OPC Parking Charge - St Johns Retail Park (DCB Legal)

FrogsLegs

Hi All,
Looking for some advice please on the following Claim made against me:

Particulars of the claim:

1. The Defendant is indebted to the Claimant for a Parking charge issues to vehicle XXXX XXX at St Johns Retail Park
2. The PCN details are xx/xx/2016
3. The PCN(s) was issued on private land owned or managed by C. The vehicle was parked in breach of the Terms on Cs signs (the Contract), thuis incurring the PCN(s)
4. The driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not. D is liable as the driver or keeper. Despite requests, the PCN(s) is outstanding. The Contract entitles C to damages.
5. AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS
   
6. £160 being the total of the PCN(s) and damages.
7. Interest at a rate of 8% per annum pursuant to s.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 from the date hereof at a daily rate of £0.04 until judgement or sooner payment.
8. Costs and court fees

So here's the thing with St Johns retail park, it's free to park there for 2 hours ... It looks like the driver may have overstayed by 21 minutes in a FREE car park (minus 10 minutes grace period would be 11 minutes). The driver also spent in excess of £850 with retailers within the retail park in that day (although this likely has no relevance to the PCN).

The original charge amounted to £100 (£50 if paid within 14 days) for exceeding the two-hour free parking limit. Which in of itself seems overly disproportionate given there is no
proof of loss to OPC Ltd nor can this be obtained since the car park is FREE.
The driver recalls of the day, the signage on the entrance to the retail park was blocked by vehicles parked on double yellow lines - therefore has not entered into any contract with OPC. This can also be seen on Google maps during their Street View cars passing twice!
The driver also recalls upon trying to exit the retail park, congestion along the entry / exit road prevented the drivers leaving within the BPA guidelines of 15 minutes


In response to the claim, I have assembled the following Defence:

I received the claim XXXXXXXXX from the Northampton County Court on 30/03/2020. 

I assert that I am not liable to the Claimant for the sum claimed, or any amount at all for the following reasons:

1. The claimant failed to include a copy of their written contract as per Practice Direction 16 7.3(1) and Practice Direction 7C 1.4(3A). No indication is given as to the Claimants contractual authority to operate there as required by the Claimants Trade Association's Code of Practice 7.1 which says;
“If you do not own the land on which you are carrying out parking management, you must have the written authorisation of the landowner (or their appointed agent) before you can start operating on the land in question. The authorisation must give you the authority to carry out all the aspects of the management and enforcement of the site that you are responsible for. In particular, it must say that the landowner requires you to keep to the Code of Practice and that either you have the authority to pursue outstanding parking charges, through the courts if necessary or that you have the authority to pursue outstanding parking charges and, with their permission, through the courts if necessary”

1.1. On 11/04/2020 I sent a request for inspection of documents mentioned in the claimant’s statement of case under Civil Procedure Rule 31.14 to the Claimants legal representatives. I requested they provide:

A.      The contract between OBSSERVICES PARKING CONSULTANCY LIMITED and the landowner that assigns the right to enter into contracts with the public and make claims in their own name.

B.      Proof of planning permission granted for signage etc under the Town and Country Planning Act 2007

C.      Copies of the notice to driver, notice to keeper and any other correspondence from OBSSERVICES PARKING CONSULTANCY LIMITED & DCB Legal LTD to the defendant that they intend to rely upon in court.

D.      A detailed breakdown of the sums claimed

To which the Claimants legal representatives failed to respond. The claim therefore fails to comply with Civil Procedure Rule 16.4 and Practice Direction 16, 7.5-7.5 by failing to provide a copy of the contract details of any agreement by conduct.

2. The claimant has provided no evidence that the Defendant was the driver. The defendant avers that the Claimant is therefore limited to pursuing the keeper under the Protection of Freedoms act 2012 or POFA. PATAS and POPLA lead adjudicator and barrister Henry Michael Greenslade, clarified that with regard to keeper liability; “There is no reasonable presumption in law that the registered keeper of a vehicle is the driver and operators should never suggest anything of the sort.” (POPLA report 2015).

3. The Claimant has at no time provided an explanation how the ‘Parking Charge’ has been calculated, the conduct that gave rise to it or how the amount has escalated from £100 to £160. This appears to be an added cost with apparently no qualification and an attempt at double recovery, which the POFA Schedule 4 specifically disallows.
3.1. The Protection of Freedom Act Para 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper.
3.2. The driver did not enter into any 'agreement on the charge', no consideration flowed between the parties and no contract was established.
3.2.1. The Defendant denies that the Driver would have agreed to pay the original demand of £100 to agree to the alleged contract had the terms and conditions of the contract been properly displayed and accessible.

4. The particulars of claim do not meet the requirements of Practice Direction 16 7.5 as there is nothing which specifies how the terms were breached. Indeed, the particulars of claim are not clear and concise as is required by CPR 16.4 1(a).

4.1. The Claimants are known to be serial issuers of generic claims like this one. It is also true the Claimant have themselves been taken to court for malpractice and found guilty after numerous complaints to Trading Standards.

5. Signage displayed on the entrance to the car park can often be seen to be obstructed by vehicles parked along the entrance to the site. Google maps has on two separate occasions photographed the signage obstructed by (legally) parked vehicles, therefore not permitting the Driver to reliably enter any legal contract with the Claimant.

6. The Protection of Freedoms Act does not permit the Claimant to recover a sum greater than the parking charge on the day before a Notice to Keeper was issued. The Claimant cannot recover additional charges. The Defendant also has the reasonable belief that the Claimant has not incurred the stated additional costs and it is put to strict proof that they have been incurred. The total charge for parking at St Johns Retail Park is £0.00, the car park is FREE to park in. The PCN of £100 is in no way reasonable nor does it reflect any loss incurred by Claimant for overstaying by eleven minutes (assuming the ANPR equipment has been properly maintained and serviced) in a FREE car park. There is no proof of loss to Claimant nor can this be obtained.

7. I am bewildered as to why the Claimant waited this long to bring proceedings. The delay in bringing the claim is of their own making and I therefore dispute the interest claimed.

Considering all off the statements above the Defendant requests the case be dismissed

In the event that the relevant documents are received from the Claimants I will then be in a position to amend my defence, and would ask that the Claimants bear the costs of the amendment. 

It is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief as claimed or at all. 

Statement of Truth 

I, XX XXXXX XXXXX - The Defendant believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true.  

Does my Defence statement read okay and make sense? I have until Monday to submit, but thought it worth a shot if anyone could read over it and validate any obvious omissions?
Thank you!
FrogsLegs

Le_Kirk

Is this a court claim from CCBC?  If so what is the issue date of the claim form?  If they did add £60 as contractual/debt collecting/admin costs, there is a ready made defence for you here on this thread: -
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/suggested-template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-charge-cases-where-they-add-false-admin-costs/p1
It's worth a read.

FrogsLegs

@Le_Kirk Yes, it's from the CCBC. Issue date is the 31/03/2020. They give no breakdown other than:
Amount Claimed: £207.14
Court Fee: £25
Legal representative's costs: £50
Total amount: £282.14
Not sure if any of that constitutes them adding for "contractual/debt collecting/admin cost".

FrogsLegs

Le_Kirk said:

Is this a court claim from CCBC?  If so what is the issue date of the claim form?  If they did add £60 as contractual/debt collecting/admin costs, there is a ready made defence for you here on this thread: -
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/suggested-template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-charge-cases-where-they-add-false-admin-costs/p1
It's worth a read.

They do state in the Particulars of the Claim:
£160 being the total of the PCN(s) and damages.
Interest at a rate of 8% per annum pursuant to s.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 from the date hereof at a daily rate of £0.04 until judgement or sooner payment.
Which does line up with the original fine being £100 (Reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days). 
Would you suggest using the templated defence in this case?
Thanks,
FrogsLegs

Redx

A typical claim is for £200 or less , so that figure above is an abuse of process and they must have added at least £60 or more as spurious charges as seen above

The amount claimed would be no more than £100 which was the PCN charge and on the signs not £207

The statement of truth is incorrect since the beginning of this month

Yes use the latest template defence by coupon mad

Umkomaas

There are a number of OPC court claims currently being served and for which forum threads have already been opened. Please do some searches of the first (say) 10 pages of the forum and read up on the advice given for these cases. Advice for those cases will very likely be all but the same for your case, please follow it. If you find any great divergence in circumstances, please come back on this thread for further advice. 

You do realise that while a court claim has been made (and you must deal with it, not ignore it), it is little more than an attempt to turn the screws hoping you'll simply just pay up to avoid further aggravation. How many, if any, actually get to court, we will only know in the fullness of time. 

This outfit has criminal 'form'. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123390/7-000-drivers-names-sold-criminals-How-DVLA-21m-selling-details-4-85m-motorists.html

and at the St John's Retail Park. How they can continue to contract with OPC after all the bad publicity - shameless. 

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2011/03/31/26000-fine-for-parking-firm/

FrogsLegs

Absolutely! I had no intention of paying them a single penny.... Disgusting rodents they are!
Just needed to put a defence together that made sense, and wasn't aware of the template mentioned here. Thank you for the help, it is much appreciated. And hopefully sink these low lifes a little lower so they can't try to rob others!
I'll get working on that template now
FrogsLegs

KeithP

FrogsLegs said:

...it's from the CCBC. Issue date is the 31/03/2020.

With a Claim Issue Date of 31st March, you had until Monday 20th April to file an Acknowledgment of Service. 
I am going to assume that you did file an Acknowledgment of Service by that date. Please confirm. Your MCOL claim history will have the definitive answer.

If you have not filed an AoS within that timescale then you must file a Defence before 8am on Monday morning - 27th April - but you may already be too late.

Having filed an AoS in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 4th May 2020 to file your Defence.

That's just over a week 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, but Le-Kirk has already given you a link to that.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

FrogsLegs

Thanks @KeithP
I did indeed file an AoS on the 4th April, I thought I had 28 days from the 31st March, which is why I thought I had to get it in by Monday! Glad to hear I have a bit more time, either way I intend to get it in this weekend!
Thank you all!

Ralph-y

it is probably a bit late but ....

"The driver also spent in excess of £850 with retailers within the retail park"

I would be contacting such retailer and asking about a return/refund as the items are now to expensive

Ralph

KeithP

FrogsLegs said:

Thanks @KeithP
I did indeed file an AoS on the 4th April, I thought I had 28 days from the 31st March, which is why I thought I had to get it in by Monday! Glad to hear I have a bit more time, either way I intend to get it in this weekend!
Thank you all!

That's good to hear.

Don't push too hard to get your Defence filed this weekend. You may find it worthwhile to wait for critique from those who don't post at weekends but only post during the week.