Euro Car Parks fine in a private residents car park in Scotland

BigColF4

Hello,
I have been scouring through forums online but am struggling to find an answer.
I thought there would be a simple yes or no answer to this query but it appears not ...
My wife has been handed "The Simple Procedure Notice of Claim" paperwork on 28th February 2020 from two men that came to our house. There is also a copy of "The Simple Procedure Time to Pay Application' and 'The Simple Procedure Response Form'.

The claimant is  the well known on here Euro Car Parks Ltd.

The men told my wife she had 14 days to pay but the document clearly states that the last date for a response is: 26/03/2020.

Euro Car Parks Ltd are demanding £2,100 for 21 alleged parking charges; each parking charge was for £70 amounting to £1,470 with an additional administration fee of £30 per alleged charge amounting to £630.

The alleged offences occurred in Glasgow on a private car park for residents of the apartments we used to live at. There are no facilities to purchase parking tickets / permits etc. We have not lived at this address since January 2018 (so over 2 years since these guys decided to show up at our door). When the property was purchased the residents car park was free for all residents. The alleged offences are dated between 31/01/2017 and 16/07/2017. They have attached a photograph of the sign from Euro Parks outside of the complex but no pictures of my wifes car and certainly no evidence of who the driver was at any of the alleged offences.

On section D8 of the form it states that "The Claimants have made repeated application to the Respondent for payment, but the Respondent refuses or delays to do so and accordingly the present action has been rendered necessary."  This is simply untrue as my wife has never received any communications from them regarding the alleged parking offences.

My wife has spoken to the Citizens Advice Burea but they were unable to help as they felt it was too "complex" for them. They recommended speaking to a lawyer which I am willing to do but every time we call one they say they don't deal with these type of cases; the only one that said they did wanted £250 for a 1 hour consultation.

Does anybody have any experience / advice with these type of cases in Scotland as I know at the moment the legislation is slightly different.

Thank you in advance for anybody who can offer any guidance.

Redx

they are correct, its very complex and this isnt a legal forum plus very few people have experience of the scottish system , hence why you wont find very much, most of the experience here relates to england and wales and our MCOL system

although you may get some advice on here, for free, consulting a lawyer is what Martin Lewis would tell you to do too , because there is definitely no YES or NO answers to this simple procedures system, but expect a lot more of these cases in the future since your new transport bill came in recently

BigColF4

Redx said:

they are correct, its very complex and this isnt a legal forum plus very few people have experience of the scottish system , hence why you wont find very much, most of the experience here relates to england and wales and our MCOL system

although you may get some advice on here, for free, consulting a lawyer is what Martin Lewis would tell you to do too

Thank you, it's proving very difficult to find a lawyer that actually specialises in this type of thing. I will keep calling around. Thank you for your response. 

Coupon-mad

The men told my wife she had 14 days to pay but the document clearly states that the last date for a response is: 26/03/2020.

She probably has time to acknowledge it to extend the time but as this is Scotland you will have to read the Simple Procedure or find a local free law centre to advise you on the procedure and timelines.  

Pretty sure Scotland has free law centres and charities if you Google well...

We don't see many in Scotland and none of the advice here relates to Scottish claims.

Euro Car Parks Ltd are demanding £2,100 for 21 alleged parking charges; each parking charge was for £70 amounting to £1,470 with an additional administration fee of £30 per alleged charge amounting to £630.

Well if she gets her head around the abuse of process argument we use, then she can get the 'admin fees' struck out, because the CRA 2015 applies north of the border same as it does here.

And she needs to show that more than one person drove that car at the time(s) so it is only ever 50/50 per parking event that she was driving if two of you could have parked.  That fails to tip the 'balance of probabilities' in favour of ECP and they cannot 'assume' she was driving and nor can they hold her liable for any parking events of yours.

She will also be able to argue that, notwithstanding who was driving (unproven) the only named drivers were both authorised residents of the estate at the time, not trespassers - she will need a copy of your old tenancy agreement or leasehold title if you owned the flat, to show what rights and easements were granted to residents that this regime trampled all over.

I guess she failed to tell the DVLA her new address for the car when you moved.  It is NOT just about updating a person's driving licence.  I expect she failed to update the DVLA re the car's address, and so they've been writing to the old address all this time.

Coupon-mad

That was easy:
https://www.gcu.ac.uk/lawclinic/

My first Google result.  There must be more in Glasgow!

BigColF4

Coupon-mad said:

The men told my wife she had 14 days to pay but the document clearly states that the last date for a response is: 26/03/2020.

She probably has time to acknowledge it to extend the time but as this is Scotland you will have to read the Simple Procedure or find a local free law centre to advise you on the procedure and timelines.  

Pretty sure Scotland has free law centres and charities if you Google well...

We don't see many in Scotland and none of the advice here relates to Scottish claims.

Euro Car Parks Ltd are demanding £2,100 for 21 alleged parking charges; each parking charge was for £70 amounting to £1,470 with an additional administration fee of £30 per alleged charge amounting to £630.

Well if she gets her head around the abuse of process argument we use, then she can get the 'admin fees' struck out, because the CRA 2015 applies north of the border same as it does here.

And she needs to show that more than one person drove that car at the time(s) so it is only ever 50/50 per parking event that she was driving if two of you could have parked.  That fails to tip the 'balance of probabilities' in favour of ECP and they cannot 'assume' she was driving and nor can they hold her liable for any parking events of yours.

She will also be able to argue that, notwithstanding who was driving (unproven) the only named drivers were both authorised residents of the estate at the time, not trespassers - she will need a copy of your old tenancy agreement or leasehold title if you owned the flat, to show what rights and easements were granted to residents that this regime trampled all over.

I guess she failed to tell the DVLA her new address for the car when you moved.  It is NOT just about updating a person's driving licence.  I expect she failed to update the DVLA re the car's address, and so they've been writing to the old address all this time.

That's a great help thank you. The car was actually sold (trade in with Arnold Clark) in October 2017 and we moved out of the address in January 2018. This is the first paperwork we have ever received regarding the tickets. 

BigColF4

Coupon-mad said:

That was easy:

My first Google result.  There must be more in Glasgow!

I did see this earlier but we no longer live in Glasgow, I will try them anyway as the alleged offence originated there. Thanks again. 

Confused962

Hello, 
Can I ask if there has been any update on your case?
I am going through something very similar...
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6055602/scotland-euro-car-parks-ltd-simple-procedure-claims-received/p1

Umkomaas

As the OP hasn't visited the forum for 5 months, he's unlikely to see this. Send him a personal message (PM) and ask him via that.