Double yellows PCN with County Court Claim

Rafiki13

Hello 
I was given a PCN by Parking control Management LTD in front of my building while my wife and baby were inside the car and I was unloading.
I live in  this type of new developments were Parking is privately managed I have a parking permit to the building in front of mine so I sometimes unload shopping at the front door of my building (where there are double yellow lines ) before parking underground.
On the 6 Sep2022 I received a C.C.Claim and I am in the process of of writing a defence ( I already completed the acknowledgment of service ) but would like some advice as how to write it specifically for this situation.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. THANKS 

KeithP

I don't think you have received a CCJ - a County Court Judgment.
You do however appear to have received a County Court Claim.
Please edit your thread title appropriately.

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.

Le_Kirk

Rafiki13 said:

Hello 
I was given a PCN by Parking control Management LTD in front of my building while my wife and baby were inside the car and I was unloading.
I live in  this type of new developments were Parking is privately managed I have a parking permit to the building in front of mine so I sometimes unload shopping at the front door of my building (where there are double yellow lines ) before parking underground.
On the 6 Sep2022 I received a CCJ and I am in the process of of writing a defence ( I already completed the acknowledgment of service ) but would like some advice as how to write it specifically for this situation.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. THANKS 

You have almost written your defence, just keep the facts: -

have a parking permit to the building in front of mine so I the defendant sometimes unloads shopping at the front door of my the building (where there are double yellow lines but no kerb blips preventing unloading) before parking underground

Read the template defence to see how defences are written - short, punchy, technical/legal arguments in the third person.  You might want to read about Jopson v Homeguard: -
https://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/JOPSON-V-HOMEGUARD-2906J-Approved.pdf
where it says unloading is not parking.

Not_A_Hope

And then have a look at your lease / tenancy agreement to see what is required in relation to parking and permits. Your tenancy will trump any alleged breach of contract with the parking company.

Rafiki13

KeithP said:

I don't think you have received a CCJ - a County Court Judgment.
You do however appear to have received a County Court Claim.
Please edit your thread title appropriately.

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.

Yes I have a County Court Claim not CCJ.
The date issued was the 6/09/2022 and the Acknowledgement of S. i did it on the 12/09/2022.

Rafiki13

Not_A_Hope said:

And then have a look at your lease / tenancy agreement to see what is required in relation to parking and permits. Your tenancy will trump any alleged breach of contract with the parking company.

In my Lease agreement the wording is all about what I must not do and all the paragraphs refer to Parking and not Stopping so might be worth to mention this fact, although yellow lines are universal rules so i am not sure.

Rafiki13

Le_Kirk said:

You have almost written your defence, just keep the facts: -

have a parking permit to the building in front of mine so I the defendant sometimes unloads shopping at the front door of my the building (where there are double yellow lines but no kerb blips preventing unloading) before parking underground

Thanks for this Jopson v Homeguard it is basically the same situation so I am sure I can use lots of the same points.
When you  say short legal arguments are you referring just to my description of the situation ?  Should I still include all the other points as seen in the Jopson v Homeguard (if they apply) ?
I also read 'residential defence, by Johnersh, who is a solicitor:' on the NEWBIES T. and it also has multiple points should i also add them if they apply ?
Thanks

Fruitcake

Quote the relevant parts of the Jopson case from around paras 19 and 20 of the judgment, available online, where the judge said that loading/unloading is not parking. State that this was an appeal case so is persuasive on the lower courts.

Mention primacy of contract, and that your lease/AST makes no mention of needing a permit to park or to load/unload, and that a permit was only ever shown as a curtesy to the parking attendant. 
State that the PPC are a stranger to your lease/AST/rental contract.

If you are a tenant, then you can mention that no ballot in accordance with the strict requirements of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 was ever carried out, therefore there has been no lawful variation of your lease that allows an unregulated private parking company to issue you with parking charges, claim monies, or issue court claims.

You do not need to go into any great detail at the defence stage. You can expand on anything and everything you mention later at the witness statement/exhibits stage.

KeithP

Rafiki13 said:

KeithP said:

I don't think you have received a CCJ - a County Court Judgment.
You do however appear to have received a County Court Claim.
Please edit your thread title appropriately.

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.

Yes I have a County Court Claim not CCJ.
The date issued was the 6/09/2022 and the Acknowledgement of S. i did it on the 12/09/2022.

With a Claim Issue Date of 6th September, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 10th October 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over 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 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'.

Rafiki13

Hi im using the Cupon-mad template as copy paste except for point 2 and 3 that i copy here for your expert review if possible.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

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

 

3. The Defendant has a parking permit to the building but the spaces are very tight. Ingress is via a lift and staircase, but if one is carrying bulky or large items, this cannot be used, and so the residents and anyone delivering to the flats must stop on Waypoint Way in front of the building to load and unload (where there are double yellow lines but no kerb blips preventing loading/unloading) before parking underground. The Defendant was away from the car for just over 3 minutes which is a reasonable amount of time to unload something to the 6th floor where the defendants Home is located, and the Defendants wife and 6-month-old baby were inside the car for this period of time. The Defendants rental contract makes no mention of restrictions to load/unload, and this Private Parking Company are a stranger to the Defendants rental contract.

 The defendants case could also be put in another way. The purported prohibition was upon “parking”, and it is possible to draw a real and sensible distinction between pausing for a few moments or minutes to enable passengers to alight or for awkward or heavy items to be unloaded, and parking in the sense of leaving a car for some significant duration of time.

However, the meaning of the word “park”, the Shorter Oxford Dictionary has the following: “To leave a vehicle in a carpark or other reserved space” and “To leave in a suitable place until required.” The concept of parking, as opposed to stopping, is that of leaving a car for some duration of time beyond that needed for getting in or out of it, loading or unloading it, and perhaps coping with some vicissitude of short duration, such as changing a wheel in the event of a puncture. Merely to stop a vehicle cannot be to park it; otherwise, traffic jams would consist of lines of parked cars. Delivery vans, whether for post, newspapers, groceries, or anything else, would not be accommodated on an interpretation which included vehicles stopping for a few moments for these purposes.

Let me know of any necessary changes and if from the template if there is need for adjustments as well.
Most of template defence is regarding Parking not yellow lines.

Thanks for the support
Deadline on the 10th October.

Le_Kirk

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

It is normally written as above.  In my opinion, the rest of your defence is too long and reads more like a witness statement.  Keep it short, you have a permit, you were loading/unloading in an area with double yellow lines but no kerb markings, your rental agreement makes no mention of restrictions about loading/unloading.  The rest goes in the WS but I am not sure if the judge would welcome a lecture on what the word "park" means!  It looks like you have found Jopson v Homeguard but you will have seen that it refers to being in her statement not defence.