Highview parking County Court Claim SAR and Defense advice - reduced timeframe due to postal error!

KellfromHell

Hi MoneySavingExpert forums,

I have been following for some time and love this community so I would appreciate any help on this!

I received a county court claim for some PCNs back in 2018/2019 that were from the same place. They were ignored due to advice from family and similarly with the debt collection letters and whatnot. I moved address and recently went home to visit and found a county court letter, which luckily I have acknowledged just within the 14 + 5 days of service and will be fighting this charge. I am about the send the SAR to Highview parking but I fear due to the late nature of acknowledgement that I run the risk of not receiving anything before the deadline, now in 10 days.

Questions;
1) Is there any way the 28 + 5 days for the defence submission able to be pushed back? (I fear not!)
2) My SAR request is below and I was wondering if you had any advice before submitting it?

I will be writing my defence shortly

thanks in advance!!


SAR:

Highview Parking Limited,

10 Flask Walk

London

NW3 1HE

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

Subject access request (Data Protection Act 2018 / General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR))

 

My details:

Previous Address: REDACTED

Current Address: Listed above – Please send all correspondence to the address at REDACTED address

Proof of ID: Please see attached document – V5C for vehicle ownership

Please supply the data about me that I am entitled to under data protection law  relating to myself, this includes but is not limited to:

- ALL photos taken
- all letters/emails sent and received, including any appeal correspondence earlier
- PDT machine record from that day, of payments made
- all data held, all evidence they will rely on, and a full copy of the PCN, NTK
- and a list of all PCNs outstanding against you and/or this VRN, and remind them that any claim must be for all PCNs, not several separate claims.

 

If you need any more data from me to confirm my identity please let me know as soon as possible, I decline to show a driver’s license or Passport. It may be helpful for you to know that data protection law requires you to respond to a request for data within one calendar month.

If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer, or relevant staff member. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you. Its website is ico.org.uk or it can be contacted on 0303 123 1113.

 

Yours faithfully

KellfromHell

It should be noted the claim is for just shy of £1000

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

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

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do so?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

KellfromHell

It is the 16/2/22

KellfromHell

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

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

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do so?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Hello, it is the 16/2/22

1) Yes I have acknowledged
2) It was on the 7/3/22 (14days+5)

KellfromHell

Here is my SAR, do you have any advice for the question in Bold??

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

Subject access request (Data Protection Act 2018 / General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)) – This is in addition to the letter posted to you on this date

 

Here are my details as the Keeper, not the driver:

Previous Address: REDACTED

Current Address: Listed above – Please send all correspondence to the Crewdson Road address

Proof of ID: Please see attached document – V5C for vehicle ownership

 

Vehicle in Question: Current Registration – REDACTED, at time of PCN – REDACTED

 

Please supply the data about me that I am entitled to under data protection law relating to myself, this includes but is not limited to:

 

- The documents stating how and when “the driver agreed to pay within 28 days”

- ALL photos were taken for the PCN(s)
- All letters/emails sent and received, including but not limited to all debt recovery and bailiff letters
- The PDT machine record from that day, of payments made
- all data held, all evidence you will rely on, and a full copy of the PCN, NTK
- and a list of all PCNs outstanding against myself and/or this VRN, this must be for all PCNs if possible, not several separate claims.

 Should I be asking the below cost section?

Further, under the same data protection law, please could you provide a full itemised breakdown of every component cost relating to;

1. The individual cost of each PCN and every damage claim comprises the £620 stated in the court claim.
2. The conditions at which the £620 rises to £778.13 as claimed.

 ****End of section****

The details referring to the court case are below:

Claim Number: REDACTED

Issue Date: 16/02/2022

 

If you need any more data from me to confirm my identity please let me know as soon as possible, I decline to show a driver’s license or Passport. It may be helpful for you to know that data protection law requires you to respond to a request for data within one calendar month.

 

If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer or relevant staff member. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you. Its website is ico.org.uk or it can be contacted on 0303 123 1113.

 

Yours faithfully

KeithP

KellfromHell said:

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

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

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do so?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Hello, it is the 16/2/22

1) Yes I have acknowledged
2) It was on the 7/3/22 (14days+5)

I expect you have worked out your Defence filing deadline correctly, but there might be something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 16th February, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 21st March 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over a week 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'.


My suggestion is that you stop fiddling with a SAR - the response to a SAR will be far more use at Witness Statement time - and instead concentrate on your Defence.

KellfromHell

Thanks, Keith, this is great advice! I will pop my defence in here as I draft it

Coupon-mad

I moved address and recently went home to visit and found a county court letter, which luckily I have acknowledged. 

Also, it is urgent that you email the CCBC and the parking firm and solicitor who filed the claim, to rectify your address data

Even if you covered that in the AOS, be aware that the Claimant and their solicitors won't have seen that and will still use the wrong address until you tell them to erase it and rectify the address held, immediately.

KellfromHell

Coupon-mad said:

I moved address and recently went home to visit and found a county court letter, which luckily I have acknowledged. 

Also, it is urgent that you email the CCBC and the parking firm and solicitor who filed the claim, to rectify your address data

Even if you covered that in the AOS, be aware that the Claimant and their solicitors won't have seen that and will still use the wrong address until you tell them to erase it and rectify the address held, immediately.

Thanks Coupon-mad, that's a really good piece of advice, I am on it now!

KellfromHell

KeithP said:

I expect you have worked out your Defence filing deadline correctly, but there might be something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 16th February, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 21st March 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over a week 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'.


My suggestion is that you stop fiddling with a SAR - the response to a SAR will be far more use at Witness Statement time - and instead concentrate on your Defence.

Coupon-mad said:

Also, it is urgent that you email the CCBC and the parking firm and solicitor who filed the claim, to rectify your address data

Even if you covered that in the AOS, be aware that the Claimant and their solicitors won't have seen that and will still use the wrong address until you tell them to erase it and rectify the address held, immediately.

Hi @KeithP and @Coupon-mad, thank you both so much for all your help so far! I was wondering if either of you had any recommendations for the following defence? You might recognise some of this from a post in May of last year (link 1 below). These paragraphs encompass paragraphs 2 and 3 from the template by yourself, @Coupon-mad, and I have changed the relevant details and added paragraph 8

Link 1: (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6265348/dcb-legal-on-behalf-of-highview-parking-advice-on-defence-for-claim/p1)

Key Questions;

1) Is paragraph 8 useful? It is stated in the POC, but I never agreed - perhaps they are referring to the agreement by parking in the car park, but I thought it was referring to documentation submitted by the keeper, for I wouldn't have done as I ignored them

2) Do you have any recommendations?

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but liability is denied. There are multiple insured drivers on the vehicle.

3. The Defendant was issued with a Claim Form by DCB Legal acting on behalf of the Claimant, Highview Parking Limited, for a Total amount of £918.13 (inclusive of £75 Court Fee & £75 Legal representative's costs). Through research the Defendant has come to understand that this relates to PCNs that were issued against Defendant’s vehicle REDACTED, formerly REDACTED, nearly 4 years ago on 4th June 2018. 

4. The Defendant as the registered keeper of the vehicle in question notes that they cannot be held liable due to the Claimant not complying with the ‘keeper liability’ requirements set out in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 ('PoFA'), Schedule 4.

5. In the Particulars of Claim ('POC') it is stated that the Defendant is liable as the driver or keeper but the Claimant has failed to provide any evidence that Defendant was also the driver. The Defendant cannot be held liable for the charges as the keeper of the vehicle. The Claimant did not properly serve a compliant notice to keeper in strict accordance with Paragraph 9, sub-paragraphs 4 and 5 of the PoFA, which states that notice to keeper must be delivered within the relevant period. Where the relevant period is defined as the period of 14 days beginning with the day after that on which the specified period of parking ended.

6. Following on from [4] & [5], where it is noted that the Claimant has elected not to comply with the 'keeper liability' requirements set out in PoFA, Claimant has included a clear falsehood in their POC which were signed under a statement of truth by the Claimant's legal representative who should know (as the Claimant undoubtedly does) that it is untrue to state that the Defendant is 'liable as keeper'.  This can never be the case with a Highview Parking Limited claim because this parking firm, same as any Group Nexus company, have never used the POFA 2012 wording, of their own volition.  Not only does the POC include this misleading untruth, but the Claimant has also added an unidentified sum in false 'damages' to enhance the claims.  So sparse is their statement of case, that the Claimant has failed to even state any facts about the alleged breach or the amount of the parking charge that was on the signage, because it cannot have been over £100. Which then leads to the question, how does the Claimant arrive at the Amount Claimed for a Total of £778.13. The Defendant has excluded the £75 Court Fee & £75 Legal representative's costs from the Total amount for the purposes of this defence point.

7. The Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS) and Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA) lead adjudicator and barrister, Henry Michael Greenslade, clarified that with regards to keeper liability, “There is no ‘reasonable presumption’ in law that the registered keeper of a vehicle is the driver and the operators should never suggest anything of the sort” (POPLA report 2015).

8. The Defendant does not recall ever agreeing “to pay within 28 but did not”, as stated in the POC, nor any supporting documentation on this matter.

9. The Defendant does not recall receiving the original PCN. The Defendant upon receiving the Claim Form has subsequently requested a copy via Subject Access Request to Group Nexus (who through research the Defendant now understand own Highview Parking Limited).

10. The Defendant does recall receiving multiple "Debt Collection" letters over the years, from bodies like Debt Recovery Plus, that can only be described as extremely threatening and harassing in nature from multiple different senders (there was always a different name/company). The letters all appeared to demand immediate action on the part of the Defendant and gave rise to the feeling that they must be part of some sort of scam. It felt like the Defendant was being harassed into hastily handing over money (with ever changing amounts) in order to avoid further costs down the line, court visits and an impending CCJ that would impact on the Defendant livelihood. The Defendant ignored these threatening “Debt Collection” type letters believing that they could be part of a scam.