Defence against parking for patrons only claim court

zaza777

Hi,

 

I received a claim form and followed the steps in another thread and did an online AoS.

 

I wanted advice on my defence. I visited the premises of a charity shop on a Sunday but they were closed. It took me 12 min to reroute my sat nav while speaking with my wife on the phone to get new adress to drop donations.

No shop were open and then I received all the nonsense. It was a company car, so I was pressured by company to pay the fine, I refused and stated why as there was ground for no paying.  I had to send a letter to the company saying I was the driver and not to contact my company again.

I know there might have been other ways to get it thrown out earlier but alas they taking me to court!

Below is the claim form redacted and I copy pasted points of my defence.

Could I have some guidance on if it is a good defence or not?

 

I left the draft of defence, and copy pasted just my own point but will add all the other point of defence from the draft in the other threads.

 

3. The driver was requested by his partner to deliver donations to the charity shop situated on the premises with a car park in XXX XXX XXXX. The charity shop (XXXX, helps veterans and army forces in the UK) is no longer open to this day, but was used prior by the defendant’s partner to give donation and shopping in it. The charity shop never requested to sign any vehicle or request any payment to park in the premises. Based on this previous experience by the defender’s partner, the defendant was requested to then drop donations as usual to the charity shop, unfortunately the charity shop was closed on the XXth of XXX 2023, as well as all the stores in the premises. The defendant asked his partner on the phone and was then directed to drive to another charity shop in town. The vehicle stayed in the premises for 12 min, before exiting. The car park in question has no clear signage to explain what the relevant parking restrictions are and what to do in case of unavailability of patrons. The driver did not in fact enter in a contract with the claimant, due mostly to improper signage (argument raised in detail in point 19 of the defence). The contra proferentem rule which statutes that any clause considered to be ambiguous should be interpreted against the interests of the party that created, introduced, or requested that a clause be included.
If parking is not permitted while the patrons are closed, one cannot contract to park there.
The PCN and the subsequent claim states the charge is for "parking for patrons only while on the premises”. To remain within the area "without authorisation of patrons" and in contravention of a "NO PARKING" instruction means the driver was trespassing.
A Parking Charge is the consideration made in a contract to park. There was no contract for the reasons stated above.
The remedy for the tort of trespass is damages, which can only be sought by the land occupier, not a management company. The defendant claimed that no damages were raised against the interest of the owner of the land or the patrons that were not open at the time.

The defendant strongly believe that no monetary compensation should be awarded to the claimant as a result.

 

 

 

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 23rd February, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 27th March 2024 to file your Defence.

That's four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see that you are not leaving 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'.

zaza777

Any advise on the defence itself? Are any point big no nos or massive things missing??

Fruitcake

Plan A is always a complaint from the keeper to the landowner and the keeper's MP, and it is never too late to do so.

Looking at the particulars of claim on the claim form, they are vague and fail to define a course of action. What precisely is the PPC claiming? They state one of the parking terms that form a contract as being, PARKING FOR PATRONS WHILST ON THE PREMISES ONLY, but haven't stated whether the motorist did or did not park on the premises, nor whether the defendant was or was not on the premises for the duration of the parking period. They have not stated what it is that the defendant is supposed to have done.

You should therefore include the CEL v Chan case in your defence and include the whole of the transcript from the template defence sticky Announcement.

Coupon-mad

zaza777 said:

Any advise on the defence itself? Are any point big no nos or massive things missing??

Make it shorter:

3. The Defendant denies not being a patron of the shops at the site.  The defendant stopped at this shopping area to window-shop, browse and to make a donation of bags to the charity shop, which makes him a 'patron' under the usual interpretation of that word.  It was discovered that the charity shop was closed, so the bags had to be loaded back into the car, which was only there for mere minutes.  There was no entrance sign facing traffic as the Defendant drove in, no fair grace period seems to have been allowed and no signs at all were visible.  The Defendant denies entering into a parking contract and - in addition to denying any 'agreement by conduct' to pay an unknown sum of money for simply delivering bags to a charity shop - he had no idea he was being filmed.  This is illegal; a breach of the DPA 2018 and the ICO's Surveillance Camera Code of Practice.  The parking charge cannot stand.

zaza777

Thanks a lot everyone.

@coupon-mad: I saw a comment on a different thread about thisparticular company Parking secure solutions, and you mentioned that they never tend to take you to Court or something of that effect, it seems they are getting more brazen!

fisherjim

zaza777 said:

Thanks a lot everyone.

@coupon-mad: I saw a comment on a different thread about thisparticular company Parking secure solutions, and you mentioned that they never tend to take you to Court or something of that effect, it seems they are getting more brazen!

A claim form doesn't mean they will go all the way with this, it could just be a bluff to the wire just like the UKPC business model hoping you will give in to their bullying.

Their claim doesn't look very convincing to me, and it's not a "fine".

zaza777

A bit silly question, but should I raise in my defence the point that we contacted said Ltd mentioning that their invoice was improperly raised and that they refused to answer our request and instead threatened us with extra cost and send it to debt collecting sollicitors? Or should I skip that. I thought it will show their disingenuity.

zaza777

Fruitcake said:

Plan A is always a complaint from the keeper to the landowner and the keeper's MP, and it is never too late to do so.

Looking at the particulars of claim on the claim form, they are vague and fail to define a course of action. What precisely is the PPC claiming? They state one of the parking terms that form a contract as being, PARKING FOR PATRONS WHILST ON THE PREMISES ONLY, but haven't stated whether the motorist did or did not park on the premises, nor whether the defendant was or was not on the premises for the duration of the parking period. They have not stated what it is that the defendant is supposed to have done.

You should therefore include the CEL v Chan case in your defence and include the whole of the transcript from the template defence sticky Announcement.

The charity shop in question is fully closed and been replaced by a small supermarket. So I think it is too late for that. I do not know who the landowner is and how to contact them. I added Cel vs Chan and will add the full transcript as addendum. Thanks a lot, I have all sort of feelings towards this crooks and won't allow myself to fund their system for their next victims!

zaza777

Should I add the picture taken at the time of the parking and the signage as evidence in my defence statement? Sorry if that question has been answered, I find it hard to navigate this forum and try looking if someone already asked that and could not find it. My bad if it was already answered in FAQ

KeithP

Evidence comes later, at Witness Statement time.
Nothing gets submitted with a Defence.

It might be useful to have another look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread. 
In particular, the section following this heading...