Short notice help with Residential Parking Claim

frontlinekwarmz

Hi all,

I've unfortunately received a claim from DCB Legal on behalf of MET parking for 13 PCNs from Oct 2017 and June 2019.

The date of service on the claim is October 27, which I understand affords me until this Friday 24th Nov to submit a defence.

Since filing an AOS via MCOL on Oct 9, I've been trying to produce my defence, but care responsibilities have left me with minimal time to do so. 

Many of the lines of argument suggested on this forum, furthermore, seem somewhat inapplicable to my case, and I fear I have little if any compelling evidence to substantiate my perspective.

The POC reads as follows:

1. The defendant(D) is indebted to the claimant(C) for a Parking Charge(s) 
2. The PCNs were issued on [the date of each alleged contravention is listed without any corresponding PCN numbers]
3. The PCN(s) was issued on private land owned or managed by C. The vehicle was in breach of the Terms on Cs signs (the Contract), thus incurring the PCNs
4. The Driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not. D is liable as the keeper or driver. Despite requests, the PCN(s) is outstanding. The Contract entitles C to damages.

AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS:

1. £2040 being the total of the PCN(s) and damages)
2. Interest at a rate of 8% per annum pursuant to s.69 f the County Courts Act 1984 from the date hereof at a daily rate of £0.22 until judgement or sooner payment.
3. Costs and court fees

- - - 

The context is that my parents are leaseholders on a housing estate where MET [used to] manage the parking - since 2020 or so, they've been replaced by a new private company. I was ticketed due to allegedly failing to display a valid MET permit. 

Doing my research towards the primacy of contract argument, I discovered that our lease explicitly prohibits parking with the following wording: 

"The lessee shall not Cause or permit the parking of a motor or other vehicle (other than a perambulator or pedal cycle) in or upon any part of the dwelling or within the curtilage thereof or in or upon any part of the Lessor's premises and land adjacent thereto".  

That's obviously not helpful to me - there is no mention of a permit being required, though - do I have a leg to stand on there?

Due to it being so long ago, I admit that I can't remember exactly how things transpired - but I do recall the process of receiving/renewing a permit from MET over the phone being woefully inefficient, and being ticketed almost daily while waiting to be issued one. 

I tried to complain to our housing association years ago when this issue first reared its head; they were entirely uninterested. I also tried to submit an SAR to MET in 2020, but they never did respond - it's only now that I'm undertaking further research that I realise that I would have needed to send them a further reminder email once their 28 day time allowance had elapsed before they could be officially considered to be in breach of data protection laws and reportable to the ICO. I'll file another SAR ASAP to help with my WS should we reach that stage.

As for my defence:

I'd consider trying to make signage arguments, but since MET no longer enforce parking restrictions on my estate, I can't take photos of the signs [or lack thereof] to claim that they're insufficient to form a contract... 

The sum being pursued is clearly exorbitant though - I'm hoping I'll least be able to challenge this, and the fact that they've waited until the sixth year to commence action... 

Any advice at such short notice would be really helpful. 

I note again that my submission deadline is this Friday.

Many thanks in advance

KeithP

frontlinekwarmz said:

The date of service on the claim is October 27...

Since filing an AOS via MCOL on Oct 9...

Difficult to work with those two statements.

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

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

Coupon-mad

from Oct 2017 and June 2019. 

The date of service on the claim is October 27

Please show us the Particulars of Claim

frontlinekwarmz

The Issue Date is Oct 23rd and I filed my AOS on Nov* 9th sorry.

I'll obviously need to be more meticulous throughout the rest of this process.

Particulars of Claim attached

UncleThomasCobley

Should be an easy one to get thrown out because of failure to comply with Civil Procedure Rule 16.4(1)(e) and Practice Direction Part 16.7.5

frontlinekwarmz

UncleThomasCobley said:

Should be an easy one to get thrown out because of failure to comply with Civil Procedure Rule 16.4(1)(e) and Practice Direction Part 16.7.5

Appreciate the input! I'll research these arguments, search the forum for some suitable wording, and incorporate them into my defence accordingly.

frontlinekwarmz

How have they failed to comply though? By not specifying the PCN numbers? By not detailing which terms of the alleged 'contract' were breached?

UncleThomasCobley

frontlinekwarmz said:

How have they failed to comply though? By not specifying the PCN numbers? By not detailing which terms of the alleged 'contract' were breached?

Have a read of the transcript of CEL v Chan in order to understand why your PoC have the same issue:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xy54utt9djv55xitfp7lk/CEL-appeal-transcript.pdf?rlkey=304syf9czf5arl3i1u1ircjln&dl=0

Coupon-mad

frontlinekwarmz said:

How have they failed to comply though?

This is explained already in the Template Defence (which already has a link to wording and the Chan case). The intention is to avoid us having to do this piecemeal on every thread!

  

You could also have timed out those earliest two PCNs past the magic 6 years, if only you'd come here in September when you presumably got the LBC.  Too late now.  Such a shame. You were nearly there and just needed to respond with delaying tactics and at least two PCNs - possibly all 4 2017 ones - would have been dead.

frontlinekwarmz

Coupon-mad said:

frontlinekwarmz said:

How have they failed to comply though?

This is explained already in the Template Defence (which already has a link to wording and the Chan case). The intention is to avoid us having to do this piecemeal on every thread!

  

You could also have timed out those earliest two PCNs past the magic 6 years, if only you'd come here in September when you presumably got the LBC.  Too late now.  Such a shame. You were nearly there and just needed to respond with delaying tactics and at least two PCNs - possibly all 4 2017 ones - would have been dead.

Many thanks @Coupon-mad

I'll be sure include the Chan argument in my defence which I'll post here before submitting.

Are there any further arguments anyone thinks I could stand on?

I also haven't actually received a recent LBC - does that indicate further procedural non-compliance from the claimants? I received one from CST Law again maybe in 2020, but no action followed.

KeithP

frontlinekwarmz said:

The Issue Date is Oct 23rd and I filed my AOS on Nov* 9th sorry.
I'll obviously need to be more meticulous throughout the rest of this process.

With a Claim Issue Date of 23rd October, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 27th November 2023 to file a Defence.

That's just a few days 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'.