PCN charge Letter Before Claim closed store

Strawberrywine12

Hello, I'm writing for advice on how to successfully beat a parking operator in county court. I've appealed to the parking operator and POPLA, both of which failed, and it looks like the case will now go to court (though I only have a Letter Before Claim at present).

Situation - I was issued a Parking Charge Notice for being in a car park for under 20 minutes, outside of the store's opening hours. 

Nowhere on the signs did it say that entering the car park outside of the store's opening hours would be a breach of contract and result in a PCN.

The signage was ambiguous and just stated 'For customers only'. I did go there to shop at the store but only realised when I was in the car park that it was closed.

The signs did not state the opening hours of the store (or between what hours a breach would apply) thereby undermining the ability to make a valid contract. 

The store tried to cancel the charge for me after I had put in appeals but the operator has ignored this and continued to pursue the charge. 

What is the best legal defence I can go with? Do I have a good case? I have seen the defence template but some parts of it such as disputing the charge don't seem like the strongest arguments to me. 

Thanks

DE_612183

which parking company?

which legal firm?

what is the exact breach of contract that has been stated?

have you revealed who the driver was in your appeals so far?

Gr1pr

Name the parking company and legal company 

Definitely use the new template defence when you get a court claim 

Signage issues are crucial in parking contracts , so I hope that you have pictures to back up your assertions about store hours, forbidden parking times or omissions etc  ? Get some if you can

The fact that the store tried to cancel the pcn is in your favour,  especially if you have it in writing   ?

You cannot contract to do what is forbidden either,  so if there was no offer to park,  then no consideration to consider the non existent contract,  so no contract existed, you left when you could after deciding all of the above 

Coupon-mad

Strawberrywine12 said:

Hello, I'm writing for advice on how to successfully beat a parking operator in county court. I've appealed to the parking operator and POPLA, both of which failed, and it looks like the case will now go to court (though I only have a Letter Before Claim at present).

Situation - I was issued a Parking Charge Notice for being in a car park for under 20 minutes, outside of the store's opening hours. 

Nowhere on the signs did it say that entering the car park outside of the store's opening hours would be a breach of contract and result in a PCN.

The signage was ambiguous and just stated 'For customers only'. I did go there to shop at the store but only realised when I was in the car park that it was closed.

The signs did not state the opening hours of the store (or between what hours a breach would apply) thereby undermining the ability to make a valid contract. 

The store tried to cancel the charge for me after I had put in appeals but the operator has ignored this and continued to pursue the charge. 

What is the best legal defence I can go with? Do I have a good case?

I have seen the defence template but some parts of it such as disputing the charge don't seem like the strongest arguments to me. 

Yes they are. Keep the faith. Please come back when the claim form arrives. Easy peasy to defend but which solicitors & which PPC?

Strawberrywine12

Thanks for all the replies. They haven't sent a claim form yet.

The alleged breach is that I parked for longer than the stated maximum stay of 0 hours and 0 minutes. I wasn’t aware the store was closed at the time, and there is no signage indicating the shop’s opening hours.

Gr1pr

Strawberrywine12 said:

Thanks for all the replies. They haven't sent a claim form yet.

The alleged breach is that I parked for longer than the stated maximum stay of 0 hours and 0 minutes. I wasn’t aware the store was closed at the time, and there is no signage indicating the shop’s opening hours.

So please tell us who it is

Umkomaas

'0 hours, 0 minutes' is generally a ParkingEye turn of phrase. And I think they quite like hitting out of hours 'Customer Only' parking cases.  I can't really remember any such case they've prosecuted. Too dodgy a contractual issue - at best 'trespass', but they won't get far with that!

If you receive a Letter Of/Before Claim from the PPC's solicitors, or a County Court Claim via the Northampton CNBC, come back to this thread for further advice. 

To get ahead of the curve, you could prepare yourself with a bit of gentle reading of the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, second post, and the Template Defence Announcement, both situated near the top of the forum thread list.