Letter before action. CEL

Mrfoxyloxey

Sorry meant 20th Feb.

A claim was issued against you on 20/02/2020

Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 26/02/2020 at 19:04:19

Your acknowledgment of service was received on 27/02/2020 at 08:05:41

Not_for_real said:

Did you admit to being the driver at any point prior to this? If not then defend as keeper

Yes I did. 

KeithP

Mrfoxyloxey said:

Sorry meant 20th Feb.

A claim was issued against you on 20/02/2020

Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 26/02/2020 at 19:04:19

Your acknowledgment of service was received on 27/02/2020 at 08:05:41

With a Claim Issue Date of 20th February, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 24th March 2020 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.

To file a Defence, follow the guidance in this post:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76880595#Comment_76880595

Guidance on creating a Defence is also in that thread - in the first post on that thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Mrfoxyloxey

Thanks very much.

Mrfoxyloxey

FrankCannon said:

Mrfoxyloxey said:

5.    The signage on the site in question was unclear and not prominent and did not meet the British Parking Association (BPA) Code of Practice or the International Parking Community (IPC) Code of Practice. The Claimant was a member of the IPC at the time and committed to follow its requirements. Therefore no contract has been formed with driver to pay the amount demanded by the Claimant, or any additional fee charged if unpaid in 28 days.

I believe that CEL are members of the BPA and not the IPC.

Is this Wells-Next-The-Sea by any chance ?

Yes it is.

FrankCannon

I had a similar case to you at this car park, but CEL bailed out at the LBC stage. There are a few issues that the experts could advise on.

Firstly, as you paid the fee, you could include frustration of contract into your defence.

Secondly, there is a mixture of signage at the site, some erected by the Harbour Commissioners before CEL infected the site, probably left in situ to lull regulars into thinking that the charging regime had not changed. The signage facing the road at the entrance does not comply with the BPA CoP.

Thirdly, the site is relatively small, but very busy, and CEL will have no evidence of the parking time other than from the ANPR entry and exit times.

Lastly, the site falls under statutory control from the Wells Harbour Revision Order 1994, but I'm not sure that it's going to help you in your case. I've been on this forum for about a year now, and I'm still confused about byelaws and statutory control, but Nosferatu1001 wrote an post last month about byelaws that I found interesting ;

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76864190#Comment_76864190

Mrfoxyloxey

FrankCannon said:

I had a similar case to you at this car park, but CEL bailed out at the LBC stage. There are a few issues that the experts could advise on.
The signage facing the road at the entrance does not comply with the BPA CoP.

Thirdly, the site is relatively small, but very busy, and CEL will have no evidence of the parking time other than from the ANPR entry and exit times.

Lastly, the site falls under statutory control from the Wells Harbour Revision Order 1994, but I'm not sure that it's going to help you in your case. I've been on this forum for about a year now, and I'm still confused about byelaws and statutory control, but Nosferatu1001 wrote an post last month about byelaws that I found interesting ;

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76864190#Comment_76864190

Agree. 
The signs at the entrance faced into the car park and the writing's very small.
It was the last day of the school holiday summer holidays and the car park was extremely busy.
The byelaws, from what I have read  and understood are only good to use if you've not admitted been the driver.

Mrfoxyloxey

Coupon-mad said:

Received county court letter on the 20th March,

Amazing!  Today is only 4th...

What's the ISSUE DATE of the claim and on what date (exactly) did you do the AOS?

You seem to have missed the new template defence (search the forum) and not read today's CEL one where I added some words about Wonga-man to someone's witness statement, that you can add to the template defence.

I'm looking for the CEL witness statement you refer to.. Could you help please?

KeithP

Re-read the last couple of sentences in my 4 March at 9:25PM post above for the template.

FrankCannon

I was referring to the signs facing the road. I've attached some images from December 2018 and February 2019. The first shows the entrance sign on the left-hand side, which complies with Appendix B of the BPA CoP, and the second image shows the sign on the right-hand side, which doesn't comply with the CoP. The driver can't see the compliant sign when approaching from the east. The last image shows a sign that claims that you could face a 'Penalty' if you do not buy a ticket within 10 minutes. As the Harbour Master claims that there are no byelwas in place to control parking, then they must be mis-representing their authority as per the BPA CoP ;

14.2 You must not use terms which imply that parking is being managed, controlled and enforced under statutory authority. This includes using terms such as ‘fine’, ‘penalty’ or ‘penalty charge notice’.

Mrfoxyloxey

KeithP said:

Re-read the last couple of sentences in my 4 March at 9:25PM post above for the template.

Thanks KeithP, I got the template downloaded a few days ago but it was the WS Coupon-mad mentioned I was looking for.

The WS comes later right? I was just looking for what to add in #17 on the defence.

I've put in I admit to being the driver and I'm going down the lines of the signs not being clear.

Thanks FrankCannon for the photos too. Not sure how anyone's expected to see them, no matter which direction you travel, when theres people/kids/traffic everywhere, the last thing you're looking out for is T&C.