Letter Before Action - Civil Enforcement Ltd - Parking fee paid but still chasing PCN and now court

plainjane70

Thank you Coupon-mad (seriously, thank you so much).

I have added what you suggest (in bold below). I think it looks quite good.

What do you think of my paragraph 3? I have a added a little bit to it, also in bold, but like Gr1pr suggested I have tried to stay away from writing a story.

2. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  Conversely, the Claimant sets out a cut-and-paste incoherent and sparse statement of case. The POC appears to be in breach of CPR 16.4, 16PD3 and 16PD7, and fail to "state all facts necessary for the purpose of formulating a complete cause of action". The Defendant is unable, on the basis of the POC, to understand with certainty what case, allegation(s) and what heads of cost are being pursued, making it difficult to respond. However, the vehicle is recognised and it is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper. The Defendant was not the driver of the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle was NAME NAME of ADDRESS. The Claimant has been informed of this fact multiple times and has been provided with the full name name and address of the driver. In addition, the driver submitted the POPLA appeal at that appeal stage on 06/08/2022 (POPLA appeal ref XXX). Therefore, from AUGUST 2022 the Claimant has been fully aware of the driver of the vehicle. Despite this, the Claimant has chosen to pursue the Defendant as the registered keeper. It is unlawful for a parking firm to continue to pursue a registered keeper once they have the name and address of the driver, which the Claimant did have, at the latest, from the POPLA appeal stage in AUGUST 2022. 

3. The Defendant loaned the vehicle to a friend for the day, hereafter known as ‘the driver’. The driver parked in the car park and paid £2.50 for ‘all day’ parking, as advertised by the exterior sign which stated ‘PARKING £2.50 ALL DAY’. No terms and conditions are shown at the exterior of the car park, so it is impossible for any driver to enter with knowledge of the terms and conditions, or indeed with knowledge of how to pay for the parking. Additionally, it was also not possible for the driver to read the first signs inside the car park, due to bad placement by the parking firm for one sign and the position of another parked car blocking the other sign (this will be evidenced by the parking firm's own photographs of their signs and the firm's own photograph of my vehicle on entry to the car park). The driver entered the car park at 13:55 and after parking immediately looked for a parking payment meter, however there were none. The driver walked to the nearest sign to read how to pay the £2.50 for all day parking - two options were provided: pay by phone and pay by mobile app. The driver attempted to pay by phone however the signal was exceptionally poor and they could not hear the automated payment system. Therefore the driver decided to use the other payment option provided by the parking company. Payment by mobile app was difficult and time consuming, however the driver persevered and made full payment of £2.50 as soon as possible.  This payment will be evidenced and receipt of full payment has also been acknowledged by the Claimant. The driver did not leave the car park until full payment was made. Although receiving full payment, the Claimant has chosen to pursue this claim despite suffering no loss. The driver paid £2.50 for ‘parking all day’ and used the car park for only approximately 2.5 hours.

Best,
Jane

Coupon-mad

Get rid of "a friend" and "hereafter known as ‘the driver’" and use their name there in para 3 too, so it is consistent.

No need for the end bit in bold because that point about 'no loss' is already in the Template para 4. And of course use the whole Template Defence but we don't want to be shown it ... please!

Then follow the first 12 steps in the Template Defence thread so that you don't need to ask us about the DQ questions or the laughable Mediation phone call.

We hope that we are only needed again by Defendants at WS & evidence stage next year. The 'first 12 steps' advice saves us all time. See you in a few months.