Parking fine on own property with pictures sent by neighbours

mjf87

Hi all,

I have just had a county court claim come through the post from UK CPM based on several photographs uploaded to them by a disgruntled neighbour.

THE BACK STORY - SKIP AS NECESSARY
I live in an apartment building with a gated (but not locked) courtyard out front that has space for everyone to park. About a year and a half ago some new owners bought their apartment allowing them to attend the owners meetings. Unfortunately for them, theirs is the only property in the entire complex that can't actually park two cars without affecting the parking situation of any other residents. Due to this and that most other tenants rent (like myself) they decided that if they can't park two cars then no one can and essentially instigated that UK CPM patrol our courtyard, issuing fines to anyone parking a second car. Signs were put up (one that im sure arent GDPR compliant) but no white lines were marked (yet). Many of the tennants continued to park both cars as they had before except now having to keep a parking permit in the windscreen and a "visitor" permit in any second vehicles. This didnt sit well with these neighbours and as they had set up the account with UK CPM they were able to photograph any vehicles they decided were breaking the rules with UK CPM more than happy to send out parking charges to all the residents that had been photographed, with my neighbours receiving a £10 reward for every charge paid. At first when I would receive a parking charge I would phone UK CPM telling them these fines were illegitimate and that i wouldnt pay them which they refused to cancel. Eventually, I decided it was a pointless cause and wouldnt bother to phone them any more and just ignored all correspondence from gladstones and the like, until now, where I have finally received a county court claim.

THE PARTICULARS
I have been sent a county court claim amounting to around £430 after a period of 8% interest pertaining to two separate parking charges on two subsequent days. One for about 6pm on July 29th 2018 (when my neighbour gets home from work) and another at 7am on the 30th of July 2018 (when they leave for work in the morning). The photographs taken by my neighbour show my car from multiple angles parked in what is essentially my second unofficial car space (that blocks in my first car and effects no one else. The photos don't show my windscreen clearly though so as to not accurately see my second pass there in the front window.

Fortunately for me, several things go in my favour.
1. There are no marked lines on the ground specifying which space belongs to which unit, there are only some very old very signs that have nothing to do with UK CPM.
2. The signs that UK CPM put up are dreadful, they genuinely don't specify almost anything at all and what it does specify is in the smallest font youve ever seen. Luckily they were installed just a few months before the start of the GDPR and havent been updated since. Im fairly sure they arent compliant with the regulations for the signs.
3. Knowing that my neighbour was continually photographing peoples cars, I actively took to the habit of photographing my car every time i parked with a clear and accurate shot of the car and its dashboard where my valid permit was displayed. I have photographs for these particular dates saved on my phone still.

More or less I suppose I have to defend all of this in court now and look forward to it in fact as I feel my case is strong and would be more than happy to be a test case to prevent parking firms from being able to give out parking charges regardless of the validity with the charge based solely on third party pictures and incentivise those people with financial gain (£10 per paid charge).

Unfortunately I have zero experience in how to go about writing a defence and would love some help as im highly motivated to clear my name and try to stop this happening to others in future.

Also, any further stipulations about this in regards to it taking place at my place of residence I would very much enjoy to know. I saw that potentially I can claim compensation against UK CPM but have no idea the actual validity of that

Anyway, to whom ever can help I am all ears. I read the newbies page and so have submitted my acknowledgement via moneyclaim and am ready to get started on a defence!

Thanks for your help in advance :-)

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

That same NEWBIES post that you have already found has lots of example Defences linked from it.

Ralph-y

you need to answer the above .....



so many questions ....


who do UK CPM have a contract with ?


Do you have a management association / committee ?



what does your lease say re parking ?



what do the other tenants say ?



more questions to follow ...


Ralph:cool:

NeilCr

Ralph-y wrote: »

you need to answer the above .....



so many questions ....


who do UK CPM have a contract with ?


Do you have a management association / committee ?



what does your lease say re parking ?



what do the other tenants say ?



more questions to follow ...


Ralph:cool:

To add

What do the other owners (including your landlord) say?

Why couldn't these new owners park two cars?

What does your tenancy agreement say about parking?

What does your landlords lease say about parking?

mjf87

In answer to all questions so far,

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?
Issue Date: The 18th July 2019

who do UK CPM have a contract with ?
I assume with the strata management but it was organised by these neighbours who can log in and send pictures.

Do you have a management association / committee ?
My lease is with the owners of the flat but there is a strata management company

what does your lease say re parking ?
it doesn't mention parking at all

what do the other tenants say ?
everyone was pretty disgruntled around the time when it was first implemented but its all calmed down now that its been enforced for over a year now and since these neighbours have been less vindictive.

What do the other owners (including your landlord) say?
Our landlords say they "don't want to be involved either way"

Why couldn't these new owners park two cars?
The courtyard shape means that those neighbours have to parallel park between two other residents spaces. Everyone else can park in a way that their second car blocks only their own car and doesn't impede anyone else's

What does your tenancy agreement say about parking?
nothing. Parking isnt mentioned

What does your landlords lease say about parking?
?? My tenancy agreement is with the landlords and doesn't involve the strata management company.

KeithP

mjf87 wrote: »

Issue Date: The 18th July 2019.

With a Claim Issue Date of 18th July, and having done the Acknowledgement of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 20th August 2019 to file your Defence.

That's over two weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a 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.

The_Deep

and essentially instigated that UK CPM patrol our courtyard, issuing fines to anyone parking a second car.

I am puzzled, please explain. Havre you read this?

https://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/11/residential-parking.html

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams so consider complaining 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.

mjf87

The_Deep wrote: »

and essentially instigated that UK CPM patrol our courtyard, issuing fines to anyone parking a second car.

Sorry if i didnt quite explain that. I meant that UK CPM are issuing the charges but the actual photographs of peoples cars when fines have been issues through the mail have been coming from these neighbours. The neighbours would upload them to UK CPM and UK CPM would be more than happy to send out a charge in the mail.

I saw a warden once that I spoke to regarding parking second cars and he said that by his judgement he could only ticket the people parking without permits in the windscreen. He said that as there were no white lines there was no grounds for putting a charge on anyones windscreen as long as they had their permit.

oldernonethewiser

Please don't call them fines, they aren't. They are invoices.



Thanks

NeilCr

Have you, in any way, got an allocated space that is for your sole use?

If so, how do you know it's yours?

And the landlords lease with the freeholder (do you know who this is?) is relevant as it may have something in it about parking

Worth asking your landlord for sight of it.

Please don't assume who the parking contract is with. Again, if you have contact with the landlord ask the question.

"Guessing a bit" It sounds like there is a residents association (freeholder) who have agreed to bring in parking control and that the new neighbours have "volunteered" to take pictures of offending cars. It, also, sounds like that there was a bit of a free for all for parking which you guys worked out amongst yourselves. And then the new neighbours arrived...

Fruitcake

The important thing is to work out, with whom do YOU have a parking contract?

If there is nothing in your lease/AST, no agreement with your landlord, and nothing in your head lease, then you are not required to display a permit, and your lease/AST has primacy over anything a third party unregulated scammer says, and any PCN you have received has been unfairly issued, and your data unlawfully obtained from the DVLA.