County court claim form from Uk parking control limited

seth53456

Hi everyone, I received a claim form issued on 08/12/2021. I have already gone ahead and followed the steps on the forum to submit my AOS on 11/12/2021. However, what I am struggling with is what to say in my defense. It would mean a lot if someone could take a read of my case below give me some advice on how to defend this case. Thanks so much in advance.

Date of contravention: November 2017

Client: Uk parking control limited

Reason for contravention: Parking in a disabled person space in a retail car park

Particulars of claim: 

The defendant is indebted to the claimant for a parking charge…..The PCN was issued on private land owned or managed by the claimant. The vehicle was parked in breach of the terms on Cs signs (the contract) thus incurring the PCN. The driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not (UNTRUE). 1. Amount £160 total PCN, 2.  interest at the rate of 8% per annum to s.69 of the county courts act 1984 from the date hereof at a daily rate of £0.02 until judgment or sooner payment, 3. Costs and court fees.

Amount claimed: £218.36

Court fee £35

Legal costs £50

What happened?

The driver parked this car in a disabled spot for about 10 minutes. The retail car park has free parking for up to 2-3 hours and the car park was empty during the contravention (not sure why the driver parked in disabled regardless). We received a yellow parking ticket on our windshield, which I ignored rather than appealed, which I should have (only found this forum recently). I received letters upon letters from debt collectors in the past 4 years, with all sorts of threats such as contacting my employer and deducting the debt from my salary, court, bailiffs, etc. I ignored it all. But of course, now I have received the claim form so I understand I must take action. I did submit the AOS, just not sure how to defend myself against the claimant. 

Again thank you so much for any help/advice and do get back to me if you require additional information or need more details.

Have a good day

KeithP

seth53456 said:

Hi everyone, I received a claim form issued on 08/12/2021. I have already gone ahead and followed the steps on the forum to submit my AOS on 11/12/2021.

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 8th December, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 11th December, you have until 4pm on Monday 10th January 2022 to file your Defence.

That's nearly 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 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'.

seth53456

KeithP said:

seth53456 said:

Hi everyone, I received a claim form issued on 08/12/2021. I have already gone ahead and followed the steps on the forum to submit my AOS on 11/12/2021.

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 8th December, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 11th December, you have until 4pm on Monday 10th January 2022 to file your Defence.

That's nearly 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 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'.

Thanks for the heads up about where to submit the defence, I'll take a look at the second post and see how to best apply it to my case. I noticed a lot of the cases on here are about residential parking PPC, would I be able to tweak these to a disabled bay parking charge in a retail park, with free parking?

Also really appreciate what you guys are doing here, I would be lost without the clear steps posted on the forums

Coupon-mad

Certainly defend but I think you might struggle at the hearing if it goes all the way, as the Judge will feel, as we do, that the driver should never have used a disabled bay..  Unless you can show it was poorly marked and had no sign next to it, there isn't a valid reason to park there unless it was a bit of a trap of a bay next to parent & child spaces, or if the markings were faded.

seth53456

Coupon-mad said:

Certainly defend but I think you might struggle at the hearing if it goes all the way, as the Judge will feel, as we do, that the driver should never have used a disabled bay..  Unless you can show it was poorly marked and had no sign next to it, there isn't a valid reason to park there unless it was a bit of a trap of a bay next to parent & child spaces, or if the markings were faded.

I see what you are saying, in that case, more than likely the claimant also knows this and would probably go all the way to court with it. I can't recall if the marks on the floor were faded but it wasn't next to parent/child spaces. Perhaps I could argue the car park is free anyway so the private car park didn't lose any income from the incident Or perhaps argue the whole having a blue badge to park in a disabled bay cant be enforced anyway? There's also the case of them harassing me with letters for the past 4-5 years. But yes doesn't seem like I lose much trying to defend it?

Redx

seth53456 said:

Coupon-mad said:

Certainly defend but I think you might struggle at the hearing if it goes all the way, as the Judge will feel, as we do, that the driver should never have used a disabled bay..  Unless you can show it was poorly marked and had no sign next to it, there isn't a valid reason to park there unless it was a bit of a trap of a bay next to parent & child spaces, or if the markings were faded.

I see what you are saying, in that case, more than likely the claimant also knows this and would probably go all the way to court with it. I can't recall if the marks on the floor were faded but it wasn't next to parent/child spaces. Perhaps I could argue the car park is free anyway so the private car park didn't lose any income from the incident Or perhaps argue the whole having a blue badge to park in a disabled bay cant be enforced anyway? There's also the case of them harassing me with letters for the past 4-5 years. But yes doesn't seem like I lose much trying to defend it?

The Barry Beavis case 6 years ago killed off the no loss of income argument

The claimant and landowner have a legal duty to keep the disabled bays clear for blue badge holders ( in fact for anyone who qualifies under the law , the Equality Act 2010 ) , like me for example , so even on a free car park with no spaces , any non qualified driver or who isn't carrying a qualifying passenger should never park there , period !!

My own view is that a much higher penalty should be imposed on those who do flout the law and I believe that this will happen next year when government regulation kicks in next summer

It can definitely be enforced , it's a legal requirement on the landowner and their agents. No judge will go against that legal requirement

In business , chasing up alleged debts is considered normal business practice , it's not harassment , it's legitimate and lawful ! Proving harassment is a high legal bar and you would fall flat on your face , sorry to say

You need to come up with valid legal arguments , not those above

seth53456

I can't seem to reply to your message, no matter what I try to send I get 'Whoops, your post has been caught in on our suspicious post-filters! If you think this is a mistake, please email ForumTeam@MoneySavingExpert.com with details of the post'

seth53456

But I don't see how overpaying this private company helps a blue badge holder. If new regulations kick in all it will do is increase the advantage these private companies take further and add to their profits. But yes if my argument is weak in legal terms I better come up with a better one.

Redx

The idea with penalties or higher penalties is to educate people to not do what is forbidden , same as speeding or drink driving

The law is on the side of the disabled , so no matter who enforces it , the end result is to deter able bodied people from selfishly using blue badge bays,. If they made it £1000 a pop , it would definitely deter non blue badge holders , be it in council car parks or private car parks ! I believe that the minimum charge should be £200 a time and I told the mhclg (government) this in their surveys ,  like using a mobile phone whilst driving !

Who gets the money is irrelevant , I don't mind if it went to charity , if it achieves the target !

So yes , let's see some valid legal arguments , not what you posted so far

seth53456

Redx said:

The idea with penalties or higher penalties is to educate people to not do what is forbidden , same as speeding or drink driving

The law is on the side of the disabled , so no matter who enforces it , the end result is to deter able bodied people from selfishly using blue badge bays,. If they made it £1000 a pop , it would definitely deter non blue badge holders , be it in council car parks or private car parks ! I believe that the minimum charge should be £200 a time and I told the mhclg (government) this in their surveys ,  like using a mobile phone whilst driving !

Who gets the money is irrelevant , I don't mind if it went to charity , if it achieves the target !

So yes , let's see some valid legal arguments , not what you posted so far

Do you need to have a blue badge to legally qualify to use a disabled bay in a private car park? And I think the punishment should fit the crime, not sure £1000 is quite right. But I might be biased after being on the receiving end.

Redx

seth53456 said:

Redx said:

The idea with penalties or higher penalties is to educate people to not do what is forbidden , same as speeding or drink driving

The law is on the side of the disabled , so no matter who enforces it , the end result is to deter able bodied people from selfishly using blue badge bays,. If they made it £1000 a pop , it would definitely deter non blue badge holders , be it in council car parks or private car parks ! I believe that the minimum charge should be £200 a time and I told the mhclg (government) this in their surveys ,  like using a mobile phone whilst driving !

Who gets the money is irrelevant , I don't mind if it went to charity , if it achieves the target !

So yes , let's see some valid legal arguments , not what you posted so far

Do you need to have a blue badge to legally qualify to use a disabled bay in a private car park? And I think the punishment should fit the crime, not sure £1000 is quite right. But I might be biased after being on the receiving end.

No , as I said earlier , the driver or a passenger must qualify under the Equality Act 2010 , one indicator of this qualification can be a blue badge , so every badge holder qualifies , but some people qualify even if they cannot get a blue badge , if their medical condition qualifies under the law

My point about the £1000 was to reinforce the point that it would definitely act as a deterrent , although the £200 option like the Mobile phone example is more likely , but whether or not it will act as a deterrent is debatable unless set at a high figure !

The idea is to punish people who should not use it , because neither they or any passenger aren't entitled to park there , period !