Walton Wilkins Court Claim

Teemo · 9 April 2022 at 10:59PM

Good evening everyone,

I had received a windscreen ticket back in February 26th 2020 at a car park in Birmingham. At that car park i had some trouble paying as the coins I was putting in the machine kept coming back out. I had to go to a nearby shop to get more change as my coins weren’t being accepted. The country was in lockdown during this time so there were not a lot of local shops nearby open at the time. When I had managed to get some change I came back and saw the ticket guy near my car to which I had told him that I had just come back to get some change as the machine was not accepting my coins, he ignored me and proceeded to print a ticket and stuck it on my car and walked away.

I had misplaced my ticket after that day so I was waiting on a letter to come through the post regarding the ticket however I did not receive one and completely forgot about it.

Fast forward to the beginning of February 2022 I received a letter of claim from DCB Legal. I followed the instructions on the newbies thread and requested for a SAR from Premier Parking Logistics and sent an email to DCB Legal notifying them of this.
This week I received a claim form letter dated 30th March. I’m not sure what day it arrived as I was away for work last weekend.
I have since filed an AOS on the 7th April.
If I have calculated it correctly I have until the 2nd May to write my defence using the template.

From the SAR I have received imagines the ticket man had taken.
Multiple photos taken of my car timestamped at 16:59 and at 17:05 with the ticket on the windscreen.
Would a grace period apply in my circumstances?

Any advice regarding my defence it would be very much appreciated.
Thank you

KeithP · 9 April 2022 at 11:14PM

Teemo said:

This week I received a claim form letter dated 30th March.
I have since filed an AOS on the 7th April.
If I have calculated it correctly I have until the 2nd May to write my defence using the template.

Hello and welcome.

Almost right. You actually have an extra day because 2nd May is a Bank Holiday.

With a Claim Issue Date of 30th March, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 3rd May 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'.

Teemo · 10 April 2022 at 9:30AM

Speaking of bank holidays, we also have good Friday and Easter Monday next weekend. Would that also mean adding another two days?

KeithP said:

Teemo said:

This week I received a claim form letter dated 30th March.
I have since filed an AOS on the 7th April.
If I have calculated it correctly I have until the 2nd May to write my defence using the template.

Hello and welcome.

Almost right. You actually have an extra day because 2nd May is a Bank Holiday.

With a Claim Issue Date of 30th March, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 3rd May 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'.

Coupon-mad · 10 April 2022 at 11:26AM

No, it's calendar days but if the deadline then would work out to fall at a weekend or on a BH, the deadline is in fact the next working day.

Snakes_Belly · 10 April 2022 at 12:11PM

Where was the car park? This PPC are notorious for badly managed car parks. Faulty machines, waterlogged car parks and signage covered in graffiti. houndsoflove, Jimsnap, worcestermum have all had similar issues and won their cases against this company. Jimsnaps case was similar to your own scenario. The machine did not register all the coins and issued a ticket for an amount which was not a tariff.

95Rollers · 10 April 2022 at 2:56PM

We would ideally need to know the location. This company are very litigious with lots of cases making court, but they tend to lose the vast majority of these. They are an IPC member company whose Codes of Practice states in regarding grace periods...

15. Grace Periods

15.1 Drivers should be allowed a sufficient amount of time to park and read any signs so

they may make an informed decision as to whether or not to remain on the site.

Basically in the 5 minutes your vehicle was "observed" you had formed a decision that you wanted to park by trying to use thr machine and obtain money for it so you could get the machine to work. Who is to say the driver must remain on site or in or by the car whilst they are reviewing the terms or preparing to park 🤔 Surely reading signs/ reviewing terms/ making a decision and getting the money to pay to park within a 5-6 minute window is more than reasonable "time to park".

In BPA carparks there is a set time limit of 10 minute rule to do all that - which you've done in half that time which one would argue is reasonable.

Teemo · 10 April 2022 at 6:57PM

The car park is HM car park in ladywell walk Birmingham city centre B5 4ST

95Rollers · 11 April 2022 at 7:37AM

If you search Walton Wilkins or Premier Parking Logistics on this forum you'll find out more information. Im not local to Birmingham so don't really know it.

But worth doing a Google Street View search on it to give an idea of signage and or lack of it. Chances are there is no clause on the T&Cs that forbids anyone from leaving the site to get change.

Lots of PPLs failed claims have made both regional and national press which are worth seeking out as there may be similarities with your case - reasons included hidden signage, busted machines, poor signs/ markings etc.

Snakes_Belly · 11 April 2022 at 11:06AM

Jimsnap's PCN was from a PPL car park near to the Hippodrome. It was a very strange occurance as £6.00 was paid and the machine issued a ticket for a £3.00 stay but on the ticket it said that £5.00 had been paid. There was no tariff for £5.00. It sounded as if the ticket machine had not been calibrated properly.

This PPC does not maintain their equipment or sites well at all and you will find some cases of this of this forum. I don't believe that the ticket machines are serviced regularly.

There was also another case of coins falling through the machine. It may have been houndsoflove.

Teemo · 11 April 2022 at 11:14AM

I have attached a few images i received from the SAR, one which my car was parked near one of the signs displayed in the car park. DCB legal have also sent me a PDF of the same sign as it's quite blurry on the photo. As you have mentioned on the sign it doesn't mention anything about forbidding customers to leave the site to get change. Google street view of the car park is outdated, photos from 2015 however i work not too far from the city centre and can pop down one of the days after work to take more photos if required.

95Rollers said:

If you search Walton Wilkins or Premier Parking Logistics on this forum you'll find out more information. Im not local to Birmingham so don't really know it.

But worth doing a Google Street View search on it to give an idea of signage and or lack of it. Chances are there is no clause on the T&Cs that forbids anyone from leaving the site to get change.

Lots of PPLs failed claims have made both regional and national press which are worth seeking out as there may be similarities with your case - reasons included hidden signage, busted machines, poor signs/ markings etc.