parking charge - at county court defence stage

mbaxter123

Hi All,
After reading a few cases on here, i'm honestly a little bit bamboozled.
I have ignored all 'dept' letters and now am at the County Court stage. I have been on moneyclaim and only ticked the box stating i will 'defend in full'
So i am now at the stage of trying to put a defence together.
In short terms drove into a car park was caught by an anpr camera going in and then exiting approx 13 mins later. The car in question was a hire car, which the hire company charged me too. (auto charge on a card)
There are some listings that state they cannot prove i was driving, others saying the signage was poor (i dont have any evidence of this as i didnt know i would get a pcn and i live hours away)
In my case i didn't pay for parking at all, we drove in, looked at the board, then drove out.
I just need a helping had where to start with a defence.

Thanks in advance
M

KeithP

What is the Date of Issue of your Claim Form?

Have you done the Acknowledgement of Service to get yourself an extras fourteen days to prepare your Defence?

How to do the AoS, and everything else you need to prepare for a court case, is fully described in post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread.

Umkomaas

Which parking company? The progress of your case and the route it takes is likely to be dependent on which PPC is involved.

mbaxter123

The date of issue is 18th of july. Yes i have done the acknowledgment of service.

The original was from PCL

Ive been through the newbies section too but struggle to find defences that would work with mine.

Umkomaas

The original was from PCL

Can you give us the full name please? Many acronyms used by the PPCs are very similar and we run the risk of misadvising if we make a wrong assumption.

mbaxter123

Parking Charge Limited.

Redx

mbaxter123 wrote: »

Parking Charge Limited.

so same as this thread then ?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5871413/county-court-claim-form-defence-help-needed

a BPA member using B W LEGAL maybe ?

seems strange that 2 people have posted about court claims yet neither of them seems to have appealed and used POPLA either

Umkomaas

mbaxter123 wrote: »

Parking Charge Limited.

Thanks.

They've never previously attempted to pursue any cases via county court proceedings, so rather surprised at your case.

http://www.parkingappeals.info/companydata/Parking_Charge.html

Is there a firm of solicitors involved?

In terms of developing your defence you'll need to gain an understanding of:

Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (read all of Schedule 4, but then concentrate on paras 13 and 14 about hire vehicles)

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/schedule/4/enacted

Keeper liability (you were the 'keeper' of the hire vehicle on the day)

Grace Periods (BPA Code of Practice, paragraph 13)

http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/AOS_Code_of_Practice_January_2018.pdf

Landowner Authority (need to challenge PCL's standing)

Signage (BPA Code of Practice, para 18 and Appendix

Then read the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #2 to understand the entire court process, from the issue of the Letter Before Action/Claim, right through to the actual hearing. This will be your 'Bible' to refer to as you progress along the court route.

mbaxter123

Thanks for the info. I assume the solicitors are BW Legal. I'll read the threads you pointed out and make some notes. Thanks again M

Coupon-mad

You assume? But you have the solicitor details on the claim form!

Look again at the linked thread. I just explained to that person how to search for what you need to suit your case. For your case, as hirer, you have an extra defence point and you need to search:

defence hirer POFA paragraph 13

and/or

defence grace period

...changing the default search to 'advanced' and show posts (NOT THREADS!).

Please remove the mention of who was driving from post #4 - URGENT!!

Redx

mbaxter123 wrote: »

The date of issue is 18th of july. Yes i have done the acknowledgment of service.

The original was from PCL

Ive been through the newbies section too but struggle to find defences that would work with mine. I dont have any evidence. THE DRIVER didnt make any attempt to pay for parking ect.

learn to use words that do not identify individuals

the words "MY , ME , MYSELF & I" should not be used

acceptable words are

DRIVER
KEEPER
CLAIMANT
DEFENDANT

etc


an SAR under GDPR 2018 will get you their evidence etc