Claim Form Received - Met Parking Services and CST Law

DeterminedNotToLose

Hi all,

Firstly, apologies for the length of this post. If any of the text or images are irrelevant, then please let me know and I shall trim them.

I received a charge from MET Parking Services back in 2021 for an alleged overstay at the Great Cambridge Retail Park in Enfield, EN1. Images of the signs provided state that you can stay for up to 80 minutes. However, it is alleged that my car was in there for 104 minutes, thereby a 24 minute overstay. Still images of my vehicle have been provided entering and exiting the retail park, date and time stamped to show the alleged overstay of 24 minutes.

That section of the retail park compromises of a car park, a McDonald's and a Krispy Kreme, both of which have a drive-through, with the McDonald's having a 'closed off' drive-through that as soon as you enter it you cannot leave until you reach the exit. On the day in question the driver and occupants went through the McDonald's drive through, spending a considerable amount of time though the drive through (slow service/unruly customers) before parking in one of the bays, driver and occupants eating their food and then driving out. The card transaction is shown on the driver's statement showing their purchase on the date at McDonald's. There was also a disabled passenger in the car who has a blue badge (provided at appeal stage) to evidence why they would take longer to eat, though not sure if that still helps. Neither the driver nor any of the occupants left the car at any point.

Believe it or not, the driver parked facing northbound in the north of the car park where no signs could be seen and did not notice any of the other signs at the time. Funny enough, the driver was accompanied by two friends also in their own cars. They neither saw any of the signs and they too received the same charge for the overstay. One of them straight away paid within 14 days at the reduced £60, the second caved in at the debt collector stage and paid £170. So it's just my car now. It's also worth noting that there are various other car parks surrounding this one, with those giving you up to 3 hours to park - something the driver was actually aware of from regular use of those car parks, but did not know this one was limited to 80 minutes. This was raised at the POPLA appeal stage.

I have so far tried my best to follow the advice on here (bar contacting the landowner), using the templates and without naming the driver. Stages have been as follows

Appeal to Met Parking within time limit - rejected

Appeal to POPLA within time limit - rejected

Ignored all debt collector letters.

First LBC from CST Law - DRA sent to MET Parking, received, and replied to LBC within 30 days

Second LBC from CST Law - DRA sent to MET Parking, received, and replied to LBC within 30 days

Third LBC from CST Law - DRA sent to MET Parking, received, and replied to LBC within 30 days

Strangely, I have recently moved address and have yet to update my old address on both my driving licence and V5C and have not told them of my new address, yet they some how managed to send the third LBC and claim form to my new address. I have not got any forwarding system as my previous home is my parents so I still collect the odd letters from there as per usual. So no idea how they found my new address.

I received the claim form two days ago. I am fully aware of when I need to submit the AOS and defence by and ensure I do it all in good time and during business hours

I am now in the process of drafting my defence and would like some feedback on it before submitting. However, just have some questions for it.

1. Is both the NtK and signage POFA compliant?

2. Should I continue with the advice of not revealing the driver at this stage?

3. Is there anything from the defence template that there is no point in me raising/arguing?

4. From what I have stated, is there anything else you reckon I should raise in the defence?

5. Should I give an account of the driver's actions from the point of entry until exit or leave that for the witness statement?

6. Regrettably one of the things I did not do, was contact the landowner. Could I still do that now to try and get the charge cancelled, or is it too late now that the claim has been filed?

7. What are my chances at court?

All relevant images attached below.

Coupon-mad

Funny enough, the driver was accompanied by two friends also in their own cars. They neither saw any of the signs and they too received the same charge for the overstay. One of them straight away paid within 14 days at the reduced £60, the second caved in at the debt collector stage and paid £170. So it's just my car now. 

Good!  For you, not them!

Wow... I wish people would not cave in and pay 'outrageous scam' PCNs.  You will be the one showing them what they should have done.

You will be using the hharry worded defence linked in the Template Defence third paragraph.

fisherjim

If those signage images are the ones evidenced to POPLA not one of them should be accepted, the top ones are office copies, the photos will be the original photos when the site was fitted out, not one is date stamped so cannot be evidence of  anything currently on site.

DeterminedNotToLose

Hi all, just finalising my defence to submit today/tomorrow. I won't include any bits of the template, but just the bits I have edited for my own wording, if I could just get some feedback on that. I have used both the template defence and the parts from the hharry defence where relevant. Points 5 - 7 are the only ones that I have edited from hharry's case to be relevant to my case.

Claim heading
Points 1 - 3
Images of the CEL vs CHAN transcript
Point 4*
All of the above taken from Coupon-mad's post here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474840/met-parking-taking-me-to-court-n1-received-help/p4

Points 5-7 below then added by myself:

5. The Defendant vaguely remembers on the day in question he and family/friends had gone to get some food from the McDonald’s restaurant using its drive-through service. Once the food had been obtained and the car had driven out of the drive-through, the Defendant’s car stopped in one of the bays so that the Defendant and other vehicle occupants could eat the food. The car then drove out. The Defendant and vehicle occupants remained with the vehicle at all times.

6. The land in question does not only compromise of a car park, but also of a drive-through for both the McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme restaurants. The McDonald’s drive-through, in particular, is closed off. This means that once a vehicle enters the drive through, it is unable to leave it until driving the whole length of the drive-through and reaching the exit on the other side. As such, it is blocked off from the exit by all the vehicles ahead of it queuing to use the restaurant’s drive-through services.

7. The Defendant had not noticed any signage in the drive-through nor close to where the vehicle was parked, showing the terms and conditions for use. The Defendant was not aware of any restrictions that applied in the car park due to obscure signage which was impossible to read from where the defendant’s car was parked. The small signage was not suitable to alert motorists. Due to the age of the alleged breach of contract which is 2.5 years old, the Defendant is unable to recall the exact reason for the PCN(s).

Points 4-30 then taken from Coupon-mad's post here (though suitably re-numbered in my defence): https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-cases-with-added-admin-dra-costs-edited-31st-july-2023/p1

Statement of Truth, dated and signed

*Just a question on point 4. I have not revealed at any stage who the driver is, though note @Coupon-mad has stated to add 'and driver' if the defendant was the driver and hence reveal who the driver was. Is that the advice even if the claimant does not know who the driver is?

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your 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

No.  If the D doesn't know who was driving they state exactly that.

Defence looks fine but I would add that driving through a drive-thru is not part of any reasonable definition of a parking period.

DeterminedNotToLose

KeithP said:

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

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

Hi KeithP. My issue date was 07/12/23. The MCOL website shows that my AOS was submitted on 22/12/23 and received on 28/12/23. I am aware that I need to submit my defence by 09/01/24 and so will now have to do it during working hours tomorrow.

Coupon-mad said:

No.  If the D doesn't know who was driving they state exactly that.

Defence looks fine but I would add that driving through a drive-thru is not part of any reasonable definition of a parking period.

Just to clarify for this case - the D does know who the driver was, but the C does not know as the RK/D has never revealed it. If the D was the driver, should they now add to the end of point 4, 'it is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper and driver'? Or should the driver still not be revealed?

I have added the following line to the end of point 6:

Driving through a drive-through is not part of any reasonable definition of a parking period.

Coupon-mad

Ok - I would leave it unsaid at this stage. 

DeterminedNotToLose

So I've received a court date and I'm preparing my WS.

There is one slight issue - I am away during the date of the court hearing. I included this date on the directions questionnaire as a date I was unavailable for, but for whatever reason they booked me in for this date. I will be on a month long trip on the other side of the world for a holiday I've been planning for ages and booked a while ago and the court date falls almost bang in the middle. The cost of cancelling/postponing the trip far, far outweighs any potential loss at court, which I suspect will likely happen now. So I suppose my goal now is to reduce how much I will pay at court as much as possible by providing a strong WS and making it clearly known both to the claimant and the court that I will not be personally in attendance for xyz.

Just a few questions for my WS and the process from here.

1. Given the stage I am at and the fact the NtK was POFA compliant, should I state in my WS who the driver was? Otherwise my WS will be vague in explaining my actions and may !!!!!! the judge, especially as they won't be able to ask me questions about it in person.

2. If I am ordered to pay costs, as I will not be there, will I be sent a letter through the post for the costs? Any idea how long it will take to arrive and how long I will have to pay it, given that I will not have been notified of my loss at court? As I am not back until 2 weeks after the court date.

Coupon-mad

You need to ring your local court and point out their error with a date when your DQ said you'd be away. Do that first.

Do not be told you have to apply to change the date. No. Complain to the court manager.

DeterminedNotToLose

I can try, but I worry I have probably now left it too late do that. I received the court date via letter in August and the court date is in late October. My reasoning for not contacting them and trying to change it (on top of thinking they would effectively tell me tough) was that was that if I tried to change the court date and failed, the claimant may become aware as the court may see if they too are happy to change the date, thereby ensuring they continue with the claim in the knowledge that I would be unavailable for that date. As such, I have been keeping my fingers crossed that the claimant may discontinue if I do not let them know I will not be attending until as late as possible.

Might not have been the best tactic. Back when I first received the letter with the court date I tried coming here to query this, but forgot my password and could not access my account until now (just realised I was trying to reset the password on the wrong section of the site and was not receiving the password reset email).

Reckon I should still call the court tomorrow and give it a try at this stage?