Defence when there's no defence?

glasso

Hello all,

I've had a claim form in the post, and sent this back saying I dispute the full amount and will soon send my defence, my problem is... I don't really have a defence.

The parking charge was 4 years ago so my memory of the day is pretty vague. At the time a couple of letters came through the post which we ignored, and then I hadn't heard anything about it for at least a couple of years until the claim form arrived. Basically this was a small private car park run by Excel parking, we didn't have change so thought we'd risk it and not pay to park. We went in McDonalds, ate food, and returned back to the car after fifteen/twenty minutes to find a PCN. (As I said my memory is vague, this is all the details I remember, and even the fifteen/twenty minutes is a guess but was some length of time around that area).

Any advice?

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Did it come from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton, or from somewhere else?

Fruitcake

Normal defence points would include non PoFA complaint NTK, no standing to bring charges (no contract with the landowner), inadequate signage, especially if they were for Excel's sister company VCS, and lack of grace periods to name but a few.

Send an SAR as per the NEWBIES to get a copy of the original PCN/NTK, if it still exists.

If when you get the LoC, tell them although you dispute the debt you are seeking debt advice so require proceedings to be put on hold.

Read and follow the guide to court written by bargepole you will find in post 2 of the NEWBIES.

If the LoC includes fake add on charges such as an additional £60, complain to the court as per beamerguy's thread about abuse of process.

Quentin

Everyone is asked to read up on this in the newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum before starting a new thread

Go there now to get an understanding of the game you are now caught up in and how to deal with this

Throughout here you are advised never to reveal who was driving

You need to edit your post to remove details of who was driving

The ppcs monitor this forum and can use posts in your thread against you

The_Deep

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams so complain to your MP.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

glasso

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Did it come from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton, or from somewhere else?

The claim is dated 11/07/2019 and it did come from Northampton County Court Business centre yes.

If the LoC includes fake add on charges such as an additional £60, complain to the court as per beamerguy's thread about abuse of process.

The amount claimed is £160 + £25 court fee. In the particulars of claim it states this is for "recovery of the parking charge notice, contractual costs, and interest". So I'll definitely have a look at that thread and see what I can take from it.

Throughout here you are advised never to reveal who was driving

You need to edit your post to remove details of who was driving

At no point in my original post did I say I was driving. I've used the word 'we' several times and not said how many people this includes, who these people are, and if it was one of these people or myself who was driving.





I didn't mention - the car was a hire care and the fleet company were contacted and gave details of who the contract was with. Does this affect anything? In my SAR I've asked for all the usual and also any correspondence they have between themselves and the fleet company.

KeithP

glasso wrote: »

The claim is dated 11/07/2019 and it did come from Northampton County Court Business centre yes.

With a Claim Issue Date of 11th July, you have until Tuesday 30th July to do the Acknowledgement of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. To do the AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox file linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread. About ten minutes work - no thinking required.

It appears that you may have sent the AoS back to the CCBC by post. I would suggest you do it again following the guidance above, as it is not unknown for post to go missing in large organisations like this.

Having done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 13th August 2019 to file your Defence.

That's over two weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a good Defence, but please don't leave it to the 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 "defence received". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to keep 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.

Snakes_Belly

You say that you don't have a defence however this is a very litigious company who usually start proceeding much more quickly. The old claims that they seem to be resurrecting at the moment are from VCS (owned by the same people). You need to see the signage as the signs could be VCS and the contract with the landowner could be Excel or vice versa.

beamerguy

glasso wrote: »

The amount claimed is £160 + £25 court fee. In the particulars of claim it states this is for "recovery of the parking charge notice, contractual costs, and interest". So I'll definitely have a look at that thread and see what I can take from it.

Assume the parking ticket was £100 ?

If so, the claim should look like this

£100 ticket
£25 court fee
£50 legal fee

waamo

I smell the potential whiff of abuse of process with the figure claimed. There's a defence point.

Signage is always a good one. Most of the time it's woeful. Landowner authority. Have you checked they have the authority to sue? You must have checked if you assert you have no defence so what does it say?

Snakes_Belly

The usual MO of this company is £100 charge, £25.00 court fee plus £60.00 debt collection fee plus interest.

The debt collection fee is a fake add on as the debt collectors operate on a no collection, no fee basis. Some claims have been struck out on this basis (see Beamer's thread on this). They are adding on interest for four years plus.

Inflating a claim is against the pre-action protocol.

There are a number of posters on this forum that have received claims from VCS ( owned by the same owners as Excel but a separate legal entity). They are also having difficulty in trying to remember the details of the event so you are not alone in this.

I am not a legally trained but to me some of the recent claims by VCS dating back to 2015 relate to very minor transgressions and could struggle in court with a fair judge.