£3000 County Court Claim from Park Direct UK

CluelessDefendant

Hi All

I have found myself in quite the predicament with a county court claim being issued just over a couple weeks ago and was hoping someone can help me out as I've never been in this situation before. 

To put things into perspective, around 4 years ago we had a Park Direct UK police our estate as parking was getting out of control. I initially had a permit in 2019 for the year but wasn't notified when my permit ran out and started getting issued tickets. I have to admit, after reading some misinformation online, I decided to ignore the tickets and evidently they piled up. 

I live with my parents who are the lease holders of the property which we live in. There is no mention of parking agreements or permits in our tenancy letter so we've never signed any letters to agree to pay money to external parking companies to have the privilege of parking outside my house.

It should be noted that people on our estate are trying to get rid of this company because of the poor service they're providing and the way they target specific cars as others on our estate don't have a permit. Examples:

• There is a person who is obviously selling cars from our car park but he never gets ticketed, I've seen the enforcer walk past his car many times without giving it a thought.
• the bays are numbered and allocated but nobody adheres to this as people park in random bays. 
• We have a visitors bay that gets ticketed if you park in it without a permit. (I once paid for this spot on an online app and still received a ticket for it although I'm unsure if its included in the court case as I'm still waiting on SAR response)
• They had no signs on the main road until last week, I have pictures of the lack of signs as evidence. 
• The signs that are there are placed quite high on building and are unlit, quite difficult to see as it is small print, again, evidence. 
• People block up the road all the time and don't park in bays and they never receive tickets, I have evidence of this too, what's the point paying for a parking permit if they don't even stop the problems we got them to solve. 
• The sign stated you need to display a visible permit, but nobody does as it is digital. 

I know I'm an idiot for letting it get to this, I did eventually get another permit a couple of months ago but I really don't think I should pay £3000 for parking outside my house. They never sent me any info on when my permit ran out, or how to apply for a new one I had to find out from a neighbor yet they didn't have any trouble finding me to demand £160 for each ticket. 

I probably will try to settle but is there any point trying to fight this? It's causing me a lot of stress as I'm a recent grad and really don't have that type of money to spare   

I'm at work at the moment but please ask any questions you might have in case I missed anything. 

Le_Kirk

Start with the NEWBIE sticky, read up about how to process the AoS to buy yourself the maximum time to compile a defence, then read a) the standard defence template and b) some "own space" defences.

CluelessDefendant

Le_Kirk said:

Start with the NEWBIE sticky, read up about how to process the AoS to buy yourself the maximum time to compile a defence, then read a) the standard defence template and b) some "own space" defences.

I've already done the AoS, I done that on the 30th, I was busy with work so now I have until next tuesday to put a defence together as that would be my 28th day if I'm not wrong

Umkomaas

I probably will try to settle but is there any point trying to fight this?

There's every point in fighting this, one of the main ones being that in the unlikely event of you losing, there is no way in the world that a judge will award £3k against you. Much lower than that. 

Please tell the precise number of parking charges you have received. 

CluelessDefendant

Umkomaas said:

I probably will try to settle but is there any point trying to fight this?

There's every point in fighting this, one of the main ones being that in the unlikely event of you losing, there is no way in the world that a judge will award £3k against you. Much lower than that. 

Please tell the precise number of parking charges you have received. 

15 in total spanning roughly 2.5 years

CluelessDefendant

I was just reading the sticky, I didn't receive a N180 questionnaire by post? is that normal? 

Coupon-mad

N180 doesn't come unless (after) you defend.

Being a leaseholder doesn't involve having a 'tenancy letter'.  Can you clarify whether your parents were leasehold owners of the flat, or tenants?

Was the bay allocated solely to them?
 
Was it paid for by a premium each month - if so, who did they pay the fee for the bay to, managing agents?

Why no reminder and new permit?  Was that an oversight by the managing agents or a deliberate ploy or negligence by the PPC?

Which solicitor?

DO NOT offer to settle and CERTAINLY don't make a partial admission.

Umkomaas

CluelessDefendant said:

Umkomaas said:

I probably will try to settle but is there any point trying to fight this?

There's every point in fighting this, one of the main ones being that in the unlikely event of you losing, there is no way in the world that a judge will award £3k against you. Much lower than that. 

Please tell the precise number of parking charges you have received. 

15 in total spanning roughly 2.5 years

£3k / 15 = £200 a pop. They're having a laugh!

KeithP

Please tell us the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form.

CluelessDefendant

Coupon-mad said:

N180 doesn't come unless (after) you defend.

Being a leaseholder doesn't involve having a 'tenancy letter'.  Can you clarify whether your parents were leasehold owners of the flat, or tenants?

Was the bay allocated solely to them?
 
Was it paid for by a premium each month - if so, who did they pay the fee for the bay to, managing agents?

Why no reminder and new permit?  Was that an oversight by the managing agents or a deliberate ploy or negligence by the PPC?

Which solicitor?

DO NOT offer to settle and CERTAINLY don't make a partial admission.

It's a housing estate, my parents are tenants 
The bay was allocated to us, it has our number on it but it wasn't enforced, not all my tickets were from being parked there, I was sometimes in other bays or the visitors bay as ours would sometimes be occupied
No premium, initially you'd get a permit for a year, now they charge us yearly for the permit (the private parking firm)
I have no idea, when my permit expired, I had no warning or instructions sent to me on how to renew, recently happened again with a neighbor
DCB Legal were dispatched to chase me up but the CCC has come directly from the parking company 
I won't, I'm just scared as I have a week to put something together   

CluelessDefendant

Umkomaas said:

CluelessDefendant said:

Umkomaas said:

I probably will try to settle but is there any point trying to fight this?

There's every point in fighting this, one of the main ones being that in the unlikely event of you losing, there is no way in the world that a judge will award £3k against you. Much lower than that. 

Please tell the precise number of parking charges you have received. 

15 in total spanning roughly 2.5 years

£3k / 15 = £200 a pop. They're having a laugh!

£160 ea, I just rounded up for dramatic effect, apologies