Received a N1SDT Form from County Court Business Centre - for parking at my own home on private land

mattp87

Hi all. 
Having read through the newbie posts - and attempting to post on another thread and realising it was the wrong place - i came across the below: -
3. - if you get a court claim from the parking firm (cannot come from a debt collector!), do not panic, Do NOT ignore court papers!! Start a new thread if you need to actually defend one of these but not to tell us about debt collector drivel.

So, to describe my scenario, and any help or previous experience of this would be greatly appreciated. This is a great place to read up on parking fines and there has been some wonderful help from people. So hopefully this makes sense.

I originally contested a parking ticket at my own home at my flat (I am a leaseholder in a freehold block) over 12 months ago with District Enforcement (Previous Car Park management company) - to which they completely ignored my rationale about my pass actually being the car but sliding down so that you could only view the top of the pass (It's blue, and every other cars pass is blue - and I've been parking here for 11 years, to which they paid no attention). 

They said it doesn't matter and issued me with a ticket anyway and that regardless of it being my own home and owning a car parking space and having parked legally, it was irrelevant as my pass wasn't fully on show. 
I didn't feel there was anything left to say, so I ignored it and felt I had said enough, thinking about common sense and ignoring multiple people having parked there and got off scott free. 

I then received a letter some months later from Gladstones Solicitors demanding an amount to be paid - I checked online as you do and all points said that I should argue with the management company and NOT the parking company and that I don't them a penny. So I ignored that letter and the second one.

However, today, some months later I have received a Claim Form letter from the County Court Business Centre demanding I pay a few hundred pounds for the original ticket. 
I rang the court directly who have advised to dispute the claim and I can request mediation.

What is your advice? I don't feel obliged to pay it,  my pass was in the car and if he had looked completely, or taken note of the residents who live there and have passes already, this would never have happened. I did produce pictures at the time. This also happened to my girlfriend but she never received anything like this.  

Has anyone been through this and if so, what did you do? A CCJ would massively damage my work position given the rules in place. But I don't feel I should pay to park outside my own home, in a parking space which I OWN and have a right to be there!

Apologies if this is put in the wrong section or it has already been covered. I have been looking through the newbie threads and searched for numerous keywords and I cannot see this same problem, sorry if this is a repeat or if it has been published elsewhere, I really can't find it!

Thank you in advance, and really, keep up the good work on this forum, it's so kind with it being free and so in-depth with the advice given. 

KeithP

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

To discover how to deal with it, you now need to be reading the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

mattp87

KeithP said:

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

To discover how to deal with it, you now need to be reading the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

3rd July. I have been advised to defend the claim and ask for mediation. OK, I'll read through again, I'm assuming I've missed something. Thank you. 

KeithP

Mediation will not be any help to you, but you will see that when you read everything in that NEWBIES post.

With a Claim Issue Date of 3rd July, you have until Wednesday 22nd July to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an AoS, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an AoS, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 5th August 2020 to file your Defence.

That's four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create and file a Defence, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service instructions.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.

nosferatu1001

What does your lease state about your parking space. No guessing, precise wording required. 

mattp87

Here is an exert from the lease which captures the parking element. I am reading through to see what else there is.

nosferatu1001

There will likely be something around reasonable regulations, but of course this has nothing to do with taking away your right to park as given at 5, which is unfettered apart from it being taxed and licensed. 
Confirm that you have gone online, following the instructions in the newbies thread, to Acknowledge service. You must do this now. No delaying. 
There is a template defence, but you must add to it that you are a leasholder with the right to park and no requirement to display a permit. 

mattp87

nosferatu1001 said:

There will likely be something around reasonable regulations, but of course this has nothing to do with taking away your right to park as given at 5, which is unfettered apart from it being taxed and licensed. 
Confirm that you have gone online, following the instructions in the newbies thread, to Acknowledge service. You must do this now. No delaying. 
There is a template defence, but you must add to it that you are a leasholder with the right to park and no requirement to display a permit. 

I will do this today - I have the form in front of me. 
Thank you to all who helped - I will follow the dropbox link provided!
I'll let you know the outcome.

nosferatu1001

Remember to do it online - never use post for this. Online only. 
Nope, you ve got a defence to write, so you will be showing us your draft defence, based on the template but adding in the crucial argument that as a leaseholder with a granted right to park in that space, the claimant had nothing to offer the defendant, and so no contract could ever be formed, and the alleged lack of a permit - displayed purely as a courtesy - does not mean the alleged contract was breached. 

Fruitcake

mattp87 said:

nosferatu1001 said:

There will likely be something around reasonable regulations, but of course this has nothing to do with taking away your right to park as given at 5, which is unfettered apart from it being taxed and licensed. 
Confirm that you have gone online, following the instructions in the newbies thread, to Acknowledge service. You must do this now. No delaying. 
There is a template defence, but you must add to it that you are a leasholder with the right to park and no requirement to display a permit. 

I will do this today - I have the form in front of me. 
Thank you to all who helped - I will follow the dropbox link provided!
I'll let you know the outcome.

When you do the AoS, do not put anything in the defence box, not a single character. 

nosferatu1001

I would also consider a counterclaim for tortious interfernce with lease (right to peaceable enjoyment), trespass to goods (they had to enter your demised space to check for a permit), breach of data protection (they never had rights to offer parking on your space, meaning they never had reasonable cause to access the DVLA record) etc.