Small Claims Court date received.

Murphy_Law

Good afternoon! I have been reading this for quite some months, very helpful so far indeed!

I received a PCN in April 2023 from National Car Parks Ltd, this was the second letter, no first letter ever arrived, at this point they wanted £70 and I could no longer appeal (appeal is only possible in after first letter, which never arrived).

For info, I had parked in the car park for 4 nights, 14-17th Feb 2023, the first two I had paid on machine and have statements to this effect from my mobile banking app. The third night (paid in the morning), I typed in my number plate, ####JZW and the parking machine had a black/night-time photo and showed the auto detected number plate as ####JZX, I tried to pay online, the online system showed "no invoices found". I did not pay as this was not my number plate and car was not visible in photo. Photo of machine and screenshot of website taken for future evidence luckily.

After the fourth night, I tried to pay on the machine, I had "no invoices found" again I took a photo and tried to pay online, again none found. Screenshot'ed the website also. I received a ticket for the 4th night only. 

Since then, I have tried to appeal through their online service, to no avail. This then got passed to a debt collector, whom have now pushed the claim upwards of £350. I did official courts mediation, said to avoid court I'd be happy to pay the initial £5.95, plus a fair admin cost of £25. They however rejected this and said they could drop to £290. As this was not the level of mediation I had in mind, I rejected and I now have a Small Claim Court date in September. 

Please can you assist in the best way forward, like I said I have been reading newbies thread and reading posts for a good while adhoc.

Many thanks, M.

LDast

Murphy_Law said:

I did official courts mediation, said to avoid court I'd be happy to pay the initial £5.95, plus a fair admin cost of £25. They however rejected this and said they could drop to £290. As this was not the level of mediation I had in mind, I rejected and I now have a Small Claim Court date in September.

What exactly do you mean by the above? Did you receive an N1SDT court claim, filed a defence, were ordered to do a mediation phone call and have now been allocated a hearing date at your local court?

What exactly did you put in your defence? What were the PoC of the claim?

Murphy_Law

Perhaps I wrote this incorrectly, I was sent this from the courts, in order to avoid the court process, "mediation" was talking to an unbiased person provided by the courts, to allow the potential to settle outside of court. 

I had previously provided a defence to the debt collector and NCP by post as there was no contact method other than phone, which was always "pay now" not an operator. This was also done when the court procedings were first brought, I sent a defence to the HM Courts & Tribunals Service, which then turned to mediation (I was happy to mediate, NCP were not). 

PoC was referred to as Particulars of Debt on the BW Legal letter " On February 17th you were granted to enter a limited contractual licence to enter the land known as Middlesbrough Fry Street ("site") which is managed and operated by our client. yada yada ... you breached the T&C's - reason - Parked Without Payment of the Parking Charge ("Breach"). The Breach resulted in our client issuing a PCN.

Not word for word, but this is the guts of it. 

In summary, yes I have a court date after (voluntary) mediation failed.

Murphy_Law

Apologies, in my defence at the time, which was before I started properly reading this forum, was a description of where and why I was parked. Explained that I had no intent on not paying, rather was unable to pay, gave two screenshots of my banking app as proof of payment on the first two nights and further photo's and screenshots of the payment machine and NCP website not allowing payment (i.e. "no invoices found"). I also submitted the previous days photo with the wrong number plate listed, suggesting the whole system was not fit for purpose/defective. 

Gr1pr

So you have a court order from your local court telling you what to do and when, so read it again 

Your task is to prepare your WS plus Exhibits and submit the bundle to both parties before the hearing, the court order tells you this, so start doing it after you have studied the court order closely, all of it 

1505grandad

Can you post the Defence you filed verbatim so that the experts can hopefully help with a relevant Witness Statement?

Coupon-mad

We need to see the actual POC and the actual defence, please.

Murphy_Law

I have no POC, only Particulars of Debt. None of the other documents I can see say POC I'm afraid. Many thanks.

Gr1pr

Its on your claim form that came in the post from the CNBC in Northampton, lower left side 

Particulars of Claim , hence the letters POC 

You also check what the postal court order says, it arrived from the local court you chose 

Murphy_Law

I have no POC in any documentation from the courts, I have read the entire wad of letters and none say POC or Particulars of Claim, the CNBC letter is attached.  
No information on the letter from my local court either about the actual case, only the legal bits and responsibilities. 

Gr1pr

That CNBC letter above came later, we are talking about the N1SDT pack, that was the first letter from the CNBC in Northampton and contained several forms, one of which was the claim form and the POC is on the lower left half below the NCP and lawyers details , to the left of the total claimed 

Those legal responsibilities tell you to file a witness statement to both parties before a deadline, the deadline is typically a few weeks before the hearing, so unlikely to be a date, but a deadline, listed on the court order that came in the post from your local court that mentioned the September date