County Court Claim - parking Eye

RosieCottage

Hi all

I have been reading your stickies. Thank you for all the helpful advice.

I have received a county court claim form from Northampton(dated 12 August 2019) and have filed Acknowledgement of Service on 29th August. (Does this mean I have till about 14th Sept to file a defence?). Not sure of next step but I'm off to look at sticky thread to read on defence.

Thank you for reading
Rosie

The_Deep

Read this as well

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

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, many of whom are former clampers, 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

Le_Kirk

RosieCottage wrote: »

Hi all

I have been reading your stickies. Thank you for all the helpful advice.

I have received a county court claim form from Northampton(dated 12 August 2019) and have filed Acknowledgement of Service on 29th August. (Does this mean I have till about 14th Sept to file a defence?). Not sure of next step but I'm off to look at sticky thread to read on defence.

Thank you for reading
Rosie

If that is the issue date on the CCBC claim form, KeithP will be along to give you your dates for submitting AoS (note already done) and defence.

KeithP

RosieCottage wrote: »

I have received a county court claim form from Northampton(dated 12 August 2019) and have filed Acknowledgement of Service on 29th August.

With a Claim Issue Date of 12th August, and having done the Acknowledgement of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 16th September 2019 to file your Defence.

That's just one week 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. 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.

RosieCottage

Thank you for your replies 😀

I did not receive a response from parking eye when I wrote requesting durations of their grace period, only photo of vehicle on entry/exit. Can anyone advise if they know these please?

RosieCottage

This is the letter I sent to PE to which they only replied with photos of vehicle.



I dispute your 'parking charge', as the keeper of the vehicle. I deny any liability or contractual agreement and I will be making a formal complaint about your predatory conduct to your client landowner and to my MP.

There will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn. Since your PCN is a vague template, I require ALL photos taken and an explanation of the allegation and your evidence, i.e.:

- If the allegation concerns a PDT machine, the data supplied in response to this appeal must include the record of payments made - showing partial VRNs - and an explanation of the reason for the PCN, because your Notice does not explain it.

- If the allegation involves an alleged overstay of minutes, your evidence must include the actual grace period agreed by the landowner. If you fail to evidence the actual grace period that applies at this site or suggest that only one period applies, this will be disregarded as an attempt to mislead. In the absence of evidence, it will be reasonably taken to be a minimum of twenty minutes (ten on arrival and ten after parking time) in accordance with the official BPA article by Kelvin Reynolds about 'observation periods' on arrival being additional and separate to a 'grace period' at the end.

and will be legally entitled to a 'reasonable adjustment'. That can and should include an extension of time, over and above free or paid-for parking time.

- in all cases, you must include a close up actual photograph of the sign you contend was at the location on the material date.

Formal note:
Should you later pursue this charge by way of litigation, note that service of any legal documents by email is expressly disallowed and you are not entitled to assume that the data in this dispute/appeal remains the current address for service in the future.

Yours faithfully,


I am currently constructing draft defence.

Thank you for reading


- [ ]

Coupon-mad

Which site, what contravention and what circumstances caused it?

RosieCottage

Canvey island. Monico bar car park.

Paid for ticket but Overstay of 18 minutes.

Assisting my young child and infirm parent to car

Just seems extortionate parking charge for 3 hrs paid parking and 18 mins overstay.

Can they still charge if driver not named?

Coupon-mad

Yes of course, the POFA lets them pursue the keeper.

Overstay of 18 minutes.

Nope, that's what P/Eye want you to think. In fact, look at the entry time photo, and compare it with the time on the ticket when you paid (if you do not have these two things, send P/Eye a SAR for them).

Your case is that the BPA Code of Practice allows a 'transaction period' or observation period to read the signs after parking and then pay, and UNLIKE in the Beavis case, a contract in a PDT machine car park (where the driver has actually paid and not parked for nowt) does not start until the payment is made and the button pressed.

Search the forum for:

defence green button NCP

and adapt a defence that already covers this and mentions the NCP v HMRC case confirms when the contract starts. The point is, you are allowed some 10 mins at the start, IN ADDITION to at least 10 mins grace at the end.

A Judge will not know this so your job is to research it and evidence that you didn't breach the contract and in fact P/Eye breached their own rules on the two separate grace periods, as set by the BPA.

RosieCottage

Did have a disabled badge in windscreen at the time but didn't think acceptable in this car park

Coupon-mad

That is very important, as you can also use breach of the Equality Act 2010 by failing to make 'reasonable adjustments' to the arbitrary time limit, in anticipation of disabled visitors (it's called INDIRECT DISCRIMINIATION and there is no justification in law that they 'didn't know' that your parent was disabled - but P/eye WILL try to say that so be warned!).

Basically they needed a policy that tells people with a BB how to claim extra time.

Not that you breached the time anyway - see my earlier reply about the NCP case.