I Park fine - paid for wrong car park on app and was not the driver

Livinglavidaloca

My husband parked in a car park on the way to visit family in hospital.  There are 3 car parks next to each other and the middle one is the I Park car park (the other 2 are council owned).  I have the app so he told me where he was and I paid online thinking he was in the other car park (council owned).  A week later I received a NTK and disputed it with the receipt, at which point they told me the payment was for the wrong car park.  I have at no point admitted to being the driver at the time as I was not the driver.
Since then I have not answered their later requests for payment and have received a claim form now which I am dealing with. (reasons for not dealing with it sooner are due to my father passing away and me caring for my terminally ill mum so I'm behind on admin!)
My query is around the defence - do I have a defence?  I can use the "not the driver" dispute however this is stated on the claim form under the "pursued as the keeper pursuant to POFA 2012, Schedule 4.  Dates and facts so far:
Claim issue - 27/3/24
(Date of service - 3/4/24)
AoS submitted 17/4/24 in line with your guidance
I am therefore needing to email the defence by 1/5/24.
I have added the following as a defence - is this acceptable? 

3. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle, but the Defendant was not the driver during the time of the alleged breach.  However, the Defendant obtained the knowledge of the facts regarding the circumstances of the incident from the driver after the incident and upon receiving the letter of claim.  

4. The vehicle was driven and parked in the car park and an online ticket for this duration had been purchased from an online parking app.  The car park is located between two other car parks, all displaying a large blue and white “Pay & Display” sign at the entrance and all located on Beckett Street, Leeds.  Parking was paid using the online app, however the defendant has since discovered that the car park identified for payment was one of the other car parks.  This was pointed out in the letter from I Park clarifying that payment had been made to the other car park when the defendant had claimed the parking had been paid for.

Thanks in advance.

Gr1pr

So did the NTK PCN letter that you originally received as keeper compliant which POFA 2012 , or not compliant. ?

Your answer could be construed as either liable or not liable, but a simple defence of not being the driver may not help you if I-PARK complied with POFA, POFA could be used to establish keeper liability, if they complied with it. ?

In which case what is your vital defence point. ?

Coupon-mad

Show us the NTK and the claim POC.

KeithP

Livinglavidaloca said:

Dates and facts so far:
Claim issue - 27/3/24
(Date of service - 3/4/24)
AoS submitted 17/4/24 in line with your guidance
I am therefore needing to email the defence by 1/5/24.

You are mistaken with those target dates. You may well have already missed the boat.

With a Claim Issue Date of 27th March, you had until Monday 15th April to file an Acknowledgment of Service.
Looks like you missed that deadline, thus giving the Claimant a two day window of opportunity to seek a Default Judgment against you.
Why do people leave filing an Acknowledgment of Service to the last moment anyway? All that does is risk making this very mistake.
Check you MCOL Claim History to confirm whether or not that Default Judgment was awarded.

If a Default Judgment has not been made, you have until 4pm on Monday 29th April 2024 to file your Defence - that's two days before your proposed 1st May deadline.

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'.

Livinglavidaloca

(Removed by Forum Team)

Thank you 

@Coupon-mad documents attached.  @Gr1pr - It seems they have complied with POFA as the NTK states that, which means my only defence would be that I paid (albeit the wrong car park) which isnt really a defence.  Maybe I should just pay? @KeithP - thanks, I have just realised I calculated the wrong date, I havent had a defaut judgment through though as I checked online.

Gr1pr

I would not pay the figure on the claim form, its been artificially inflated by unwarranted debt collectors fees 

A more typical loss in court would be around the £200 mark, so any out of court settlement offer would be maybe half of the figure on that claim form 

You should wait and see what your defence could contain by any further replies 

Coupon-mad

It would be madness to pay because even if you lost in court (rare) it wouldn't be as high as £255.  It is a no brainer to defend.

Also, did you miss the fact that DCB Legal discontinue 99% of forum-defended claims before the hearing? You'd win and pay nothing.  This is REGARDLESS of facts of the case, regardless of weak/strong case considerations.  It's a numbers game.

Use the Template Defence - and do it today.

Here's your claim form minus the claim number and password.  You need to hit report in YOUR post to get that data removed urgently!

Livinglavidaloca

@Coupon-mad Thank you so much!
I have hit report on my post - thought I'd deleted all the info, clearly bad at that
I will still file the defence - do I need to say more than "I was not the driver"? I wondered about the "paid wrong car park" or shall I keep it short for now and see how it goes.  I had also seen the stats of discontinued claims, but not sure if I need to explain my defence too much or wait for full report.
Will get it done today
Thanks again!

Coupon-mad

Show us your draft para 3 which admits to driving and states that you did pay for parking and did appeal the PCN but the appeal was rejected by a template reply.  This could have been settled out of court by the Claimant recognising the mitigating circumstances that were set out in the appeal last year, but they have carried in regardless and added a false fee enhancement and the Defendant denies that the signage was sufficiently clear.

Please please please don't show us our template here... just your added bit!

Livinglavidaloca

Thanks @Coupon-mad - just defence paragraph below:

3. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle, but the Defendant was not the driver during the time of the alleged breach.  However, the Defendant obtained the knowledge of the facts regarding the circumstances of the incident from the driver after the incident and upon receiving the letter of claim.  

4. The vehicle was driven and parked in the car park and an online ticket for this duration had been purchased from an online parking app.  The car park is located between two other car parks, all displaying a large blue and white “Pay & Display” sign at the entrance and all located on Beckett Street, Leeds.  Parking was paid using the online app. The defendant received the notice to keeper and appealed the PCN, but this was rejected by a template reply.  The car park paid for had been one of the incorrect "Beckett Street" car park.

Coupon-mad

Remove this because it's not true, you knew at the start and appealed within days:

"and upon receiving the letter of claim".

And remove this admission:

"The car park paid for had been one of the incorrect "Beckett Street" car park."

And do tell the driver to seek to park on street (always, if possible) and if they have literally no choice but to look for a car park, only use Council car parks and NEVER opt for a private one. The signs tell you.  Avoid.

I never look for car parks. Always look at the local streets, even in cities. Even in London.