Court claim - Insufficient fee paid

donthurtmenomore

Hi all,

I have a court claim from SIP Parking Limited, regarding an insufficient fee paid. I am the keeper, not the driver and am attempting to draft a defence based on the template, I believe I have about a week left to submit this to both the court and the claimant.

The court claim issue date is 14th April 2025, and I have responded with an acknowledgement of service on 25th April 2025.

I am struggling to get a coherent account of the day from the driver, so not yet sure if I can produce any useful defence statements about the facts around the incident on the day. (I believe the fee paid was for 2 hours, but the stay is indicated at more than 2 hours. There may have been an attempt to extend the parking stay duration, although I have not been able to obtain any evidence of this).

I'll post a draft defence when I have it, in the meantime any feedback or guidance would be gratefully appreciated.

Particulars of claim and Notice to keeper are posted below (page 1 and 2 of the NTK are in the wrong order, I couldn't get them to appear correctly on the forum).

<images redacted>

Coupon-mad

Here's a typical outcome from DJ Iyer at Manchester in a SIP case:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81427979/#Comment_81427979

Generally, their signs are OK but judges won't allow the added £60.

For that reason, unless the NTK was non-POFA worded, for an overstay after 'paid-for' time, I think this might be an uphill battle. Maybe one to offer something at Mediation? £35 then work your offers up to max £90 or whatever you decide to avoid the hassle.

I don't normally say this but SIP handle their cases pretty well.

Gr1pr

I agree,  SIP have their office in manchester,  plus issue their own claims and can easily get to court to argue their own case I'm person, which they do

I would expect that the NTK PCN letter complied with POFA 2012, so probably liability as keeper and it's difficult to argue about an insufficient payment case 

Therefore I suggest that you try to agree a deal at mediation , as suggested above 

donthurtmenomore

Thanks for the info, I will read up on it. Note the car park was in Birmingham and the court hearing would be in Birmingham so would I still expect them to attend in person? And is there a likelihood it would end up thrown out due to (unlawful?) added costs?

Gr1pr

I doubt that they would attend in Birmingham,  but may send an advocate 

No it wont get thrown out due to the debt collectors fee, but hopefully if you lost it would be removed from the total to pay,  leaving a smaller figure owing to be paid within 30 days. The core issue around the issuing of the pcn has to be dealt with,  regardless of the debt fee addition

If you win you won't pay a penny 

Most SIP car parks tend to be around Manchester,  I avoid them like the plague   !