Unfortunate revelation after receiving CC claim letter !

Gondolier88

Good afternoon MSE forum goers

I have been following the pre-claim / pre-court course of action under the NEWBIE thread for some months now, having been issued with a parking charge, followed by chasers, followed by letters before action, followed by letters before claim etc.

This has now progressed to me receiving a County Court claim form today. Per the guidance my intention it to wait until 5 days have passed from the day of service and then use MCOL to acknowledgement of service and obtain the 28 day window to prepare a defence.

As soon as I received the County Court claim I began to consider my defence and this is where things have (likely) taken a disappointing turn and I would appreciate the advice of this forum.

The parking change related entering a gastropub/hotel car park. I was attending an event with friends and gave them a lift to the hotel where I stayed for approximately 15 minutes while they checked in and dropped off their luggage, before setting off again. The two friends were guests at this hotel, I was not.

Several weeks later I received a parking charge. Unknown to me (and unmentioned by my friends at the time) the car park operates a registration check-in policy where anyone using the car park must provide a registration at the front desk as a restaurant or hotel guest. This signage was to the effect of guests only hence I had no concerns at the time. On receiving the charge I asked my friend to contact the hotel and explain the registration was linked to their stay, which they confirmed they did. I even provided very clear wording and my registration in a template e-mail draft for them to send. Despite a stream of 'debt collection' letters I assumed my defence would be strong in the worst case. I believed charge was simply stuck in the collection agency merry go-round and would soon be cancelled on the word of the establishment owner.

Sadly, having received a claim letter today, I asked after the audit trail for the messages my friend confirmed they had sent to the gastropub/hotel. At this point they admitted they never sent them.

So, with apologies for the long backstory, what realistic chance do I have of filing a successful defence? Does an e-mail to the establishment from my friend now (almost a year later) help my case?

Please note I intend to follow the guidance and file a defence anyway given (a) there are others line of defence around the signage etc. and (b) there is still a reasonable chance it won't proceed to court. But I am looking for a dose of reality given the position I am now in (with an option to pay and avoid the court process still on the table).

Many thanks for your help and apologies if this kind of information is already available on another thread.

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Gondolier88

Hi and thank you

The issue date on the form is 06 May

Gr1pr

The 5 days wait is from the ISSUE DATE, which you haven't told us yet, its not from the service date which is 5 days after the issue date 

Having a successful defence is a small part of it, not the whole thing, study the newbies sticky thread in announcements above your thread, then study the defence template thread too, both by coupon mad 

Try to get a letter of support from the hotel, its never too late to do so 

Picking up or dropping off is not parking, so a possible angle there 

Who is the claimant parking company. ?

Is there a legal firm involved too  ? Who. ?

Post the issue date from that claim form 

Post a redacted copy of the POC from the left of the claim form 

KeithP

Gondolier88 said:

The issue date on the form is 06 May

With a Claim Issue Date of 6th May, you have until Tuesday 28th May to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 10th June 2024 to file your Defence.

That's over four 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 again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that 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'.

Gondolier88

Thanks for your response - the issue date is 06 May. Given the above post has outlined the process I should follow off the back of that, I'll make sure to do so.

I will continue to study the defence template and surrounding material; I have already started drafting (this is when I asked after the audit trail on the messages... sigh)

The claimant is Civil Enforcement Limited, I can't see any reference to a legal firm

I have included a redacted copy of the POC 

Gr1pr said:

The 5 days wait is from the ISSUE DATE, which you haven't told us yet, its not from the service date which is 5 days after the issue date 

Having a successful defence is a small part of it, not the whole thing, study the newbies sticky thread in announcements above your thread, then study the defence template thread too, both by coupon mad 

Try to get a letter of support from the hotel, its never too late to do so 

Picking up or dropping off is not parking, so a possible angle there 

Who is the claimant parking company. ?

Is there a legal firm involved too  ? Who. ?

Post the issue date from that claim form 

Post a redacted copy of the POC from the left of the claim form 

KeithP

You need to be aware that those Particulars of Claim are totally inadequate.

Nowhere in those Particulars is there any explanation of what the driver is alleged to have done wrong.

This will be an easy win.

Gr1pr

As above, so study CEL claims that predate yours, like this one with a woeful POC

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6521377/defence-for-parking-claim-advice-please-civil-national-business-centre#latest

If you look at the second paragraph on the left of the claim form, its the same as the one above it, so the claimant CEL issued the claim, so no lawyers are involved in your case, its all in house 

LDast

You use the CEL v Chan appeal judgment transcript as a preliminary matter in your defence. It appears that the intellectually malnourished chancers at CEL have not learnt their lesson.

Have CEL claimed £50 legal fees on the claim form?

Gondolier88

Thank you, looks like a great source for a defence template in my case given the POC. Yes they have added the fee!

Coupon-mad

Gondolier88 said:

Thank you, looks like a great source for a defence template in my case given the POC. Yes they have added the fee!

Standard  CEL claim. Easy to beat.

we should be telling everyone to just copy & adapt another recent 2024 CEL defence that has the extra bit about the Payment Due Date being premature.

Then you don't even have to think about it because all the recent ones already include that extra bit and CEL v Chan.  Just copy!