Refused my appeal now taking to court

bren45t6

I have a claim against me issued 28th August have issued acknowledgement of service online. Can't agree with my wife when is my deadline.

Really need any help
I'm working through the small claim post 2 by coupon mad but I'm easy lost... 

I'll give as much info (unidentifiable as possible) 
It's a euro carpark that I appealed 

My appeal only in the carpark for 13 mins didn't think it was this long. Very busy day they would know this by the amount of cars they also photographed at the same time! Drove around the carpark looking for a space saw someone looking as if leaving sent wife to pay she had to que about 8mins later she returned to say its rediculous amount they want (we're very frugal) so as I hadn't actually parked we left also queing to leave if I remember correctly. Total time parked 0 total time trying to park and pay 13mins. The car park was also a seaside end of road nowhere to turn around type place. No proper markings for parking etc. However nowhere near me and not somewhere I can go to to gather evidence. 

This is just a breif description actual appeal was better. 

It was refused saying 5 mins has been deemed the appropriate grace period. So pay up. 

To which I decided (foolishly) to ignore all future mailings. 

Until I received a letter from HM courts and tribunals.

Euro carpark is the claimant through DCB legal Ltd 

Any help anyone can give is gratefully accepted I'm slowly going insane as in 3 months my mortgage stops being fixed. And my incredibly hard earned 997 credit rating will be ruined.

I don't wish to pay a single penny for my frustration waiting to park only to fined for wasting too long for a space.

If there is a case on here similar to this please point me in the right direction 

Yours praying for help
PT33

Gr1pr

So ECP via DCB LEGAL,  issue date 28th August,  submission deadline will be 4pm on 30th September,  so 33 days later,  although it's probably better to aim for the 27th

Plenty of recent similar ECP DCB Legal cases on here over the last 7 weeks,  copy and adapt one of theirs that suits,  so a similar case with an approved defence 

You definitely will not get a CCJ if you follow our advice,  chances are that it wont cost you a penny,  bearing in mind that it will likely be discontinued in about 6 months time 

This recent case is similar in a way, so maybe adapt the advice to suit your own case  ?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81640692#Comment_81640692

Coupon-mad

I'm slowly going insane as in 3 months my mortgage stops being fixed. And my incredibly hard earned 997 credit rating will be ruined.

No it won't! Why do you think that?

As long as you defend, they'll discontinue in 2026.

Le_Kirk

bren45t6 said:

I have a claim against me issued 28th August have issued acknowledgement of service online. Can't agree with my wife when is my deadline.

Some useful dates: -

Issue Date     Served Date    AoS Due      Defence Due

28/08/25         02/09/25          16/09/25        30/09/25

bren45t6

Coupon-mad said:

I'm slowly going insane as in 3 months my mortgage stops being fixed. And my incredibly hard earned 997 credit rating will be ruined.

No it won't! Why do you think that?

As long as you defend, they'll discontinue in 2026.

Who will discontinue? I thought CCjs were the worst thing for credit ratings especially mortgages. 

Gr1pr

bren45t6 said:

Coupon-mad said:

I'm slowly going insane as in 3 months my mortgage stops being fixed. And my incredibly hard earned 997 credit rating will be ruined.

No it won't! Why do you think that?

As long as you defend, they'll discontinue in 2026.

Who will discontinue? I thought CCjs were the worst thing for credit ratings especially mortgages. 

DCB legal will discontinue on behalf of ECP,  before the hearing fee is due,  sometime next year,  like all the hundreds of others on here 

Yes they can be, but you won't get a CCJ if you follow our advice,  it's not automatic if you follow the process 

bren45t6

Ah OK. That's good. So mostly just have to come up with my defence. 👍 And I fill that on the same site as I went on to do the acknowledgement. Right?

Also should I make a counter claim? I feel like this is taking a lot my time to sort through! 

Gr1pr

Its input on MCOL after logging in 

You would need a good legal reason to counterclaim,  so do you have one   ?

Coupon-mad

bren45t6 said:

Ah OK. That's good. So mostly just have to come up with my defence. 👍 And I fill that on the same site as I went on to do the acknowledgement. Right?

Also should I make a counter claim? I feel like this is taking a lot my time to sort through! 

You don't do a counterclaim for costs.

DCB Legal will discontinue in 2026 anyway. This is what they do to people: frighten & intimidate weak/uninformed consumers into paying, then they drop the 4% of defended cases.

Use the Template Defence which is even easier than appealing would have been. You are not risking a CCJ as long as you follow the 8 steps. A complete cinch.

bren45t6

Just double checking that I am to put my defence into mcol and not the email address that's floating about... As I keep seeing conflicting posts. 

Gr1pr

As long as it fits into MCOL, use it, not email,  not post either,  MCOL avoids various issues,  some process errors,  some human,  so MCOL only, as explained in the first post in the defence template thread