BW Legal / Link Parking Court Summons on Resident Parking Permit Land (I have a Permit!)

marketsqhero

Hi;

Background.
I live in an apartment complex (have done since 03/2018) and as part of the rent I pay an extra £50 per month for permit to park in one of 20 spaces (non allocated), and this is monitored / managed by Link Parking on behalf of the landlords.

In September of 2019 I misplaced my permit, it was on a Saturday morning, and the letting office is shut until Monday, so I had no way of contacting anyone for a replacement at that point in time. I parked in one of the spaces I'm entitled to as a paying permit holder with the intention of getting my replacement permit on Monday. I left the. ar and never went back to it until Monday am, at which point I had not one but two parking tickets!
One was timestamped 12:30 on Saturday, the other was timestamped 12:30 on Sunday (really, exactly 24 hours apart!) for parking without displaying a permit.

I ignored them, eventually got letter from BW which I ignored, eventually I did call them once and explain and told them how I was a permit holder, have been for over 2.5 years, park there every single day, was not denying anybody else a space as I already say for it etc etc

I thought they'd gone away until I received a court summons from Northampton Bulk Processing for the grand sum of £400 for the two fines.

Basically I'm prepared to defend this and go to court if I have to. What should my next steps be? I guess I firstly need to dispute all of the claim within 14 days of service, and then file my defence within 28 days? Just wondering if  I should plead my defence based on the above, or whether all that is actually irrelevant and I should be defending on some other grounds?

thanks for any help in advance

Redx

It's not a summons , it's a small claim for a civil dispute , an MCOL claim pack from the CCBC in Northampton

Post the issue date from the claim form below

Do the AOS after at least 5 days from that issue date

Link and b w legal are notorious for these claims

Your defence should be based on the template defence by coupon mad in the Newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum

Email a SAR to the DPO at link as well , attaching a copy of the claim form as proof of I D under the GDPR law

marketsqhero

Issue Date is 15 Dec 2020

Redx

marketsqhero said:

Issue Date is 15 Dec 2020

Then do the AOS this week , today if you like , don't do anything else on the MCOL website , just the AOS only

Then email the SAR to the DPO at Link with a copy of the claim form attached

Then start adapting the template defence by coupon mad , altering paragraphs 2 and 3 only

Post your draft paragraphs 2 & 3 only below for critique , do not post the rest of the Defence draft , we are checking your work , not hers

Read a dozen or more Court claim threads by other members on here , to get the idea of what to do and why

D_P_Dance

Please read this and complain to your MP

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/11/residential-parking.htmlhttp://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/11/residential-parking.html

Umkomaas

You need to check what your legal documents outlining your residency say about the car parking conditions. Often they say nothing - that's pretty powerful!

Were Link installed on site before or after your occupation of the property?

marketsqhero

Great, thanks for the advice. AOS just completed. Content of SAR below for Link Parking's DPO, is this correct before I send? Should I also email BW Legal to advise them I have raised the SAR as mentioned in the Newbie thread?

To DPO - Link Parking

I wish to raise a SAR for all relevant information pertaining to the CCBC claim you have issued, reference {claim number}

As part of the SAR I would like for each of the PCNs issued

a) ALL photos taken

b) ALL letters sent and received

c) ALL data held

d) ALL evidence you will rely on

e) A full copy of the PCN

f) a list of all PCNs outstanding against this vehicle, registration {VRN} as any claim must be for all PCNs

Regards

KeithP

marketsqhero said:

Issue Date is 15 Dec 2020

With a Claim Issue Date of 15th December, you have until Monday 4th January 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 18th January 2021 to file your Defence.

That's over four 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.

marketsqhero

Umkomaas said:

You need to check what your legal documents outlining your residency say about the car parking conditions. Often they say nothing - that's pretty powerful!

Were Link installed on site before or after your occupation of the property?

The only thing I was ever sent was a summary of the conditions via email from the letting agency. Copied below:

Residential Parking Spaces

Dear Residents,

I am pleased to advise that the parking management at The Brewery Apartments will come into effect shortly. As soon as signage is ready to go up and the remaining details have been finalised the official start date will be confirmed but we expect this to be 1st November 2017. Below is a summary of the system & how it will work:

Please note the system will be strictly enforced. Once tickets have been issued, details go straight to DVLA electronically and enforcement action follows within prescribed timescales. Tickets will have the headline charge of £100, reduced to £60 for payment within 14 days.

• Parking spaces 1-22 on the attached plan have been earmarked for residential use. 

• Bennington Street residents with a right to park (“authorised residents”) may park in any of these 22 spaces. They may not park in spaces 23 or 24 or any of the other spaces further along Oxford Passage which are allocated for Brewery Quarter staff and contractor use. 

• Link Parking will shortly issue a Parking Permit for each authorised resident, which will be available for collection from Hamptons upon notification.

• The Permit will simply be numbered (no names or registration numbers).

• The Permit is to be displayed on the dashboard of the car being parked in the residential spaces. Windscreen Permit cases will not be supplied.

• Residents may transfer the Permit to another car temporarily. For example if a new car is bought they can use it straight away rather than wait until their new registration details have been passed to Link Parking. Or if a resident has a visitor, you can let the visitor use an available space by placing your Permit in the visitor’s car. The resident cannot park in a residential space as well while the visitor is using their Permit.

• Any car parked in a residential space without a Permit properly displayed will receive a ticket. Likewise any resident parking in the staff parking spaces will be ticketed, whether displaying a Permit or not.

• There will be no exceptions so if an authorised resident does not display their Permit, they will receive a ticket. We will not enter into discussions about cancelling tickets because the resident forgot/the Permit fell off/the Permit has been lost etc. A Permit must be displayed and parking must be in the right location for it to be allowed. 

• Lost Permits should be reported to Hamptons by email as soon as possible so that Link parking can be notified. There is normally a £10 fee for replacing a lost permit but we will waive this for the first loss. The resident will have to pay £10 each time thereafter – Link parking will organise this charge directly with the resident. Whilst a new Permit is being organised, arrangements will be made with Link Parking so that the resident can continue to park from the time the Permit was reported lost until the new Permit is received. Tickets issued before the Permit has been reported as lost will not be cancelled and must be paid.

Please make arrangements to park away from the development if you do not have an agreed right to park. If you would be interested in arranging parking please do not hesitate to contact me as a matter of urgency as all parking is provided on a first come first served basis.

marketsqhero

KeithP said:

marketsqhero said:

Issue Date is 15 Dec 2020

With a Claim Issue Date of 15th December, you have until Monday 4th January 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 18th January 2021 to file your Defence.

That's over four 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.

Thanks for this info. I have completed the AOS, and have sent a SAR to Link Parking. Should I also sent an email to BW Legal to advise them as per the Newbie thread, with the comment about putting the case "on hold" for 30 days?

Half_way

You said

" the parking management at The Brewery Apartments will come into effect shortly."

What was there before hand??