Overstaying The Permitted Time Due To Poor Signage - Defence Statement And Witness Statement.

Tryingtosleep · 17 November at 1:15PM

I wonder if anyone could help with a problem I think may be a common one, that if answered could well help other people, as well as myself.

I have a common parking problem, namely overstaying the permitted time due to poor signage. Yes, there were signs, but I parked my car and walked off the car park along a proper pedestrian exit route without passing a sign or notice.

I have got a claim form and I have acknowledged this as per the newbie advice and taken a screenshot of the MCOL Acknowledgement of Service.

Now I need to do my defence against DCB Legal. I gather from the notes that you only have one chance at a defence statement and that getting it to fit the MCOL line limit can be a problem.

So, I looked at post 2 of the Newbies section, which took me to Coupon mad’s Template defence (31 July 2023 at 4:58AM edited 14 August at 6:07PM) to adapt for all parking cases with added 'admin/DRA' costs - edited in 2025.

What I have done is to blind copy paragraphs 1 to 2 and 4 to 10 from the above template, leaving para 3 for me to fill in.

From what I can understand, the defence must include :

• The parties and the court's claim number.

• If established, whether you Admit or deny allegations in the particulars of claim.

• Provide reasons for denial.

• Relevant facts, explaining the facts of the case.

• List documents: Mention any documents you plan to use as evidence:

For paragraph 3, I was going to put just two paragraphs to respond to DCB Legals Particulars of Claim as follows (the POC are the standard DCBlegal POC blurb) :

3.1 Referring to the POC. Paragraph 1 is denied. The Defendant is not indebted to the Claimant. Paragraph 2 is denied. No PCN was "issued on **/**/****" (the date of the alleged visit). Whilst the Defendant is the registered keeper, 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.

3.2 Recalling the circumstance of this claim is difficult due to the passage of time, but I can inform the court that I saw no signs because they were sparsely placed and that I have engaged with both Smart Parking and DCB Legal appropriately to inform them of the facts in this case. I have also appealed the parking charge notice with Popla.

This is all I was going to put for para 3. Is it too sparce, or is it enough until witness statement time, where I will be adding photos to support my case?

I understand that exact details such as facts that the driver drove into the car park, parked the car, etc. together with mitigating factors such as the light was poor, it was raining, it was busy, the driver got distracted, etc. these all go in the Witness statement later on, together with any photos showing lack of signage.

Two questions.

Firstly, am I on the right lines.

Secondly, can you point me towards an example of a good defence statement and also a good Witness Statement for the common situation of overstaying the permitted time due to poor signage positioning.