CEL Claim Form arrived after 7 months - Help with Defence!

moreunsure

Hi all,

Thank you for your detailed explanations so far in battling PCNs from private companies. It is hugely appreciated and you seem to be doing a fantastic job in obtaining justice for the average law-abiding taxpayer. The very thought of this kind of scam being carried out against an elderly relative or loved one, and them suffering the same level of stress as I have over this is really troubling, so thank you for your efforts.

After reading the NEWBIES post and following initial instructions, I am hoping that someone will help me with my defence.

A claim against me by CEL has arrived in the post, details as follow:

- I am the registered keeper of Car X
- The claim states that Car X was parked in location A, on a date 7 months ago, for around 2 and a half hours
- I know location A to be a local retail park, which does not charge for parking, and to my knowledge has no signs up or any restrictions whatsoever, other than parking in marked or disabled bays (though these restrictions are implied, not signposted). There does not appear to be a website for the retail park, and no details of their parking restrictions/facilities online or contact methods so I am unsure how to complain to them
- As appears to be usual in these cases, there is very little detail on the Claim form, other than the fact this relates to a "Parking Charge for parking in a private car park managed by the Claimant in breach of the terms and conditions"
- Unbelievably, the amount they are claiming for is in excess of £300

I have logged on and Acknowledged receipt, which means I have around 3 weeks to form my defence.

I will start writing this out, drawing inspiration from previous cases, though the information I have is very limited as it is so long ago! Any suggestions on what to include while I draft it over the next couple of days would be much appreciated!!

Thanks again :beer:

Redx

just read and adapt one of the usual CEL defences linked in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread , post #2 , plus read maybe a dozen or so court case threads involving CEL over the last 12 months as well


do an SAR using the new GDPR on CEL (see the coupon mad GDPR SAR BOMB thread) in order to obtain all that missing info, although it wont arrive in time for your basic defence submission , which is why you will be putting in paragraohs about the dire POC and asking the court to look for more details or strike it out


post the proposed draft defence below for critique

KeithP

Moreunsure, what is the date of issue printed on your Claim Form?

moreunsure

Hi KeithP it's the 19th June 2018, the incident they are describing happened back in November 2017

Quentin

They have 6 years to start legal proceedings

moreunsure

Quentin thanks for that, I'm a bit confused - what's the 14 days in POFA 2012 all about? This Claim form is the first I have heard of this. Cheers

Quentin

POFA regs are to do with the POFA, not the time limit for bringing legal action to the court over a debt

Loadsofchildren123

Under POFA if they cannot identify the driver they can hold the keeper liable, but only if they comply with all the requirements of POFA:
if no windscreen ticket, they must send keeper a NtK within 14 days of the parking;
if a windscreen ticket, they must send the NtK within 28 days after the driver has had 28 days to respond (ie they must send it between days 29 and 56).


If you were not driving, or can't remember, and if others do use your car, then you can either deny driving or put them to proof of the driver, and rely on the keeper's defence


So are you saying this claim arrived out of the blue with no pre-action correspondence at all?


In your case, I'd rely on the keeper defence, but also say that in any event no contract can have been formed with the driver because there is no signage displayed at the site capable of forming a contract. Before saying this, I'd visit the site to double check that, and take photos.


I'd also make a point about the pre-action obligations having been ignored.


this is CEL so as long as you defend robustly, including a good WS, they will discontinue (refer to previous CEL threads for information on this, it's repeated on just about every CEL thread, often by me).

moreunsure

Loadsofchildren123 thanks very much for your reply.

There was no windscreen ticket and I have had no correspondence until the Claim form.

I will draft up a defence and then post it on this thread and welcome any suggestions, thanks everyone for all your help in this already!

KeithP

As the Date of Issue on your Claim Form is 19th June 2018, and you have done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Monday 23rd July 2018 to file your Defence.

Loadsofchildren123

Easy then.

Preamble about the Claimant having failed to comply with the Protocol's requirement to send D a Letter Before Claim providing an explanation of the claim, the evidence relied upon plus the various documents required to be included.

Admit you are the keeper.
Either deny or do not admit you were the driver, there is no legal basis for presuming that the registered keeper was driving, and put C to full proof thereof.

Set out keeper defences (POFA not complied with, no NtK served at all).

Then for good measure the driver defences: ie in any event, no contract formed with driver because no offer was made at all, because there was no signage displayed on the site at all and no terms were communicated via any other means.

Followed by the usual defences of putting C to full proof of its authority from the landowner to operate on the land and to pursue proceedings in its name.