DCB Legal (UKPC) - County Court Business Center Claim Letter.

karldonteljameswoods

Good Morning,
Back in 2017 I received a PCN (i made a post about it here.) Today (19 November 2022)I have received a letter from the Northhampton county court.

The particulars of the claim are as follows:
1) The Defendant(D) is indebted to the Claimant (C) for parking charges issued to the vehicle (Registration Number) at (Location)
2) The PCN Details are 25/02/2017 (PCN Number)
3) The PCN(s) was issued on private land owned and managed by C. The vehicle was parked in breach of the terms on Cs signs (The Contract) thus incurring the PCN(s)
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) £160 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  daily rate of £0.02 until judgement or sooner payment.
3) Costs and court fees.

There is a form attached, and the amounts are as follows:

Amount Claimed £242.44
Court Fee £35
Legal representative's costs £50
Total Amount: £327
Issue Date: 16 November 2022

Can anyone help me deal with this please? I do not remember if i wrote to them or not.

KeithP

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

karldonteljameswoods

Hi Keith, sorry I forgot to include that. I've added it to the original post but for simplicity, it was the 16th of November 2022.

KeithP

karldonteljameswoods said:

Issue Date: 16 November 2022

With a Claim Issue Date of 16th November, you have until Monday 5th December to file an Acknowledgment of Service but 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 19th December 2022 to file your Defence.

That's 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 guidance.

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'.

Umkomaas

3) The PCN(s) was issued on private land owned and managed by C. The

Not sure about UKPC owning any car parks. Can you give us the location, please?

Coupon-mad

Here's the details of the PCN, from the original first post.

Clearly a disabled passenger:

In February (2017) I received a parking ticket for parking in a disabled space without displaying a blue badge. My wife has recently undergone ankle fusion, and was being treated in a tailor special frame. 
She had an assessment and had been awarded PIP payments, when we spoke to the local council, we were told that applying for a blue badge could take several months, we had collected the forms but hadn't made any progress on them.

Mobility was obviously an issue, and this was the first time she had walked, normally she had been using a wheel chair.

We appealed the ticket a couple of days after the ticket was issued and received nothing. This morning I received a letter from DRP saying that the next step is that they take me to court. When I called them, the guy at the end of the phone said that a judge will see it as an open and shut case, would never be able to rule in my favour, and likes to make an example of people like me who park in disabled spaces without a blue badge.

karldonteljameswoods

I'll sit down and read the process described in the second post tomorrow, but in answer to eh first question the location Dockside Outlet Center, maritime Way,chatham Maratime, me43ed (so many missing capital letters in the address, but i guess this doesn't make a difference.)

karldonteljameswoods

Coupon-mad said:

Here's the details of the PCN, from the original first post.

Clearly a disabled passenger:

In February (2017) I received a parking ticket for parking in a disabled space without displaying a blue badge. My wife has recently undergone ankle fusion, and was being treated in a tailor special frame. 
She had an assessment and had been awarded PIP payments, when we spoke to the local council, we were told that applying for a blue badge could take several months, we had collected the forms but hadn't made any progress on them.

Mobility was obviously an issue, and this was the first time she had walked, normally she had been using a wheel chair.

We appealed the ticket a couple of days after the ticket was issued and received nothing. This morning I received a letter from DRP saying that the next step is that they take me to court. When I called them, the guy at the end of the phone said that a judge will see it as an open and shut case, would never be able to rule in my favour, and likes to make an example of people like me who park in disabled spaces without a blue badge.

Not sure if this will help but this is a picture of my wife's leg, and the parking attendant even saw us walking back to the car. I've also just found her pip award notice that was issued on December 21st, 2016.

Coupon-mad

Not sure if this will help but this is a picture of my wife's leg, and the parking attendant even saw us walking back to the car. I've also just found her pip award notice that was issued on December 21st, 2016.

That all helps, and the evidence will go with the later Witness Statements (one from you, one from your wife).

The defence must mention what you are going to submit later as evidence, and that the parking attendant even saw the driver and passenger walking back to the car (limping and with a visible frame/caliper, in the case of the Defendant's wife).

Galloglass

Follow the advice above about acknowledging.

If you have a copy of the PIP paperwork, send it to the other side with and point out that although there was no blue badge, there was a person with a disability in the car. 

How many mobility points on the PIP assessment? 

Contractually they are correct in that a badge is needed, but PIP is an alternative indicator of a disability albeit not one that falls within the contractual envelope. 

See how they deal with that issue as a refusal to consider the PIP evidence should count against them. You are giving them (another) chance to be reasonable and not to waste the court's time. 

You'll still need to have a defence prepared as these are mass produced claims but you have to reinforce your earlier point about movement and get them on the back foot about their contract. A reasonable judge would give them stick for ignoring early proof.

Do you have a BB now?

Fruitcake

Galloglass said:

Contractually they are correct in that a badge is needed, but PIP is an alternative indicator of a disability albeit not one that falls within the contractual envelope. 

Only in the made-up world of the unregulated private parking industry. The blue badge scheme does not apply on private land but PPCs steadfastly refuse to acknowledge anything other than a BB as an indicator of a disability despite the fact that they have had twelve years since the Equality Act 2010 was enacted to come up with an alternative.