Gladstones Court Claim issued - help please

quantum_cat

Hello all

I'm a Newbie in a predicament and was hoping for some help.. I parked in a private space behind my girlfriend's block of flats. There is no mention in her tenancy agreement as to whether these spaces can be used or not but there are a couple of signs - which I didn't notice until afterwards - that say it is 'Private Land' and "Parking is permitted for: vehicles displaying a valid parking permit within the front windscreen". The signs are newish and readable but they are not put in easily visible places and are not in front of the space where I parked, or other spaces next to them.

I stupidly ( I know!) did not contest the thing they put on my windscreen and nor did I reply to their 'Reminder Notice' with photos, increasing their £60 to £100. After this I got a 'Final Reminder' from Gladstones Solicitors, where the amount had increased to £160. And then another letter from them entitled 'Letter before claim'. None of which I responded to! I know, not very smart.

I then received a Claim Form issued on 6 March 2018 (the original ticket was from 4 August 2017). The claim is for £166.21, plus £25 court fee, plus costs of £50. I actually have some experience of winning / being in small claims and so I am quite comfortable with the procedure. Where I needed help, was the issue of relevant and tried and tested grounds - if any - for my Defence.

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

The_Deep

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and a smaller company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They nearly always lose) and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P.

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind most of these companies may well be put out of business by Christmas.

nosferatu1001

EDIT THAT DAMNED POST NOW!

You do NOT reveal the driver unless you are absolutely certain it is helpful to your defence to do so

I presume you acknowledged the claim online to give yourself the full 33 days?
Relevant land is private land not under any stat control.

quantum_cat

Thanks for your advice nosferatu1001... are you saying 'EDIT THAT DAMNED POST NOW!' because if they go on the forum they can infer who it was from the details I've written??

KeithP

quantum_cat wrote: »

Thanks for your advice nosferatu1001... are you saying 'EDIT THAT DAMNED POST NOW!' because if they go on the forum they can infer who it was from the details I've written??

Yes.

Not that anything you have written so far identifies the driver, but presumably you'll be adding to this thread, possibly a draft Defence and or Witness Statement, which when all added together the reader* may well be able to identify the parking incident and also conclude that the keeper was the driver.

Up to you... follow the advice given or don't.


*the reader may well be the private parking company or the solicitor filing the claim. They are known to trawl forums like this waiting for people to trip themselves up.

Coupon-mad

But we still see people win, even when a parking firm *stumbles across* a forum post and tries to use it (badly), the motorists here almost always still win. Ask Lamilad!

Lamilad

even when a parking firm *stumbles across* a forum post and tries to use it

...Or stumbled over it because someone threw it in front of them