Letter Before Claim - Gladstone Solicitors

Humphrey0106

Dear all,

I received a Parking Charge Notice through the post from UK Car Park Management approximately a year ago for 'not parking in a marked bay' with photographs of my vehicle.

In fairness, on reflection I was guilty of this offence, though I genuinely did not realise it at the time. To give some context, I was parked in a small retail park on the outskirts of town. The car park has 12 bays, all of which apear to be of equal size (certainly to the naked eye, I admit I have not measured them). Each bay has three parking spaces, which are marked out by brickwork on the ground. Unbeknown to me, one of these bays actually only has two marked spaces and my offense occurred when I ignorantly parked between two cars which were correctly parked within these marked bays. It is worth pointing out that I had plenty of room to fit my large car in this space.

After coming back to the car after a quick visit (circa 5 minutes) to the small Tesco local store (the main business in this small retail park), I was informed by onlookers that a man had been taking pictures of my vehicle. They pointed to the man, who was sitting in a car parked in one of the parking spaces in the bay opposite. On asking him what the issue was, he identified himself as parking warden and advised me of my offense, for which I apologised having been completely ignorant of the marked parking space determined by the brickwork on the floor. He seemed reasonable and said he'd cancel the ticket on this occasion. Low and behold, a couple of days later a PCN arrived through the post.

Morally, I can't help but feel the charge is unfair. I have no idea why the area I parked in was not a designated space. Also, the fact the warden was himself taking up a valid space, meaning I or other shoppers couldn't use it.

I have had a series of letters requesting payment for this offense though in all honestly I have ignored them, preferring to badger Tesco further in the hope they would be able to have some influence but sadly they have not been interested ("we are not responsible for the car park" etc).

Over the weekend, I received a letter from Gladstones Solicitors. This is a 'letter before claim', requires payment to them and suggests they will commence legal proceedings if the debt is not paid. From what I've gathered it sounds likely that court proceedings will follow.

So, reading the NEWBIE advice page it said to start my own thread. Am I right in saying I should send a holding letter to Gladstones and a SAR request to UK Car Park Management to get all the data they have on me?

Just wanted to check the above is the right course of action to take? I am generally very careful with parking but I got it wrong on this occasion, which I have to admit. I cant help but feel the charge (now £160) is excessive and that my actions were not in any way disruptive or causing problems. Do I have any hope in fighting this or shall i just admit I was in the wrong and fork out?

Any advice welcome. Thank you.

Egbert_Nobacon

Does this LBC give 30 days to respond and include financial forms (which you don’t fill in) ?

If so reply stating you are seeking debt advice and they should put this on hold for 30 days.
This will give you time to see your SAR.

Also search the forum for ABUSE OF PROCESS regarding the £60 fake add on.
Judges have previously struck out claims on this alone.

Humphrey0106

Thanks for your reply, Egbert.

Yes, it states I have 30 days to "pay or reply". I'm not sure about the financial forms you refer to, if I'm honest. The letter does mention a 'Reply Form' and 'PAP'.

Humphrey0106

Hello all,

Just looking for some honest opinions here. I've now received a county court claim form in relation to this. They are looking to claim £249 off me.

Now, as stated in my original post, I accept that I was in the wrong though blissful ignorance. I parked in an area which was not an actual parking space. To explain, the car park has 12 bays, all of which appear to be of equal size. Each bay has three parking spaces, which are marked out by brickwork on the ground. Unbeknown to me, one of these bays actually only has two marked spaces and my offence occurred when I ignorantly parked between two cars which were correctly parked within these marked bays. The space is marked out by brickwork on the ground which I didn't see when driving my car in. I suppose I was rushing, it really is the sort of place where you just park for a couple of minutes while you run into the shop for a sandwich.

In fairness, I should have been more observant of this and not left my car in this space so I cant really argue. I've been visiting the shops in this small complex for years and had genuinely never realised this particular bay only had two spaces.

Maybe I should have admitted I was wrong and paid up at the first opportunity, however i cant help but feel the £60 they wanted off me was excessive for what was a genuine mistake and caused no damage whatsoever.

I've done some reading of other people on the forum who have received county court claim forms and from what I've seen some of them have more of case than I do (given PCNs despite displaying permits etc) whereas in all honesty I've just been ignorant.

Honest advice, is it worth me fighting this? Have I got a case at all or would i be wasting my time? Or should I just admit I was wrong and take the hit?

Thanks

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Humphrey0106

Hello Keith.
Issue date is 7th November. Only opened it yesterday though, as I was away last week.

beamerguy

Humphrey0106 wrote: »

Hello all,

They are looking to claim £249 off me.

Thanks

They have added a fake £60 which is abuse of process

GLADSTONES = ABUSE OF PROCESS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6014081/abuse-of-process-district-judge-tells-bwlegal

See post # 14 by coupon-mad, the text which you copy has already been written for you to copy

KeithP

Humphrey0106 wrote: »

Issue date is 7th November.

With a Claim Issue Date of 7th November, you have until Tuesday 26th November to do the Acknowledgment 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.

Having done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 10th December 2019 to file your Defence.

That's three 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 could 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. No need to do anything on MCOL, but do check it 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 trying to keep you under pressure. Just file it.
   
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.

Coupon-mad

You can defend this. What you describe is poor markings, and so the signs that relies upon those markings can be deemed unfair as part of your legal argument (breach of para 18 of Schedule 2 of the CRA 0215).

Humphrey0106

Thank you so much guys, points taken from all of your posts.

Just done the AoS, with the guidance on the excellent NEWBIE thread.

Been reading a lot this afternoon and i'll continue to do so in order to get my head around it all. I have a few days off work coming up so i'll be trying to get as much as done as possible in that time in terms of compiling a defence.

Coupon-mad

As it is UK Car Park Management, search the forum for:

Jack Chapman signature

as that will tell you what might be sent later, that you can object to!

And read CEC16's thread to learn how to argue against the added £60.