Claim form received, help and opinions needed for defence

Stanley821

Hi all,

I've received a claim form from DCB Legal acting for CP Plus Ltd regarding an unpaid parking charge and associated charges and legal fees now amounting to close to £300 after parking for a little over an hour more than the two hour free parking period at a motorway service station in late 2019.

I read some old advice at the time and chose to ignore the initial letters from CP Plus and the ensuing debt collectors and so-called legal companies. I didn't complain to the motorway services at the time as I thought that by doing so, and by giving my excuses for not paying I would show my hand to them if it eventually went to court, and I did not follow the appeals process for the same reason. 

I'm happy to go all the way, and have now completed the MCOL and so have extended the deadline by two weeks, so the deadline is now at the end of this month.

these are the circumstances, please could you tell me if there are grounds here for a reasonable defence? I have read the defence template and I feel there are some brilliant things I can use in there.

I arrived late in the evening at the services and did not see the poorly lit sign displaying the parking terms, partly because I was tired and needed to stop for a rest but mainly because while although large, the sign was poorly lit and is on a junction at the front of the car park. I was focusing on negotiating the road to make sure I chose the correct entrance and to not hit pedestrians and other road users. 

I had a sleep, then went and bought some refreshments from the services. On my way back to my car, I noticed a smaller sign in the car park which explained parking charges. The only way to pay was by telephone but this sign didn't give the telephone number and directed me to other signs in the car park to find the number to ring. I found the correct number and rang it for what seemed like five or ten minutes. Once it got to providing my registration plate, I made a mistake entering letters on my phone's numeric keypad and had to start all over again. Rather than doing that I drove off in frustration. I've recently rang the services and you are now required to pay at a desk inside.

I believe that I was not given a proper opportunity to view and agree with the contract before accepting it, I believe that in these circumstances the parking charge and associated penalties are extortionate, and I believe that the parking company has made it difficult to pay the parking fee in the first place by not providing easy to use, alternative methods of payment or an easy to use telephone automated way of paying. I am therefore denying liability for this claim.

What are your thoughts?

KeithP

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

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Stanley821

issue date of claim form is 27/4/22
AOS submitted on 8/5/22

Stanley821

I've worked out I have until 30/5/22 to file my defence

KeithP

Stanley821 said:

issue date of claim form is 27/4/22
AOS submitted on 8/5/22

Stanley821 said:

I've worked out I have until 30/5/22 to file my defence

That's what I make it too, but there might be something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 27th April, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 30th May 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over two 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'.

Stanley821

KeithP said:

Stanley821 said:

issue date of claim form is 27/4/22
AOS submitted on 8/5/22

Stanley821 said:

I've worked out I have until 30/5/22 to file my defence

That's what I make it too, but there might be something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 27th April, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 30th May 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over two 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'.

Thank you Keith. I will get onto it pronto. I intend to use the reasons in my original post above to form the basis of my defence. And I will use the majority of the legal stuff from the defence template, also I intend to add some of my own. 

Do you think my reasons for not having paid the original parking fee will be acceptable by a judge? 

Coupon-mad

Yes, to a point:

I arrived late in the evening at the services and did not see the poorly lit sign displaying the parking terms
 
I had a sleep, then went and bought some refreshments from the services.

On my way back to my car, I noticed a smaller sign in the car park which explained parking charges. The only way to pay was by telephone but this sign didn't give the telephone number and directed me to other signs in the car park to find the number to ring

I found the correct number and rang it for what seemed like five or ten minutes. Once it got to providing my registration plate, I made a mistake entering letters on my phone's numeric keypad and had to start all over again.

...but not this:

"Rather than doing that I drove off in frustration. I've recently rang the services and you are now required to pay at a desk inside."

Stanley821

It looks as though the main body of my defence is based on the fact I didn’t notice the sign on entering the car park. And my reason for not paying when I had already overstayed the free period was that it was too difficult and cumbersome to pay. 

Am I able to build my defence using mainly the points on Signs 3.1 taken from the Government Private Parking Code of Practice published in February 2022 even though the incident occurred a couple of years ago or will this at least help my argument? There are a lot points in that document which are relevant to my case. 

Coupon-mad

Nope, you can only rely on the relevant CoP at the time, PLUS the law - CRA 2015 - about 'prominence' of terms and consumer notices, pointing out that the writing about £100 is buried in small print (probably) unlike the large lettering in the Beavis case.

Stanley821

Thanks, I’ll look into that. I’m also exploring an idea in relation to the Unfair Terms Regulations; As I had become tired whilst driving I was lawfully obliged to stop and rest but did not have an option of parking elsewhere. So In this case there is a question mark over my individual consumer’s freedom to contract. Since I was already there, I was a captive audience and did not have an option to park elsewhere. Do you think this is worth mentioning in my defence? 

Coupon-mad

No, I don't think that will fly, TBH.  But in any case, the CRA 2015 is the most modern unfair terms law and it replaced most other similar regulations.