Parking fine going to court

Padge69

Hi All.

New here so some help would be greatly appreciated.

Apolgoes for how long this is going to be but here goes....

About 2 years ago i parked on a private carpark, went to pay at the machine but it would not accept card payments and i had no cash on me. The parking sign was nowhere near the the actual meter. Managed to find a sign, albeit very poorly lit up (this was about 9pm at night) and a number to call to make payment so called this twice and the call cut off (i have proof of the calls being made). Tried to make a payment on the app and it would not go through. Called the wife for her to try and pay it at her end and she also experienced trouble making payment on the app. Payment finally went through for the full stay (£3.60) and i thought nothing of it. A few weeks later i got a parking fine for £70 saying i have not made payment within the 10 minutes that was stated on the parking board. I appealed the fine with all my evidence and this got declined. It then went to a DCA who then increased the fine to £170. I appealed this again and it got declined again stating that i had not paid the fee in time. The DCA then referred my case to a solicitor who are now claming nearly £300 and have issued a court summonds. I have received an email from them today containing a N180. In the email it stated i could try to settle out of court so i called them and the lowest they would reduce this to was £120. I have 7 days to respond to this now.

I have all the evidence that i tried to make payment on multiple occasions, i have photgraphs of the meter and the sign being no where near it and it shows how poorly this was lit. I have evidence of the parking payment being made.

I believe that all companies involved are trying to profiteer from me as i had paid the parking fee. Regardless of if it was paid 15 minutes later than what its states on the signage, the company still got their fee for the parking. There has been no finacial or detrimental effect on any comapny involved.

My question is, should i cut my losses and pay the £120 (as it is better than £300) or go to court with my evidence and hopefully a Judge will see some common sense in all of this? Im stuck on what to do as i have never been in this situation before.

Any and all help would be greatfully received.

Thanks all.

ChirpyChicken

Simple
You fight you don't pay.

Padge69

What if i lose though? Ill end up paying the full £300

ChirpyChicken

No you wont.
People need to stop being so defeatist 

P.S it is NOT a fine

Gr1pr

Padge69 said:

What if i lose though? Ill end up paying the full £300

Nope, it would be more like £212

There is no summons,  just a court claim 

Name the parking company and their lawyers 

Padge69

Claimant is Civil Enforcement LTD and solicitors is DCB Legal

Padge69

Its already gone through Moneyclaim.gov and ive submitted my defence

Gr1pr

Padge69 said:

Its already gone through Moneyclaim.gov and ive submitted my defence

An MCOL claim is not a summons 

 Please post a redacted copy of your defence below 

Padge69

Gr1pr said:

Padge69 said:

Its already gone through Moneyclaim.gov and ive submitted my defence

An MCOL claim is not a summons 

 Please post a redacted copy of your defence below 

You want to to copy and paste my defence notes from MCOL in here?

Gr1pr

Padge69 said:

Gr1pr said:

Padge69 said:

Its already gone through Moneyclaim.gov and ive submitted my defence

An MCOL claim is not a summons 

 Please post a redacted copy of your defence below 

You want to to copy and paste my defence notes from MCOL in here?

Correct,  the actual defence that you submitted on MCOL 

But no personal information,  redact personal details etc

Padge69

Gr1pr said:

Padge69 said:

Gr1pr said:

Padge69 said:

Its already gone through Moneyclaim.gov and ive submitted my defence

An MCOL claim is not a summons 

 Please post a redacted copy of your defence below 

You want to to copy and paste my defence notes from MCOL in here?

Correct,  the actual defence that you submitted on MCOL 

But no personal information,  redact personal details etc

I arrived at the carpark and tried to pay with my card using the
pay machine as i had no cash to hand. The pay machine would not
work so i looked for any signs where there was a number to call or
an app (no where near the machine and i have photographic evidence
of this). I called the number 01414040000 on 2 seperate occasions
(within the 10 minute timeframe) and was cut off both times (i
have evidence of the attempted calls). I then downloaded the app
where i experienced further issues trying to make payment. I then
called my wife to explain what was happening and she tried to
access the Phone and Pay app to which she also experienced
difficulties trying to make a payment. The payment was then
finally made after numorous attempts by myself and my wife. The
company had got their money. I can now see that the parking
company have changed their app provider to JustPark, could this be
due to the issues that I faced, also affecting other customers.
The service from all aspects of the parking company was extremely
poor. The broken machine, the dropped calls, the poor app
experience all accounted for me not being able to pay the fee on
time within 10 minutes. The company recieved the the full fee for
a 24 hour parking spot, even though the fee was not paid within 10
minutes, the parking company have suffered no detriment as, had I
left within the 10 munutes, they would not have received a higher
payment from anyone else parking in the spot. Due to this, I
believe that this company is trying to profiteer from me as they
received the full fee that was available at that given time. I
appealed this original fine and given the experience i had trying
to pay the original fee and the evidence that i have already
provided, it would have been reasonable for civil enforcement LTD
to overturn the parking fine. This ordeal has caused me to suffer
from undue stres and anxiety due to the numorius threatening
letters and emails and the a final court summonds thretening a CCJ
against my name all for the sake of not being to make a payment on
time because of a number of factors that were not in my control.
At no point did I try to use the parking without making a payment.