County claim - DCB Legal/Highview parking (Deadline 24 Oct)

scirocco77

Hi all,

Thanks to the resources on this forum, I have filed acknowledgement of service and I am currently writing up my defence for this claim. However my lack of experience has got the best of me so I would appreciate some guidance.

The situation:
-I was a paying member at puregym with 'free parking' managed by highview
-I registered my car with the ipad at the gym which said I would be authorised to park for the date 20/03/2018 (on the ipad it doesn't tell you about any time limits)
-A letter was sent out to my address with a PCN claiming that I had breached the 'contract', their basis was that I had overstayed the 1hr 30min time limit 
-I subsequently ignored all further letters from highview (in hindsight I would not have done this)
-I received a letter of claim issued 20 Sept 2022 (which should mean i have until 24 Oct to file my defence)
-The total claim amount is £314.56! which in these times is really difficult to pay. The court fee, 'legal representative' costs that tacked on top as well as 8% interest per annum is absolutely ridiculous so I will definitely fight these

I have attached the claim form (with sensitive info removed)

Please see my draft defence below based on the given template on this forum, I would appreciate any further advice on how to strengthen my defence. Do I have a leg to stand on even IF I might have broken a parking term? surely the claim in question is extremely excessive given I was actually a paying customer for the facility the parking is used for?

-----

Highview Parking / DCB legal

 

(Claimant)

 

- and -

 

XXXXXXXX

 

(Defendant)

 

_________________

 

DEFENCE

 

 

 

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 and driver in question.

 

3. The defendant was an active paying customer of the ‘Pure Gym’ at Urban Exchange managed by Highview parking LTD on the date of the issued PCN (20th March, 2018), so was therefore an authorised user of the parking facility. The defendant registered the vehicle on the electronic register within the gym which permitted use of ‘Free parking’ for the given date.

 

4. 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.

scirocco77

here is the form

Coupon-mad

"Highview Parking / DCB legal"

That's not the name of the Claimant.

KeithP

scirocco77 said:

-I received a letter of claim issued 20 Sept 2022 (which should mean i have until 24 Oct to file my defence)

Hello and welcome.

Not a letter of claim, but a County Court Claim - issued on 20th September 2022.

Depending on when you filed an Acknowledgment of Service, you are right with your Defence filing deadline.
I am going to assume that you filed an Acknowledgment of Service after 23rd September and before 11th October - your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that. Please confirm. 

But maybe there is something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 20th September, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 24th October 2022 to file your Defence.

Just a few days to go. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see you are not leaving it to the very 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'.

scirocco77

Thanks @Coupon-mad I will amend that

@KeithP - I filed the AoS online on 25th Sept

scirocco77

Hi all,

I sent off my defence before the deadline, and received a letter saying it has been forwarded to the claimant. However I haven't received any further response. Should i have done anything in the meantime? just worried I may have missed anything that would go against me

Thanks

KeithP

scirocco77 said:

Hi all,

I sent off my defence before the deadline, and received a letter saying it has been forwarded to the claimant. However I haven't received any further response. Should i have done anything in the meantime? just worried I may have missed anything that would go against me

Thanks

The CCBC sent you a letter saying the Claimant has twenty eight days to consider your Defence.

What you don't know is when the CCBC sent a copy of your Defence to the Claimant. 

It follows from that that it is not known when the Claimant has to respond to the CCBC. 

Further, we don't know what delays there are in the CCBC that means they don't send you a Directions Questionnaire as promptly as you might like.

Can I suggest that you keep checking your MCOL Claim History and as soon as you see that the CCBC has sent a DQ to you, you are ready to download a DQ, complete it and fire it back to the CCBC, remembering to send a copy to the Claimant of course?