Claimant filed >£700 for 3 Parking Invoices issued in 2016

PODE001

Hi all - advice wanted please to confirm I'm taking the appropriate steps, and any additional points I can include in my defence is most welcome.

1. Received a claim form (issue date 11 Oct 2021) in regard to 3 unpaid PCNs (8th-10th July 2016)
2. Particulars of the claim: Parked on private land and breached the contract / agreed to pay within 28 days / despite requests PCN outstanding at £480 + 8% interest s.69 of County courts Act 1984, at a daily rate of £0.06 + £140 court fees.

This totals over £700 - which seems crazy considering the late payment fee is £100 per PCN. I also have not agreed to pay within 28 days - is this standard language?

3. Acknowledgement of service was completed on 18/10/21 on the MCOL.
4. I had requested SAR from the claimant UK Parking control Ltd and received on 22/10/21 pictures of the "offence" and all related paperwork they have. 

• Photos of my car on each date listed above with only one parking note on the windscreen, pictures of the car reg, dark pictures of the inside to " prove" there is no permit on show, blurry picture of the parking sign. 
• Copies of x3 parking notice invoices and x3 payment due letters to an address I was no longer living at. 
• There were no other copies of letters of them trying to get in touch with me or from me agreeing to pay.

 5. I'm currently in the process of drafting a defence and these are the general details of the car being there and timeline of events:

a) The car park is in the ground floor of an apartment block that requires access via a fob to open the secure gates. I lived in the apartment block from May 2015 to March 2016 where I rented a car park space from another tenant. She gave me the fob and parking permit to display in my car. There are no assigned spaces and you can park in any space available.

b) I have managed to find an old photo of the permit but it includes an expiry date of Jan 2016 as these were replaced annually by the management company. It doesn't include a specific car registration and is A5 size so you can give to any visitor to use it. It is not specific to the tenant and as you just place on the dashboard it can quite easily move around your car as you're driving - hence why it gets tucked under the windshield.

c) In March 2016 I moved to the apartment building next door but continued to rent a space from a different tenant. Again I was given the permit and fob to access the car park.

d) Given the age of the agreements I have no correspondence with either tenant that I can refer to and have no further means to contact them. I have one email from my flat mate at the time where she mentions I can rent a space from her friend who was the first tenant. I have obtained my bank statements from this period which shows the consistent payments made in return for renting the space. 

e) The ticket was issued on a Fri/Sat/Sun July 2016 where I had no need to be using the car so I didn't spot the problem. I assume it was issued as they didn't feel the permit was displayed correctly. Based on memory I can't remember if the permit was obscured and based on the photos emailed from UK Parking I don't think it's clear it's not tucked on the side of the windscreen. When I went to use the car on the Monday I do remember being issued with 1 ticket.

f) You can't gain access to the car park without a fob and you do not have enough time to tail gate. The car park was never full and there was never trouble parking so I'm not sure why parking even needed to be enforced here. Unfortunately a lot of the tenants in this area are not the leaseholder and were also subject to this strict enforcement despite having the right to park. 

f) Based on the advice from the tenant group the ticket was to be ignored and so rightly / wrongly I followed that advice. Note: at this point I was under the impression it was one parking invoice due to only one plastic slip on the windscreen.

g) I don't remember receiving the NTKs in 2016 as these were sent to the address from May15-Mar16 and heard nothing further. I'm not sure how they were able to obtain my name and address - assume the DVLA?

h) I have never acknowledged their letters so I'm unsure why the claimant has included "the driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not". They also have not supplied me with any copies of correspondence they have received from me.

h) In 2021 I received multiple letters from a debt collection agency to my current address, and I was required to pay the debt owed to a parking invoice in 2016. I believe they were asking for £160 at this point, but I do not have copies of these letters. The claimant has also not provided a copy of these on request.
Again, there was no mention of 3 PCNs in any one letter, and I didn't notice if the multiple letters referred to different PCN references - they seemed like generic templates. On the advice of these forums, I also ignored these letters until I received the Claim Form on 14/10/21 (issue date 11/10/21). I have not received a "LBC".

i) The Claim Form was the first point I was made aware that the Claimant issued 3 PCNs.

I have found many helpful defences posted on here which I am using to help draft my defence - but if anyone has specific advice to other similar cases I would be grateful if they could share it. I also wanted to confirm:

1) The defence should be emailed and not uploaded on the MCOL?
2) If so, does anything need to be completed on the MCOL?
3) Do I need to include pictures of permits / bank statements / emails etc as Appendices? 
4) If I get any further useful information after the defence is filed, can this be added in?

If you got to the end of all this - thank you!
Any help on this would be much appreciated!

D_P_Dance

They have added what appears to be an extra unlawful amount for debt collection. Judges have dismissed an entire claim because of this. Read the newbies, read  this, and complain to your MP.

Excel v Wilkinson

At the Bradford County Court, District Judge Claire Jackson (now HHJ Jackson, a Specialist Civil Circuit Judge) decided to hear a 'test case' a few months ago, where £60 had been added to a parking charge despite Judges up and down the country repeatedly disallowing that sum and warning parking firms not to waste court time with such spurious claims.   That case was Excel v Wilkinson: G4QZ465V, heard in July 2020 and leave to appeal was refused and that route was not pursued.  The Judge concluded that such claims are proceedings with 'an improper collateral purpose'.   This Judge - and others who have since copied her words and struck dozens of cases out in late 2020 and into 2021 - went into significant detail and concluded that parking operators (such as this Claimant) are seeking to circumvent CPR 27.14 as well as breaching the Consumer Rights Act 2015.   DJ Hickinbottom has recently struck more cases out in that court area, stating: ''I find that striking out this claim is the only appropriate manner in which the disapproval of the court can be shown''.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/16qovzulab1szem/G4QZ465V%20Excel%20v%20Wilkinson.pdf?dl=0

Also read this

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6279348/witness-statements-2-transcripts-re-parking-firms-false-costs-recorder-cohen-qc-judgment-2021/p1

Le_Kirk

PODE001 said:

1) The defence should be emailed and not uploaded on the MCOL?
2) If so, does anything need to be completed on the MCOL?
3) Do I need to include pictures of permits / bank statements / emails etc as Appendices? 
4) If I get any further useful information after the defence is filed, can this be added in?

Defence should be e-mailed as per the instructions in the standard template defence (it's on the front page of the forum) and you should put NOTHING in the MCOL box, not even a full stop as that will be taken as your defence.  Nothing goes with a defence, save that for later at witness statement stage.  Once you submit your defence you cannot change it (well you can but for a fee) so take your time (but don't miss your deadline) and get it right before submission.
Since you have told us the issue date (11/10/21) and AoS date (18/10/21) one of the regulars @KeithP will be along to give you the deadline for submitting your defence.  As well as the template defence, read some "own space" defences in the main NEWBIE sticky and some successful defences that can be found by searching for "AOBTD" or "another one bites the dust" as key words.

PODE001

I have found many helpful defences posted on here which I am using to help draft my defence - but if anyone has specific advice to other similar cases I would be grateful if they could share it. I also wanted to confirm:

1) The defence should be emailed and not uploaded on the MCOL?
2) If so, does anything need to be completed on the MCOL?
3) Do I need to include pictures of permits / bank statements / emails etc as Appendices? 
4) If I get any further useful information after the defence is filed, can this be added in?

KeithP

PODE001 said:

1. Received a claim form (issue date 11 Oct 2021)
3. Acknowledgement of service was completed on 18/10/21 on the MCOL.

With a Claim Issue Date of 11th October, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 15th November 2021 to file your Defence.

That's 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 at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Le_Kirk

PODE001 said:

I also wanted to confirm:
1) The defence should be emailed and not uploaded on the MCOL?
2) If so, does anything need to be completed on the MCOL?
3) Do I need to include pictures of permits / bank statements / emails etc as Appendices? 
4) If I get any further useful information after the defence is filed, can this be added in?

See my post here Today at 2:26PM <<< LINK which answers your questions.

Redx

Ps , the signage binds the driver to an implied contract

This question gets asked numerous times every week , where people are told that the signage forms a contract with the driver

There may be legal reasons why it didn't , but as far as the parking company is concerned , the driver agreed to the contract when the driver parked there , the signage formed said contract , the parking company will use that as proof that a parking contract existed between them and the driver , that the driver was in breach

So pointless stating that it didn't happen , but yes you defend by stating that no contract was formed , or no breach occurred , etc

Every time I park my car , anywhere , I agree to any implied terms on a sign , if present , everyone does !

PODE001

Thanks for the responses all!

I've read through some examples and the "own space" defences include references to their lease and the fact amongst other things, it does not state permits are required - can I still follow this route if I don't have a copy of the lease?

I cannot say for sure what was in the resident's lease at the time she rented the space to me and if she was even the leaseholder.

D_P_Dance

Have you  seen these?

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

https://forums.landlordzone.co.uk/forum/residential-letting-questions/1053920-private-parking-companies

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6242993/court-report-brentford-telephone-ukpc-roasted/p1

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/324523-ukpc-liable-for-trespass-success/

Coupon-mad

If you paid rent for the parking bay then your only contract was with her, the leaseholder.  If she did not impose any requirement to display a permit in her bay then the contract you made with her was not on those terms.

If she was not in a position to offer it without that caveat then that was her problem but your contract still holds good (it's the same "I could contract to sell you Buckingham Palace" argument that PPCs use).  Your parking contract was only between you and the person you rented the bay from.

PODE001

Thank you - this is very helpful.

Could you also advise if it's useful to add into the defence a statement about it being over 5 years since the PCNs were issued and therefore there are limitations over the Defendant being able to provide evidence to adequately defend the claim? I don't want to seem like I'm making excuses, or show my hand to the Claimant. I am very much willing to follow this through!

I believe this was asked in another thread but I wasn't sure on the outcome and if they included it in their defence or further down the line in their WS.