Excel Claim from 2017 going to court

Snakes_Belly

Fruitcake is right on this. Excel have form when it comes down to claiming that they have not received documents. 

QuincyCockers

Hi all,

First off thank you again for your advice and support. Secondly I apologize for not responding sooner.  I am a tramping lorry driver and effectively can only really hammer this out over the weekends. Below I have made a start on my witness statement. I recognise there is more to do inline with the advice of further reading of jrhys and ricky_balboa with the latest info to add. I will also send all the docs via dropbox and hxxp as suggested or at least will try to (thank you Fruitcake). Below is the crux of it. Item 18 I added as a bit of a stretch but interested to know whether it holds water.

(One detail I haven't added to the witness statement and wonder if I should, is that on visiting recently and taking photos I noted that Excel have reduced the time to pay from 10 mins to 5mins. Why would they do that other than to trip people up? They must be receiving a lot of penalty charges from unwitting visitors. It would take longer than 5 mins to get to read that part on their sign. Imagine being old, diabled, dyslexic, ill etc.) 

Thanks again as always.

First Draft

1.         I am XXXXXX of XXXXXX, and I am the Defendant against whom this claim is made. The facts are true to the best of my belief and my account has been prepared based upon my own knowledge.

2.         In my statement I shall refer to exhibits within the evidence supplied with this statement, referring to page and reference numbers where appropriate. My defence is repeated and I will say as follows:

Sequence of events and signage:

3.         On the XXXXXX 2017, just a few days previous to this claim, my wife was involved in a serious car crash and suffered injury. Our family car (Registation XXXXXXX) of 15 years was written off. I hired the car, vehicle registration XXXXX, from XXXXXX on the XXXXXX 2017 as a temporary replacement. The journey to XXXXXX Car Park, in this hire car, was the first outing.

 

4.         On the XXXXXXX 2017, I drove the hire car XXXXXXX to XXXXXXXX for a meeting and parked at the XXXXX car park. I arrived at XXXXam. I was unfamiliar with this car park but observed it was not a pay and display. I parked in a bay very close to the exit. I walked through the exit point to my meeting. Afterwards I returned, entered my car vehicle details as requested at the pay machine, paid for the time the vehicle was parked and left at XXXXpm. Thereafter, I have received multiple demands from the Claimant and their agents for increasingly exaggerated sums of money, over an assumed contract I neither entered into or was aware of and whereby the Claimant had no losses.

 

5.         The XXXXXXX car park is located beneath a large building. It is enclosed with the entrance and exit adjoined. Whilst lit, the car park is still a dark space (Ref images # from the claimant’s witness statement). On the date of the claim it was a XXXXXX morning and the weather was cold and cloudy, with heavy rain and poor visibility. My personal health on that date was not particularly good having a heavy cold and a temperature. On that day, I was also suffering from headache and vertigo.

 

6. There was no clear signage to pay within 10 minutes or to enter a correct registration plate within that time. Neither is there signage directing “Pay and Display” which would invoke paying on entry. This is not a “Pay and Display” car park. On reference the exit signage instructs that you do not need to display a ticket and is set out more prominently than the Claimant’s demands over their payment conditions.

 

7.         At the entrance and at the exit there is no clear or obvious signage to indicate payment was required within 10 minutes or that a car registration number required to be accurately inputted.

 

8.         The one sign on entering the car park is located at the passenger side on the approach and at a point where the driver is manoeuvring to turn into the car park. The wording on the sign is not legible from a driving position. It is positioned as such that a driver cannot read it without physically stopping and getting out of the vehicle and unlikely to even notice it.

 

9.         Even if I had stopped the car on the material date and got out to read it before entering the car park, this singular sign does not refer to entering a vehicle registration number plate at any point.

 

10.       The journey from the entrance to parking and from parking to leaving does not alert the driver to the Terms & Conditions to which the claimant demands payment to be made. There is no signage bold or clear to warn the driver to either pay before leaving, to pay within an allotted time or to enter a correct vehicle registration plate. Indeed this important information is only set out in the smallest of fonts on the exit sign.

 

11.       The exit signage is placed in an area to the left of the exit. It is a darkened area and does not make it clear or obvious that payment is required immediately by the Claimant.     

 

12.       On payment, the pay machine required a number plate to be entered, which I did before leaving. The machine and therefore Excel accepted my payment. There was no indication that a violation had occurred after 10mins of being parked or a rejection of payment.

 

13.       Following receipt of the PCN and on appeal on the XXXXXX 2018 I stated I was reliant on the PDT Log to determine the payment citing as I may have entered the wrong or an incomplete registration number plate. This log was not provided until the XXXXXX 2018 during the IAS process.

 

14. While the appeal was ongoing Excel did not freeze the increase in penalty from £60 to £100

 

15. The PDT log confirmed I had made the payment of £X.XX (Claimant’s Witness Statement PDT Log P.XX Ref:XXXX  “”) which covered the time spent parked. I thereafter produced a copy of my Vehicle Log Book for XXXXXX, which Excel  have not provided in their witness statement, to prove my ownership and obvious error. However, the mitigating circumstances I provided were rejected by Excel.

 

16. I invited Excel to pursue their claim in court on the XXXXX 2018. They sent a Notice of Intended Court Proceedings on the XXXXX 2018 with a deadline of the XXXXXX 2018. Thereafter, I received three letters from the Debt Recovery Plus Ltd (DRP) demanding £160 relating to this claim. These automated letters forced me to write to Excel on the XXXXX 2018 to desist and to take the case directly to court if they wish to pursue this claim. I also wrote to DRP explaining why I would not reply to them. I then started receiving letters from Zenith Collections for the same claim and further demand letters from DRP.

 

16.       Thereafter, I received no further correspondence for almost two years when a Letter Before Claim was sent directly by the Claimant on XXXXX 2020 which included the added debt collection charge of £60.

Finally, I received a letter from Elm Legal XXXXXX 21 demanding the same amount for £160 prior to the final claim increasing the charge to £245 (with Legal fees £50 and court fees £35). Once again inflating the costs.

17.       Having proven payment and provided mitigation, Excel have showed no customer care or reasonability. They have been solely been motivated to collect an extortionate fee that has varied from £60, £100, £136, £160, £185, to £245 with their latest letter, while the court date has been agreed, threatening to increase costs by a further £220 if I didn’t settle £192.50. Effectively, this would make their unrealistic claim regarding a £2.50 ticket, which they received £3.30 and where no loss was incurred up to £465.

18.       The Claimant states in their Witness Statement on Page X (Item XX) that contravention takes place after a period of ten minutes. Entry to the car park on the material date was at XX:XX:XXam according to the Claimant’s record. Therefore the alleged contravention according to their claim would be 10 minutes later at at XX:XX:XXam.  The Claimant’s PCN however states the contravening time two hours later at XX:XX:XXpm which is the time of leaving the car park. My payment was made two minutes prior to this at XX:XXpm according to the Claimant’s PDT Log. The details of the PCN are therefore incorrect and must be struck out.

Fruitcake

I haven't read it all in detail yet, but you should refer to your exhibits in your narrative using a combination of initials and incremental numbers. If your username was your real name then your first exhibit would be QC 01.

For example, you refer to images in the claimant's WS, so you could make that one of your own exhibits and put your own ref number before the brackets where you say, (Ref images # from the claimant’s witness statement).

Later you refer to exit signs, so if you have an image of them then make that another exhibit called perhaps "QC 02" and refer to it in para 6.

QuincyCockers

Hi Fruitcake, et al,

Thanks for the advice on labelling exhibits which I've taken. I am cracking on with it albeit slowly up to now. Having time constraints I have had to take time off work. (As a lorry driver I cannot afford to be working through all this into the early hours and then driving all day). I have until Sunday evening to get to the claimant and court I believe? (Court date 25th April)

So, I have been broadening out my W/S last night and today which has changed and grown a lot from my first draft. I am uploading images and locating emails and docs at this very moment to add to my growing exhibits. I will be uploading the second draft to dropbox later today hopefully within a couple of hours. I'll also upload any information I find on this claim whether it will go into my bundle or not and label sperately.

I have already uploaded the claimant's W/S to dropbox as images off my phone and will shortly number them to ensure the order is correct and readable on this PC.

I will make all this available in Dropbox to my trusted sources on this forum on request. To confirm if I post the link on these pages I have to approve access - right? I'll be downloading the app so should be self explanatory. 

Ok. One very interesting thing I found last night worth noting is they have sent contradictory and misleading evidence in their W/S which I have highlighted in my W/S, requesting the claim is struck out. This will be under  "Inside the Car Park" 12-15 on page 4 of my W/S - shortly available. 

Well no rest for the wicked. I'm taking my coffee intravenously now so am off to refill my drip and crack on

Coupon-mad

With dropbox you just click on the dots to the right of the file or image, and choose to copy a link that 'anyone can access'

QuincyCockers

I think I have Dropbox worked out now. 

So here is a link to the Claimant's W/S https://www.dropbox.com/s/hdy7uf9oswpdpf1/Excel WS P00.jpg?dl=0
(Any issues opening let me know.)

Still working on my witness statement but will get a redacted version up asap. Lots of exhibit still for labelling and uploading; adding the relevant legal cases and the recent law changes and my costs to work out. Found out who the landowner is today so will be dropping them an email too.

QuincyCockers

Actually I don't think that works. There are 49 pages only one showing. Does that mean 49 links need to be copied to here?

Fruitcake

Yes, there is only one page available. I have never used Dropbox, but could it be that you only uploaded the front page, or possibly you need to somehow combine everything into one document when you import it.

Most of it we will have seen before, but seeing the landowner contract will be useful if nothing else rather than you giving too much time to it.

Snakes_Belly

"On reference the exit signage instructs that you do not need to display a ticket and is set out more prominently than the Claimant’s demands over their payment conditions."

When I read this sentence it sounds very much like the issues that is happening in Lichfield in Backcester Lane and Gresley Row.  There has been a lot of issues with these car parks in Lichfield since Excel took over. The issues sound very similar to your scenario. 

One forum member who is currently defending a claim, went into the car park at Backcester Lane and could not pay with the app so left and found another car park. There has been a petition started about this car park and many of the comments are from people who have had similar incidents to yourself.  

  

 

QuincyCockers

Ok thanks. I’ll compile both WS onto one spread. Just finished uploading and labelling everything. Will get sorted for tomorrow now. Still have more to do. Looks like a novel. Thanks all