DCB Legal and Euro Car Parks May 2023 - Court Claim form received

MoonHare06

Hi.   

First can i say thank you to all those who post and regularly comment on this site, its really appreciated when on the receiving end of one of these scary legal letters, to know others have been through all this and seen them off. I find it appauling that they are allowed to abuse the Court system in this way, in pursuit of private profit when the courts are struggling with a backlog of real cases.

I have been looking at the very helpful posts and guidance on this site, while navigating the attempts by Euro Car Parks and its various agents to extort monies from me for parking in their car park back in May 2023.  I ve followed the guidance when I got the Notice of Claim from DCB, the same standard letter that everyone on here seems to get from DCB, and e mailed them to deny liability and confirm address.  

I have just received a Claim Form from The Civil National Business Centre (dated 29 Apr) and I am going to put in the acknowledgement of service online.

In their e mail response DCB assert that their Client stated there was a "major keying error" and they offered me a £20 admin charge instead.  I paid and displayed in full on the day in question and have the credit card details proving payment. I have pointed that out, at the time to Euro carparks when I asked them to withdraw the 'penalty notice',  and to DCB legal. 

I m going to follow the template defense but any pointers on what to do with the customised para 3 would be welcome, in light of the 'major keying error'.

thanks

Gr1pr

It would have been a Parking Charge Notice,  not a Penalty Notice   ( definitely not the latter   )

Do the AOS online this weekend,  not before 

Look at other cases where they are stating that it's a machine fault,  not human error  ( as your paragraph 3.1

Paragraph 3 is the standard one for an alleged contravention,  as seen in other april claims here

MoonHare06

Hi,  thanks for the quick response,  yes it was a Parking Charge Notice,  not a Penalty Notice, just using normal language for these things.  I ll be more precise going forward.  I m wading thro the other posts looking for similar cases.

thanks

Gr1pr

You must only use correct legal words when dealing with litigation,  say what you see, not what the person in the pub says,  because it definitely matters

MoonHare06

Looking at oother POC and they include the date the  PCN was issued.  Is the ommission relevant?

Castle

There's a VRM showing on the POC.

Coupon-mad

Just use the shahib02 paragraph 3 but without the words about paragraph 2 of the POC. Add in the fact that you paid in full and appealed the charge at the time, so the Claimant knows that there was no money owing and has no cause of action. If there was a VRM keying error, this was most likely caused by Euro Car Parks' well-known faulty pay & display machines and does not affect the core contractual term (to pay to park) which was fulfilled.

MoonHare06

Thank you for the feedback. I have used the template, looked at the shanhib para and drafted this, does that look right?

3. Referring to the POC: paragraph 1 is denied. The Defendant is not indebted to the Claimant.  Paragraph 2. Is denied, there was no contravention. Whilst the Defendant is the registered keeper and driver, paragraphs 3 and 4 are denied. The Defendant is not liable and has seen no evidence of a breach of prominent terms.  The quantum is hugely exaggerated (no PCN can be £170 on private land) and there were no damages incurred whatsoever. The Claimant is put to strict proof of all of their allegations.

3.1 The Defendant parked in Emily Street car park on the 8th May 2023. It was a bank holiday and there were very few cars in the carpark.  The Defendant purchased a ticket from the machine in the carpark, for the remainder of the day, using a credit card and displayed this ticket in the car window.  As a valid pay and display permit was purchased the defendant rejects POC 3.   When Euro Car Parked Limited sent a letter requesting £100 for alleged non-payment, the Defendant contacted them to provide evidence of payment and requested the notice be withdrawn, as it had clearly been issued in error. Euro Car Parked Limited, although acknowledging that payment had been made by the Defendant, declined to act in a reasonable manner and continued to pursue this matter.  

Rest of the defence will follow the template on this site. 

Coupon-mad

Add what I said!

Le_Kirk

MoonHare06 said:

When Euro Car Parked Parks Limited sent a letter requesting £100 for alleged non-payment,

One typo above

MoonHare06

thanks again,  much appreciate you taking the time to comment.

I ve made the changes and will be putting the defense in shortly,  using the guide on this site