Secure a Space court claim via DCB Legal

shyammy21

Hi 

I need to put my defence in for a court claim and would like to get certainty that I am doing the right things please. 

I received a claim form for 4 occasions of parking going back to 2019 and 2020 and they want £1006.68. I worked at this location for which this car park was attached to my work, staff parked here. Staff were allowed to park here at no cost and I have evidence of this. 

I did a data protection request to the claimant in Feb 2023 which they did not reply to but DCBL did which they sent 4 NTK from PCS but I have no other tickets or the original windscreen tickets. I have given a further deadline to the claimant on the SAR. 

Correspondence from them:

https://ibb.co/2jH7gV8
https://ibb.co/f4WmjM1
https://ibb.co/Z8zvyvY
claim form: https://ibb.co/V9x7JdB 

I have acknowledged the claim and want to get my defence in.
The £120 PCS wanted or the inflated £160 where it is now on the claim form are not the original charges for the car park, I just have to wait for the SAR to find that out. 

Based on the defence template: 

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle.


3. The Defendant was employed at this location in 2018-19 and this car park where the alleged contractual breach occurred was assigned by the employer to its staff and available to staff to use.

The Defendant was not aware of parking restrictions and that it was provision for all staff. The carpark was the lower ground of a multi-story and was always unlit and signage was not prominent or displayed anywhere visible. The Defendant has documentary evidence that staff parking was permitted in this car park at no cost to employees

Would be grateful for any assistance on the defence, whilst I challenge the claimant with no SAR response. 

B789

What is the evidence you have that you had permission to park at the location? If the claimant didn't respond to your SAR within the required 30 days, did you make an official complaint to the ICO? Have you tried to contact your employer (ex-employer?) and asked them to get these PCNs cancelled? Have you written to your MP and asked them to intervene on your behalf about these scammers?

If the claim is from DCB Legal and signed by Yasmin Mia, you robustly defend the woefully inadequate particulars of claim (PoC) using the Johny86 defence, an example of which is provided here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5r7vbqttho3q948/2023 defence.pdf?dl=0

You are defending against the allegations in the PoC so do not provide the claimant with anything that is not pleaded. It is for them to prove their claim.

The results of your SAR will come in useful later when the time comes to prepare your WS. As this is for a four-figure sum, you must follow the correct procedure. However, you should hold off sending in your defence as there is about to be an announcement from the DLUHC regarding the Impact Statement for the upcoming Private Parking Code of Practice bill and there is likely to be some damning commentary that will require an amendment to the current defence.

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 26th June, I am going to assume you filed an Acknowledgment of Service sometime after 30th June and before 19th July. Please confirm - your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer. 

With a Claim Issue Date of 26th June, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 31st July 2023 to file your Defence.

That's just a week away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see that you are not leaving the preparation of it to the last minute. However, you should leave the filing of it as late as possible.

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'.

shyammy21

KeithP said:

With a Claim Issue Date of 26th June, I am going to assume you filed an Acknowledgment of Service sometime after 30th June and before 19th July. Please confirm - your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer. 

With a Claim Issue Date of 26th June, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 31st July 2023 to file your Defence.

That's just a week away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see that you are not leaving the preparation of it to the last minute. However, you should leave the filing of it as late as possible.

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'.

Hello 
Claim issued 26/06/2023 and I acknowledged it on 11/7/2023

I am utilising the template / Johny86 defence. I didn't do any appeals or popla so should I admit I was the driver in point 2? 

I don't want to miss the deadline by waiting for anything from DLUHC 

KeithP

shyammy21 said:

KeithP said:

With a Claim Issue Date of 26th June, I am going to assume you filed an Acknowledgment of Service sometime after 30th June and before 19th July. Please confirm - your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer. 

With a Claim Issue Date of 26th June, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 31st July 2023 to file your Defence.

That's just a week away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see that you are not leaving the preparation of it to the last minute. However, you should leave the filing of it as late as possible.

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'.

I don't want to miss the deadline by waiting for anything from DLUHC 

You are quite right... you must not miss that deadline... indeed I said as much...

KeithP said:
Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

I did however suggest that you leave the filing of a Defence as late as possible to hopefully take advantage of anything published by by the Government between now and next Monday.
It only takes a few minutes to file a Defence... it's just sending an email.

patient_dream

The question is why are Secure a Space using DCBL when they probably know they discontinue on a regular basis ..... I think eveyone on this forum knows who the "pusher" is

B789

DCB Legal would argue that they only discontinue on the instruction of their client. Whether they advise as such or have authority from their client to do so of their own accord, is a different matter.

Le_Kirk

If you were the driver, it is probably best to submit a defence that you were the "registered keeper and driver at the material time" as you can then give an honest, first person account in your witness statement rather than "as the defendant and registered keeper, the driver told me......".  I would probably assume from your defence that you were the driver as you say the car park was provided by the employer.  If you were not the driver, then I would say so just to make it clear to the judge.  However, four separate occasions!  What would you say to the judge if you were asked outright at a hearing "were you driving?"  Anyway the whole driver transfering to keeper liability only works if the PCN was not POFA compliant.  Was it?  If you do end up submitting that defence you need to add numbers for every paragraph.

Coupon-mad

Yes admit to driving.

This is extortionate:

I received a claim form for 4 occasions of parking going back to 2019 and 2020 and they want £1006.68. 

Please show your case and that ridiculously inflated sum of money claimed, as evidence to the DLUHC that DCBLegal are taking as much from people as PPCs do, and this bulk litigation MUST be stopped.

We are expecting a DLUHC announcement resurrecting the Code of Practice this week as it is overdue.  Don't do your defence early.

Had you thought about adding a counterclaim seeing as you will have to face a hearing (given it's a 4 PCN case they win't discontinue) and it only costs you £35 to claim £300?

Why not use the hearing (that THEY will pay for) to argue your case too, that there was no contract, you had a right to park already and they have harassed you for four years, when they had no 'reasonable cause' to get your DVLA data at all?

As you say, you worked at this location and staff were allowed to park there at no cost and you have evidence of this. Do you think it is acceptable that workers at the location are pursued? I don't.

Especially if you appealed at the time which makes a counterclaim about abuse of your DVLA data have stronger prospects.

shyammy21

Hi All, 

Thanks for your help and guidance so far. DCBL have asked for evidence to show i was employed on the site. The letter says legal proceedings will continue in the meantime so unsure if this is them attempting to settle this thing. My contract of employment from that job is a very long document. The page with my name is on the front but the page with the work location is on page 2 but it has a lot of irrelevant info such as my job and salary etc. The parking clause is like on page 20 of the document and the parking policy is a separate doc. No directions have been received, just this letter. What would the forums suggestion be? Is it worth me just sending it to show the judge I have been helpful 

Coupon-mad

I would reply but redact your salary, etc.