The Parking Game

Yellowfin81

Having ignored parking invoice letters, as was the now out of date information I was following (sigh), I have landed myself with a number of situations which I shall outline below.
I presume I should perhaps start a thread for each one so as to not complicated an already complicated situation or keep them altogether here ?

I understand I need to do a lot of reading and this I am doing. I am confident and more than happy to attempt to hand their backsides to them however I would be very grateful for some pointers in achieving this aim.

As you can see, I followed the pre 2012 ruling knowledge of 'ingnore all' and consequently my vehicle has become a serial offender based on that out of date direction. It is not that I have been puposefully baiting them, but long ago (pre2012) I has an experience with a PPC which opened my eyes as to their under hand tactics. Consequently I have no respect for them whatsoever and continued to follow the out of date advice. I have now woken up and I am keeping all further correspondence with them.

Situation 1.

This first invoice has progressed to a County Court Claim. I have done a bit of reading and followed instructions on completing stage 1 of MCOL - to acknowledge service, defend in full and have put no defence in the box as of yet.

I understand that a defence is my next step. I wish to be pointed in the right direction for this. I am thinking my only defence if that I am RK and not driver? Only info I can give at the moment is that the PPC is Smart Parking, followed by DRP begging letters, followed by SCS Law LBC. All thrown away (again sigh). So all I have is the County Court letter with particulars of claim (date but no details on times.) Their invoices I threw away had ANPR photos of the vehicle I am RK of. The 'offence' was overstaying. I am sure they stated 'overstay' in the invoices and would have been more than the 10 minutes grace period I have read about - more like overstay of 10-30 minutes. Some suggestions on possible defences would be welcome.

I think that the PPC was hoping I would not defend, as I had not replied to any of their or DRP's begging letters, so assumed they would get an easy default win. I would like to add that this PPC has lost it's contract with this retail park approximately 6 weeks ago so all signage has been removed and the ticket machines in which one would put one's reg in have also been removed - the 'offences' occured whilst the PPC had their signs, payment machines and contract though.

Situation 2.

Same as above x multiple further occasions of overstay in same carpark. LBC received from SCS Law. I have read about their lack of Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct. So I need to get onto formulating the letter. I have found a link on this site. So I should follow this then and give them the run around to deter them from advancing ?

Situation 3.

Received invoice from Horizon Parking regarding parking in ASDA due to 'failure to validate parking' I am sure I used there car park so as to pop into town while the car got hand washed. I then popped into the store to grab a bag of groceries before leaving via their petrol station. The validation did not occur to me as I went through the self service check and had forgotten the milk so went back in.

I have found the reciept for milk but not groceries.

I found printed off bank statement as evidence showing I paid for ASDA petrol (£50) before leaving.

Scraping the barrel - I could ask the lads at the car wash to knock me up a receipt for the day in question for car wash. I think they may remember me as they do my car a number of times. Obviously they are not ASDA but they obviously have some agreement with them as they service this car park.

I can then show these to the shop manager in a bid to get the charge cancelled and / or forward to Horizon ?

Thank you in advance. I look forward to your replies.

Coupon-mad

Only info I can give at the moment is that the PPC is Smart Parking, followed by DRP begging letters, followed by SCS Law LBC. All thrown away (again sigh). So all I have is the County Court letter with particulars of claim (date but no details on times.)

They have chosen you because of the multiple PCNs. Very rare/unheard of, for Smart. Read about other defences from post #2 of the NEWBIES thread and show us your draft here.

Re the Horizon one, stop trying to tell them who was driving! If you are at first appeal stage just use the template in the NEWBIES thread post #1, no evidence, nothing, just to get a POPLA code without saying who parked the car! Horizon NTKs are not POFA compliant AFAIK and if not, they can't hold a keeper liable. So don't hand to them on a plate, who was driving!

Yellowfin81

Thank you Coupon Mad. I hear you on not admitting who the driver was. I shall get back soon with an update.

Thanks again.

Coupon-mad

Same with the other one, Smart do not use POFA PCNs.

Are you sure this is a Smart Claim, you are the first we know about, if so.

Yellowfin81

100% Smart Claim

Coupon-mad

We've now heard of three. Smart should struggle with these due to not using the POFA. So the defence should be a matter of adapting the ones we use v Civil Enforcement, like here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5620993

Point being that neither CEL nor Smart can hold a registered keeper liable, and both use ANPR and high signs that are not prominent, so the aspects of defence are similar except for criticism of the particulars of claim, which might be just as woeful from SCS but will need re-wording to be appropriate to what you got.

I am quoting Henrik777 from another thread, to give you an idea about what to look for in their 'evidence' before the hearing:

henrik777 wrote: »

SCS law got spanked in a 9 ticket case with a different operator last week. The defendant wasn't high on my list of "they'll do well in court" so i was pleasantly surprised. The evidence SCS Law provided was horrendous. Only 7 of the 9 tickets were included in evidence and 6 of the 7 them were in a different car park than the site plan. Professional is not a word I'd use to describe them.

You can defend yourself if you gather evidence and prepare to put in some effort and thought. The MSE guys are very good and I'm sure they'll keep you straight.

beamerguy

Surprised Smart are doing this, no doubt they will end up with the other losers or maybe they need a new money source after being kicked out from so many places ?

Being kicked out of Asda must have hurt

Nobody should forget this one dated Nov 2016
Smart Parking settle out of court for data protection contravention

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/smart-parking-settle-out-of-court-for.html

Yellowfin81

I have not sent this yestarday, as i should have. The post office system is down for proof of posting and tomorrow is bank holiday so the post will not be collected until tuesday - which is the 14th day by which i should have replied on this LBC ?. I can either find the email address and email the LBC reply or post by hand ? Although posting by hand would not be a good option.

Must I have strictly replied by the 14th day or is this a misdirection to suit them ?

Ok so I have read again and I should send within 14 days so I can send it a bit late. I will have sent the acknowledgement within 14 days so thats that. Its their problem if they dont work weekends and bank holidays. The rest of us do !

Coupon-mad

Yellowfin81 wrote: »

Must I have strictly replied by the 14th day or is this a misdirection to suit them ?

Second one.

Yellowfin81

I went back to post office and their system was up and running so have proof of posting : )

Redx

for the ASDA one , complain on their main website by raising a complaint with a reference and insist they cancel the pcn with HORIZON (OR whoever , give them the pcn details and VRM)

their Head Office is Leeds and they are your best bet for cancellations with PE as well as any others they employ

add copies of receipts and redacted bank statements if you can , or email them if you get their email details with copies of receipts etc , show proof of patronage including petrol receipts and any bank statements, show them you are a regular customer if you can

I am at a loss to understand why you have not complained in writing to these landholders about the parasites they employ after receiving these invoices

if you milk had been sour and the groceries past their sell by date and you had slipped on a wet foloor I am sure they would have triggered a complaint , plus if their trolley "dolly" had scratched your vehicle with a line of trolleys !!