HELP PLEASE! Residential defence witness statement against PCN claims brought by DCB Legal

Waldo03

I am defending two claims of a litany of PCNs issued by the same private parking company who is being represented by DCB legal. A hearing on one of the claims has been fixed for next month and the deadline to submit my witness statement is approaching within a week's time. Last week, the claimant emailed me and the court N279 form indicating that they are discontinuing proceedings for 3 of the 7 PCNs mentioned on particulars of claim for which the hearing has been scheduled next month.

The POC, though, has no PCN numbers as it just refers to dates when the alleged breach of parking terms and conditions is committed. It is a standard, scant-on-details POC from DCB Legal signed off by the one and only Yasmin Mia.

DCB Legal is suing me on its client's behalf for several PCNs, but interestingly to my data subject access request, the claimant PPC said there is only one PCN against me in its record.

I’m defending my case on the basis of primacy of contract for being a resident/leaseholder of the housing estate where the parking company claimed to be the agent of the land owner. My lease doesn’t refer to any resident parking permit at all. On parking a vehicle, it only says it should not block access to the communal areas. The one PCN that the PPC sent to me in response to my DSAR claims the parking T&Cs were breached because the vehicle was parked on private land without a valid permit.

My questions are:

Can I ask the court to dismiss the claim without going through the hassle of writing a full witness statement and preparing a bundle of evidence and relevant case law/statutes as the claimant says they have one PCN against me on their file while before the court they and their legal representative are claiming for around a dozen PCNs?

DQ in the other case has also been submitted with a request for the case to be heard in my local court. Can I request the court to hear both the cases on the same day when the second case is also referred to it to save court's time as well as the parties involved?

Can I file a counterclaim against the claimant? After all, this has been quite daunting, stressful, and time consuming to take the matter this far where DCB legal is still playing games.

Note: I have read **NEWBIES!! PRIVATE PARKING TICKET? OLD OR NEW? **READ THESE FAQS FIRST!** and it helped me a lot throughout my fightback to these scammers. Johnersh's defence also helped me greatly to tailor my defence. The witness statement given in the FAQS however doesn't cover the residential defence scenario. Furthermore, I am in a unique situation where, in response to my DSAR, the claimant has admitted to the issuance of only one PCN while the claims they have brought against me total around a dozen PCNs issued for alleged breach of parking T&C at the same location. Hence, I have started a new thread.

Coupon-mad

You are too late for counterclaims. You could have done one when you defended.  But they are very rarely successful and would have cost you a fee.

You can certainly claim your (limited) costs though, as explained in the NEWBIES thread.

Can I ask the court to dismiss the claim without going through the hassle of writing a full witness statement and preparing a bundle of evidence?

No.  You must play the game. Do everything the court has asked.

Write a WS explaining firstly that you have no idea which PCNs have been discontinued because the numbers mean nothing and are not listed in the POC. Only dates are given in the POC so how is the Defendant meant to know which PCNs are still being pursued?

Then mention your SAR.

Then mention the second 'duplicate facts' claim and copy the wording you find already written in WS and defences here, about Henderson v Henderson and cause of action estoppel.

You can then read recent residential defences talking about Jopson v Homeguard & copy from those too.

The witness statement given in the FAQS however doesn't cover the residential defence scenario.

I am glad you aren't using it.  That one is superseded by other ones in 2023 and we don't use the Southampton Crosby case any more.

 

Waldo03

Thanks Coupon-mad for your reply and guidance. I will go through the Jopson v Homeguard thread(s) and draft my WS accordingly within the next couple of days.

What's the protocol of exchanging witness statements in small claims track? Do the parties have to exchange them at the same time? By same time I mean an agreed time between the parties on or before the court's deadline.

Waldo03

UPDATE - Claimant's WS + evidence have come through via email. I will see it later in the evening.

Quitto

Waldo03 said:

Thanks Coupon-mad for your reply and guidance. I will go through the Jopson v Homeguard thread(s) and draft my WS accordingly within the next couple of days.

What's the protocol of exchanging witness statements in small claims track? Do the parties have to exchange them at the same time? By same time I mean an agreed time between the parties on or before the court's deadline.

Hi there, have you had any luck with your WS? I have similar case and trying to find relevant threads or WS examples. Would you mind sharing your findings via DM? Thanks!

Coupon-mad

Waldo03 said:

What's the protocol of exchanging witness statements in small claims track? Do the parties have to exchange them at the same time? By same time I mean an agreed time between the parties on or before the court's deadline.

It is set out on p2 of your Hearing Order.

When theirs has arrived you know your deadline is likely now/this week! The Hearing Order states it.

Waldo03

Coupon-mad said:

It is set out on p2 of your Hearing Order.

When theirs has arrived you know your deadline is likely now/this week! The Hearing Order states it.

I still have few days to submit my WS as the deadline to do so is early next week.

I asked about the WS exchange protocol because years ago I had an employment tribunal case and the respondent's lawyers and we had agreed to handover/email witness statements at the exact same date and time so no party can have unfair advantage.

I have glanced the claimant's WS + evidence and found nothing new except that the PCNs are appended along with a shoddy one page contract with the invisible landowner as their details have been redacted completely.

The claimant has also hinted at they would not be attending the hearing.

Now I have seen the PCNs, would it have any bearing on DSAR element of my WS?

Waldo03

Quitto said:

Hi there, have you had any luck with your WS? I have similar case and trying to find relevant threads or WS examples. Would you mind sharing your findings via DM? Thanks!

I haven't yet started navigating through the relevant threads, I will be happy to share info once I figure it out.

Waldo03

After going through claimant's WS+Evidence, I can now see their method in discontinuing proceedings in 3 of 7 PCNs. The long and short of it is that I changed car and informed the supposed landowner about it, asking them to issue a parking permit to me for my new car. I had a parking permit for my old car from the claimant through the landowner. The estate where I live have flats from three different housing associations. Communal areas and parking land is managed by one of the HAs, not my landlord. My lease however is silent on this arrangement. Parking regulations in the estate were introduced 4 or 5 years ago to stop non-residents from parking their vehicles. The estate is situated in a busy London location. Initially, a different PPC operated but after a couple of years the HA that manages the parking land introduced another PPC who is the claimant in my case.

My reason for contacting the managing HA to issue a permit for my new car was to see if they were employing the same PPC to manage parking on the estate or if they had assigned someone else as they did previously. Also, we the residents were noticing that, despite the introduction of parking management, non-residents were still parking their vehicles on estate's land.

On me seeking permit for my new car, the managing HA asked me to contact my own landlord in this regard. My landlord has an online form to receive requests/complaints/queries from its tenants, which I filled in and submitted. It took few days for the landlord's representative to call me to discuss the situation. They said they didn't know who was managing parking at the estate, if any, and asked me to see if there was any signage at the estate. I told them there were some typical signages on some parts of the estate. They asked me for any contact number given on them, which I provided. They called on the given number and then asked me to go on to the PPC's website and apply for parking permit to avoid unnecessary hassle later. I did that. However, the PPC's online permit application system did not work. At this, I emailed them (PPC) about the glitch. It took them more than two months to sort out this for me.

Matching dates with those given on POC, it transpires the PCNs the claimant is now proceeding with are dated, as per their WS evidence, before the date I contacted them for parking permit after talking to my landlord's representative.

I however did not receive any of the PCNs and learned about their existence only when I received court papers. Even the claimant, in response to my DSAR, admitted and disclosed only one PCN which is not even a subject of this claim, the disclosed PCN is being pursued in a separate claim along with three other undisclosed PCNs.

Now, I am considering bringing my efforts to get a parking permit for my new car on record in my WS, i.e., my contact with HAs and PPC. The claimant's dishonesty is that while in the court they are proceeding with multiple PCNs, to my legitimate DSAR they only disclosed one PCN and no other communication between us. I will of course be arguing for primacy of contract and estoppel (Henderson v Henderson) as well.

Any thought? (I only have this weekend to draft and fine tune my WS).

Coupon-mad

Yes, just state everything you believe is relevant but don't try to guess which PCNs are discontinued.  Don't do their job for them!  You said:

"I can now see their method in discontinuing proceedings in 3 of 7 PCNs.

The POC, though, has no PCN numbers as it just refers to dates when the alleged breach of parking terms and conditions is committed. It is a standard, scant-on-details POC from DCB Legal signed off by the one and only Yasmin Mia."

But they didn't explain which dated PCNs are discontinued, so as the Defendant relying on the info from the solicitor for the Claimant, you can't reconcile their discontinuance with the Particulars of Claim, can you?  SAY THAT.

The Judge will be unimpressed and on your side.  It is not for you to work out.

I only have this weekend to draft and fine tune my WS.

That's a shame, given the DLUHC is due to make an announcement this month with stuff that you might well want to bring to the attention of the Judge!  Be ready, stick around on this forum (because we will be all over the DLUHC's update) and if there is useful analysis in the Government's draft Impact Assessment, you should be planning on adding an extra Witness Statement.  

In fact you could even mention in this WS that you are informed that the Government is about to announce a Draft Impact Assessment and publish analysis about the 'extortion' of rip-off false 'debt fees' and you reserve the right to draw this to the Judge's attention with an updated WS before the hearing, which won't be news to any parking firm.

Waldo03

Thanks Coupon-mad for your replies and insight. I will definitely mention the expected DLUHC's updated draft impact assessment in my WS as per your advise.

Claimant in their witness statement has referred to One Parking Solution Ltd v Wilshaw [2021] (“Wilshaw”) to establish validity of contract:

I refer to the recent decision in One Parking Solution Ltd v Wilshaw [2021] (“Wilshaw”) whereby it was found that it is not necessary for the Claimant to prove the Landowner’s authority to constitute a valid cause of action to recover the PCN, what is required is proof that there is a binding contract between the Claimant and the Defendant. Further, it was found in Wilshaw that the contract between the Claimant and the Freeholder (Landowner) does not affect the validity of any contract between the Claimant and the Defendant.

I have noticed you advising others here not to read that car crash and argue against the flawed appeal case that the other side hasn't even appended the transcript for. Should I just ignore or say something about it my WS? Thanks in advance 🙏