UKPC Limited Parking Fine over staying

heidi279

Hi all

Looking for some advice please

November 17 2020 I parked in a retail park car park.  

I used the facilities at both Starbucks and another retailer.

The car park had a 3 hour free parking rule - but I wasn’t aware it was limited to 3 hours.  I had looked around for signage and saw nothing obvious.  I had stayed for 3 hours and 17 minutes

Days later I received a parking notice 

I returned to the car park and saw that where I had parked WAS a sign but it was broken in half and no other signs were visible.

I ignored the parking charge and went on to receive MANY different “pay up” letters from many different “solicitors” and debt recovery agents.

I received one from ZZPS (or similar) threatening it was my last chance to speak to them to sort the matter.

I called them and explained that the signage was poor and would rather justify my actions to a judge as the signage was broken.

I have now received a County Court Business Centre Claim form which asks if I accept the claim or dispute it.

My fine has risen to £267 which includes a Legal Reps fee of £50 and £35 court fee

I noticed a month ago that the sign has been replaced and is now more than twice the size it was, with all the correct information.

I really feel I shouldn’t have to pay the fine as I genuinely didn’t realize there was a time limit and the signage was not visible due to being broken.

I have pictures of the broken sign and the new sign

Your thoughts?

Coupon-mad

It is not a fine.  Have you seen the Template Defence thread?

What's the issue date of the Claim?

heidi279

The date on letter is 31 May 2022.  I have been on holiday so need to get my defence done ASAP x

KeithP

heidi279 said:

The date on letter is 31 May 2022. 

I am going to assume that the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form is 31st May 2022. 
Clarity is important.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

With a Claim Issue Date of 31st May, you have until Monday 20th June 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 Monday 4th July 2022 to file your Defence.

That's 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'.

heidi279

thank you for thank you for all your advice.  So even though I don’t want to delay I still need to do the acknowledgment of service?

yes the issue date is 31 May 2022 but it says it allows five days after that date for postage

KeithP

heidi279 said:

thank you for thank you for all your advice.  So even though I don’t want to delay I still need to do the acknowledgment of service?

yes the issue date is 31 May 2022 but it says it allows five days after that date for postage

It takes about ten minutes to file an Acknowledgment of Service.
That buys you an extra two weeks to hone your Defence to perfection.

To me, it seems silly not to ask for those extra days. If you find you don't need them, that's fine, but if you find you do need them but haven't requested them then that might be a nuisance.

heidi279

Makes perfect sense.  I have looked at the newbies thread too and will do SAR.

heidi279

Notice on the day of parking

heidi279

New sign there now

heidi279

Just completed my acknowledgment of service

Coupon-mad

That broken sign is incapable of forming any contract at all!  Is that first one their image or yours?