Parking Eye County Court Claim Form - URGENT

AshT_2

Hi guys

I have Parking Eye County Court Claim Form for £175 any help or advice would be much appreciated:

My vehicle was registered as a guest upon arrival at Holiday Inn car park,
so I was not parked illegally and I didn't overstay. Popla appeal was unsuccessful and when I received 'notice before court claim' as recommended on this forum I got in contact with the Landowner of the site who agreed to cancel any fines, I notified Parking Eye of this via email to which they responded,
that they have received further information and are prepared to
accept a sum of £60 and at the same date of their letter I
received a Court Claim form in the post. This is unacceptable
behaviour and should not even be lawful ! Is it ?! They are bullying me to
pay up but I do not owe any money to them or to Holiday
Inn as they agreed to cancel the PCN. It's more to do with principle as ParkingEye are relentless
and have caused me a lot of stress and loss of time for continuing
in chasing a fine which is invalid. But honestly I'm exhausted and running out of options, shall I just pay up and avoid losing in court? I don't have any experience in court proceedings and I'm worried I will end up with higher debt over my head.

Issue date was 4th of March but I've requested to extend for 28 days to gather evidence on moneyclaim.gov however if I pay £60 today I can put it all behind me. Any suggestions ?

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 4th March, and having done the Acknowledgement of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 8th April 2019 to file your Defence.

That's three weeks away. Loads of time to produce a perfect Defence, but don't leave it to the very last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence should be filed via email as suggested here:

Print your Defence.
1. Sign it and date it.
   
2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
   
4. Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
   
5. Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defended". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive a copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to put you under pressure.
   
7. Wait for your DQ from the CCBC, or download one from the internet, and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

D_P_Dance

PE signs are very iffy and imo unlikely to form a contract, read this

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5972164/parking-eye-signs-oxford-road-reading&highlight=

and complain to your MP

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem become so widespread that MPs agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. It received The Royal Assent today.

Umkomaas

If you lose in court it will normally cost you (in PE cases) £175. Nothing more, unless you've been a complete @rse and messed about, made life difficult for and upset the court. So no major debt is racked up. Pay the cost within the deadline set by the court, then no CCJ trashing your credit score.

There is some evidence that where PE offers to settle for £60, they themselves may be having second thoughts about the strength of their case against you, and are making a last ditch attempt to squeeze something out of you.

If you have the agreement in writing from the Holiday Inn that the charge should be cancelled, that does help you a lot.

Your options seem to me to be:

1. Pay PE £60 and walk away, monkey off your back.

2. Ask HI to sort it out with PE and they pay whatever PE are asking. They've done it before, but it took a lot of wrangling by the motorist, including emailing the HI CEO over in the USA.

3. Try to negotiate an even lower figure with PE. Don't forget they will have already paid a £25 court filing fee which they can't get back (unless you lose in court to them, in which case you pay the £25 as part of your £175 cost order). So maybe £30-£35 might tempt them? You won't know unless you try.

4. Defend the case in full and take your chance on winning, in which case you can claim from PE up to £95 (towards half a day's pay/loss of annual leave) plus fares or mileage @0.45p pm and car parking on the day. But you could lose. Defending and the ensuing court processes will be a good deal of work for you.

You have to make the decision I'm afraid.

Can I ask whether all the different threads you have running all relate to this one case? If so, please ask a Board Guide to get them all merged. Links to the BGs (Crabman, savvy or soolin) can be found near the bottom r/h corner of the first page of this forum.

AshT_2

Just the answer I was looking for, thank you so much for breaking it down, after careful consideration I've decided to get the monkey off my back on this occasion as I don't have the experience nor the time at the moment to take the matter to court. However I will be complaining to my local MP for sure.

And yes all the threads relate to this case, Sorry as you see I'm new here so I'm just getting the hang of it.

Umkomaas

after careful consideration I've decided to get the monkey off my back on this occasion

When paying, make sure you cover with a letter stating 'In full and final settlement of PCN Ref No xxxxxx - relating to VRM xxxxxxk'. Signed <your name> Registered Keeper.

twhitehousescat

PE are clutching at straws , they have paid out over £30 to POPLa , plus court fees plus £2.50 to DVLA plus mail

I think PE will pull out given a decent court rebuke

get sending emails to COE and get conformation they do not want to proceed

Coupon-mad

AshT wrote: »

Just the answer I was looking for, thank you so much for breaking it down, after careful consideration I've decided to get the monkey off my back on this occasion as I don't have the experience nor the time at the moment to take the matter to court. However I will be complaining to my local MP for sure.

And yes all the threads relate to this case, Sorry as you see I'm new here so I'm just getting the hang of it.

I would agree with twhitehousescat - to pay would be the wrong decision IMHO.

Hope you have not paid them yet.

They've issued a premature claim & you have evidence of no legitimate interest as well.

Because of those two factors, PE will likely discontinue as they have no cause of action and you can show the claim was premature at a time when pre-action communications were occurring and when their principal told them to cancel it.

Gives them 'no legitimate interest' in pursuing the claim, at all - no excuse.

Please heed what we say. We've seen this before.

Also, P/Eye offering to settle for £60 seems to have clashed with the court claim asking for 3 times that sum so paying £60 now will probably NOT make them discontinue...

I really would NOT.

At least give it a few days and think about what we are saying!

AshT_2

Hi all

I have a second PE fine, but I'm definitely taking this one to court if need be because I have an email from the landowner agreeing to cancel this PCN and notified PE of this with an email below and they never even offered me a discount this time.

"Dear Sir/Madam
In regard to the above Penalty charge. This is a notice to inform you that I have been in touch with the Land owner. An agreement has been settled to cancel this PCN with immediate effect. I have the confirmation in writing, which I can forward to you if required, therefore I have no legal binding with your company and should you wish to pursue this claim via court proceedings I intend to defend it with the evidence in my possession and will also make a counterclaim for my loss of time."

I then received this...

Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your email.
We can confirm that we have received your response to our Letter Before County Court Claim and that we will respond within 30 days of receipt.
Please note your Parking Charge has been placed on hold.

I then received the following by letter 14 days later ...

"Dear Sir/Madam
We write further to your recent correspondence. We recently sent you a letter before claim which informed you that this parking charge remains outstanding and had now been processed for further action.
We note from your reply to our Letter Before Claim that you dispute the outstanding sum. We can confirm that we have now reviewed your correspondence but it is our position that the parking charge remains due.
We can confirm that £100 remains outstanding and that full payment is required within the next 14 days to prevent further action. We are prepared to take legal action if necessary should court proceedings be issued, and further costs will be incurred."

Boils my blood honestly, just waste time and money for them, surely they will lose in court right ? Anymore advice appreciated, many thanks in advance.

KeithP

AshT wrote: »

...surely they will lose in court right ?

Only if you defend your case properly.

Umkomaas

surely they will lose in court right ?

It's the Judge's opinion only that counts, we can't second guess.

You might consider why, after paying up their previous demand, they are pushing and pursuing you?

Anymore advice appreciated, many thanks in advance.

You need to deal with this LBC, taking note of the advice in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #2, which has professional legal advice incorporated within it.

Do not ignore this and find it gets to a Judgment in Default, as that will be even more messy and expensive to sort out.