Help needed for court Defence against ParkingEye for unfair PCN

Le_Kirk

Data from your SAR submission can take up to 30 days (but should not be longer) and will be more useful at witness statement (WS) stage.  If you do not receive your data after 30 days, a complaint to ICO is in order. Tell the PPC that you are giving them one final chance to supply the data and if, after 5 days they do not supply it, your complaint will be going in.

Rich_the_owl

Background

1. The Defendant was looking for somewhere to park in an area they are not familiar with. The Defendant was driving on <street name> and saw what looked like a Private car park on the right-hand side. The Defendant states there was no obvious signage outside the car park with any pricing or Terms & Conditions. In order to identify where the board with the Terms & Conditions was the Defendant states they were required to drive into the car park, which involved driving past the first ANPR camera. The Defendant states that even when going into the car park past the first ANPR camera there was still no obvious signage with the Terms & Conditions. In order to comply with road safety requirements, the Defendant parked safely into a space in order to safely exit their vehicle so they could safely identify by foot where the signage was which detailed the Terms & Conditions. Upon identifying the board with the Terms & Conditions the Defendant read through the terms. Upon reading through the Terms & Conditions the Defendant made an informed and valid decision that they were not agreeable to them. The Defendant returned to their vehicle and safely exited the car park. Upon leaving the car park the Defendant drove past the 2nd ANPR camera which is situated at the exit. The Claimant provides documentation that the length of time was 10 minutes from then point at which the Defendant was identified on the first ANPR camera at the entrance to the car park to the point at which the Defendant was identified on the second ANPR camera at the exit. The Defendant has provided a reasonable explanation why they were required to enter the car park. The Defendant states that the 10 minute timeframe is a reasonable amount of time for the Defendant to enter the car park, park safely, exit the vehicle, identify where in the car park the Terms & Conditions were, read through the terms, return to vehicle and safely exit the car park. The Defendant states they could not agree or disagree to the Terms & Conditions of the car park without entering it due to no signage outside the car park.

 

Further points

2. The Defendant is the registered keeper of the vehicle in question. The Claim relates to an alleged debt arising from the driver's alleged breach of contract, which is denied. It is further denied that there was any agreement to pay the Claimant a punitive £100 'parking charge notice' (PCN) for the lawful conduct described below.

3. Any breach is denied, and it is further denied that there was any agreement to pay the Claimant's £100 'Parking Charge Notice ('PCN')'. 

4. The allegation appears to be based on images by their ANPR camera at the entrance and exit to the site. This is merely an image of the vehicle in transit, entering and leaving the car park in question and is not evidence of the registered keeper 'not purchasing the appropriate parking time.

5. The allegation appears to be based on the claim that “the signage clearly displayed throughout <Car park address> states that this is private land, managed by ParkingEye Ltd.” This allegation is denied by the defendant.

6. The allegation infers signage is clearly displayed throughout <street 1>. This allegation is denied by the Defendant. The entrance to the cark park on <street 2> does not have clear signage before entering the car park. The Defendant states the entrance on <street 2> does not have any signage before entering the car park

7. Signage with the Terms & Conditions are within the car park itself. The Defendant states that an individual would have to enter the car park in order to read the Terms & Conditions in order to make an informed decision as to whether they are agreeable to them.

8. The Defendant states that in order for an individual to review the signage inside the car park with the Terms & Conditions they would be required to safely park their vehicle and exit it. 

9. The Claimant states that the Defendants vehicle was in the car park for 10 minutes. Based on the information provided in points 1, 7 & 8 this is a fair amount of time required to take those actions.

I believe that the facts stated in this defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Hi all,

Thank you for you further advice today. I will definitely bear in mind the point about complaining to the ICO if ParkingEye don't send me the SAR request

Above is my second draft of my Defence. Please can the experts take a look and advise on their thoughts? General feedback is greatly appreciated but also if someone could answer the below questions directly I would be grateful

1. Please can I have advise if I should add anything else?
2. Please can I have advise if any of the language on what is currently there be altered?
3. Should I leave point 9 included on the Defence? As this information was only in the PCN's (which I chose to ignore), so is it better to not put this so there is less proof that I actually did receive the PCN's?

Coupon-mad

Paragraph 1 is a wall of text and it puts you off reading it - I haven't read it!  Needs breaking up into about 4 paragraphs.

Leave #9 in because the 10 minutes is not just in the NTK, it is their entire case they will bring to court. 

You need to mention the observation period/grace period in the BPA Code of Practice that applied at the time.  When was this parking event - what date?

Rich_the_owl

Thanks Coupon-mad, I will make the adjustments to paragraph 1 as suggested. 
I'm sorry but I am not familiar with the the observation period/grace period in the BPA Code of Practice? Is that something mentioned on the STICKY? I may have missed it, apologies.
The date of the parking event was a date right near the end of August in 2020

Coupon-mad

BPA Code of Practice

The various versions are on the BPA website.

Rich_the_owl

Thanks Coupon-mad, makes sense now after reading the points in the "Consideration and Grace Periods" section. I've added the below to my Defence. What do you think? Look good or anything to amend/add?

2. The Defendant refers to section 13.1 of the BPA (British Parking Association) Approved Operator Code of Practice which states “The driver must have the chance to consider the Terms and Conditions before entering into the ‘parking contract’ with you. If, having had that opportunity, the driver decides not to park but chooses to leave the car park, you must provide them with a reasonable consideration period to leave, before the driver can be bound by your parking contract.” The Defendant states that the Claimant has not adhered to this.

 3. The Defendant refers to section 13.3 of the BPA (British Parking Association) Approved Operator Code of Practice which states “Where a parking location is one where a limited period of parking is permitted, or where drivers contract to park for a defined period and pay for that service in advance (Pay & Display), this would be considered as a parking event and a Grace Period of at least 10 minutes must be added to the end of a parking event before you issue a PCN.” The Defendant states that the Claimant has not adhered to this.

Rich_the_owl

Hi all,

I am thinking of submitting my Defence later tonight. I'm just posting this as a final call for any last minute feedback or advice regarding my additions in my previous comment and from my 2nd draft which can be found in my comment a bit further up done on June 7th at 11:03pm.

Comments and feedback welcome please

Thanks all

Coupon-mad

Looks fine to me for a ParkingEye claim where you didn't accept the contract and left the place within 10 minutes.

Rich_the_owl

Thanks Coupon-mad and everyone else for your help and feedback

So i went onto the money claim website to submit the Defence but after copying and pasting it into the free format box I am getting the below error message (see screenshot) when clicking "next." Tried several times on different browsers and even deleting the current Defence and starting a new one but still the same error message. I have emailed the customer service email address to report the issue so hopefully they'll get back to me tomorrow. I will probably try ringing them too.

• Has anyone else faced this issue?

• I also got an auto response email and I can see it says "send directly any 'claim response' (which includes Defences) to ccbcaq@justice.gov.uk to ensure that they are filed correctly." So should I just send a copy of my Defence in Microsoft Word format to this email address?
  

Coupon-mad

Why the heck are you trying to ruin the formatting of a decent defence by shoving it into a box with a restricted character count, that chews it up?

NONE OF THIS IS WHAT THE NEWBIES THREAD TELLS YOU TO DO AND NOR DOES KEITHP'S STANDARD ADVICE ON HOW TO SUBMIT A DEFENCE.