UKPC / DCB Legal LTD - County Court case

jasonbourne2004

Hello,

My father has a court case coming up with UKPC. My father dropped off his granddaughter to school, on the way back he got a bit of a cramp on his leg and also needed to use the toilet. My father has a portable urinal bottle in his car for emergencies as he has difficulty controlling his bladder, recently had a knee replacement and 2 years ago underwent radiation for his prostate cancer, he also has a blue badge for this reason.

He parked in the empty retail park for 30-50 minutes this time last year at the early morning, he did his pee in the car then got out and did some walking using his walking frame to help ease the leg cramp he had earlier. After 30 minutes he felt better and drove back home. This was his first time he had parked there ever before 9am, it's a retail park and apparently you can't park there before 9am (when the stores open). As you all know the parking signs are very small and he was under the impression it's a free car park as his parked his vehicle there for the past 15 years to visit Argos, Homebase, Currys etc;

Now when we originally got the letters, I foolishly advised my father to keep ignoring them. I wasn't aware the laws around these private firms had changed and they can take you to court.

The case details are below;

1. The Defendant(D) is indebted to the Claimant (C) for a Parking Charge(s) issued to vehicle ************
2. The PCN(s) was issued on private land owned or managed by C. The vehicle was parked in breach of the Terms on Cs signs (the Contract), thus incurring the PCN(s).
3. 4. The driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not. D is liable as the driver or keeper. Despite requests, the PCN(s) is outstanding. The Contract entitles C to damages.

AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS

1. £170 being the total of the PCN(s) and damages. 2. Interest at a rate of 8% per annum pursuant to s.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 from the date hereof at a daily rate of £0.02 until judgment or sooner payment. 3. Costs and court fees

Amount Claimed

£184.40

Court Fee

£35.00

Solicitor Costs

£50.00

Total Amount

£269.40

Issue Date

31/10/2022

A claim was issued against you on 31/10/2022

Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 05/11/2022 

Your acknowledgment of service was received on 07/11/2022 

Now my question are;

1) When is the deadline for the defence to be emailed, will it be the 30th November 2022?
2) How long for the case after the defence is submitted, will it be in 2-3 months time or do they process these quite quickly?
3) What is the best defence to tackle this case, should I argue about his medical condition and that he needed to make an emergency stop or make a point against the small signage? As his used the car park for 15 years and never received a fine before.
4) On the particulars of the claim, "it states the driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not". This is not the case, we ignored every letter and never contacted UKPC.
5) Also none of the letters were sent recorded, can we make a argument about this or is it a moot point?
6) Should I request SAR or is it too late, will it come in time of the court case?

Many thanks for your help and appreciate the contribution by the community here. 

Coupon-mad

"On the particulars of the claim, "it states the driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not". This is not the case, we ignored every letter and never contacted UKPC."

Please search the forum, to put that idea to bed...in contract law relying upon signage, think about what that actually means. Then bin it.

The defence (based on the Template Defence of course) should in the facts paragraphs, cover the Equality Act 2010 duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.

Again, a forum search will find that.

KeithP

jasonbourne2004 said:

Issue Date

31/10/2022

Your acknowledgment of service was received on 07/11/2022 

1) When is the deadline for the defence to be emailed, will it be the 30th November 2022?

With a Claim Issue Date of 31st October, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 5th December 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over two weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see you are not leaving 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'.

jasonbourne2004 said:

4) On the particulars of the claim, "it states the driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not". This is not the case, we ignored every letter and never contacted UKPC. 

The allegation is that by parking the driver agreed to the terms of the contract.

Those contract terms are the terms on the signs.

Almost certainly there is a term on the signs stating something like "if the driver doesn't park in accordance with the rules then he agrees to pay £nn within 28 days...".

jasonbourne2004

Thank you, I will look into the Equality Act 2010 as well for the defence.