver
2. Copies of letters between us, solicitor and ES parking.

and:

3. a copy of Schedule 4, as the court may not be familiar with the statute.

and

4. a copy of the excerpt 'Understanding keeper liability' (which also supports a company which can't be liable) the wording is by expert parking law Lead Adjudicator and barrister Henry Greenslade in the POPLA Annual Report 2015 and these two things helped Lamilad win his case the other week.

Both of these are available by Googling or from the Parking Prankster's blogs. See 'Mr Pickup's fun day out' Blog.