Claim from Civil national business centre.

Wiganlad

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice. 

I got a claim dated on 22/12/2023 through on 28th December. I think I am right up to the point I have to replay but not sure if bank hols count. Unfortunately family circumstances have meant I pushed this back.

I have a claim from CST law for parking charges on 27/11/2021 and 17/12/2021. 

They want £470.14 off me for parking at St Helen’s World of Glass. 

This was always a free parking site which has a library and museum in and I would go to the library with my ex partner. 

Suddenly it became a paid parking site but I hadn’t seen any signs and got two tickets from Ocean finance.

I went back to take photos too but signs had been out up. I also notice they had deals about getting money back if you had eaten in the restaurant as I did on the 17/12/2021.

The first one would have been £3 charge and the second one £1.50.

Is there any way to fight this or should accept part payment?

£470 seems a lot for £4.50 worth of parking tickets.

Any help would be appreciated.

troublemaker22

Claim dated 22 December means the deadline for filing your acknowledgment of service (AOS) is 4 pm today, so forget all that detail about pounds and pence for the next 30 minutes and file your AOS immediately at MCOL online using the claim number and password on the front page of the claim form saying you intend to deny the entire claim.  Don't contest jurisdiction.  DO IT NOW TO AVOID GETTING A DEFAULT JUDGMENT

After you've done that, start working on your defence as per the Newbies thread.

Wiganlad

I have done that now. Thanks for the advice 

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 22nd December, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 24th January 2024 to file your Defence.

That's two 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 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'.

Wiganlad

How come with these do they not count the bank holidays? That seems a bit strange.

KeithP

Wiganlad said:

How come with these do they not count the bank holidays? That seems a bit strange.

Perhaps you need to ask HMC&TS that question.
But before you do that, read this...

The back of your County Court Claim Form tells you:

Note the last sentence there - "The day of service is taken as 5 days after the issue date shown overleaf".

It goes on to say:

This is confirmed in the Money Claim Online (MCOL) - User Guide, which also explains that a Defence is never due on a non-working day.

On page 14 of that document it says:

How long does the defendant have to respond to my claim?

The court will send out a claim pack to each defendant once the claim has been issued and allows 5 calendar days from the date of issue for the service of the claim. Therefore the 'date of service' is the 5th calendar day after issue.

The defendant has 14 calendar days from the 'date of service' to file a response. If the last day for filing the response falls on a day that the court is not open (i.e. a weekend or public holiday), the court will allow the next full working day for a response. The defendant can extend the time to respond to 28 calendar days by filing an acknowledgment of service (AOS).

Wiganlad

I am going to submit it tomorrow just to make sure I am safe.

Wiganlad

Wiganlad said:

I am going to submit it tomorrow just to make sure I am safe.

Or today even now. Thanks for the advice.

Wiganlad

Does this look OK for a personal statement:

“On 27/11/2021 I parked at St Helens World of Glass. I went inside to the library and had a look at the museum and then went into Christmas activins next to it with my 4-month-old disabled daughter.

On 17/12/2021 I parked at St Helens World of Glass. I went inside to the library and had a look at the museum and had some food in the café on site.

This was always a free parking site which has a library and museum in, and I would go to the library with my ex-partner and then with my daughter when she was born. 

Suddenly it became a paid parking site, but I hadn’t seen any signs and got two tickets from Ocean finance. The first ticket I didn’t receive until after I parked there for a second time. At the time I was living between two houses, so I didn’t receive any the first parking ticket until after I had parked there a second time as it was sent on the 13/12/2021.

I went back to take photos, but signs had been out up. I also notice they had deals about getting money back if you had eaten in the restaurant as I did on the 17/12/2021. I can verify this as there are newspaper articles from St Helens Star.

The first one would have been £3 charge and the second one £1.50.

I did try to contact them on the number provided but this number would put you on hold and no one would ever answer. I was limited to be able to ring them on my dinner break at work as I was in the office working even during this period of covid. I was in the office and had a newborn baby to look after when I got home.

£470 seems a lot for £4.50 worth of parking tickets".

I have my bank statement for the day that I can include. Should I include pics from google maps and a pic of the web page saying it half price. This does say when they started charging though?

Also I am not sure about including the paragraph about phone calls.

Any help is very much appreciated?

Wiganlad

I was going to included the bank statement from the 17/12 too.

KeithP

Is that your proposed Defence that you have shown us?

What happened to this line that I wrote on your thread two weeks ago?...

KeithP said:

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.