help needed to decide next steps please!

Carlingcup

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right area to post so I appologise in advance. I've read the Newbie posts around receiving a claim and defence templates to death and my brain is frazzled (I'm old lol). So in November 2017 my mother unfortunately passed away and I wasn't in a good place but had to send documents off to cancel her pension etc. so headed to a post office near work which was in a free to park(not now though) shopping centre car park. As it was lunch time, I only had a short time to do my errand and found myself driving round the whole park twice looking for a space, it was extremely busy and I couldn't find one. Long story short, I parked in the drop off point and came back to a ticket. I appealed to POPLA and wasn't successful (I wasn't surprised) and have ignored every letter sent since that day. The PPC is UKPC and their solicitor is DCB Legal. I now have a claim dated 11/01/2023 and don't know what to do, I cannot afford to pay the extortionate £290.32 including court costs and don't want to go to court, do i have any other options like trying to negotiate a smaller amount. I would also like to add that I have also ignored another PCN which is from Jan 2021 from PE and their solicitors are the same DBL legal, I have 14 days from 09.01.2023 to pay £140. Any help at this late stage would be gratefully appreciated.

Mouse007

You need to follow the steps given in the defence thread. First of which is to Acknowledge Service online. Then prepare your defence about an unremarkable day 5½ years ago. Don't mention where you parked (drop off point), don't give them any evidence or make any admissions. We can help with the wording once you have drafted your 2 and 3 for the template defence.

In the alternative your only other option is to do nothing (there are no inbetween options) and await the default judgment.

Carlingcup

Thanks Mouse007 for your prompt advice. I have now completed the AOS and will work on my defence. With regards the 2nd reminder from DCB Legal dated 09/01/2023, do I need to do anything with this?

Mouse007

Carlingcup said:

With regards the 2nd reminder from DCB Legal dated 09/01/2023, do I need to do anything with this?

Nope, nothing. Do however pop back later, I suspect another poster will be along to give you some useful dates and a third will bring your attention to how DBC Legal usually give up (but you must play along to get to that stage)

KeithP

Carlingcup said:

The PPC is UKPC and their solicitor is DCB Legal. I now have a claim dated 11/01/2023...

Carlingcup said:

I have now completed the AOS...

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Carlingcup

Hi, I assume that I only add my personal details on the template and complete point 3 as the rest pre-populated;

3. At this time, the Defendant had recently lost his parent and needed to send important documents relating to her death by registered post. Upon arrival at the Shopping Centre Car Park, which was a free to use at that time. It was an extremely busy Friday afternoon, the Defendant drove round several times trying to find a space, as it was the Defendants lunch break from work, he only had a short time so managed to find a spot and parked his vehicle. The Defendant had used that car park on numerous occasions and because of his state of mind after laying his mother to rest the week before, did not notice any obvious signage to say there was any time limits or restrictions. The Defendant also noted that the first name stated by the Claimant (ALEX) is not a name the Defendant uses on matters of a personal nature or on documentation so did not respond to previous threat letters thinking they were a scam of some description, and the Defendant was also shocked to receive a claim from the Court after almost 5 and a half years later.

Can you please let me know how this sounds and next steps?

Not_A_Hope

This doesn’t make sense by itself.

Upon arrival at the Shopping Centre Car Park, which was a free to use at that time.

Is your name Alex on your V5C log book? If so as PPCs legally get names and addresses of their victims from the DVLA this might work against you as they will argue it must be genuine rather than a scam.

You might want to shorten what you have written so it is legal argument and punchier. Save the longer story for the witness statement which comes later.

Coupon-mad

Same as shedloads of cases already won or discontinued.

Do not speculate that you may have been at fault by parking there.

State in the defence that:

3.  The Defendant was dropping off a packet at the on site Post Office, conduct which is unloading activity.  This specific issue has been tested in Local Authority PCN 'key cases' where barrister Parking Adjudicators have determined that carrying a package to an adjacent Post Office is unloading, not parking.

4.  Therefore it is the Defendant's position that stopping in the 'drop off' area was perfectly correct activity at this multi-store retail park and breached no parking contract, not that any such onerous terms were sufficiently brought to the Defendant's attention at the drop off point, which lacked clear signage either to define 'drop off' or to create an agreement to pay £100.

5.  The existence of the required contractual 'meeting of minds' is denied and there was no consideration flowing from the Claimant because it seems no 'drop off' (in the sense of unloading) was on offer even though this is what the area appears to be for.

6.  The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says at  S.69. (1) “If a term in a consumer contract, or a consumer notice, could have different meanings, the meaning that is most favourable to the consumer is to prevail.”  This is an objective statement. It requires no interpretation nor invites any legal argument about an unclear or ambiguous term to decide what it really says. Instead, it focusses on difference. If the trader who drafted terms thinks that a term means A, but a consumer sees two conflicting messages and/or has a reasonable belief that it means B, there is no longer any need to decide which of A and B is the intended or the more probable meaning.  The mere presence of different understandings reasonably held allows the consumer to prevail – without further discussion.


-----------------------

It's not just paragraph 3 onwards you write or edit.  Not quite.  You seem to have missed the template defence clearly telling you to ALSO edit paragraph 2.  I'm not going to elucidate here because it's best you re-read the Template Defence instructions.

This one is easy enough - standard UKPC meritless claim and you'll know from @Umkomaas' DCBLegal thread that they - DCBLegal/UKPC  - will discontinue later on, with no hearing needed, as long as you follow our advice.

Read a dozen DCBLegal threads.

You'll soon suss the pattern and how to get there.

**********

Re the 2nd PCN from ParkingEye; are you sure the tedious letter is from DCB Legal? More likely DCB Ltd?

Ignore that letter and only start a new thread about the PE one if you get a Letter Before Claim.  You don't need to do anything about that one yet except complain to the landowner to cancel it (the easy way).

Carlingcup

KeithP said:

Carlingcup said:

The PPC is UKPC and their solicitor is DCB Legal. I now have a claim dated 11/01/2023...

Carlingcup said:

I have now completed the AOS...

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

It was yesterday, the date on the claim was 11/01/2023, thanks for your help.

Carlingcup

Not_A_Hope said:

This doesn’t make sense by itself.

Upon arrival at the Shopping Centre Car Park, which was a free to use at that time.

Is your name Alex on your V5C log book? If so as PPCs legally get names and addresses of their victims from the DVLA this might work against you as they will argue it must be genuine rather than a scam.

You might want to shorten what you have written so it is legal argument and punchier. Save the longer story for the witness statement which comes later.

My Name is Alexander on written documents but they have shortened it. I no longer have the car and can't remember if I was known as Alex or the telling off version lol. Thanks for your advice.😊

Umkomaas

I thought I'd draw your attention to this fairly recent thread which you might have not yet seen. You must keep going through all the necessary court procedure phases, but the hope is that your case will follow the same pattern as all those detailed in the thread. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1