Defence Advice - Highview Parking and DCB Legal

vit0

Hi

Very grateful for this forum, found it after my wife received a claim form from the CCBC.

We don't remember receiving a PCN, if we did we ignored it. The debt collection letters started when we moved house in Oct 2017, which we naturally ignored. After some research we believe she's accused of parking for 30 minutes over the maximum stay (in a free car park).

What I've done so far:

Issue date 16/02/2022

AoS was submitted on 27/02/2022

AoS was received on 28/02/2022

SAR sent to NexusGroup on 15/03/2022

The PCN is from March 2016. 

DCB Legal representing Highview Parking Limited

£304 total amount claimed (with court and legal costs)

I've just used Coupon_mad's more recent template, but not sure if I need to add any further detail to sections 2 or 3

IN THE COUNTY COURT

Claim No.: xxxxx

Between

Highview Parking Limited

(Claimant) 

- and -  

Mrs xxxx yyyyy (née zzzzz)

 (Defendant)

____________________

DEFENCE

____________________

1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.  It is denied that any conduct by the driver gave rise to a ‘parking charge’ and it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as managers) has standing to sue or to form contracts in their own name at the location.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle (XXXX XXX) but liability is denied.  The Defendant is unable to remember if they were the driver on that day due to multiple drivers being insured and the event taking place almost 6 years ago.

3. The Defendant was only aware of this parking charge after being sent multiple debt recovery letters at some point in 2018 after moving house in October 2017. Prior to the debt recovery letters the Defendant received no PCN or other communication from Highview Parking Limited. 

KeithP

vit0 said:

...my wife received a claim form from the CCBC.

What I've done so far:

Issue date 16/02/2022

AoS was submitted on 27/02/2022

AoS was received on 28/02/2022

SAR sent to NexusGroup on 15/03/2022

Hello and welcome.

The first thing to say is that as your wife is the named Defendant then of course everything needs to be done in her name. Forgive me for making that point, but there does seem to be a lot of use of the word 'I' in your post.

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

That's just a few days 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'.

Coupon-mad

As it's Highview, they can't hold a registered keeper liable, so you need to copy another recent Highview defence from last week that covers the point about the POFA.

vit0

Thanks both for your input, of course by "I", I refer to my actions assisting my wife. She has completed the AoS and letter of defence with my help. Updated to the below with the intention to send today. We've also included statements 5-24 of the template, which I've cut out to keep the thread readable.

1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.  It is denied that any conduct by the driver gave rise to a ‘parking charge’ and it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as managers) has standing to sue or to form contracts in their own name at the location.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle (BLANKED) but liability is denied.  The Defendant is unable to recall if they were the driver on that day due to multiple drivers being insured and the event taking place almost 6 years ago.

3. The Defendant was only aware of this parking charge after being sent multiple debt recovery letters at some point in 2018 after moving house in October 2017. Prior to the debt recovery letters the Defendant received no PCN or other communication from Highview Parking Limited. The Defendant as the registered keeper of the vehicle in question at the time, notes that they cannot be held liable due to the Claimant not complying with the ‘keeper liability’ requirements set out in the Protection of Freedom Act 2012 ("POFA"), Schedule 4.

4. Where it is noted that the Claimant has elected not to comply with the 'keeper liability' requirements set out in Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (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 of how they arrive at the Amount Claimed for a Total of £304.05 (The Defendant has included the £35 Court Fee & £50 Legal representative's costs for the purposes of this defence point).

Coupon-mad

Looks fine.

vit0

My wife has had what appears to be; the standard letter from DCB saying they plan on proceeding with court action but giving her 7 days to settle out of court, such bully tactics. 

Umkomaas

vit0 said:

My wife has had what appears to be; the standard letter from DCB saying they plan on proceeding with court action but giving her 7 days to settle out of court, such bully tactics. 

Same same, usual chit!

Coupon-mad

vit0 said:

My wife has had what appears to be; the standard letter from DCB saying they plan on proceeding with court action but giving her 7 days to settle out of court, such bully tactics. 

As expected, assuming you are still following the 12 steps in the 1st post of the Template Defence thread.  

Later stages are covered in the 2nd post of the NEWBIES thread under the red heading in capitals.

MOCHOW25

Hello, I hope you are well.

Thank you for your very helpful posts how to challenge DCB legal for county court claims.  I am wondering if you'd be so kind to help me further please? 

I have a claim form where claimant UK Parking control is claiming for 3 PCN's dates: 20/05/2017, 18/11/2018 & 31/12/2019 for parking at Beckton Triangle retail park.  It says on the claim ''The PCN was issued on private land owned or managed by C.  The vehicle was parked in breach of the terms of Cs signs (the Contract), thus incurring the PCN(s)''....

I have gone through the very helpful Newbies sticky thread post and have so far responded via the steps given for moneyclaim.gov.uk & have completed the acknowledgement of service today.  The claim issue date was 14/09/2022

I have not seen any of the letters relating to these PCN's.  How best can I defend this case please? Reading through the second post on newbies thread which you wrote 26/02/2020 & edited 29/05/22,

I guess I just change point 2 to say: It is admitted that the defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle but liability is denied. The Defendant is unable to remember if they were the driver on that day due to multiple drivers being insured and the event taking place almost 6 years ago.

Point 3- The defendant is unaware of the reasons for the 3 claims from the claimant as the defendant didn't get any PCN's or other communication from UK parking control regarding the claims.

I am intending to keep the remainder of the defence document as outlined in Newbies thread second post.

I would be extremely grateful for your support & guidance.

Umkomaas

@MOCHOW25 - please copy and paste your posting into a new thread of your own. We work on one case, one thread, regardless of similarities. Trying to advise two different people on one thread will lead to confusion - not the ideal position to be in when dealing with the murky world of private parking. 

vit0

Coincidentally, my wife has received a discontinuation letter today from Highview/DCB.
Similar pattern to this: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations
Thank you all for your help.