County court claim for overstaying parking by 13 minutes

AndrewS1973

Hi. With the help of the forum, I have recently successfully contested (well, they gave up in the end) a court claim for a major keying error charge. I'm now back again for more sage advice! I have now received a letter from HM Courts saying that DCB Legal on behalf of ECP is making a claim against me for refusing to pay a parking charge I incurred for overstaying a parking session by 13 minutes. For some reason, I assumed you got 15 minutes' grace and didn't really think they would take it this far, but obviously not the case. I did overstay by 13 minutes and there was no particular emergency, other than my son dawdling, that made me late. So is there any chance of winning this one? Given the car park costs £1 an hour, the value of my overstay was less than 25p so to be fined so much seems totally egregious to me. And I do use the car park all the time (now using the app which reminds me when my time is running out) so ECP is basically stiffing a regular customer. The issue date of the claim was 06 August and I filed the Acknowledgement of Service today (19 August). Thanks for any help. A

Coupon-mad

Oh you'll pretty much 100% win. 

DCB Legal Euro Car Parks single PCN claims are always discontinued.

Just use the Template Defence but be aware the advice is now a bit different than your last one. Read the thread.

Now, we need you too, THIS MONTH:

PLEASE bookmark this thread below and do Public Consultation if you haven't done it yet. See this thread: -

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6617396/parking-code-of-practice-consultation-8-weeks-from-11th-july-2025/p1

We need every poster to come back & complete this vital Consultation before the deadline! Just 2 weeks left but please don't rush it. You can do some then save it and come back to it as you have time.

We understand that you may need some pointers. It looks laborious, we get that.

I'm taking a closer look this week and we'll walk you through it. I should have all the first post 'how to respond to each question' advice ready by the end of this week.

There are vital points to safeguard motorists interests to make, that many people won't think of/need focus. There won't be a template - the survey is for you to reply in your words - but we'll help everyone with what to focus on. 

AndrewS1973

Thanks. Do you know if there has been an effort to get MPs on board with the consultation? I might write to my local one. It seems totally messed up that shoplifters can get off more lightly for nicking stuff than somebody overstaying their parking time by a few minutes.

AndrewS1973

Hi. Just reading through some threads. Is the advice now to use MCOL for submitting your defence?

Cheers

Gr1pr

AndrewS1973 said:

Hi. Just reading through some threads. Is the advice now to use MCOL for submitting your defence?

Cheers

Correct,  a short concise defence submitted directly into MCOL which helps to prevent human error occurring,  or mistakes,  instantly logged too  ( a defence doesn't need to be war and peace   )

Coupon-mad

AndrewS1973 said:

Thanks. Do you know if there has been an effort to get MPs on board with the consultation? I might write to my local one. It seems totally messed up that shoplifters can get off more lightly for nicking stuff than somebody overstaying their parking time by a few minutes.

Do write.

Watch this (linked debate from May) first to get the bit between your teeth, then email your MP to ask why he/she wasn't there and - IF IT DOESN'T COMPLETELY BAN DEBT RECOVERY FEES - please can he/she:

- EMAIL AN OBJECTION ABOUT THE CODE TO THE MHCLG SELECT COMMITTEE, RAISING HUGE CONCERNS, AND

- REJECT THE CODE WHEN LAID BEFORE PARLIAMENT.

https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/8f99a416-40a5-4c75-b9b6-d3234774a25c

LFC20_25

DBS took their VCS claim with me all the way to court 

So hearing was today - Judge was very dismissive of the VCS / DBS claim - firstly he kicked out their supplementary witness statement out as it was 12 days after the deadline and then kicked their case out as it was based on an unsigned out of date contract - he was then very ind to award me costs on a £95 for my day off work & parking & petrol. He finished off by refusing their right to appeal.

Great day for VCS & DBS 

AndrewS1973

Just to confirm, the new advised defence template is the 10-point one updated by Coupon-Mad on 14 July at 7.07 pm?

I don't have much to say for point 3, as I did overstay by 13 minutes. Would something like the following cut any mustard?

"I am a regular user of the Broadway carpark, and to be charged such a large amount for overstaying a parking session by only 13 minutes seems an unduly punitive approach to a regular paying customer, particularly when the car park is never full and I was thus not denying ECP any additional income by taking up a space that couild be used by somebody else. Any sensible person would assume that a period of grace would apply, and 13 minutes does not seem an unduly long period of time, especially when the signage in the car park does not specify anything to the contrary."

Thanks a lot

Castle

How do you know it's 13 minutes; is that 13 minutes after your parking ticket expired or 23 minutes after.

Coupon-mad

The claim doesn't plead a 13 minute overstay so don't answer to an allegation that isn't specified. Don't fill in their holes for them.

How do you know it's 13 minutes; is that 13 minutes after your parking ticket expired or 23 minutes after.

Or is it, say, 7 minutes on arrival before reading the sign and managing to pay, then 6 minutes after expiry of the P&D ticket?