County Court - Claim form received

LittleBiker5

Hi everyone,

Last year I parked on private land at a visitor centre. I went to 1 of 2 machines to pay for parking but there was a note stuck to it that that 'Machine not working, please use other machine on the other side of the car park'.
I walked across to the other machine and on the screen it said 'Out of order, please use another machine'.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of assuming that these were the only ways to pay, but I took photos of the 2 machines and left the car park.

Parking Eye sent me a fine a few weeks later which I appealed, sending the photos too.
They declined the appeal by email stating that there were other ways to pay - Phoning them or using an app.
Obviously I didn't know this and didn't search the car park for this info.
I tried emailing straight back but it was a no-reply address.
I tried phoning them to speak to a sensible human but there wasn't any number that I could find.
By then I was angry and decided to leave it in the hope that it wouldn't go any further. In my anger I didn't appeal to POPLA, as I didn't properly read down through the email and understand that that was a possible process.

I don't doubt that there must have been signage - But neither the note on the first machine or the display on the second machine directed me to other forms of payment.

A few weeks ago I had a letter saying that they may take me to court. And now I've had the claim form from the County Court Business Centre.

My question is, do I have any chance at all by disagreeing with the claim and writing a statement - From peoples experience.
I don't want this to get heavier that this already is (Total owed is now £205.00) but on the other hand I genuinely think that I didn't do anything wrong.

Thank you for any help.

KeithP

Hello and welcome.
What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

You mention a 'visitor centre'.
Which visitor centre?

Coupon-mad

And is this claim filed by a third party like DCBLegal or is the solicitor box blank?

LittleBiker5

Hi Coupon-mad,

Thanks so much much for responding.

The claim form mentions the claimant which is Parkingeye Ltd, and me as the defendant.
And it's signed by the claimant's legal representative, although it's just a printed name not a signature.
There is no solicitor box and no mention of a solicitor.

Coupon-mad

OK, thought so.  Lower claim amount.

Please answer Keith's 2 questions.

LittleBiker5

The issue date is 30th May 2023

It was the Wye Valley Visitor Centre near Symonds Yat.

I stayed there with my family and visited everything!

Umkomaas

LittleBiker5 said:

The issue date is 30th May 2023

It was the Wye Valley Visitor Centre near Symonds Yat.

I stayed there with my family and visited everything!

A thread by @drbayleaf is currently showing on the first page of the forum. That thread's position is rather behind yours as it is only at POPLA stage, but it's lengthy and has had some serious input from forum regulars.  Do have a read of that as it might help you with some background detail and ideas on how you might move forward with the claim against you. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6445254/wye-valley-visitor-centre-parkingeye-popla-appeal/p1

I'm sure @drbayleaf won't object to an exchange of PMs as you both might be able to offer mutual support as you each progress through. 

The better your preparation the better your chances of success.  Keep going. 

drbayleaf

Indeed I'm very happy to offer support and I'm very sorry to hear that you are suffering from the same evil parking scam - I had some very unpleasant exchanges with the landowner (one of those "cheerful chaps" you'd have met at the Maze entrance) by email (see thread) - they are clearly in on the scam given that ParkingEye are using them as a CaseStudy on their website and that the ticket machines are still out of order a year later.

For a further feeling of mutual understanding do check out the heaps of TripAdvisor reviews from others who have been PCN scammed at this carpark (and post your own if you haven't already).

 

fisherjim

Parking Eye did not send you a "Fine" you will not find that word anywhere on their correspondence.

"Unfortunately, I made the mistake of assuming that these were the only ways to pay, but I took photos of the 2 machines and left the car park".

How long were you parked for before you left?

If you realised you could not pay by your means and left ASAP you fulfilled your obligations in the contract.

The BPA COP allows a minimum of 5 minutes grace period, if you tried to pay and left as soon as you possibly could what else could you have done.

If you stayed on site without paying they will say you should have left as you in effect got free parking and did not pay.

They declined the appeal by email stating that there were other ways to pay - Phoning them or using an app.

Well IMHO that's an unfair term in the contract not everyone has a mobile or a data contract to be able to do that

LittleBiker5

Thanks everyone. I’ll have a read of all the info tonight and formulate a plan.

KeithP

KeithP said:

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

LittleBiker5 said:

The issue date is 30th May 2023

With a Claim Issue Date of 30th May, you have until Monday 19th June 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 3rd July 2023 to file your Defence.

That's nearly 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 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'.