ParkingEye Default CCJ

miffy_mulled_win

Post Hearing Update

Set aside but as 13.3 (b), not 13.2. All costs of the defendant covered. No costs awarded to the claimant.

Super nice judge who was understanding of my lack of experience in a court room. Seemed aware of parking company shenanigans and called them out when they argued my DVLA details were "still not updated before the CCJ was applied for" by them. Judge asked how would they know my details were still not up to date with the DVLA, did the claimant do a second check before court proceedings? Legal representative withdrew her statement.

Now onto defending myself in 28 days time.

I thank everyone who has contributed to answering my questions. I will likely have more regarding defence but after round 1 I am champing at the bit for round 2!

Coupon-mad

Perfect!  Well done. Costs back to you too.

Quite right and what a canny Judge!

miffy_mulled_win

Hi everyone,

The time is approaching for my defence hearing. However, I haven't received any correspondence from the court regarding the time and date of the hearing. The judge mentioned "28 days" from the set-aside hearing which was 13 Feb. I'll be calling the courts tomorrow for details.

Also, the claimant, ParkingEye, have not paid me the £303 set-aside hearing fee within 14-days as was ruled by the judge, unless that is 14 working days? I emailed them last Monday (24 Feb) to give them a chance to get my banking details before the Thursday deadline but received no reply. Is there anything I can use from this to help me during my defence hearing, such as mentioning it as yet more evidence that they act unreasonably?

Regardless, the task at hand is defending the validity of the PCN... On that note, I've done some reading of the BPA "single code of practice" and it seems my overstay of 14 minutes is covered by their own 5 minute "consideration period" and 10 minute "grace period which applies to the type of car park I used (pay up front) according to Annex B - Consideration and grace periods Page 34-35 (https://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/NEW Redesigned Documents/sectorsingleCodeofPractice.pdf).

Timeline:
09:21:39 - camera captures my license plate on entry to the car park

- I park the car, very tight car park, takes a minute to park at a bare minimum. I then make multiple unsuccessful attempts to pay for the parking using the "PayByPhone" app. Unfortunately, no evidence of this on the app itself, just a recollection of the day.

09:27:43 - Abandon the app and successfully pay for a ticket using the on-site terminal. Claimant's own data records show this time which they sent to me as part of their hearing trial bundle (also shows end-time as 11:27:54, not 09:21:39). 

11:35:54 - camera captures me leaving.

My argument can go one of two ways. 1 being a bit more complicated and nuanced and 2 being more straightforward. I'm leaning toward number 2 but let me know your thoughts.

1.) The 5 minute 'consideration time' as stated in the BPA can be applied to the 6 minutes and 4 seconds it took me to park, attempt to pay and finally successfully pay, leaving just 1 minute and 4 seconds of unallocated time. I would argue that, given the technical issues, the 1 minute and 4 seconds was caused by a problem outside of  my control. The 10 minute 'grace period' covers me for the 8 minute and 11 second late departure thereafter.

2.) I argue that a "reasonable person" entering the car park, attempting to pay, and receiving a ticket with a time of 09:27:43 would naturally rely on that ticket as their primary time reference for their parking duration. The inadequate signage points of the defence template would be used to argue that I had no knowledge that the time I entered the car park was considered the immediate point at which I began to "park" on the site. It is reasonable to assume time is required for a driver to locate a free parking space, allow for any traffic and/or pedestrians within the parking lot to clear before maneuvering a car into the free parking space safely.

I've spent many hours over the past few months reading around the forum and have yet to come across a case where the overstay was such a short amount of time and that the BPA's own "grace period" could be used as defence.

Please let me know your thoughts on the above. If you think it's a solid foundation to be added into the defence template, I'll draft up my points and send for final review.

Lastly, are the any parts of the draft defence I need to leave out in my case? As a reminder I got the CCJ by default with zero communication from ParkingEye. They turned down my offer for joint set-aside. The judge set aside the CCJ based on CPR 13.3 not 13.2. 

Thank you as always for your time and efforts!

Coupon-mad

Ring the court and ask where the Order is following the hearing (confirming the outcome and next steps), because you've received no Directions and nor has the C paid you the £303 ordered.

miffy_mulled_win

Coupon-mad said:

Ring the court and ask where the Order is following the hearing (confirming the outcome snd next steps), because you've received no Directions and nor has the C paid you the £303 ordered.

Thanks for your advice, @Coupon-mad.

The court said the order had not yet been processed and issued so couldn't confirm next steps on that front.

They recommended I send my banking details to ParkingEye so they can make payment in the interim.

Do you have any comments on my proposed defence approach?

Thank you!

Coupon-mad

Search the forum for:

Defence 5 minute rule banned wonders mine

It's already been written in February.

miffy_mulled_win

Hi everyone, it's update time!

After ringing the court to enquire about what the next steps were, I was informed at the time that the court order from my hearing had not been processed and I should wait for that to arrive in the post.

Well it arrived 19 March, 6 days after after I was supposed to file and serve my defence according to the content of the letter... I rang the court again to enquire how could I file the defence now that I had missed the deadline and they said I should email the county court and inform them of the delay in the letter arriving. They confirmed that the letter had only been sent on the 18th of March, 5 days after the 13 March deadline for submitting my defence.

I had my defence ready to I emailed it to them the same day I received the letter and dropped off a physical copy off at the court 2 days later. Since then, I've not heard a thing.

I've now got the local county courts direct number so I will be phoning tomorrow to ask if they've received my defence and the explanation as to why it was submitted 6 days late. I do hope they haven't issued a default win to ParkingShneye! I had them dead to rights...

Coupon-mad

Should be fine because you didn't receive the directions until later in March.

miffy_mulled_win

Hi everyone,

I've now received a filled out N180 form from ParkingEye. I am about to leave the country on Sunday for 3 weeks. Do I need to submit my own N180 with those dates added to the "are the any dates you will not be able to attend" portion to the courts and ParkingEye?

Thanks as always!

Le_Kirk

You can download a blank N180 and fill it out with dates that you cannot attend. Send it to the email address that is found in the template defence thread and to the claimant's solicitor.