Gladstones court claim received - help please

nosferatu1001

Erm, no? Why are you looking fo a set aside?
THis just tells you when your hearing is, and at 6) tells you the deadline by which WS and your bundle msust be with the court AND CLAIMANT - 14 days as normal.

Have you THOROUGHLY read post 2 of the newbies thread?

kgirl123

Thanks for your help, yes I have read the post

There isn't a court date allocated on the documents so I guess they will come later as per point 2, I'll wait to receive this and prepare my documentation

Coupon-mad

All looks normal. 1.5 hours isn't too shabby, you will get decent time to be heard!

Have a look at how Henry Hippo got on at Slough, a lovely day was had:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=114450

The win is discussed around post #275 so set aside an hour or two to read it, to get the gist of what one Judge at Slough was like about PPCs.

kgirl123

Thanks Coupon-Mad that's really helpful, I'll give it a thorough read over the weekend!

kgirl123

I had to go abroad rather last minute and returned today, having received a Witness Statement bundle from Gladstones, along with their defence, photos, and agreements etc

I need to submit my WS tomorrow, I will do my best to get it printed and nicely filed with a contents page and everything labelled and numbered as suggested in other posts - and hand deliver to the court. I assume I email it to Gladstones for reference?

Please could you kindly check my WS below and suggest any comments:

In the County Court at Slough, The Law Courts, Windsor Road, Slough, SL1 2HE

Claim No. XXXX

Between

PARKING AND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LIMITED (Claimant)

and

XXXXX (Defendant)


WITNESS STATEMENT



I, XXXX, of XXXX, will say as follows:

I am the Defendant in this matter, I am unrepresented, with no experience of Court procedures. If I do not set out documents in the way that the Claimant may do, I trust the Court will excuse my inexperience.
In this Witness statement, the facts and matters stated are true and within my own knowledge, except where indicated otherwise.

Before I describe what happened on the day, I would like to claim that the essence of my defence to this claim is that:
The signage used at Hayling Close, SL1 5DE Slough was misleading
The signage gave insufficient information to distinguish that the regulations apply to visitors parking, as not all spaces at the address require permits

After arriving at Hayling Close to visit one of the residents, the driver had parked my car in the visitors bay. It was around 8.00pm at night, so it was getting dark outside and the driver did not notice the small signs which were posted up high above eye-level. They had not been there when the driver visited just over 2 weeks before. The driver was in the residence for approximately 1 hour, and returning to the car they realised there was a parking charge notice attached to the window. The driver looked around and found the signs with small print, almost illegible to read, but it did not state which spaces the regulation applied to. The signs were posted mostly around the parking spaces allocated to the flats, with nothing directly above any of the 3 visitors parking spaces, other than a yellow sign stating ‘visitors parking’.

The driver checked with the resident they were visiting, who confirmed they had not been given a permit for their property, 3 Hayling Close, which is located in the same location, and as such there was no requirement for them to display one. This created confusion. It appeared as though the parking regulations were put in place for the residents of the flats adjacent to the houses, but there was nothing to suggest that it also applied to the visitors parking.

The reminder letter I received approximately 4 weeks afterwards referred to 1-12 Hayling Close, where in fact 1-6 Hayling Close do not require permits and as such are exempt from the regulations. This further reassured me that the company was using false claims to scare me into paying.

The claimant has sent threatening and misleading demands which stated that further debt recovery action and costs would be taken to recover what is owed by passing the debt to a recovery agent. These letters suggested to me that a County Court Judgment would apply if matters were taken to court and that this could affect my ability to obtain credit, pressuring me into paying something I believe is unjust.

There was no requirement upon me to respond to what appeared to be junk mail, impersonating a parking ticket yet with no basis in law.

After receiving the Claim Form, I spent many hours researching this case and the laws surrounding it, and I have found I am not the only one this has happened to, which shows the firm is neglecting their duty of care. It is apparent from court records reported in the public domain that this Claimant has been obtaining payments from keepers under false pretences - using the court as a cheap form of debt collection from the wrong 'registered keeper' parties - and has obtained default CCJs in the hundreds, despite never complying with the POFA 2012.

The Court is invited to dismiss the claim and to award my costs of dealing with this claim and attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14.

I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.

KeithP

Are you not going to submit any evidence?

Your WS doesn't refer to any evidence.

Coupon-mad

That would be a terrible mistake. Surely your defence mentioned signs and cases?

The NEWBIES thread even lists typical evidence to think about adducing.

Is your actual WS numbered, every paragraph (just didn't transfer here properly?).

System

Many we see the contract that PCM have and which should be in the bundle you were sent?

There is usually something useful there. The rest will be a template which we've seen before.

Check that the signs they have included are actually the ones they have installed though the signs may be secondary.

kgirl123

Sorry I drafted this last night after a day of travelling, working on it now to add the other cases as evidence

I also have photos of signs and still trying to get a copy of the property contract, I did email the managing agent in March with no luck

Here is the contract they included in their bundle:
https://ibb.co/jXYUje

An image they use in their ‘evidence’ shows a car parked outside of a resident bay, not sure if that’s worth mentioning at all, it's not a visitor bay
https://ibb.co/kOijHz

I have noticed the witness statement refers to reading court instead of slough, so adding that as a point

Is it better to word the WS as 'the defendant' same as my defence? And add Henry Greenslade and Schedule 4 of POFA?

Another question..
Is it worth preparing a counter claim? I was dismissed from my job suddenly in June, and I do believe having spent so much time researching and preparing my defence contributed greatly to this as I was very distracted and couldn't focus without thinking about the court case. I have a letter of dismissal but they wouldn't provide reasons in writing so not sure if I can include that

System

The names on the contract do not stand up to scrutiny.

There is no company called Mckenzie (South West) Homes so is it a trading style. There is no director called Sweigers.

What names are on the lease that you know of. Do they correspond?

The company number quoted on the McKenzie Homes website does not correspond either. It says 09049538 but that resolves to 4 Square Services.

Looks like another dodgy contract.