Private parking PCN - county court defense

BabsTBone

I've received a claim from the county court from London Parking Solutions (LPS), having not replied to any of their previous letters claiming money from me.

"The claimants claim against the defendant is for non payment of a contractually agreed sum in respect of a parking charge notice issued to the vehicle xxxxx on xx xxxx 2018 at xxxxxx for the following reason; not displaying a valid parking permit. The terms and conditions to which the defendant agreed to be bound by using the site were clearly displayed in prominent places throughout the site. the claimants claim is inclusive of recovery costs as per the terms and conditions notice of which was given to the defendant by way of a parking charge notice numbered xxxxx and the claimant claims £160"

The claim is for £160, plus interest, court fee of £25 and legal representative costs of £50.

No parking ticket was issued on the car. There is no ANPR camera on the site. There are photos of my car on the LPS website, which have been taken with a mobile camera. The photos each have two date/time time stamps on them, one which looks like the correct time, on which is not. The time stamps which are possibly correct show a maximum spread of time of 3 minutes.

I entered an area of parking that is not a commercial car park but seems to be a private residents parking area. There are no barriers or distinctive road furniture to distinguish this area as restricted parking. There are no signs saying "permit holders only". There are 3 signs with very, very small print on them setting out the terms and conditions that LPS claims etc. which could be seen, but not comprehensively read from a car entering the parking area. I left my car and went to inspect the signage. On returning to the car I was met by an unidentified individual who was somewhat intimidating, blocked my car with his car, lectured me that this was private parking etc. and took photos with what appeared to be a camera phone. Subsequently I received a PCN by post from LPS and they have continued to chase until the county court claim. I have acknowledged the claim and requested an extension of time, but have very little time now to respond (the claim form arrived perfectly timed during a 3 week holiday...).

I have looked through the sticky etc, but how should I best defend this?

Coupon-mad

blocked my car with his car,

That's illegal under the POFA - shame you can't prove it. But it will be worth stating all this later, at Witness Statement & evidence stage.

the claim form arrived perfectly timed during a 3 week holiday

It's no coincidence that this scumbag industry increase their claims in July/August, and again in December, when they hope people will be away or too busy to handle it in time.

You should look for similar threads. By searching the forum for something like:

defence predatory minutes statement of truth

...and changing the advanced search to 'show results as posts' you should find yourself reading defences people have already written about a predatory ticket issued in minutes, before they even had a chance to read terms on a sign.

I can recall several similar cases in the past year so do that search (this forum only, not the whole of MSE).

System

I entered an area of parking that is not a commercial car park but seems to be a private residents parking area. There are no barriers or distinctive road furniture to distinguish this area as restricted parking. There are no signs saying "permit holders only". There are 3 signs with very, very small print on them setting out the terms and conditions that LPS claims etc. which could be seen, but not comprehensively read from a car entering the parking area. I left my car and went to inspect the signage. On returning to the car I was met by an unidentified individual who was somewhat intimidating, blocked my car with his car, lectured me that this was private parking etc. and took photos with what appeared to be a camera phone

You have to Acknowledge the claim and then defend. The Newbies thread has a guide. The sentence above is your defence as well as the time spread of the photos.

This one will be a simple win.

BabsTBone

Many thanks. Defence filed. Let's see how it goes...