'Surprise' PCN Now At Court

PPExtortion

Hello good people of MSE,

One of these delightful parking companies have taken my partner JJ to court through CCMCC for non payment of a PCN that we knew nothing about because no paperwork was ever sent in relation to it. Regardless, JJ doesn't owe it. The claim is that JJ used a car park that is only for members of a particular facility and that on entering that facility the driver/member should enter their car reg into an ipad machine but that JJ did not. JJ is a member of that facility and ordinarily would enter their reg into the ipad. However, on the date in question the ipad was NOT WORKING. JJ has proof of this provided by the facility. The ipad has been out of order on other occasions so I dare say we can expect more claims 🙄

On receipt of the court claim JJ defended it using the above reason.

We have now received a completed AQ and covering letter from the parking company's 'legal' dept..... so they're not giving up yet. They have ticked the mediation box. We will complete the AQ too and respond in the time required sending a copy to the claimant but is there anything else we should do at this stage?

We have read the newbie sticky and will be sending a SAR to the parking company and a complaint letter to the facility/landowner as suggested. We'll also keep reading to formulate a defence but is there anything else we need to know or should be doing in the meantime? I hope we don't need it but could we please get help with a defence should it get to that stage?

Many thanks

bargepole

PPExtortion wrote: »

... I hope we don't need it but could we please get help with a defence should it get to that stage?

This makes no sense. The fact that DQs have been issued, means that you must have already filed a Defence.

You should post a copy of that on here.

The next step, once the case is transferred to the local County Court, is that you will need to file and serve a Witness Statement, and any supporting evidence. This can expand on the points made in the Defence, but should not introduce any new facts or arguments.

Umkomaas

Which parking company? Which solicitors are involved (if any)?

nosferatu1001

Indeed, you have already filed your one and only defence.
What you need to do is get writing your Witness Statement, see post 2 of the newbies thread, one ths first page of this forum. You cant have *understood* the thread, otherwise you would know you are past the point at which you can submit a defence. That ship sailed, long ago!

Give us your defence here, in verbatim.

It is also DQ, not AQ, you must use the right terms.

The_Deep

If the PPC is a member of the BPA why not write to the court and ask that a judge dismisses the case and orders the PPC to send you a PoPLA code?

Le_Kirk

Did the defendant (JJ) do the AOS on-line using MCOL and did he/she perhaps type in the defence box, that should always be left blank? In which case you/he/she has submitted a defence. If you know exactly what was submitted you might be able to do some work with a well-crafted witness statement, although you cannot add new defence points.

The_Deep

although you cannot add new defence points.

Is that an absolute? What happens if new evidence surfaces, i.e. there is no contract with the landowner.

Parkingfines

The_Deep wrote: »

although you cannot add new defence points.

Is that an absolute? What happens if new evidence surfaces, i.e. there is no contract with the landowner.

It is correct you can not add to your defence however you can expand a lot in your witness statement and there is some room for creative writing. Although you can not add new defence points the small claims track is more relaxed then the multi or fast track which are a very different ball game.

PPExtortion

Hi,

Thank you for your replies.

Apologies.... where I ask for help with a defence in my last paragraph I just meant in general.... with witness statements, what letters to write, what evidence to gather and submit etc and any advice and help should we go to court.... and yes , apologies again, it's a DQ not an AQ. My bad.... it was the end of a long, ill and sleepless night. (I say this only in case it makes a difference to anything at all but both me and my partner are ill. JJ is on permanent DLA (or PIP) with a chronic pain condition CRPS Type 1 (no blue badge). I have serious, chronic life limiting health conditions and will soon be on disability also. We could really do without this.)

The parking company is Premier Park Ltd
The legal letter is from PPLegal (same address as Premier Park Ltd so appears to be in house?).

They CLAIM - that after not entering a car reg into the ipad at the facility, they sent a PCN , that JJ appealed it via their internal system, that appeal was refused, that they then provided a code for JJ to appeal to POPLA but that JJ failed to do so. Their POC are convoluted, perhaps deliberately. They claim to have sent a PCN then a "LoC following the Pre-Action Protocol" but do not give dates when any were sent apart from the original PCN which was only a week after the alleged breach.

What actually happened was - staff at the facility collected car reg nos from members on entry. JJ remembers this as staff were handing out small pieces of paper for the purpose. JJ recalls they already had other reg nos already collected. They then reported the incident to PPL giving them all the car reg nos at the same time. This was the early part of 2018. We heard no more about until the court claim. JJ has since spoken to the facility and they showed their record of the incident and also confirmed it in writing to JJ. They also said they would take the matter up with PPL but we haven't followed that up yet.

The defence we entered (not MCOL it was on paper to CCMCC) was as follows;

"I am a member of xxx xxx xxx xxx

On xx.xx.18 I visited xxx around xpm but on entering xxx reception found the 'Ipad' machine provided by Premier Park Ltd for entering registration numbers was not functioning.

xxx staff at reception provided me with a piece of paper and instructed me to write my registration number down on it. They told me they were informing Premier Park Ltd of the problem with the 'Ipad' machine and were passing on my car registration number along with all the others that they had collected before and after my arrival.

The assertion by Premier Park Ltd that they checked and found the machine to be functioning normally before and after my arrival is untrue.

On receiving this claim I went straight to xxx who checked their records and showed me a hand written log detailing the 'ipad' machine problem at the time of my visit on xx.xx.18. They have since sent me written confirmation of this and advised me they would be taking the matter up with Premier Park Ltd directly."

That's all we put. This was before we found any help on line.

Thank you.

nosferatu1001

THe Deep - in order to AMEND the defence, formally, you have to Apply. This attracts a Fee. The Fee is £100 if no hearing is needed, or £255 if a hearing is needed - the latter would be the case were the PPC to object, which PE used to say they would always do.

The_Deep

Too much information Nos. My point was that if new information came to light, could this not be brought to the attention of the court.

You say it can, (for a fee), parking fines, (the post has now been deleted), said it could not.