Parking claim, SIP, Charles Street Car Park, Manchester

purple_elk

Hello all,
I am being pursued by SIP for a 'PCN' which I received in the post. It was received on 3/11/2018 after my van had been parked in Charles Street Car Park in Manchester. The 'PCN' stated the reason as 'insufficient fee paid'. The fee which had been paid was the standard parking fee for the carpark. The signage mentioned a greater fee for 'Vehicles above M1 Classification' but it was not understood that the vehicle being parked, which was in fact N1 classification, is considered to be above M1 classification. 
The signage also fails to mention what the penalty for failure to comply with the 'contract' would be.
I appealed at the time, but my appeal was rejected.
I have now received a letter before claim, which I received 1/12/20. I have submitted a Subject Access Request. Do I need to respond to the letter before claim as well?
I am planning to defend this on the grounds that the signage is difficult to understand and failed to state any penalty for failure to comply, and that the attempt to add additional costs to the penalty charge can be considered Abuse of Process, as SIP are attempting to charge twice for running costs of their company.
A precedent for this can be found here:

Claim number  F0DP201T District Judge Taylor
Southampton Court, 10th June 2019.
I have no legal background and very little experience with this kind of thing. Part of me wants to just settle, because this feels like more effort than I would want to expend for the sake of £160, however I believe that it is our duty to stand up to these unscrupulous companies.
I cannot do this on my own. Any help and guidance would be much appreciated.
I have links to the signage and the letter before claim, but frustratingly I can't post them here because I am a new member of this forum.
Thanks in advance,

E

purple_elk

purple_elk

nosferatu1001

As per the newbies thread, of course you respond to the lbc.  

Go read the newbies thread. 

If that case is small claims, it does not set formal precedent. It can be completely ignored. 

beamerguy

So they are claiming £100 for not paying, which you did.

The sign DOES NOT state anything about the £100 nor fake add-ons such as the £60.
Are all the signs in the car park the same ?   The sign DOES NOT form any contract to charge £100.

D_P_Dance

Have you complained to your MP and Trading Standards?

Coupon-mad

A precedent for this can be found here:
Claim number  F0DP201T District Judge Taylor
Southampton Court, 10th June 2019.

No it can't.  Don't use that.

You don't need to be using old cases that have since been appealed and were never a precedent anyway.  The NEWBIES thread tells you what to do if you are at LBC stage so crack on with the SAR as the thread explains.  You haven't got a court claim yet then?  When you do, go to the TEMPLATE DEFENCE thread.  You will find nothing about a decision by DJ Taylor in it.

purple_elk

I don't believe that the LBC came from a solicitor's firm, it appears to have come from SIP's Manchester office.
I would like to email a letter to say that I intend to defend this claim, but I don't know which email address to use. Any thoughts?

nosferatu1001

You shouldn't "believe" , you should know -you have the docuemnt in front, so you know exactly where it has come from.
Have you tried 
- googling
- looking at their web page
etc?

Umkomaas

purple_elk said:

I don't believe that the LBC came from a solicitor's firm, it appears to have come from SIP's Manchester office.
I would like to email a letter to say that I intend to defend this claim, but I don't know which email address to use. Any thoughts?

It's there in black and white in the LBC. Read that side section titled 'IMPORTANT 30 DAY NOTICE'.

purple_elk

Thanks Umkomaas, indeed it is clear that the letter came form SIP. However I still do not have an email address for them (other than info@sipcarparks.co.uk - I sent an email there and I received an automatic response saying that they will not respond to emails about PCN's. Is this about a PCN? Depends how one looks at it).
Does anyone have an email address for SIP please?