CEL , DCB LEGAL court claim, at WS stage

grgwm

Hi. Received 2 PCN's. Both times machine must have been faulty as I've never not intentionally paid to park at this lot. They sent me the court document, issue date 11th September 2024 and I filled out the AOS as the Newbie thread stated. The total amount being requested is around ~£500 (for £2 worth of parking tickets). I am now getting ready to file my defence, for which I'll be using the template. I am looking to get some feedback on point 3 on my defence:

The defendant was using the parking lot to shop for food at Aldi. The defendant used the payment machine, and payment was made; however, a ticket was not provided. As per the signage at the car park, tickets are not required, which is confirmed by the statement: "There is no need to display a ticket in your windscreen." There was a delayed refund from the payment machine due to a fault with the machine. This is further evidenced by the payment machine logs, which clearly show a 49-minute gap in payments.
Both parking instances were under 20 minutes, resulting in a total parking cost of £2, highlighting the excessive nature of the charges being pursued. The defendant also has evidence of 17 other payments made at the same parking lot, demonstrating regular use of the machine and a consistent history of making payments, showing no intent to avoid payment. Additionally, due to the faulty payment machine, there is a clear frustration of contract, as the defendant was prevented from fully complying with the terms of the parking agreement through no fault of their own.

Many thanks for the help.

KeithP

grgwm said:

They sent me the court document, issue date 11th September 2024 and I filled out the AOS as the Newbie thread stated.

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 11th September, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 14h October 2024 to file a Defence.

That's two 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 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'.

Trainerman

Strongly suggest you change the Americanism "parking lot" to "car park", if you intend to put this before a British Court 

grgwm

Trainerman said:

Strongly suggest you change the Americanism "parking lot" to "car park", if you intend to put this before a British Court 

Not sure why I even wrote parking lot  - Fixed

1505grandad

Who is the claimant and solicitors if relevant.

grgwm

1505grandad said:

Who is the claimant and solicitors if relevant.

Civil Enforcement Ltd.

Castle

grgwm said:

1505grandad said:

Who is the claimant and solicitors if relevant.

Civil Enforcement Ltd.

Who has signed the claim form?

grgwm

Castle said:

Who has signed the claim form?

Sarah Ensall

The address for sending documents/payments is DCB Legal, so assume that is the solicitors.

Le_Kirk

The first part of your defence is confusing.  You need to lay it out properly for the judge. You know what you meant to say but speaking of payments and refunds and tickets is confusing the issue. Ask someone to read it and see if it makes sense to them.

Coupon-mad

grgwm said:

Castle said:

Who has signed the claim form?

Sarah Ensall

The address for sending documents/payments is DCB Legal, so assume that is the solicitors.

Show us the claim form. Cover the Claim no, MCOL Password, your data, the QR Code and your VRM.

grgwm

Le_Kirk said:

The first part of your defence is confusing.  You need to lay it out properly for the judge. You know what you meant to say but speaking of payments and refunds and tickets is confusing the issue. Ask someone to read it and see if it makes sense to them.

I'll remove the part about refunds and payment logs. The point I was trying to get across was, I have evidence of a refund from the parking machine a day later, showing the card was charged and £1 returned the next day, pointing towards a fault in the machine. Anyway, a simpler version:

The defendant was using the car park to shop for food at Aldi. The defendant attempted to use the payment machine, however no ticket was provided. The machine did not provide any evidence of a fault in the payment, and as per the signage at the car park, tickets are not required to be displayed, so the defendant went on to do their food shop at Aldi. Both of these parking instances were under 20 minutes, resulting in a total parking cost of £2, highlighting the excessive nature of the charges being pursued. The defendant also has evidence of 17 other payments made at the same parking lot, demonstrating regular use of the machine and a consistent history of making payments, showing no intent to avoid payment. Additionally, due to the faulty payment machine, there is a clear frustration of contract, as the defendant was prevented from fully complying with the terms of the parking agreement through no fault of their own.