CEL send Court Claim form after nearly 5 years

chattyj

Hi All,

2am and i'm up stressing - 5 years ago on our way down to Newquay we stopped at Taunton for the night to break up the journey. 14mins and 50 seconds is the time it takes to pull into the holiday Inn cark park, unbuckle kids, remove luggage, walk to reception,be told you are booked in the holiday Inn Express next door and don't worry about parking you have 15mins grace, walk back to car etc etc and drive to car park next door.

2 weeks later arrived at home and have a PCN waiting for me, i contact the holiday Inn and explained the situation, they said they couldn't overturn the ticket as they had used up their allowance for the month, so to appeal to CEL, I did this and it was reject, tried POPLA and rejected. Contacted Holiday Inn again (new month, new overrule allownace), but the option was greyed out, Holiday Inn conact CEL to ask them to overturn but they said NO. - If the receptionist had said just enter your reg in the ipad on the desk I would have done that.

I had a few more letters from CEL, QDR and ZZPS which stopped in April 2019, nothing for 3 years and now a claim form which was issued 25th March. No letter before claim arrived.

I have read the newbies small claims section and will be acknowledging the claim with the intent to defend all, but I struggling to work out what my defence is. The first bill was £100 pounds reduced to 60 if paid in 14 days, but now it stays out 333.90  (248.90 claim plus 35 court fees and 50 legal representatives).

I'm also struggling to understand what goes in my defence when I email the court (rather than doing it online) and what would go in my witness statement which I assume is the DQ the court will send me.

Apologies for my lack of understanding the process, I'll blame old age.

Regards JC

chattyj

I have just been on Google maps to view the signage, but holiday inn have sacked off CEL. I contacted them and they explain it was due to the numerous complaints.  After 3 years since the last letter from CEL it looks like they are digging up old Holiday Inn claims as a form of revenge. 

Le_Kirk

Your defence is promissory estoppel; you were told by an employee of the hotel, acting as an agent for the PPC, that it was OK to park there for 15 minutes.  You should complain bitterly to the highest level of management of Holiday Inn that you can reach and if they do not agree to have the PCN cancelled, please could they tell you the name and availability of the person who will attend the court hearing as a witness.

Coupon-mad

Just add what you think you want to say (written in the third person as 'the Defendant') to paras 2 and 3 of the template defence, which also has to be signed and dated.

No, your WS is not the DQ form.  Sit down and read the stuff under the red heading in the 2nd post of the NEWBIES thread 'IMPORTANT - KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN'.

Umkomaas

After 3 years since the last letter from CEL it looks like they are digging up old Holiday Inn claims as a form of revenge. 

Not unheard of in CEL's case. In a revenge attack, not only did they sue Co-op customers but also Co-op staff who had been legitimately parked during their work shift. Their vehicle details were stored by CEL 'for posterity', then used when the contract was terminated - probably about 10 years ago now. Leopard and spots ....

KeithP

chattyj said:

...and now a claim form which was issued 25th March.

With a Claim Issue Date of 25th March, you have until Wednesday 13th April to file an Acknowledgment of Service but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 27th April 2022 to file your Defence.

That's well 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 again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service instructions.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that 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'.

chattyj

Many thanks for all the replies, as there is no signage now at the hotel car park, is it up to CEL to prove they were present when the PCN was issued, or myself to prove they weren't?

Thanks again.

Umkomaas

It's always the claimant's task to prove their case. Of course if you have information that helps you, you wouldn't want not to reveal it. 

patient_dream

chattyj said:

Many thanks for all the replies, as there is no signage now at the hotel car park, is it up to CEL to prove they were present when the PCN was issued, or myself to prove they weren't?

Thanks again.

THE HOTEL SACKED CEL ?  so have many others 

It seems CEL may be desperate for money ?  The fack remains that CEL are now scamming you and that would apply to any silly legal who supports them..  Is it QDR who issued the claim or CEL themselves

They have a lot of hoops to jump through to prove to a judge. Trouble is that CEL are well known to the courts. Trying to claim £248.90  for a £100 ticket is a scam and guess what, these fools have no legal authority to do this.

CEL have a history of walking the wire and when they realise you are not a fool and a huge spanking awaits them in court  ...... they discontinue ?

No point in wasting sleep time, the people on this forum are far smarter than CEL or any legal they may use.
Follow to the letter the information given

Fruitcake

It will be easy for CEL to prove there were signs on site at the time of the alleged event, but it will be up to you to show they were inadequate.

Anyone can show a stock image or a close up of a sign, but it doesn't take too much to pick angles that show how easy it would have been for a motorist to miss them.

Have another look at GSV, use the historic images and navigate your way round to find images that support your case, especially if you can find any near where the car was parked. 

Click next to the clock to pull up historic images, search the timeline, then click on the large thumbnail.



Front entrance in April 2017. Would a driver see the permit only sign, or would they be looking at oncoming traffic, watching vehicles leaving, watching out for pedestrians, looking for the hotel entrance?




If a driver approached from this direction they wouldn't see the sign at all.



In the car park, 2018. Note the signs are actually outside the car park meaning a driver could reasonably assume they applied to parking on the road the other side of the wall, and nothing at all to do with the hotel car park.

chattyj

some great comments here, many thanks for your time and effort. It's really appreciated.

In terms of a counterclaim for the cost of my day off work if it  goes to court, and if possible time building my case, do you think that would put CEL off taking it any further. I havent' check the cost mind of a counterclaim yet.