County court claim from UKPC

mhagle

Hi everyone, I received a claim form issued on 08/02/2022 by UKPC. I have submitted my AOS on 11/02/2022 and it was received on Monday as it says that on MCOL. However I am struggling with a defence. I would really appreciate if someone could help me on how i could defend this claim please. Thanks so much in advance.

Date of contravention: July 2019

Client: Uk parking control limited

Reason for contravention: Parking in a disabled person space in a gym.

The driver parked in a bay without realising it was a disabled bay. There was no signage anywhere on the walls however there was a sign marking on the floor. The driver did not see the markings on the floor indicating that it was a disable bay. Also it had a yellow box around it however other car park bays had yellow boxes around them.  The driver received letters upon letters from debt collectors, however the driver ignored them. Not sure how to defend myself against the claimant.

Thank you so much for any help/advice.

D_P_Dance

The driver parked in a bay without realising it was a disabled bay.

Obviously therefore it was not clearly marked as such  All/nearly all of the information you need id in the newbies threads, please  read them and complain to your MP.

  

KeithP

mhagle said:

Hi everyone, I received a claim form issued on 08/02/2022 by UKPC. I have submitted my AOS on 11/02/2022 and it was received on Monday as it says that on MCOL.

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 8th February, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 14th March 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over 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'.

mhagle

Thank you D_P_Dance can I use as a defence that it was not marked properly like these pictures and there is no sign other than the floor marking of a disabled person?  These are the pictures I have found on google maps. Thank you in advance and i really appreciate the help 

D_P_Dance

Of course you the more you include the more like the ppc are to throw in the towel..  Have you complained to your MP?

mhagle

Just a quick question does the bay have to have a sign above it for who can park there if it is a disable bay and also does it have to be a certain width and length? 

mhagle

Sorry D_P_Dance no i haven't complained to my MP as I did not know they could do anything in these kind of matters as i was confused if i could even defend this claim.

D_P_Dance

Of course you can defend this, itis a scam.  Have you read the newbies yet?  

mhagle

I have read it and can someone help me with the argument's as I have written my points I am arguing about.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

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

2.      The defendant parked his car in xercise4less based on the fact that the parking is free for up to 2 hours. The defendant was at the said location in order to use the gym as the defendant was a member and left well ahead of the 2 hours of free parking allowed on the site. Due to the unclear markings and signage, it is not known to the defendant that they were parked in a disabled bay parking space.

The signage was unclear as it did not indicating that the driver was in a disable bay. The British Parking Association state that signs for disable bays should “display the appropriate sign at a driver’s eye level”.  This was not followed and there is no signage to indicate that it is a disable bay. The defendant believes that the signs fail the test of 'large disabled display signs''. Also there are yellow bays that are identical to the bay that the defendant parked in and therefore there is no distinction between the bays. 

Coupon-mad

Looks fine apart from, change 'disable bay' to the correct term: accessible bay.  And I've created a new paragraph 4 onwards to replace the template defence:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79031299/#Comment_79031299

Debt recovery 'cost/fees' are now banned from being added to parking charges, and that new wording explains to a Judge why that is relevant for existing cases, too.

Also read the whole new DLUHC Code of Practice because it covers all the usual points and issues, and states the best practice position.

Not retrospective but you can use it in a WS to effectively say 'Here's what a professional parking firm should have done'.

mhagle

Thank you  and I have changed the term from disable bay to accessible bay.