I received a letter from the Civil National Business Centre from ParkingEye / DCB Legal

mohawk1

Hi all. Any help on the below would be really appreciated.

In 2019, while I was a student, I incurred a parking fine at my university's car park. I've recently received a correspondence from the Civil National Business Centre regarding this matter, and it seems the parking fine was issued by ParkingEye, with DCB Legal acting as their representative.

Receiving this notice after such a long time is rather unsettling.

I would greatly appreciate guidance on how to address this matter and potentially avoid the fine, which has now amounted to £309.64.

Additionally, I'd like to point out that while there is a specified date for the purported offense, there's no provided time or photographic evidence of the vehicle in the mentioned parking area.

Thank you for your assistance.

(18th March - claim discontinued. Success!)

KeithP

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

mohawk1

KeithP said:

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

HI Keith. Issue date is 23 Aug

KeithP

mohawk1 said:

KeithP said:

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

HI Keith. Issue date is 23 Aug

With a Claim Issue Date of 23rd August, you have until Monday 11th September 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 25th September 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over 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'.

mohawk1

Thanks for that! So, to confirm, I need to edit the following template and simply send this to the email address the the AOC page confirms?

--

3. [EXPLAIN IN YOUR OWN WORDS...NB: defences are written in the THIRD person as 'the Defendant', not 'I did this' nor 'my/me']. 

Say what went wrong. If you don't know, didn't get any letters or it was years ago & you can't recall, say that instead. Signs unlit in darkness? Permit slipped off the dash?  VRM keying error?

If this was a residential site where the driver lives or was a permitted visitor, state those parking rights. Examples are in the NEWBIES thread.

We recommend you continue with this wording  (yes, all of it)

4. The Claimant will concede that no financial loss has arisen and that in order to impose an inflated parking charge, as well as proving a term was breached, there must be:

(i). a strong 'legitimate interest' extending beyond mere compensation for loss, and

(Ii). 'adequate notice' of the 'penalty clause' charge which, in the case of a car park, requires prominent signs and lines.

Le_Kirk

Correct but when you do, just post here the parts that you edit or add.  We do not need to check the whole template.  Of course, when you submit it as per the instructions, you add back the rest of the template.

Umkomaas

This is one of the first claims made by DCB Legal on behalf of ParkingEye. PE have their own in-house team of solicitors heading up a fully operating litigation department. They have never held back in pursuing their own litigation, without the assistance of any third party.  They have also always pursued their own debt collection, but over the past year or so have been farming some of that out to third party debt collectors. We have understood that to be for cases where PE had failed to collect, but were unable to pursue litigation (no landlord authority to do so, or just very weak cases). 

The very recent foray into outsourcing litigation (via a contract with DCB Legal) will be interesting to observe. Other PPCs who have outsourced to DCB Legal have been seen to instruct DCB Legal to discontinue where defendants have followed the required court processes and with advice and guidance from this forum, so let's see how your case proceeds @mohawk1. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1

Coupon-mad

Please only show us your end of para 2 and your para 3.

Please can you delete your post repeating the entire template defence because there's no reason to repeat here (or double check) what's already in our sticky thread resources.

B789

Umkomaas said:

This is one of the first claims made by DCB Legal on behalf of ParkingEye. PE have their own in-house team of solicitors heading up a fully operating litigation department. They have never held back in pursuing their own litigation, without the assistance of any third party.  They have also always pursued their own debt collection, but over the past year or so have been farming some of that out to third party debt collectors. We have understood that to be for cases where PE had failed to collect, but were unable to pursue litigation (no landlord authority to do so, or just very weak cases). 

The very recent foray into outsourcing litigation (via a contract with DCB Legal) will be interesting to observe. Other PPCs who have outsourced to DCB Legal have been seen to instruct DCB Legal to discontinue where defendants have followed the required court processes and with advice and guidance from this forum, so let's see how your case proceeds @mohawk1. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1

I am in the middle of assisting a friend of a friend with a PE/DCB Legal claim which is at DQ stage. As it involves the standard DCB Legal rubbish PoC and the Defendant has only just receivd the SAR with the original NtK and reminders, I am waiting to review them to see at what stage the £70 was added and by whom.

Of course, I'm expecting it to result in the usual discontinuation.

mohawk1

Hi all. Thank you so much for your replies so far. I have managed to complete the AoC at lunch time.

I have made a start to making amends to paragraph 2 and 3. Here is what I have made so far.

2. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  Conversely, the Claimant sets out a cut-and-paste incoherent and sparse statement of case.  The POC is devoid of any detail and even lacks specific breach allegation(s), making it very difficult to respond. However, it is admitted that the Defendant was the driver and the registered keeper of the vehicle.

^ Edited to confirm I was the driver of the vehicle.

3.) The claim which originates from the year 2019, the defendant wishes to formally register that they presently have no recollection of the circumstances surrounding their ingress into the aforementioned car park, nor the intent of their sojourn therein. Furthermore, it is of paramount importance to highlight that the defendant has not, in the intervening period, been privy to any communications regarding this issue, inclusive of photographs. Notably, whilst a specific date has been provided concerning the alleged transgression, there remains an absence of both a precise time and any corroborative photographic evidence of the defendant's vehicle within the said location.

^ Edited to confirm that I cannot recall the circumstances surrounding my visit. During my university years, I resided in another town, yet the fine I received pertains to the city campus. It was quite unusual for me to travel into the city, let alone by car.

B789

mohawk1 said:

2. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  Conversely, the Claimant sets out a cut-and-paste incoherent and sparse statement of case.  The POC is devoid of any detail and even lacks specific breach allegation(s), making it very difficult to respond. However, it is admitted that the Defendant was the registered driver of the vehicle.

^ Edited to confirm I was the registered driver of the vehicle.

There is no such thing as a "registered driver". In law, there is the Registered Keeper or the driver. The defendant can be one or both of those.