County Court Claim Form - UKPC - Help with Defence Statement?

Stephia4

Good Afternoon All,

Before I give a description of my current situation, I will say that I have read through the NEWBIES post (amazingly helpful - Thank you!) and have also been chatting with the wonderful people over at Pepipoo too - trying to figure out my best defence strategy.

I received 4 tickets within a short space of time from UKPC back in August 2016, parking outside of my rented home.
Clearly against my better judgement, I decided to ignore the tickets and the subsequent multiple threats.
Last week I received a N1SDT Claim Form :sad:
I have been online and submitted my Acknowledgement of Claim, and am now trying to work on my defence statement.

The mains points that have been discussed so far are:

- Is my road Public or Private?
I have spoken with the council and they have advised me that the road is 'unclassified' and they assume if there is no 'Private' sign, that it is unlikely to be. However, with the great help and further investigation of Eljayjay over at Pepipoo it would seem that the road is more likely to be Private - So I don't think I can use this?

-Does my Tenants Lease Agreement have anything about parking in it - Unfortunately, no it doesn't. It is stipulated though that my Landlady is the Freeholder of the property. Though the land outside where I parked is not part of her property.
-UKPC have literally this week vacated the area All the signs have been taken down!!
I found this statement on another post during my research yesterday (I'm so sorry I cannot reference thanks to the person - I read so much and cannot remember exactly where this came from) I wonder if i should use something similar to put the burden of proof onto UKPC?
"It is denied that the Claimant is the lawful occupier of the land. Absent a full un-redacted contract with the lawful occupier of the land being produced by the Claimant, or a chain of contracts showing authorisation stemming from the lawful occupier of the land, the Defendant has reasonable belief that they do not have the authority to issue charges on this land in their own name and that they have no right to bring action regarding this Claim."


- The tickets were issued for 'Not parking within a marked bay' of which there are none outside my property. Marked bays do exist around the corner at flats, and I believe that this is the reason for UKPC being there. You cannot, however, actually see any of the marked spaces from the location that I parked. Unsure if this is helpful in any way?

-The signs are those of a forbidding nature - I understand this could also be used in my statement and again pinched this paragraph from the same post as my earlier one (again, apologies that I didn't note down the post!)
If the Claimant considers that the vehicle was not authorised to park then there is no valid contract with the driver. Any valid contract requires a genuine offer and as the signage states “No unauthorised parking” it is clearly forbidding. There cannot be a genuine offer of what is prohibited and consequently there is no contract by which the Defendant can possibly be bound.

HMRC's petition to Wind Up UKPC Whilst I understand this is not yet an order, and so cannot guarantee a pause in the case, many people have suggested something should be noted about this in my statement and I have noted down the wording made on Pepipoo and plan to include this also.

I appreciate this was a long post, and that I may be repeating myself, however, It is quite a daunting task and after much research and reading last night left me a little unsure of exactly where I am going with the defence statement. Any further advice is appreciated.

THANK YOU!

Coupon-mad

HMRC's petition to Wind Up UKPC Whilst I understand this is not yet an order, and so cannot guarantee a pause in the case, many people have suggested something should be noted about this in my statement and I have noted down the wording made on Pepipoo and plan to include this also.

Good, I posted that wording if it's the post made by SchoolRunMum (me) over there, but it was plagiarised from words suggested by bargepole. Good research on your part to find all that and start a first post in such an informed way!

UKPC have literally this week vacated the area All the signs have been taken down!!

Good!!

Stephia4

Thanks Coupon Mad that's the one, yes!
(So thanks due to Bargepole also!)

beamerguy

Do you know why -UKPC have literally this week vacated the area All the signs have been taken down!!

Stephia4

Hi Beamerguy, no idea unfortunately.

Is this something I could ask in my statement somehow, or perhaps add a mention into the burden of proof statement?

beamerguy

Stephia4 wrote: »

Hi Beamerguy, no idea unfortunately.

Is this something I could ask in my statement somehow, or perhaps add a mention into the burden of proof statement?

I would suggest you find out why, from who employed them, such as the land owner or managing agent.

UKPC would not just walk away from a "cash cow" so were they booted out and if so for what reason.

Stephia4

I'm unsure at the moment who they were actually contracted by - but will attempt to look into this. Is it considered acceptable for me to ask my landlady about this - or should I try to do this without involving her?
(She is lovely and helpful so probably would give me any information she knows, just not sure if that would be proper procedure)

On another note:
Today I received a full particulars of claim from the claimant.
I wondered - Should I refer to this at all in my defense, especially as they have made untrue claims...

I.e. They have said that I have admitted that I was the driver - This did not happen.
I already have a statement written into my defence regarding my not admitting so, but should I reference their statement in some way such as: 'Referring to the Claimants Particluars of Claim, Statement 3, The defendant denies that any admission of being the driver have been made." Followed by the remainder of my original statement?

Thanks,

beamerguy

Stephia4 wrote: »

I'm unsure at the moment who they were actually contracted by - but will attempt to look into this. Is it considered acceptable for me to ask my landlady about this - or should I try to do this without involving her?
(She is lovely and helpful so probably would give me any information she knows, just not sure if that would be proper procedure)

On another note:
Today I received a full particulars of claim from the claimant.
I wondered - Should I refer to this at all in my defense, especially as they have made untrue claims...

I.e. They have said that I have admitted that I was the driver - This did not happen.
I already have a statement written into my defence regarding my not admitting so, but should I reference their statement in some way such as: 'Referring to the Claimants Particluars of Claim, Statement 3, The defendant denies that any admission of being the driver have been made." Followed by the remainder of my original statement?

Thanks,

Your job now is ask questions from your landlady upwards.
You are the one being taken to court ?

You need to find out why UKPC vacated as this could be part of your armoury.

With regard to UKPC stating you were the driver and you saying you did not tell them, you need to put UKPC to strict proof of their statement (i doubt they can do that)

It is vital that you build evidence to put in front of the judge as to why UKPC no longer operate on that site.
It is highly probable that unknown to you, the landowner received many complaints about UKPC and terminated them