Parking Fine - Letter from County Court Business Centre

cpjk3575

Hello everyone,

I received an out of the blue parking fine a few months after I overstayed at a carpark managed by vehicle control services. At the time I was there with my 3 month old baby and unfortunately we overran due to me having to care for him and feed him. At first when I received the letter informing me of the fine (containing a picture of my car) I assumed it was a scam as it looked like a really dodgy amatuer letter. Because of this and the fact that the parking event had taken place months before I chose to ignore the letters they kept sending me.

Today I have received a claim form letter informing me that I owe them £255 and that I have 14 days to reply or the case will be dealt with by the county court business centre. This has really scared me and I have no idea what I need to do. I definitely don't want to pay the fine as I believe the fact I didn't get a letter informing me of the charges until months after means it is invalid but I'm not sure of my rights or what I can do to contest this?

Is there a company I can go to defend myself (I'm happy to pay a small amount to do this) or is there a free way I can do it myself?

Thank you so much in advance for any help given.

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

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

cpjk3575

Hi Keith, the issue date is 21 Sep 2022. If there's any more information you'd like me to share please let me know and I can do so.

KeithP

cpjk3575 said:

Hi Keith, the issue date is 21 Sep 2022.

With a Claim Issue Date of 21st September, you have until Monday 10th October to file an Acknowledgment of Service. Do not file an Acknowledgment of Service before 4pm today, but otherwise 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 24th October 2022 to file your Defence.

That's well over four 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'.

Coupon-mad

Is there a company I can go to defend myself (I'm happy to pay a small amount to do this) or is there a free way I can do it myself?

Yep, you can easily defend it with our resources.  Free of charge.  Read any court claim thread and you will see that we walk people through to 99% wins every day here.

ab2000

With a 14 day limit is this not another letter to ignore?

To the op, a redacted picture would help to confirm if this is the case or not.

Did the letter come from the CCBC?  to the words 'letter before claim/action' appear anywhere?

cpjk3575

ab2000 said:

With a 14 day limit is this not another letter to ignore?

To the op, a redacted picture would help to confirm if this is the case or not.

Did the letter come from the CCBC?  to the words 'letter before claim/action' appear anywhere?

Hi ab,

Here's the letter I received. I believe I've redacted all the personal data from it.

cpjk3575

KeithP said:

cpjk3575 said:

Hi Keith, the issue date is 21 Sep 2022.

With a Claim Issue Date of 21st September, you have until Monday 10th October to file an Acknowledgment of Service. Do not file an Acknowledgment of Service before 4pm today, but otherwise 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 24th October 2022 to file your Defence.

That's well over four 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'.

Thank you Keith, I'm in the process of following your instructions now and drafting up the letters. Out of curiosity is there anyone I could send them to have a quick check that I've done it all correctly?

cpjk3575

Coupon-mad said:

Is there a company I can go to defend myself (I'm happy to pay a small amount to do this) or is there a free way I can do it myself?

Yep, you can easily defend it with our resources.  Free of charge.  Read any court claim thread and you will see that we walk people through to 99% wins every day here.

Hi Coupon-mad, thanks for replying. I'm in the process of drafting up the letters right now. It makes me feel better knowing that a lot of people win these claims as I definitely feel like the parking company are trying their luck with intimidation. It almost worked.

Le_Kirk

cpjk3575 said:

Thank you Keith, I'm in the process of following your instructions now and drafting up the letters. Out of curiosity is there anyone I could send them to have a quick check that I've done it all correctly?

cpjk3575 said:

Hi Coupon-mad, thanks for replying. I'm in the process of drafting up the letters right now. It makes me feel better knowing that a lot of people win these claims as I definitely feel like the parking company are trying their luck with intimidation. It almost worked.

What letters would  they be?  You have completed your AOS and now need to compile a defence based on the template, have it checked on the forum after posting your paragraphs 2 & 3 only and then submit by e-mail as instructed by @KeithP

Fruitcake

The Peel centre is a frequent flyer on this forum.

Complain to the landowner or the site managing agents. The contact information is often posted on entrance signs and/or the retail park website.
A forum search for Peel Centre may throw it up as well.

In your complaint you should mention that you were breastfeeding an infant under six months of age and therefore have protected characteristics in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. As a result the landowner and their agents must make reasonable provision for this. One reasonable adjustment would be to allow additional time for breastfeeding mothers.
Now that they are aware of this, they should instruct their agent, VCS, to cancel the parking charge notice.

I suggest you copy the complaint to VCS as it would be reasonable to inform the claimant in order to narrow the issue before they pay the court filing fee.