Riverside Retail Park, Chelmsford - alleged overstay - Equality Act (Defence stage) 20 February at 6:14PM edited 16 March at 5:57PM in Parking tickets, fines & parking 39 replies 708 views

drellix

ParkingEye have taken it upon themselves to send a Northampton CCBC Claim letter out of nowhere, for supposedly overstaying at the infamous Beavis car park in May 2022.

I know for certain that I didn't overstay, but their ANPR system (which is probably unsynchronised) reckons otherwise.

No PCN, LBC, or any other correspondence from this lot before they slapped me with a real Claim (though they've put in the Particulars that they did!), so I reckon this one's easy to defend.

The issue date on the form was Feb 13th, I've sent the AoS off just now using the moneyclaim gov site.

As with my other BWL-tinged thread, help on this is always appreciated, though I think I'm following the guides correctly.

KeithP

drellix said:

The issue date on the form was Feb 13th, I've sent the AoS off just now using the moneyclaim gov site.

With a Claim Issue Date of 13th February, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 20th March 2023 to file your Defence.

That's 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 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'.

drellix

Thanks Keith. Will scope out the car park today and see how their signage and ANPR system looks. Am also going to send a SAR, since I don't have any further correspondence to rely on. I've also looked at their Particulars, and whilst it mentions a max stay, they've neglected to mention how long that stay is, only that I overstayed. I've already started writing the Defence and will post the important bits here for review once I'm done. As always I'm grateful for your help.

Coupon-mad

OK, but do not use the template defence unless the claim was actually filed by DCBLegal.

If it was filed by ParkingEye themselves then we doubt they will have added the false 'costs', so the template defence for non-P/Eye cases isn't for you.  Look instead at the ParkingEye defences linked in the NEWBIES thread but change the statement of truth to the longer 2020 version.

drellix

Thanks CM. You're right in that it looks like PE filed this themselves, as they haven't added any false costs. Their legal representation is Jayne Leonard, whose name I've seen crop up on here before as (correct me if I'm wrong) an in-house PE legal. I'm already using those PE defences you mention as a starting point for mine.

I had a look at the situation at that car park earlier, and whilst there definitely are several reasonably-sized signs, I noticed that several of them were in disrepair - including the biggest one at the entrance to the car park, where half of the tiny contract text had been ripped away, and that they'd previously changed their 3 hour max stay into a 2 hour one, and had literally just stuck the new terms over the top of the old terms on every sign. They're also using two separate camera arrays on different circuits for entrance and exit. Plenty of stuff to point out in my Defence, and I'll put a draft up on here once I'm confident that there aren't too many holes in it.

What's really surprising me is the total lack of correspondence. I definitely would have kept a PE PCN, or at least the LBC, and then tried to contest it with the landowner etc. in the usual manner (especially after the whole BW fiasco), but absolutely nothing came through the post from them at all. Might have been down to the strikes, but still, you'd think they'd have sent at least one of a PCN/LBC/reminder letter.

Boat_to_Bolivia

I hope you took some photos of the signs. They will be useful exhibits should it reach the WS stage.

Coupon-mad

I had a look at the situation at that car park earlier, and whilst there definitely are several reasonably-sized signs, I noticed that several of them were in disrepair - including the biggest one at the entrance to the car park, where half of the tiny contract text had been ripped away, and that they'd previously changed their 3 hour max stay into a 2 hour one, and had literally just stuck the new terms over the top of the old terms on every sign. 

You took a photo?  No rush but that's gold-dust for your witness statement bundle later.

Check your V5C logbook.  Is the car still registered to your old address?  If so, that's why no PCN arrived and you need to sort that out sharpish with the DVLA to prevent future PCNs (or even court claims) going astray.

drellix

I did indeed take several photos. I don't live all that far away from the car park in question. Here they are for your amusement:


Good shout with regard to the logbook. I sorted it out to go to my current address some weeks ago now, but that could definitely explain it. I bought the car new just after a move, but the car company still registered it to the old address which has caused me no end of problems. Even then, as BW did, I'd *still* expect PE to have sent correspondence to my current "alternative service address" as they mention in the Particulars... speaking of which, I have no idea how they managed to find that. I'll have to pull them up on GDPR as well, then.

Coupon-mad

No GDPR failure: they are allowed to do a soft trace with a Credit Ref Agency and obviously did...but what they failed to do is then send you at the very least, a LBCCC to the new address and give you a chance to dispute it and get a POPLA code.  Even better (and it's mandated in the new incoming statutory Code of Practice brought in by the Goverment) they should have re-issued the PCN once they found the new address.

drellix

Slight spanner in the works: ParkingEye are claiming £50 in solicitor costs. This is a false one, meaning I could use the false costs template as a basis, right? I've already written a full draft based on the non-false-costs ParkingEye stuff, just in case, which I can happily adapt.

Not_A_Hope

They are allowed to claim a maximum of £50 for solicitors costs attending a court hearing. PPCs are not supposed to add the £60/£70 for debt recovery / damages / admin. Parking Eye don’t add these false costs