compiling defence for unfair parking ticket, county court business centre stage

Ysekots

background:
i was moving into a new flat, and parked outside on numerous occasions in the downstairs parking area to unload my belongings/things for decorating (e.g: packs of laminate flooring). bearing in mind the flat is on the 4th floor (8 flights of stairs) with no lift. parking on the street would mean the car would be out of my sight and it would add extra distance and another staircase to the unloading process.
the carpark uses ANPR and is run by UKPC.

correspondence:
Because i was moving home and things were chaotic/ everything in boxes i could not find all of the PCN letters so i only appealed one of the PCNs (there was five in total) but in the appeal i requested it was used as a blanket appeal for all of the PCNs received as i didn't have all of the individual reference numbers.
UKPC responded requesting a copy of my tenancy agreement to prove i had in fact moved into the flat where the parking was, but they did not confirm whether or not they would apply that one appeal for all of the five PCNs.
Then i sent them a copy of my tenancy agreement and requested they confirm that appeal applied to all of my PCNs as requested.
UKPC responded saying the PCN was cancelled as a 'goodwill gesture' and that i would need to individually appeal each PCN.

more background:
I completed the initial appeal on 12/03/22, the latter reponse from them was received in May. At which stage it was too late to make any appeals to the remaining PCNs and they were already passed on to DCB legal.
DCB legal then sent letters to my old address for nearly a year until i received two separate claims from the county court business centre. i collected my post from my old address a month after one of the claims was sent so i missed the acknowledgment of service deadline and the judgment was issued against me which i had no choice but to pay (approx. £290). the second claim i received was for £691.20 and i submitted the acknowledgment of service online today (05/03/23) which is within the 14 day deadline thankfully.

defence:
i am now compiling evidence and information to compile a defence. i did a SAR with UKPC and they provided me with copies of the original PCN letters and camera footage of my number plate entering/leaving the carpark (for the four remaining PCNS, the one i appealed wasn't there). conveniently they don't keep records of appeals so i have no legitimate digital footprint of the appeal i made and the responses i received from UKPC (mentioned above). the appeals process is all through their website and so i do not have actual emails with their responses.
what i do have is two 'appeal confirmation' emails dated 12/03/22 and 02/05/22 with the same reference number pertaining to the two occasions that i contacted them in the appeals process (mentioned above). these emails have no information in them other than stating that they're receipt of my online appeal.
i also have the text of my original appeal that i drafted in my notes on my phone and the 2nd response i sent them also drafted in my notes on my phone as i usually write things up there before sending them. because these are both in my notes section on my phone you can see they were last edited on the dates they were written (12/03/22 and 02/05/22) and thus i haven't edited them since to suit my story.
i also went on the UKPC website and went to their appeals section and entered the reference number of the PCN that i appealed and a confirmation popped up that the PCN relating to that reference had already been cancelled. i took a screenshot of this to show an appeal did actually exist. 

Question:
should i run with this appeal situation where i requested all of my PCNs to be covered under one appeal, and by the time they said that i had to appeal the others individually, it was then too late to actually do that as they were no longer within the appeals timeframe.
or should i forget about the appeal and just focus on the fact that it was unloading in a residential parking area where i am in fact a resident?

also any other information that will be helpful in this scenario would be really appreciated, e.g the court process, a defence template, court cases to back up my case...

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

The Claim that you have filed an Acknowledgment of Service today... what is the Issue Date on it?

Ysekots

The issue date is 27th feb 2023

KeithP

Ysekots said:

The issue date is 27th feb 2023

With a Claim Issue Date of 27th February, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 3rd April 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'.

Ysekots

Thank you for your reply. Do you think I could make a counter-claim here to recover the costs that I paid for the first claim? considering I only missed the deadline because the letter was sent to my old address. And if I win this case, the same defence would also apply to that case. I’m a single mum and £290 was a lot of money to pay but I was so worried about getting a CCJ tied to my name for 6 years. the application to have it set aside would have cost me nearly the same amount as the total claim amount. 

Also do you think the appeal that I made which meant one of the fines was cancelled is good to use in my defence? Or should I just focus on the unloading at my own residence aspect? 

Coupon-mad

You can add in the Henderson defence (search the forum).

You could possibly counterclaim but we warn you, most fail.  You'd have to word it in a way that establishes a legal cause of action against the Claimant, not just a simple paragraph.

Also, by counterclaiming you are forcing the case to a hearing, which is almost certainly not going to happen if you just defend, because DCBLegal and UKPC discontinue well-defended cases.  Perhaps better to just defend this one, THEN after this one is over later this year (discontinued), file a separate claim.  The fee is the same and there is no rush.

Also - next week - send an email first (before defending this) to the CCBC and DCBLegal to tell them to erase the wrong address and rectify the address for service to (your new address).  You cannot risk either of them continuing to use the old address for this claim.

If there are yet more PCNs with UKPC that are not yet litigated, you MUST also email the DPO email on UKPC's privacy page and tell them to erase the old address for ALL PCNs and rectify all databases AND to tell their scummy debt collectors..

Coupon-mad

Oh, and for all UKPC / DCBLegal cases I am advising everyone to just copy the defence wording posted by @Johny86 (that is a link, so please don't ask for a link...) and just edit some facts into paragraph 3.

Ysekots

Thank you so much for all of your advice, that’s really useful. I have already given my new address to ukpc, Dcb legal and the court for any further correspondence, and they have confirmed that they will use this address going forward. I’m going to get my defence drafted this week so I have plenty of time to nip and tuck it before the deadline day. Fingers crossed it’s good enough to get the case discontinued because I’m so nervous to actually have to attend the court   
thanks again! 

KeithP

Ysekots said:

...I’m so nervous to actually have to attend the court 

Why?

Have you seen this video?...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n93eoaxhzpU

Just three or four people sitting round a table having a discussion.

That video was made a few years ago and most hearings nowadays seem to be via telephone or video link.

Ysekots

Hello,
so I am drafting my defence and I was wondering do I keep pg3 simple sticking with this poor ‘registered users only’ wording which isn’t elaborated on or mentioned in my tenancy agreement (see attached images). See pg3 below:

The parking charges were issued at the residential site where the defendant lives. The defendant was moving into a residential property attached to the private land in question. Therefore the defendant was unloading the vehicle in question on four different occasions. The residential property is situated on the fourth floor with no lift thus requiring the defendant to carry belongings and furniture up eight flights of stairs multiple times on each occasion. Hence the unloading times varying between 30-50 minutes on each occasion but never exceeding one hour. The signage states ‘registered users only’ with no explanation or reference to an explanation of this wording. The defendants tenancy agreement has no mention of this wording either. It only lays out terms of use pertaining to the residents private use vehicle based on it; being roadworthy and properly licensed, not being a caravan, not having motor repairs carried out, and not obstructing the parking area, other vehicles or the road. All of these terms were abided by on all four occasions when the defendant was unloading the vehicle.

Or do I go all in and describe that parking on the street would add extra time/distance to the unloading process as the car would have to be further away from the property out of eye sight. And that I appealed one of the charges and it was cancelled. 

B789

You are arguing primacy of contract, lack of authority, no contract due to prohibiting sign and of course all the other items that go in with your defence. There are literally hundreds of threads with this type of defence where you adapt your para #3.

Here is a link to the template you should be using, especially for the farcical duo of UKPC/DCB Legal as it includes all the extra paragraphs about Yasmin Mia's contemptuous statement of untruth:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/66hosld75llha3j/2023 defence.pdf?dl=0