Retail Car Park - Parking Charge Notice Defence Letter

FrankCannon

Have you told us where the car park is ?

Le_Kirk

I seem to recall (and reading back through the thread, I can see) that you had quite a bit of help in crafting your defence.  Can you show us what you actually submitted in paragraphs 2 & 3 please.  (No need to show us the whole template unless you added anything else.)  The burden of proof lies with the clamant.  If you say you didn't see the signs or couldn't find the PDT, they have to prove you did.  Photos taken at another time do not prove what you saw at the time.  You were concentrating on driving in, finding a parking space and trying not to hit pedestrians or other cars.

Domdom1989

Domdom1989 said:

Here is my draft: 

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

 

3.       This is a car park that apparently had no Pay & Display Terminal (PDT) or signs indicating that payment was required. Upon research carried out after receiving the PCN the Defendant discovered that the PDT was in fact hidden from plain sight. The Defendant also finds that the car park was medium in size with buildings standing on 3 sides of the car park. With the car park at 3 quarters capacity, it was made impossible to locate any signage pointing to the rules of this car park and it was equally impossible to read the layout of this car park and locate any PDT’s.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Many thanks,

D

This is my defence

Domdom1989

I have said things like "hidden from plain sight" and "impossible to locate any signage". I am now very worried this isn't going to stand up in court. 

Le_Kirk

If that is your claim it is for the claimant to disprove it and for the judge to make a decision based on submissions from you and the claimant.

Coupon-mad

Domdom1989 said:

I have said things like "hidden from plain sight" and "impossible to locate any signage". I am now very worried this isn't going to stand up in court. 

But you used the whole template defence that has other points in it.  There's nothing obviously hopeless about that defence.

Can you actually see what those signs say in their photos?  of course they have pics of signs, they always do.  Whether they are readable and whether a breach is proved is quite another thing.

Even if you lose, you'd pay LESS than the claim, so defending was certainly worth doing and I think you are over-thinking it.   Can you show us those pics that are so damning (black out your numberplate).?