I Park Services ridiculous Claim form for a parking charge

Crisply1

I'm going to give some context and whether you think this is worth pursuing, I have read the FAQ.

I Ignored the PCN warnings because the claim is so incredibly dumb. In hindsight I should not have, but with some context you will see why.

For anonymity sake, I'm going to call the company I worked for ParkingScam Ltd. ParkingScam Ltd has a unit in a office building on a private business park in office building A. Office building A the car park is always full. So, ParkingScam Ltd made deal with office building B so that people who work for ParkingScam Ltd could park there because its never full.

Now I started to park at Office building B, which is ofc run by IParkscam....I mean I park services Ltd. And it seems I may have possibly came one day early on accident but I can't remember. I parked there for months afterwards with no further notices and ignored the PCN's because any reasonable person or business would see I've been parking there for work for months.

Its not a retail car park, the car park is never full, and these absolute jobsworths send me the claim form on the 22nd of August, the beginning of a bank holiday weekend.

I did ask my employer at the time and they just sort of ignored me so yeah. The PCN was issued late November 2023.

Do you think this is worth defending?

LDast

What evidence do you have to show that the driver was permitted to park in Office building B’s car park?

How many PCNs has the keeper received? Please show a copy of the NtK as I-Park issue both PoFA and non-PoFA notices. Leave all dates and times visible. Show us photos of the signs at the car park. I-Park are notorious for signs that fail to form a valid contract.

Crisply1

LDast said:

What evidence do you have to show that the driver was permitted to park in Office building B’s car park?

How many PCNs has the keeper received? Please show a copy of the NtK as I-Park issue both PoFA and non-PoFA notices. Leave all dates and times visible. Show us photos of the signs at the car park. I-Park are notorious for signs that fail to form a valid contract.

I have no evidence. It was simply an email sent to me the date I could start parking there, it was sent to my work laptop, I no longer work for them anymore. Need a bit of time to answer the other questions.

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Can you please show us a picture of the Particulars of Claim - with personal detail hidden of course.

Who is the Claimant?

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do so?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Crisply1

NTK

I received two further letters from Ipark, reminders. And have two notices from DCBL, also the claim form. I haven't done the mcol or aos yet.

Crisply1

Have the pictures been posted it says on my account I'm not authorized to post them yet?

LDast

Do you not have a copy of the email that “authorised” you to park at the location?

Nobody pays a claim for a single PCN issued by DCB Legal. We don’t need to see or know about any reminders or useless debt collector letters.

With an issue date of 22nd August, you have until 10th September to submit your AoS. Having done that, you have until 4pm on 24th September to submit your defence.

Simply follow the advice in the second post in the Newbies/FAQ thread on submitting your AoS and defence and this will be discontinued before it ever gets to a hearing.

Umkomaas

Do you think this is worth defending?

Now a claim has been made, you must defend it, otherwise you end up with a judgment in default, meaning you have to pay the full amount claimed, or find yourself with a CCJ and 6 years of damaging financial grief.

if you do defend yourself, following the court requirements and taking advice from the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, second post, and the Template Defence Announcement, DCB Legal will likely discontinue their claim. See the below link:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1

A 'do nothing strategy' will definitely cause you problems. 

Crisply1

Hello again people,

I contacted the land owner and explained the situation to see if they could help. All they did was direct me to appeal on their website, but surely that is now too late, will appealing online do anything now? It says once you appeal it puts the enforcement process on hold, but I'm guessing that doesn't include up to them actually claiming against me.

They are also telling me to contact my previous employer to tell them to not do this anymore, which is odd, that should be them doing that no? (because car park A isn't owned by the business park, so in effect there is a lot within a private business park which isn't owned by the business park, but car park B is, so there saying my employer shouldn't have told us to ever use car park B...). So overall, not very helpful. I asked for them to help me get them to drop the charges to no avail, they won't help me. 

Umkomaas

Too late to appeal, no purpose in thinking about it any further. Your sole focus (now that landowner won't get involved) is defending the claim. You will succeed if you follow the process outlined in the two Announcements I referenced previously. 

LDast

Crisply1 said:

I contacted the land owner and explained the situation to see if they could help. All they did was direct me to appeal on their website...

Errr... the PPC is NOT the landowner. It sounds as though you contacted the PPC and they told you appeal on THEIR website. Is that correct?