County Court Claim By Auto Security Limited (AutoSec) on Private Land / Counter Claim??

Yorks2000

My daughter has received a court claim for alleged parking breaches in March 2020 at her former rented accommodation.  The background is that she had rented a flat in an apartment building with external parking - she parked for several months without problems.  In March 2020, she was on holiday for a few days - as the pandemic closed in and we eventually had the first lockdown, she returned to the flat late one evening - then stayed in the flat for a fews as ordered by Boris.  After a few days, she decided to venture out for provisions, only to find 2 PCNs had been slapped on her car.  Allegedly for blocking a fire exit - which is wrong.  It seems that AutoSec had been engaged to patrol the car park - without notice.  

My daughter appealed the tickets (with supporting evidence - photographs etc) - the appeal was verbally rejected and Autosec just send more demands.  They also ignored the request to escalate to the Popla appeal.  Autosec became quite threatening (somehow got my daughters mobile)- with aggressive demands to pay and threats to shred her credit records etc - a big concern as she was in the process of buying a house.  My daughter wrote letters clearly stating she would not pay and why and also asked various questions - confirmation of authority to charge, Popla appeal etc - no response except more demands to pay.  The landlord was less than helpful and just said it was nothing to do with them.

So, over 3 years later, we receive the claim (this week):

Claim received - Yes
Acknowledged - Yes 
SAR requested from Claimant - Yes
CPR31 requested from Claimants legal advisor (DCB Legal) - Yes
Particulars (edited)

1. The Defendant(D) is indebted to the Claimant(C) for a Parking Charge(s) issued to vehicle XXXXX at XXXXXl.
2. The PCN details areXXXXXX+XXXXX 

3.The PCN's) was issued on private land owned or managed by C. The vehicle was parked in breach of the Terms on Cs signs (the

Contract), thus incurring the PCN(s).
4. The driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not. D is liable as the driver or keeper. Despite requests, the PCN(s) is outstanding

The Contract entitles C to damages.

AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS

1. £340 being the total of the PCNs) and damages. 2. Interest at a rate of 8% per annum pursuant to s.69 of the County Courts

Act 1984 from the date hereof at a daily rate of £0.04 until judgment or sooner payment. 3.

Costs and court fees. {total demand is well over £500!}

Item 4 above is a blatant lie - my daughter never agreed to pay and stated this explicitly in writing.  This claim is wrong in so many ways - invalid in the first place, procedures being ignored, aggressive attitude from Claimant to bully my daughter to pay.  Nevertheless, I worry that once it gets into the legal process, they may win due some technicality

Unfortunately, because of the pure injustice of it all, my daughter had a 'rush of blood' and also decided to make a counter claim against AutoSec - I gather that probably wasn't the best idea but she's already entered that and paid £50 fee - does anyone know if this can be easily annulled (I guess she's lost the £50 anyway)??   [has been acknowledged but not actioned yet as it was only yesterday]
 
I've seen the [really helpful] templates, examples and guidance and we'll use those to help prepare our defence over the next few weeks - but if anyone did have any comments or suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated.

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

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

Upon what date was an Acknowledgment of Service filed?
Your daughter's MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Yorks2000 said:

4. The driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not. 

Item 4 above is a blatant lie - my daughter never agreed to pay and stated this explicitly in writing.

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...".

Coupon-mad

Item 4 above is a blatant lie 

No it isn't.  Perfectly correct wording.  If we had a fiver for every time a poster seized on that...!

Please forget that non-point.

The Defendant simply adapts paras 2, 3 and 4 of the Defence by @Johny86 which is based on our Template Defence but includes extra paras 5-11 that are specific to DCBLegal claims.

Counterclaim not recommended.  Not unless she's actually out of pocket. Better to defend and see the case discontinued as usual.

Yorks2000

We’ve asked for the T&Cs.  One argument is that on returning late at night, their signage was not clear - she didn’t know anything about it until a few days later.  

Point re Johny86 defence is welcome and I’ll take a closer look.  

Point on counter claim is agreed - just need the most painless way to cancel it (lesson learned)  My daughter did try to ring the court number but they didn’t answer (she’ll try again tomorrow)

Btw, claim is dated 16th June and was acknowledged 20th 

KeithP

Yorks2000 said:

Btw, claim is dated 16th June and was acknowledged 20th 

With a Claim Issue Date of 16th June, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 20th June, your daughter has until 4pm on Tuesday 18th July 2023 to file a 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 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'.

Le_Kirk

Yorks2000 said:

Unfortunately, because of the pure injustice of it all, my daughter had a 'rush of blood' and also decided to make a counter claim against AutoSec - I gather that probably wasn't the best idea but she's already entered that and paid £50 fee - does anyone know if this can be easily annulled (I guess she's lost the £50 anyway)??   [has been acknowledged but not actioned yet as it was only yesterday]

How did she do the counterclaim?  A  separate claim or by ticking a box when acknowledging the AOS?

Yorks2000

She did it by ticking the box on the online form and then payment by £50

shes spoken to the court and emailed a cancellation of the counter claim - the Clark told her that hopefully she’ll be reimbursed the cost - fingers crossed 🤞

Fruitcake

A warning. The owner of Autosec has a criminal record having been convicted of Racially Aggravated Assault against a motorist. His company is no longer a member of a trade association and he appears to have sold all his parking contracts off, then employed DCBL to harvest historic unpaid charges.

Yorks2000

@Fruitcake - Many thanks for the heads up 👍.  I believe this was the chap who was was very aggressive with my daughter on the phone.   Nice 😩

Umkomaas

Stick it out, resilience will beat PDG, he'll run away when faced with resistance to threats. 

http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2011/10/race-hate-clamper-threatened-to-rape.html

Coupon-mad

Yorks2000 said:

She did it by ticking the box on the online form and then payment by £50

shes spoken to the court and emailed a cancellation of the counter claim - the Clark told her that hopefully she’ll be reimbursed the cost - fingers crossed 🤞

What?

So she has already defended it then?  Oh no.  What did the defence box submission say?  I hope she didn't say the bit about 'agreeing to pay' was a lie...

She is stuck with whatever she put into the defence box online and can't use our Template Defence. Ignore the advice given by me and KeithP about how to submit a defence.

She is stuck with her own words only.

What were those words please, verbatim?

And she won't likely get her wasted £50 back.