Parking Eye Claim Form Help

Buddy2808

Hi, the driver has been issued with a claim form and completed acknowledgement but is unsure of the next steps and the correct defence to compile and send to court. The driver parked in a parking eye car park on 25th May 2023, the pay machine was not accepting coins or card payment. The telephone option to pay for parking was also not working. The driver made multiple calls and input card details to pay and the call ended without confirmed abruptly. After multiple attempts, another attempt was made to pay via cash at the machine which was accepted, however this took over 15 minutes and the ticket issued did not cover the time prior and subsequently a fine was issued. 
The driver has evidence of the calls and also the ticket which was issued after this time and till the time of departure. 
The driver has read the newbie thread, but is a bit confused about which defence document to use and send on. 
Thanks in advance!

Buddy2808

Attaching claim form sent (Removed by Forum Team)

Coupon-mad

Admit to driving if it was the Defendant.  At court stage there's no point not.

Put this (below) as your para 3 and change the end of para 2 accordingly, to admit to driving.

Easy, innit?!


3.  The Defendant parked in a ParkingEye car park on 25th May 2023.  The payment machine was not accepting coins or card payments. The telephone option to pay for parking was also not working. The driver made multiple calls and input card details to pay and the call ended abruptly, without confirmation. After multiple attempts, another attempt was made to pay via cash at the machine which was accepted, however this took some 15 minutes.  The Defendant holds evidence of this and, no doubt, so should the Claimant because this is their system.

3.1.  The few minutes' delay to begin the parking contract on arrival was caused entirely by the failure of the Claimant's systems.  The Defendant relies on the authority of National Car Parks v HMRC [2019] where is was held that the commencement time of contract for parking is when the 'green button' (or app equivalent) is pressed, signifying acceptance by paying. No terms and conditions detailing penalties or the use of ANPR cameras were displayed prominently at the machines, simply details of the tariffs.  No erring or improper conduct by the Defendant caused a 'penalty' clause to arise and there is no legitimate interest in punishing drivers in these circumstances.

3.2.  Further, the signs and subsequent Parking Charge Notice that the Claimant will rely upon was for £100 (with no caveats nor secondary clauses tacked onto what is in itself a secondary clause).  However the claim is for £120 which was not in the contract (not that any sum was agreed). This discrepancy is significantly wrong and the Defendant avers that the Claimant's improper enhancement of their claim with an unspecified and impermissible sum that was never on the signs is reason enough for its dismissal.

Buddy2808

Thank you, this all sounds great. To confirm, I can use the template right up to the statement of truth?
Do I need to go into further detail? Am I right in thinking I can send all of the below via email but I don't need to send photos of my evidence of calls & the ticket? 28 days is up on 18th Sept but want to get it complete asap. 

Here is what I wrote for para 3 but yours sounds much more professional and perhaps I don't need so much detail?

3. The defendant arrived at Brook Street CP 3 AT 15.46 and attempted to pay for parking at the machine with a debit card and cash which was not accepted. Between 15.50 & 15.51 the defendant made 4 calls to the number advertised to make payment, all calls were cancelled by the number after a short time. At 15.51 the defendant called for 39 seconds and gave payment information before the call was cancelled again. The defendant then again attempted to pay multiple times via the machine between 15.52 and 16.00, all attempts were unsuccessful as the machine showed an error message. At 16.01 the defendant spent a further 1 minute attempting to pay for parking over the phone via their account which again was unsuccessful. At 16.03, the machine accepted cash payment; the driver paid for 2 hours and departed at 18.03. 

Thank you

KeithP

Buddy2808 said:

Hi, the driver has been issued with a claim form and completed acknowledgement but is unsure of the next steps and the correct defence to compile and send to court.

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Buddy2808

It was mid last week as I knew the 14 days was up on the 4th. I can’t remember the exact day/date. 

Buddy2808

Apologies, It was submitted on the 2nd and received on 4th as per the claim history. Is that ok? 

Castle

You have left a VRM showing on the claim form photo.

Buddy2808

Castle said:

You have left a VRM showing on the claim form photo.

Thank you, I can't find any info on how to delete it!! 

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 21st August, and 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 two weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see that you are not leaving 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'.