Country Court Business Centre - UKPC, Help!

Razor195

Hi All,

 

After some help and advise on what to do next as just received a County Court Business Centre claim form.

 

I used to live in a block of flats managed by a property company called First Port and the car park was apparently controlled via UKPC permit parking, I had an allocated parking space in the car park and had parked in this space every day since I moved in 2014.

 

So in 2018 (years after parking with no permit) I got a parking ticket whilst in my allocated space – I contested this ticket, only to be asked to present a valid permit, which I didn’t have (attached appeal response from UKPC) to UKPC’s claims department. Then if I needed to obtain a valid new permit to speak with the management company (First Port).

 

I tried to do this but as I did not own the property was told my landlord had to – which she then tried to as well to no avail, she didn’t even know that there was a permit required! When she eventually got a response she was told by that we didn’t need a permit to park & ‘it would be fine’ which after she relayed to me I didn’t follow back up with UKPC assuming it would be resolved, naively.

Then I started getting debt collection letters, so upon speaking with my landlord again she again tried to get some action from First Port in the May who then took over a month to reply but advised a contact email address at UKPC to speak to in order to help resolve the issue & that permit parking had been in place for 6 years and they ‘where surprised we had never got a ticket before’ – all in all very unhelpful & again pushing it back to UKPC.

I wrote to both First Port & UKPC on the same email in June 2018 (attached) stating the above, along with pictures of my car in the allocated space that has absolutely no signage around it stating I needed anything to park there attach – I received no response from either & it then went quiet on the debt collection letters so again I assumed it had been sorted! But then within the last few months, years later, I started to receive them again (maybe where I moved 2 years ago I got lost in the system?) and now have the country court claim.

 

Up to the point where I got a ticket I had lived there for years with no problem & then continued to live there for another three years, again with no problem at all and still without a permit!

 

Also when reviewing the particulars of the claim there is a comment that I agreed to pay the claim and never did – this is absolutely false, never agreed to pay at all. As above had contested it from day one.

 

Any help on how I respond back would be much appreciated – reading other posts I understand I have to complete the Acknowledgement of Service but really wanting to check I have as strong of a case as I think before I go down that path …

 

Cheers,

 

Nick

KeithP

Razor195 said:

Also when reviewing the particulars of the claim there is a comment that I agreed to pay the claim and never did – this is absolutely false, never agreed to pay at all. As above had contested it from day one.

Hello and welcome.

The pictures you have shown us don't show any signs about parking.

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...".

Razor195 said:

...just received a County Court Business Centre claim form.

With a Claim Issue Date of 31st January, you have until Monday 20th February 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 6th March 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over three 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'.

Le_Kirk

KeithP said:

The pictures you have shown us don't show any signs about parking.

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...".

But as there no signs (at least in the pictures we can see), it is void for impossibility!

Coupon-mad

Just copy any other recent UKPC permit defence.  Search the forum and read about ten.  Dead easy!

B789

Also, the details in the PoC are likely to get this claim thrown out if you can bring this to the attention of the judge. Namely:

1. The Particulars of Claim are entirely inadequate, in that they fail to particularise (a) the contractual term(s) relied upon; (b) the specifics of any alleged breach of contract; or (c) the alleged loss

2. It is respectfully suggested that neither the Court nor the Defendant are able, on the basis of the Particulars within the Claim Form, to understand properly and specifically what case is being pursued

3. The Particulars appear to be in breach of CPR 16.4, 16PD3 and 16PD7, and fail to "state all facts necessary for the purpose of formulating a complete cause of action"

4. The claim has been issued via Money Claims Online and, as a result, is subject to a character limit for the Particulars of Claim section of the Claim Form

5. In the opinion of the Defendant it ought to have been entirely possible to deal with the matters outlined above within that character limit but for the fact that generic wording appears to have been applied

6. In the event that it was or is impossible to properly set out the key parts of the claim within the character limit then it was incumbant upon the Claimant to file and serve separate Particulars of Claim within 14 days per 16PD.3

7. The guidance for completing Money Claims Online confirms this and clearly states: "If you do not have enough space to explain your claim online and you need to serve extra, more detailed particulars on the defendant, tick the box that appears after the statement 'you may also send detailed particulars direct to the defendant.'"

AND UPON no further particulars having been filed

AND UPON it having been entirely within the Claimant's Solicitors' gift to properly plead the claim at the outset

AND UPON the claim being for a very modest sum, well within the small claims limit, such that the Court considers it disproportionate and at odds with the overriding objective (in the context of a failure by the Claimant to properly comply with rules and practice directions) to order further particulars, to which a further defence might be filed, followed by further referral to a Judge for directions and allocation

IT IS REQUESTED AN ORDER FOR:-

1 The Claim is struck out

This should be just one of several elements in your defence.

Razor195

KeithP said:

Razor195 said:

Also when reviewing the particulars of the claim there is a comment that I agreed to pay the claim and never did – this is absolutely false, never agreed to pay at all. As above had contested it from day one.

Hello and welcome.

The pictures you have shown us don't show any signs about parking.

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...".

Razor195 said:

...just received a County Court Business Centre claim form.

With a Claim Issue Date of 31st January, you have until Monday 20th February 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 6th March 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over three 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'.

Hi KeithP, many thanks for your quick response! I'll get on and file the Acknowledgement of Service now and then prepare my defense. Will run it back past everyone once I've drafted before I send.

Cheers,

Nick

Razor195

Thanks for the quick response everyone!

Razor195

Hi All, So I've had a go at writing my defense for section 2 as per the template in the newbies thread.
Any suggestions on how to improve?

"The Defendant lived at the address where the parking ticket was issued, The Defendant was parked in his allocated space.

As per pictures 1, 2 & 3 there are no signs around the parking space that state the parking space that The Defendant parked in required a parking permit.

 

The Defendant lived at this address for a total of six years and never had another problem and continued to park in his allocated parking space during that time period without a permit.

 

UKPC responded to The Defendant’s ticket contest asking for a copy of a valid parking permit which could not be produced as The Defendant did not have one & was not aware one was required due to lack of appropriate signage. UKPC advised to talk to First Port (property management company) to get a new permit.

The Defendant was not able to speak to First Port as he did not own the property so upon consulting his landlord – who was also not aware that there was permit parking in place – The Defendant’s landlord spoke with First Port and was told that there is no permit required & that ‘it would be fine’.

 

Upon continued pressure & letters from DCB Legal LTD The Defendant’s landlord again contacted First Port whom this time advised that permit parking was in place, and had been for some time, and to contact UKPC to issue a new permit.

 

The Defendant then wrote to both First Port & UKPC – who have now both advised to speak to each other.

The Defendant described the situation above, along with attaching the same pictures here, asking for help and the issue of a parking permit if it was required.

The Defendant received no response to his email.

The claim is entirely without merit and the Claimant is urged to discontinue now, to avoid incurring costs and wasting the court's time and that of the Defendant."

Cheers, Nick 

KeithP

It doesn't look like you have found the template Defence yet.
The was guidance on finding that in my earlier post.

Oh... and there is no letter 's' in the word defence.   

Razor195

Hi KeithP, I thought I had - I used the template in this link?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/suggested-template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-charge-cases-where-they-add-false-admin-costs/p1

All I cut into here was my take on section 3?
I then have the rest of the template in my document ready to send, I was understanding that I didn't need to edit the rest as such?

Ha yeah good spot! Thanks 😂

Coupon-mad

Cut out all this (below) and replace it with the stuff you see from para 5 onwards in the defence by @Johny86 about the particulars of claim being inadequate:

Upon continued pressure & letters from DCB Legal LTD The Defendant’s landlord again contacted First Port whom this time advised that permit parking was in place, and had been for some time, and to contact UKPC to issue a new permit.
The Defendant then wrote to both First Port & UKPC – who have now both advised to speak to each other.
The Defendant described the situation above, along with attaching the same pictures here, asking for help and the issue of a parking permit if it was required.
The Defendant received no response to his email.
The claim is entirely without merit and the Claimant is urged to discontinue now, to avoid incurring costs and wasting the court's time and that of the Defendant."