Euro Parking Services - Home Bargains - 38 weeks pregnantPCN

Fruitcake

Have you exhausted Plan A yet, complaints to the landowner/store manager, and your MP?

If you want more time, then send a 30 day hold instruction to Gladstones stating that whilst you deny the debt you are seeking debt advice and require the case to be put on hold for 30 days as per court pre-action protocol. Send it around day 25 from the date on their letter.

Other than that, you should be preparing for a court claim by reading the guide to court written by bargepole that you will find in the NEWBIES thread, and the template defence thread written by Coupon-mad that includes a twelve step guide.

Plan A is still and always will be the best option.

Coupon-mad

LBC stage is already in the NEWBIES thread and you should respond now. Search the forum; hundreds of examples have been done this year already.

GardaIT

Fruitcake said:

Have you exhausted Plan A yet, complaints to the landowner/store manager, and your MP?

If you want more time, then send a 30 day hold instruction to Gladstones stating that whilst you deny the debt you are seeking debt advice and require the case to be put on hold for 30 days as per court pre-action protocol. Send it around day 25 from the date on their letter.

Other than that, you should be preparing for a court claim by reading the guide to court written by bargepole that you will find in the NEWBIES thread, and the template defence thread written by Coupon-mad that includes a twelve step guide.

Plan A is still and always will be the best option.

Thank you. Regarding plan A, Euro Parking are keeping landowner details confidential. I complaint to Home Bargains but they said they do not rent the parking anymore, the land is not registered in the Land Registry and EPS refused to disclose who owns it. I haven't complained to MP though. I will search the forum for some guidance on that. 

Half_way

if it's a retail park then the owners can be found either  on a sign at the entrance, and/or  a search on Google for the retail park name, for example a search for : station road retail park somewhere town + units will often reveal something

GardaIT

Unfortunately, it is just a Home Bargains in a town centre - not a retail park. There is no signage at the entrance just the ones on the wall that mention EPS and that the car park is for the clients. That's all. I've tried all sorts searching the net but cannot find anything on the owner.

Fruitcake

EPS will have to tell you the landowner/landholder's details at the witness statement/exhibits stage which is much further down the road in the court process. They should tell you with whom they have a contract in accordance with pre-action protocol, so be sure to request it at the response to the court claim stage, then complain about it to the court/judge when they refuse.

I don't think the Land Registry website gives landowner details unless you pay them, but it only costs a few quid so it is worth doing. You will need to be precise with the location to do this. The LR can also do a map search, but this costs more as it involves a human checking maps against a database.

Le_Kirk

Fruitcake said:

I don't think the Land Registry website gives landowner details unless you pay them, but it only costs a few quid so it is worth doing. You will need to be precise with the location to do this. The LR can also do a map search, but this costs more as it involves a human checking maps against a database.

Yep, it (still) costs £3 but you can search the land registry to see if it is worth spending the money as the search will generally reveal if the are properties at that post code/location just won't tell you unless you pay their ransom!

GardaIT

There's been a slight development on this case. I emailed Home Bargains again. They have previously (last September) emailed me saying they have nothing to do with this car park. This time I told them that I will be bringing a claim for damages for harrasment against the EPS and since they are mentioning Home Bargains in all of their letters I want to understand what's Home Bargains legal stance. This time I had a completely different approach fromexact same eraon from HB. They asked for copies of PCN. They contacted EPS and sent me EPs responnce that this case is now out of their hands, with their solicitors so they cannot cancel it (B/S). Home Bargains offered me £100 as a "gestures of good will" if I pay the PCN that is now £230.

I am not paying it and I am prepared to defend it in court because I know I haven't done anything wrong. I thought this update might be useful for anyone else who read this theread and is in a similar situation. 

Very disappointed with HB.... clearly they lied to me in September 2022...

Coupon-mad

Tell them you will accept their offer of £100 either now with no strings, by way of a goodwill gesture, or alternatively you expect it to be offered with good grace later, if you lose in court.  You will let them know the outcome in 2024; for their information, most well-defended cases see the consumer win because the parking industry is rogue and their template claims are weak.

Reiterate they need to sack the parking firm because this rubbish is losing them customers.