Am I too late to fight a county court claim?

Trevart

Please forgive me if I haven’t followed forum protocols, I have never posted anything on a forum before.
A county court claim (MCOL) has been received by the keeper for PCN issued by a PPC. I have no experience of dealing with anything like this before and followed some bad advice that I saw on a website that everything except a county court claim should be ignored. From reading this excellent forum (and others) I now realise I should have handled things differently. I urgently need some advice.
Here’s a brief history of what’s happened.
The driver was staying in a property that had been rented as a holiday let. (The properties in the complex are mainly residential but at least two are holiday lets). A PCN issued for not displaying a permit. The vendor of the property did not supply a permit. Access to the car park is controlled by a barrier that can only be activated by use of a card (which was supplied by the vendor of the property).
Subsequently a NTK was sent by the PPC demanding payment or identity of the driver. (Keeper did not respond).
Threatening letters started arriving from bailiffs and solicitors all of which were ignored.
However, at the time I didn’t understand the significance of the letter before claim – it looked just like all the others. No response was sent.
A county court claim was received which was responded to. The (probably inadequate) defence being that the PPC had not followed the code of practice of their trade organisations (BPA & IPC) with respect to car park signage.
Two letters now received from legal firm (the firm is frequently mentioned on this forum), one letter offering a reduction of around £80 if paid within 14 days. The other letter for the first time gives some detail of their case – I was going to attached redacted extract of their letter but I'm not allowed to post attachments.
My instinct is to fight this, but I need help.
Was a contract formed between the driver and the PPC and does POFA transfer liability to the keeper providing the NTK is compliant with POFA, which it seems to be.
I believe the signage may be unclear as there are no signs at the entrance to car park although there are signs on another building about 30m away. I think it may be a private road but it’s not exactly clear.
Any help or advice gratefully received.
Thanks

Fruitcake

What is the name of the PPC please?

That image appears to be on your PPC so it can't be viewed here. You need to upload it to a web hosting site such as postimages, tinypic, dropbox etcetera, then post the url here but change https to hxxps. Someone here will convert it back to a live link.

Make sure the web hosting account is not in someone's real name and doesn't show any personal data in the image or any other files/pics.

If you have already filed a defence with the court you probably can't now amend it. Please confirm what stage you are at as it is not entirely clear.
If you have just acknowledged the claim with the court and not entered anything in the defence box, then you are OK.

Have you actually had anything from a court/MCOL yet, or only from the PPC's solicitors?

KeithP

Hi and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

What was your response to that Claim Form?

Have you filed a Defence? Can we see that Defence?


We can't see images on your computer.
If you want to show us a picture you will need to upload it to a webhosting site, e.g. imgur, tinypic, etc, then post a link here.
As a new user you won't be able to post a live link, but just changing http to hxxp is often enough to break the link.

Trevart

Hi,


Image uploaded here: hxxpsxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PPC is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Yes, I have filed a defence with the court. Until I got this letter (extract uploaded) some six weeks after the claim form from the court neither PPC nor their solicitor has set out on what basis they are pursuing me (now seems to be breech of contract). I don't really understand how a defence can be filed against a claim without knowing the basis of the claim so I just put in something about them not following the code of practice with respect signage as I believe the signage was not clear.