Letter before claim from ELMS Legal

Snakes_Belly

It still may be possible to get the claim cancelled by the landowner which saves going to court.


 
  

Motty2014

Hi, I have now received my Claim Form through the post from County Court Business Centre. The issue date is 01 Apr 2021 so my understanding from reading the threads is that I should submit my acknowledgement of service from today (5 days after issue) to ensure I have 28 days to get my defence submitted. It says i can now do this online at www.moneyclaim.gov.uk which i have registered for but not yet submitted anything.

I have drafted my defence, could you please let me know if anything needs adding/changing? Just as a recap, I am the registered keeper of the vehicle but was not the driver at the time.

The parts in BOLD ITALICS are what I have added to the template from the forum - the remainder has not been edited.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

 

2.           It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question, but liability is denied. It is also denied that the Defendant was the driver of the vehicle in question.

 

3.           The Defendant was not the driver of this vehicle and has no knowledge of any parking charge notice (‘PCN’) or letters. It is not accepted that the location included prominent signs giving ‘adequate notice’ of the onerous parking charge. A compliant Notice to Keeper (‘NTK’) was not properly served in strict accordance with section 8 or 9 (as the case may be) of the POFA. The bay in question appears to be a valid parking space at this location. There is an absence of any “no parking” sign and no double yellow or cross-hatched markings to make it absolutely clear the bay in question is (supposedly) not a parking space.

 

Fruitcake

Wait for KeithP to confirm your dates, but remember we have just had a brace of bank holidays which will affect your dates for submissions. 

We only need to see the paragraphs you have amended from the template, not the whole thing. This would normally only be paragraphs 2 and 3. Nobody is going to check what C-m has already written, only the changes you have made.

SayNoToPCN

Meaning edit your post, and delete the unaltered part of the template
What happened when you told PALS to cancel?

Le_Kirk

Since you were not the driver, how do you know so much about the parking conditions?  Maybe you were a passenger in the car or you returned at some point to carry out research.  You need to tell the judge by setting the scene so you can provide back up evidence in the witness statement.  Paragraph 2 could be shortened: -

2.           It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper but not the driver of the vehicle in question, but liability is denied. It is also denied that the Defendant was the driver of the vehicle in question.

You also do not need to repeat the denial of being the driver in paragraph 3.

KeithP

Motty2014 said:

Hi, I have now received my Claim Form through the post from County Court Business Centre. The issue date is 01 Apr 2021 so my understanding from reading the threads is that I should submit my acknowledgement of service from today (5 days after issue) to ensure I have 28 days to get my defence submitted. It says i can now do this online at www.moneyclaim.gov.uk which i have registered for but not yet submitted anything. 

Do not file your Defence online via the MCOL portal. 
Bargepole's 'what happens when' post linked from the second post of the NEWBIES thread explains why that is not a good idea.

With a Claim Issue Date of 1st April, you have until Tuesday 20th April 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 Tuesday 4th May 2021 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 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.

Motty2014

Le_Kirk said:

Since you were not the driver, how do you know so much about the parking conditions?  Maybe you were a passenger in the car or you returned at some point to carry out research.  You need to tell the judge by setting the scene so you can provide back up evidence in the witness statement.  Paragraph 2 could be shortened: -

2.           It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper but not the driver of the vehicle in question, but liability is denied. It is also denied that the Defendant was the driver of the vehicle in question.

You also do not need to repeat the denial of being the driver in paragraph 3.

Thanks, I will update paragraph 3 to avoid duplication.

In terms of the parking conditions, I am just basing this on photographs they have issued me with showing where the vehicle was parked, looking on google street view which shows another car parked in the exact same parking bay on a different day and a subsequent visit I made to the carpark to assess for myself. 

Fruitcake

I must reiterate KeithP's comments. DO NOT under any circumstances submit your defence via MCOL. Nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a full stop goes in the MCOL defence box.

SayNoToPCN

If you are basing your detail on the photos the claimant provided, then state so. Otherwise a court may think you were there at the time.  Of course you could also have gone there afterwards 

Motty2014

SayNoToPCN said:

If you are basing your detail on the photos the claimant provided, then state so. Otherwise a court may think you were there at the time.  Of course you could also have gone there afterwards 

Thanks for that, I have now amended to the following:

2.           It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question, but liability is denied. It is also denied that the Defendant was the driver of the vehicle in question.

 

3.           The Defendant was not the driver of this vehicle and has no knowledge of any parking charge notice (‘PCN’) or letters. It is not accepted that the location included prominent signs giving ‘adequate notice’ of the onerous parking charge. A compliant Notice to Keeper (‘NTK’) was not properly served in strict accordance with section 8 or 9 (as the case may be) of the POFA. Using the photographs provided by the Claimant and from a subsequent visit to the site by the Defendant, the bay in question appears to be a valid parking space at this location. There is an absence of any “no parking” sign and no double yellow or cross-hatched markings to make it absolutely clear the bay in question is (supposedly) not a parking space.