ParkingEye - Defence Form Evidence

stagebob_69

Hi,
I need some help/advice on my potential arguments against my ParkingEye fine which is going to County Court.
Background
I parked in the car park of The Range in Enfield back in July.
The ParkingEye sign states that the max allowed time is 2 hours of which the parking is free - sign attached
I unknowingly overstayed by 23 minutes, so a total of 2 hours and 23 minutes within the car park.
I initially decided to ignore the letters sent in the post as that had worked in the past with a different private parking company but it looks like ParkingEye like to escalate things to court.
Mitigating Circumstances/Evidence

As a result of the social distancing measures in place due to Covid, there were extremely long queue times to enter the shop (up to an hour just to get in) –attached photos

In addition to that there were also long queue times at the checkout to pay.

All of this resulted in me exceeding the allowed parking time of 2 hours.

It seems that I'm not the only customer that had unfortunately exceed the allowed parking time because of the long queues resulting from the social distancing measures - attached recent Google reviews left from customers.

Furthermore, the small print states that ParkingEye Ltd is authorised by the landowner to operate the private car park for and on its behalf.

I used the address of The Range (Suez Rd, Enfield EN3 7SY) to search in the land registry and couldn't find the land owner so I can't verify that claim by Parking Eye - attached screenshot from Land Registry

It's worth pointing out as evidence that penalty charge is excessive given the circumstances (23 minutes over) based on the ANPR  cameras which doesn't factor a 10 minute grace period.

Could you please let me know if my evidence is strong enough or whether I can add anything else to beef it up.

Thanks in advance!

Johnersh

Hmm don't like your chances on this, precisely because it's on all fours with the sup ct judgment in Beavis which basically also says its on you to build in contingency time when parking and nor to overstay. 

KeithP

stagebob_69 said:

I need some help/advice on my potential arguments against my ParkingEye fine which is going to County Court.

...it looks like ParkingEye like to escalate things to court.

You haven't said, but how far towards court are you?

Have you received a County Court Claim Form yet? If so, what is the Issue Date on it?

Redx

The Beavis case scuppered your chances based on the overstay plus on the alleged excessive charge , both arguments died 5 years ago with the Barry Beavis case , Google it

Covid may be an unknown factor in any court case but ignoring the NTK and paperwork did you no favours , they were bound to take it further. A landowner cancellation is best , it's always best , it's still the best option ( the Range won't own the land IMHO )

Find the landowner and complain using your covid argument , not the useless arguments

It's not a Penalty

If you have a CCBC claim form , post the issue date below

No evidence is submitted with a defence !!

Coupon-mad

It's worth pointing out as evidence that penalty charge is excessive given the circumstances (23 minutes over) based on the ANPR  cameras which doesn't factor a 10 minute grace period.

No, it's not worth including that at all. 

DO NOT use the word 'excessive' not that 'there was no loss'.

stagebob_69

Issue date is 02 Nov 2020

stagebob_69

I found an article on BBC news about a elderly lady being fined for overstaying in parking during the pandemic back in March. Sainsbury's revoked the parking fine after she complained.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52091664 
I've tried complaining to The Range but no luck.

Coupon-mad

Try again with a complaint to the CEO of the Range, because we did see a case of the Range cancelling one a while back.

We know that these get cancelled, so that article is not news to us, it happens all the time.  We have an entire long thread (going back more than 5 years but updated regularly in 2020) about successful complaints.  It's the first link in the NEWBIES thread and it is why complaining is 'Plan A'.

KeithP

stagebob_69 said:

Issue date is 02 Nov 2020

I am going to make the rash assumption that that is the issue date on your county court claim form.

With a Claim Issue Date of 2nd November, you have until Monday 23rd November 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 Monday 7th December 2020 to file your Defence.

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

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, 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.

stagebob_69

Thanks KeithP!

I wanted to ask what the best strategy would be to defend this ticket - I have mitigating circumstances (long queue times resulting from the social distancing measures) but is there anything else that would be recommended to add in that applies to this type of ParkingEye ticket?

I've had a look at the newbie FAQ's and the 2 example defences focus on the specific circumstances of those tickets such as it was a pay & display car park and time expired and the other one mentioning there was a hidden key pad inside Odeon.

stagebob_69

Redx said:

The Beavis case scuppered your chances based on the overstay plus on the alleged excessive charge , both arguments died 5 years ago with the Barry Beavis case , Google it

Covid may be an unknown factor in any court case but ignoring the NTK and paperwork did you no favours , they were bound to take it further. A landowner cancellation is best , it's always best , it's still the best option ( the Range won't own the land IMHO )

Find the landowner and complain using your covid argument , not the useless arguments

It's not a Penalty

If you have a CCBC claim form , post the issue date below

No evidence is submitted with a defence !!

@redx - I've checked on Land Registry and asked The Range but neither know who the landowner is...