Residential Parking Charge - Advice Please

womblecat

Good afternoon,

I meant to post this sooner but have been busy with work. Thank you for the help I have picked up so far from the forum, it's very appreciated.

Received a Court Claim through the post for a Parking Charge that was issued 5 years ago. The charge was issued for a residential permit slipping down the dash and the details of the permit not being visible. At the time the charge was ignored (wrongly, I now know), and have been sent the debt collection letters, etc. which were ignored also, now that the court claim has been received, the forum has been read and an Acknowledgement of Service was filed on 13th of January.

I have read the suggested defences with regards to residential parking, i.e. no contract with parking company., and regarding key fob entry. I'm unsure what defence to use due to the following:
- not having a copy of the lease (previous laptop broke and letting agent has shut down) therefore would this be a good route to go down if I can't prove?
- a key fob was used for entry, however it is hard to make out the wording on the signage from the images provided by the SAR (very low quality)

Thought I would check which route you'd advise for my defence before I start adapting any templates.
Thanks a lot for the help

Le_Kirk

What is the date of issue of the N1 claim form?  If you post that, then one of the regulars @KeithP will be along to give you some sound advice, including your deadline for filing your defence and where to find the template defence.

womblecat

Claim issue date was 09/01/2023
Acknowledgement of Service submitted on 13/01/2023

1505grandad

Also who is the claimant?

womblecat

The claimant is UK Parking Control Limited, let me know if you need any other info as wasn't sure what to include in original post.

KeithP

womblecat said:

Claim issue date was 09/01/2023
Acknowledgement of Service submitted on 13/01/2023

With a Claim Issue Date of 9th January, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 13th January, you have until 4pm on Friday 10th February 2023 to file your Defence.

That's nearly two 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 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'.

womblecat

Thank you @KeithP - anybody able to suggest which route of defence to go down? Without having a copy of the lease I'm hesitant to use that as wouldn't be able to have any proof?

womblecat

Good morning all - hoping to get some assistance around my defence that I need to submit.

Thank you for the help so far from @Le_Kirk , @KeithP and @1505grandad
Summary of dates below:
Claim issued by UK Parking Control Ltd 09/01/23
AoS submitted 13/01/23
Defence to be submitted by 4pm 10/02/23

I'm going to attempt adapting a defence template, but I need some advice. My laptop broke in the nearly 6 years since the parking charge and the lettings agent has since shut down - therefore I can't get a copy of my lease agreement however I don't recall there being any strict parking rules other than the usual roadworthy, taxed. etc.

I'm assuming it would be unwise to go down the terms of lease route without being able to provide a copy later in court?
Another factor that may be relevant is that the underground car park was accessed via key fob?

If there's any other information that you need to know in order to help please let me know and I'll do my best.

Le_Kirk

Do you still live there and if so to who do you pay your rent?  They would be a good starting point for the lease.  If you have moved, it is more difficult, if not impossible.  However, it is for the claimant to prove their case rather than for you to prove the opposite; they won't have a copy of the lease either.  You can state in your defence that there were no conditions attaching to the car park, no need to display a permit etc.  Then at court you give an honest first person account to the judge who will, well, judge for him/herself whether or not you are telling the truth.  Are there other people living there to whom you can talk and ask if they have a lease or a copy of the head lease?

womblecat

I don't live there anymore, I only rented the flat for a year from the lettings agent which has now shut down. I think it will be impossible to get a copy now as you say. Unfortunately I don't have any contact details of anybody there from when I lived there.

Thank you for your help and reminding me that the onus is on the claimant. Would you adapt the Residential defence that refers to no parking conditions and include a sentence in the Defence that the lease is unavailable due to the reasons given? Then it's not expected that I will produce the lease at a later date?

DW190

womblecat said:

 My laptop broke in the nearly 6 years since the parking charge

Do you still have the laptop?  Hard drives can be removed and data recovered if the HD was not the cause of the breakdown.