Countrywide/BW Legal Claim Form defence - advice kindly requested

tvrtuscan350

Hi All,

I received a PCN from Countrywide Parking Management back in October 2024.  I have followed to the best of my knowledge/abilities all the advice in the Newbies sticky and have now received a Letter of Claim from BW Legal.

I was planning to respond with the standard letter on the Newbie thread but just wanted to check something first and was after a little advice if anyone would be so kind.

In the Newbies thread, under the letter it states ‘You can briefly also state your reasons for disputing the claim’.  On my PCN the Site is detailed as “131-137 Broadway’ so not really an address.  No town or anything other than 131-137 Broadway.  I will attempt to attach an image below.  In my initial appeal to the PCN I added:

As the NTK does not state an address of the alleged offence (which means the NTK fails to comply with the requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4)) I am unable to provide any further details.

They have subsequently failed to supply a location as to where the alleged contravention took place in any of their correspondence..

My question is should I state this as my reason for disputing the claim on the Letter of Claim response or just leave it for the court?  As I have stated in my appeal that I am unable to provide any further details without an address.  As they have still not provided a location I was hoping the court may dismiss it on these grounds so maybe I shouldn’t ‘show my cards’ prior to court.

Would this be enough for the court to dismiss the claim?  If not should I then research where the alleged contravention took place myself?

I know that around this date I dropped off an injured pigeon to a bird rescue charity with my children in the car and pulled into what I thought was a closed Kwik Fit (I have subsequently found out this is now a disused Kwik Fit) and did not leave my car.  This could well be where they are alleging the contravention took place.  Would this be a more likely dispute to succeed in court?

So options are:

1. Leave the reasons for disputes off of the Letter of Claim response

2. Add a dispute of there being no location supplied

3. Try to find out where I was on that date and dispute on the grounds of not leaving my car, therefore not parking

4. 2 and 3 above

Please let me know if any other information would be helpful.  I have the response to the appeal and the Letter of Claim which I can upload images off if it would be of use.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

tvrtuscan350

Image of NTK:

ChirpyChicken

You will get a court claim regardless 

tvrtuscan350

Ok, thanks very much for the response.  It's very reassuring to know there's people like you to offer advice.  I suppose I'll just leave out the reasons for dispute and start preparing for the court claim.

I'm not sure if the best to approach for the defence would be to just say that no address has been supplied and therefore I am unable to comment any further.  Or if the court would expect me to research the partial address and research where I was on the day myself.  But I suppose I can figure that out (and probably ask the forum) when the court claim arrives.

Coupon-mad

tvrtuscan350 said:

Image of NTK:

Due to that woefully inadequate 'address' I wouldn't ask any questions to ask for evidence nor ask them to clarify. Just send the response as it is.

Then come back to defend the claim when it arrives. 

  

tvrtuscan350

Great, will do.  Many thanks for your assistance thus far.  See you when the claim arrives

tvrtuscan350

Ok, I've received my Claim Form and it does contain a post code so do I now have to find out what I was doing on the evening in question or should I continue to defend as not having an adequate address?  Is it a case of defending everything and the lack of an address just being another nail in their coffin or am I best off just approaching it from an inadequate address on the PCN and ignore everything else?  FYI I believe I do have a decent defence points if I now have to go into details.

Many thanks in advance for any help given...

kryten3000

Continue to defend the claim on the inadequate compliance with the POFA paragraph 9(2)(a).  It's what is on the Notice to Keeper that is important, not the contents of the PoC.

"The Broadway" is a very common street name, they should have been more specific.  

Gr1pr

Use the defence template by coupon mad,  after doing the AOS online on MCOL 

Post the issue date from the claim form below,  plus post a redacted picture of the POC on the lower left of the claim form after hiding the VRM details first too

tvrtuscan350

Ok, great, thanks so much for the swift response.  That makes it nice and easy. 

If that line of defence is deemed not enough for the court to strike out the claim will I get an opportunity to defend it in another way?  (Sorry if that's a dumb question).

FYI the duration is 13 minutes and I did not leave the car if that makes any difference.

I will draft a paragraph 3 of the defence and post for review.

Gr1pr

When your actual defence is finalised and submitted by email to the CNBC in Northampton,  that is you defending it 

You normally get one chance to submit your defence,  so once your few adapted paragraphs are done,  post them below for critique  ( but do not post the rest of the template defence on here , it doesn't need checking, but your homework does  )