Received Court Letter - paid for parking and still have Ticket

WhyDidIBuy

Hi,

Could I please get some advice in regards to the below;

I visited Warwick in August 2015 and parked in a car park belonging to a hotel. It was fine to park there and it was pay and display. I purchased my ticket within 2minutes of being in the car park and paid £3 which was valid for four hours. The machine asked me to input my registration and I inputted 08, being the numerical digits of the registration. I have only every been in car parks that request VRMs and only request the numerical part.

We left after an hour and thought nothing of it until two weeks later when I received a parking charge notice. Luckily, I’m a scruffy so and so and hardly clean my car so still had the ticket on the dashboard. I tried to call numerous time but never got a response. There was no other means to contact on the letter.

I received a further letter a short time later and I both rang and emailed the company with a photo of the ticket which all ties up with my visit and explained I had paid. They accepted that I had paid the correct amount (actually an excess amount for what I’d parked) but as the machine had wanted my full VRM and is only put in my 08 they would still pursue me for the charge as I had “not parked in accordance with their signage”.

I explained that I do not feel that this is fair or proportionate and that the signage obviously was not clear and that I would not be paying the £200+ that they’re now claiming.

I have now received court papers from the company claiming £371 incl legal and court fees. I plan to defend this as I still have the original paid for parking ticket along with their letters and my email to them.

This has caused me lots of stress and agro with numerous letters and phone calls and due to my occupation, any court action causes me issues at work. I hve informed them many times that I have paid and given them proof. Am I within my rights to send the form back with a counterclaim for the stress and inconvenience that have caused?

TIA

Redx

you can certainly issue a counter claim if you pay for it

they have issued an MCOL and this needs to be acknowledged online (AOS) on the CCBC website by logging in

read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread near the top of this forum

read the walkthrough by BARGEPOLE who explains all the process

if you are doing a counterclaim, this needs doing at some point in this process, so check the government MCOL webiste

there is a charge for the counter claim

once you have done the AOS, start to draft your defence which will need to be sent by email attachment as a pdf within 28 days or so , having signed and dated it first

in future , put in the full VRM of the vehicle , the exact details , no shortened versions, on any private parking car park

The_Deep

If they think that a judge would award them £371.00 for a parking event when they have lost nothing, they need their heads examined. I would expect them to chicken before the hearing, so yes, claim a small sum for stress/harassment, but do not be greedy.