UKPC Limited Parking Fine over staying

heidi279

sorry for the delay - they are both my pics.  The first is the sign on the day i parked - the second is the one that is there now

KeithP

Are you going to show us the first few paragraphs of your Defence before filing it?

Remember you only have until 4pm on Monday to file your Defence.

heidi279

yes please that would be a huge help.  Shall i just post it here with names redacted.  I am very grateful for any advice or input.

heidi279

I used the template

1. The parking charges referred to in this claim did not arise from any agreement of terms. The charge and the claim was an unexpected shock. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.  It is denied that any conduct by the driver was a breach of any prominent term and it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as managers) has standing to sue or form contracts in their own name. Liability is denied, whether or not the Claimant is claiming 'keeper liability', which is unclear from the Particulars.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question.

3. On 17 December 2020 the defendant parked at Stane Park Leisure car park and used a business on the retail park.  The defendant then met a friend for coffee and as they had not seen each other in a long time the defendant left the car park 17 minutes after the 3-hour free limit.

4. The defendant parked directly outside Starbucks and went straight into the store. The car park was relatively new and she had not parked there before.  There were no visible signs so the defendant was not aware that there was a restriction on the amount of time that a person could park

5. Having received a parking fine sometime later, the defendant returned to the car park where she had parked.  There were no clearly visible signs however the defendant did notice a broken sign near to the parking space where the vehicle had been parked.

6. The sign was only half the size it had originally been and there were no details listed as to how long a person could park for.    The remaining part of the sign was less than 12 inches tall.  The writing was tiny and due to the sign being broken in half it was not clearly noticeable at the time of parking.  The defendant took a photograph of the sign and this is produced as her exhibit HL/01.

7. The defendant did not see the sign as it was not complete. 

8. The car park and retail site was new and the car park was never full as a lot of the units were unoccupied.  The defendant did not intentionally over stay in the car park and was using the businesses throughout the time the vehicle was parked.  If the defendant had known there was a time limit for parking she would have ensured that she left within that time.

9. It is worth noting that in early 2022 (some 16 months after the alleged parking offence) the Claimant has replaced the sign and it is now detailing all the information required in law.  The defendant produce a photograph of the new sign as exhibit HL/02.

10. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  To pre-empt the usual template responses from this serial litigator: the court process is outside of the Defendant's life experience and they cannot be criticised for adapting some pre-written wording from a reliable advice resource. The Claimant is urged not to patronise the Defendant with (ironically template) unfounded accusations of not understanding their defence. 

heidi279

I have just noticed that I overstayed by 14 minutes so I have changed that.

I have received the data access info and they have sent me 2 copies of the letters from UK Parking. 

The first states that the parking charge issue date is 22/12/2020
The second states that the parking charge issue date is 17/12/2020

Should I mention this in my statement?

Coupon-mad

To #2 add 'and driver'.

Remove this entirely because you DO NOT KNOW this; don't believe their timings without question:

"and as they had not seen each other in a long time the defendant left the car park 17 minutes after the 3-hour free limit."

Change parking 'fine' to parking charge notice.  It is not and never was a fine.

Remove 6 and 8 entirely (save for WS stage; also some of it isn't helpful so remove 6 and 8 completely) and remove all your exhibits if this is only defence stage right now.

Exhibits come at WS stage.

heidi279

hi Coupon

Thats great advice thank you so much.   Changed every thing you said - just got to try and work out how to send it to the  court now lol!  I presume I have to send it to the claimant solicitor as well?

Umkomaas

heidi279 said:

hi Coupon

Thats great advice thank you so much.   Changed every thing you said - just got to try and work out how to send it to the  court now lol!  I presume I have to send it to the claimant solicitor as well?

Your Defence is sent to the CCBC (they then distribute it to the Claimant solicitor). Email it as a pdf (not via the online form) during office hours, M-F only, and check that you have an auto-receipt almost by return. Check your Spam folder as well as your Inbox. The CCBC have been reported here as possibly having problems with receipt of defences attached to Gmail and Yahoo emails. 

heidi279

all sent -thank you for your help guys - what is the next thing I should Hear do you think

KeithP

heidi279 said:

 - what is the next thing I should Hear do you think

Have another look at the opening post of the Template Defence thread.

The checklist there has lots of useful information about what happens next.

Also read again the second post of the NEWBIES thread for lots more detail.

Please don't come back asking again for what happens next. 
You have already been given a link to the second post of the NEWBIES thread and clearly you have already seen the template Defence thread.