Paid via telephone service, PCN rec'd, County Court N1 rec'd

PaidIt

I have a CC N1 which appears to me be punitive as well as inaccurate. It says ‘…..The vehicle was parked in breach of the Terms and conditions……’

The signage stated that a ticket must be displayed, but also provided a telephone number to allow payment to be made via a third party company. Using the telephone system would clearly not provide a ticket to display, so the signage was contradictory.

There are no T&Cs posted for the telephone service advertised by the parking company. The signage did not give any instructions for using the telephone service and there was no requirement stating that I must provide a full registration. The telephone service equipment failed to correctly register the VRM, though the recording will confirm that I provided it multiple times.

The voice recognition system was not adequately calibrated to differentiate between similar sounds, and it's process for dealing with that was clearly not fit for purpose. I answered every question and paid for my parking in good faith. It repeated my whole reg incorrectly multiple times, and I stated it clearly to correct it each time. Then it repeated the first half, which I confirmed was correct,thinking that it was breaking it down to pinpoitn the bit it didn't undersatnd. I expected it to ask for the 2nd half, but it asked for make & colour. As this was the first time I’d ever used this, or any other, telephone parking system I thought that it now had the information it required to identify my car. The system then requested & took my payment.

I used the car park a number of times using the ‘account’ that I had ‘set up’ to pay in full for my parking before I realised that there was an issue. I’ve spoken to the third party telephone service and they’ve confirmed that they had received my payment and it had been passed on to the parking company.

The telephone payment service say '.....it is the responsibility of the enforcement operator to ensure that all data is validly checked to confirm your xxxxx booking.'  The operator could not have done this as my vehicle was clearly recognisable from the data provided, the monies have not been refunded, and no attempt appears to have been made to match the payment to a parked vehicle. I replied to their first letter to explain how I had paid, but they seemed to ignore my explanation completely. At no point have they mentioned any payment method errors.

I have to complete my statement for the court and would appreciate any advice?

Le_Kirk

PaidIt said:

I have to complete my statement for the court and would appreciate any advice?

Are you at defence stage or witness statement stage?

1505grandad

Also who is the parking company?

Fruitcake

Please also tell us where the alleged events occurred and when, whether the original PCNs were appealed, what happened when you complained to the landowner, and whether you have complained to your MP yet.

If possible, you should also get photos of the site and signage asap.

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

PaidIt

Thanks all

Le_Kirk - Defence or witness -  I have rec'd a claim from the County Court Business Center. It gave 28 days to 'send a defence,' and I'm running out of time due to illness I'm afraid. I don't know what the witness stage is, but the impression from the form is that I have to refute and say why now. There doesn't seem to be anywhere to provide evidence. (Form N1SDT Claim Form(04.14))

1505grandad - Company is Excel

Fruitcake - I'm a bit concerned that providing the date & location will identify me. It was a couple of years ago in a hotel carpark.

The PCNs were appealed, I explained to them that I had paid.

I didn't know who the landowner was, but have since found out that it was Travelodge. They have now sold to someone else. I didn't complain, because I didn't know I could.
I haven't written to my MP as this was not in my hometown.

I have photo's of the T&C's board and the pay machine.

PaidIt

Kieth_P Issue date = 21/01. I have to reply by tomorrow.

Trainerman

If it is any help, it seems that you have some good defence points. It appears that you are at 'submit defence' stage rather than witness statement. If so the witness statement comes later, which helps break it down to manageable chunks.

Use the latest template, adapt paras 2 and 3 to suit your case. You might have to add a para or two, so renumber the rest and consider adding Bargepole's new para 6 re the latest Government code of practice. On a laptop should take half an hour ish.

If you have time, show us the altered paras only so that advice can be given by the regulars

Le_Kirk

When you tell us the issue date of the claim form then @KeithP will be back to give you a deadline for submitting your defence and  a link to the NEWBIE sticky and from there to the template defence that @Trainerman mentioned.

KeithP

KeithP said:

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

PaidIt said:

Kieth_P Issue date = 21/01. I have to reply by tomorrow.

Then hopefully you filed an Acknowledgment of Service some time after 26th January and before 10th February. For the moment I'll assume you did but please confirm.

With a Claim Issue Date of 21st January, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 23rd February 2022 to file your Defence.

Just two days to go - more time than you thought. Plenty of time to produce a Defence.

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'.

PaidIt

Trainerman - thank you.

Le_kirk - Issue date = 21/01 (Apologies I've read through the newbie stuff previously, but my cotton wool brain is in control today.

I'll re read evrything now.
KiethP- Yes I filed the acknowledgement on time, and online. Thanks for the recount, that was what I had in my head, but it came out as tomorrow when I was working it out again at 06.00 this morning!

I'm going to re read everything and get started straight away.