POFA 2912 keeper liability

jaydee121

Hi. Having received a pcn I came to this site for guidance and and read the newbies thread and link to POFA schedule regarding if a parking company can take a keeper to court if they don’t know the driver. However I’m still confused what wording a pcn must contain in order to make it POFA compliant. Does the pcn have to refer to POFA??! Do they just have to say tell us the driver?? 

Le_Kirk

In the NEWBIE sticky is a link to POFA, go there and have also open, either on your PC or the actual PCN, and compare the two word for word.

jaydee121

Hi. I have got POFA all 8 pages and for someone like myself not legally trained it’s very confusing. Each sentence refers to another paragraph which then refers to another paragraph sub section x part x and on and on…. I’ve probably got this wrong but it all effectively says the company can claim from the keeper instead of the driver . POFA doesn’t say any particular wording is required and doesn’t say they have to mention POFA. Seems to me the only requirement in a straightforward pcn for exceeding time limit is to get the pcn delivered to keeper by 14 days after parking event. So parking on 1st of month for example would need the pcn issue date to be 13th or earlier in order to be deemed delivered on 15th. Is this correct?

Coupon-mad

That's correct about the time (unless the 13th is a Thursday, Friday, weekend or Bank Holiday).  But this is wrong:

POFA doesn’t say any particular wording is required.

Yes it does.

Either paragraph 8 (if a windscreen PCN) or paragraph 9 (if ANPR by post).  It's spelt out in just 2 paragraphs. 

jaydee121

Thanks regarding the dates. So my ntk which is dated 14 days after parking date means that there is no keeper liability. Right? Yet I have now, after ignoring threatening letters, been given a court claim - which I have acknowledged on mocol and that I now have to submit my defence.  So why have they issued this court claim? Strange as they know the ntk couldn’t have arrived in the 14 days required by POFA?? If I state that my defence is the ntk being late will they still actually go to court?

KeithP

They do not have to use POFA to transfer any driver's liability to the keeper.

They can simply go on the fact that they either know, or believe, that the keeper was the driver.

Now that you have told us that you have an active claim, can you please tell us the Issue Date on your Claim Form?
Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Are you able to give us more details of what exactly the driver is accused of and where the alleged parking event happened?

Who is the Claimant?

jaydee121

Thank you. Was issued 25 March, acknowledged April 16. So defence needed asap I know. Was overstay of 2 hour limit due to they had changed the free time limit from 3 to 2 hours during lockdown by sticking a 2 over the number 3 in their notice. This is exactly same as happened to I think Dav3 at Gloucester peel centre. 

KeithP

jaydee121 said:

Was issued 25 March, acknowledged April 16. So defence needed asap I know. 

I am going to suggest that your Defence needs to be filed immediately - if not sooner.

With a Claim Issue Date of 25th March, you had until Wednesday 13th April to either file an Acknowledgment of Service or file a Defence. 

You did neither.

You are now in a race.

Since 4pm on Wednesday 13th April the Claimant has been free to seek a Default Judgment against you.

If they seek that Judgment before you have filed a Defence, then they win the race - it's game over - you lose.

Check your MCOL Claim History to see if there is a Judgment against you. 
If there is, then you can ignore the rest of this post.

On the other hand if you file a Defence before the Claimant actually seeks that Default Judgment, then you win this heat and go through to the next round. The good news is that nothing further untoward will happen before 8am tomorrow.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. From now on the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Coupon-mad

jaydee121 said:

Thank you. Was issued 25 March, acknowledged April 16. So defence needed asap I know. Was overstay of 2 hour limit due to they had changed the free time limit from 3 to 2 hours during lockdown by sticking a 2 over the number 3 in their notice. This is exactly same as happened to I think Dav3 at Gloucester peel centre. 

A very strong defence point on its own!  But add to that the fact the NTK is non-POFA and plonk all that into the template defence, sign/date and email it to the CCBC and you are done, for this stage.

jaydee121

Ok I will do now. Checked mcol and no judgement it just says continue defence, as I started but didn’t finish or submit defence as I thought I should get advice from you first.  Can I ask why I can’t continue my defence on mcol??why it should be read only??

Coupon-mad

All explained in the NEWBIES thread section under the red heading 'IMPORTANT - KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN' which includes a link to a thread by @bargepole about the court process.