Claim Form - No Particulars & Time Sensitive

MajorLobster

Hello kind friends,

I have received a claim form from Euro Car Parks and thanks to this fantastic forum, I feel fairly confident I can defend this case.

One thing that I'm stuck with is the comments made in particulars. For quick background, I've returned from holiday to find this claim with only 1 day remaining of the 14, so I've submitted the AOS to gain more time to defend.

However, the particulars section is as follows (I've condensed it into a brief summary):

Particulars of claim
"The claimants claim is for multiple parking charge notices issued to vehicle ____, the vehicle when parked at the locations specified in the detailed Particulars of Claim the sites.

The defendant is the registered keeper of the vehicle in accordance with schedule 4 of POFA 2012. 
(usual spiel about contract, breaching TOCs, claiming 8% interest etc.)

Detailed Particulars of Claim to fol. (sic)"

Question

I have no idea what "multiple PCNs" they refer to or what evidence they have. I can only think of one occurrence 2 years ago and the subsequent letters from the cowboys relating to it - some of which showed the wrong date of offence which will form part of my defence too.

am I to assume they will be sending a more detailed particulars to me? Given that 14 days has already nearly passed, it feels like it's cutting my defence time short (unless it was sent separate and lost in the post.) Should I be emailing the solicitors or the court to ask for the detailed particulars rather than sitting and waiting?

I won't know how to formulate my defence without knowing what I'm accused of, so feel in a bit of limbo.


I'm sure I may have more questions when I have further details from them, but that's all for now

Thanks so much!

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

MajorLobster

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Thanks KeithP.

Issue date is 04 Jan 2024.

Castle

Are QDR the Solicitors?

MajorLobster

Castle said:

Are QDR the Solicitors?

Correct! QDR.

Fruitcake

Please show us the particulars of claim, redacting all your personal data. Just saying, "usual spiel about contract, breaching TOCs" doesn't help us to help you, especially if the Chan case is relevant.

KeithP

MajorLobster said:

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Thanks KeithP.

Issue date is 04 Jan 2024.

It's good to see that you have filed an Acknowledgment of Service already, but you had more time to do so than you thought. You actually had until next Tuesday to file an Acknowledgment of Service.

With a Claim Issue Date of 4th January, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 6th February 2024 to file your Defence.

That's almost three 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'.

MajorLobster

Fruitcake said:

Please show us the particulars of claim, redacting all your personal data. Just saying, "usual spiel about contract, breaching TOCs" doesn't help us to help you, especially if the Chan case is relevant.

Apologies, I tried to condense it for ease but you're right - details matter. The particulars are badly formatted, but I'll post them word for word:

Particulars Of Claim
"The claimants claim is for multiple parking charge notices issued to vehicle ____, the vehicle when parked at the locations specified in the detailed Particulars of Claim the sites. The Sites are managed by the Claimant on behalf of the landowner.
The Defendant is the registered keeper of the Vehicle, or the driver named by the registered keeper in accordance with Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedons Act 2012.
The driver of the vehicle by entering and remaining at the Site agreed to the parking restrictions and terms and conditions set out on signages at the Site the Terms and Conditions. This forms part of the contract between the driver or registered keeper of the vehicle and the Claimant.
The Defendant has breached the terms and conditions and the claimant claims damages. The Claimant also claims 8% per annum interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 or alternatively at such rate and for such period as the Court thinks fit.

Detailed Particulars of Claim to fol".

Background

I received a PCN alleging my vehicle was parked without a ticket on 09/07/2022. I was not the driver.
They had clocked the vehicle leaving site at 22:18. The driver on this date had purchased a ticket via the phone app, which only let them buy one until 20:30 which was the cut off point. This is consistent with every car park in the city, which don't charge after this time. I'm assuming they are going to claim they should have paid an evening fee, which wasn't an option. Sadly, i no longer have this (I tend to chuck mail after a year).

As with most Euro Car Park, you can't see the signs upon entry to the car park and when you do get to one, they are so highly elevated and hard to decipher.

Suspiciously, I received this notice well after the print date, and after any possible appeal period. Shortly after, I received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus who stated that the appeal time had passed, so I need to pay or face possible court. I tried to call Debt Recovery to explain, only to be on hold for an hour and no one answering. They had no email address and were only open during working hours. I gave up at that point!

From there, I've received letters from numerous debt collectors all showing the offence date as 07/09/2022. I'm assuming the Americanisation caused their error, but if this claim is for that date - the car never touched their car park on this day! Non of these debt collectors have contact numbers or ways of appealing/explaining this error to them.

GCTT Enforcement was the last company to threaten me, which was on 30/05/2023 - stating they would pass this to QDR if I didn't pay. Again, they displayed the incorrect offence date. Again, no way of contacting them.

This all leads to right now, where I've received the Claim Form from QDR via Northampton CC.

No details as to which offence they are pursuing, which is why I am asking if I should email them requesting further details?

Either way, it seem this forum gives me enough to go on whether they pursue me for the correct date or the incorrect date. Thoughts?

Fruitcake

The POC are woefully inadequate, so use the full template defence including the CEL v Chan appeal judgment. The claim does not specify the cause of action nor the alleged breach, nor against whom the claim is made (keeper or driver), so the persuasive Chan judgment is particularly relevant.

Not_A_Hope

No details as to which offence they are pursuing, which is why I am asking if I should email them requesting further details?

This is the third case this week with those exact particulars from QDR. To answer your question - Do not contact them. They have 14 days to file meaningful particulars of claim. You can use the Chan case highlighted in the template defence and it should get laughed out of court.

If they actually send something post it here for further advice.

MajorLobster

Not_A_Hope said:

No details as to which offence they are pursuing, which is why I am asking if I should email them requesting further details?

This is the third case this week with those exact particulars from QDR. To answer your question - Do not contact them. They have 14 days to file meaningful particulars of claim. You can use the Chan case highlighted in the template defence and it should get laughed out of court.

If they actually send something post it here for further advice.

Thank you both. Will the fact that I've submitted an acknowledgement of service today hinder anything?

Will I get notified via the court or MCOL when/if more detailed particulars arrive?

I just don't want a scenario where they say they've posted further details when I haven't received them. I thought emailing them asking for it would alleviate this but as you've suggested, I'll sit on it and wait.

If the date of issue was 04 Jan 2024 and I've submitted the acknowledgement, am I right in thinking the date of service is 09 Jan and I have 28 days from then to issue my defence no later than 6 February?

Thanks again for the help, what great people you all are