I finally received the County Court claim after 5.9 years

dkl_uk

This is the third time I'll be asking for help here, which has been invaluable so far.

As with my last post, here's a TL;DR of the situation:

• Drove onto the named car park.
• Passenger got out to pay at the machine.
• Huge queue at the machine.
• Passenger finally get to machine, machine won't accept the reg.
• Passenger types as much as she can and pays £8 (I have a screenshot of the bank payment).
• Comes back to tell me the machine is broken. Realise I can't park regardless because the reg isn't on the ticket.
• Leave.
• Letter arrives demanding payment.
• Appeal. <<<< I am not sure if I appealed, but...
• Hear nothing from April 2020 until June 2025.
• Passed between the two sham DCA/Solicitor companies Smart Parking "employ" for a few months
• Receive LBA in December
• Advice was to ignore until just before deadline date, then ask to see NTK
• My email to them has been ignored, Northampton CC letter arrived this morning

So, I'm seething at the fact DCBL have ignored the email I sent, but I now have a court letter in front of me.

Can someone please, with detailed breadcrumbs, tell me what more I can do to get this point across that their broken hardware is the issue so I have a fighting chance in court, please?

I am happy to attend court, I am just very wary that I have read of people losing despite paying because the reg was entered incorrectly, for example.


Thanks in advance

ChirpyChicken

What was the date of the parking event

dkl_uk

ChirpyChicken said:

What was the date of the parking event

21/03/2020.

The advice on my last post was to ride it out. Wait until just prior to the deadline they gave with their December letter and ask them for more information, then wait for that response and state I was going to seek debt advice, and hope that the deadline passes for the 6 years.

They ignored that email and went straight to LBA.

Gr1pr

You wont be attending court , and DCBL are not involved here any more 

Is it  Letter of Claim giving you 30 days notice. ? OR a Money Claim form from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL  ?  If its a Letter of Claim,  its not a court letter

Presumably this is Smart Parking,  so is it DCB LEGAL  or QDR. ?

Post the Issue date from the top right of the claim form below 

Post a redacted picture of the POC from the lower left side of the claim form below after hiding the VRM details first 

dkl_uk

Gr1pr said:

You wont be attending court , and DCBL are not involved here any more 

Presumably this is Smart Parking,  so is it DCB LEGAL  or QDR. ?

Post the Issue date from the top right of the claim form below 

Post a redacted picture of the POC from the lower left side of the claim form below after hiding the VRM details first 

Coupon-mad said:

You don't have a court letter if it's just a LBC. Definitely not a Claim Form from Northampton? Only a LBC?

This gives you a chance to delay them & maybe time it out!

So, wait until the last day given on this LBC then email them complaining that you asked for documents under the PAP and they ignored you. Quote the PAP obligation to supply documents requested by xx deadline. You'll be sending this as late as possible so give them a deadline of mid February to supply it.

Then - and only then, in late Feb - swoop (finally) with your last bullet: saying you are seeking debt advice and need the case to be put 'on hold' per the PAP which Citizens Advice have said must be offered.

Sorry, seems the terminology has surpassed my skills tonight.

@Gripr - it's QDR
Issue date is 19/01/2026


@Coupon-mad - yes it's a proper claim form from Northampton. The whole "let's delay the LBC" thing didn't play out as I emailed them 5 days prior to their deadline and they ignored the email.

ChirpyChicken

They make such false claims in these POCs

Gr1pr

Complete the AOS online on MCOL this weekend or next week 

Use the bespoke Smart Parking defence in the group thread by sluzz , on MCOL 

dkl_uk

Just dropping this in to show I'm not chancing anything. The date and location is literally the same.

dkl_uk

Coupon-mad said:

So you have a Claim Form then.

I'll delete my post above.

Yes sorry about that. 

dkl_uk

Gr1pr said:

Complete the AOS online on MCOL this weekend or next week 

Use the bespoke Smart Parking defence in the group thread by sluzz , on MCOL 

Searching the forum for 'smart parking defence' brings a lot of results, and searching further for sluzz doesn't yield anything. Could you point a bit harder for me please?

Edit: Think I found it linked from another of the many hundreds of other threads..

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6642762/smart-parking-claim-via-dcb-legal-group-info-thread/p1

Coupon-mad

Yes, use that one. However, it needs a tweak for QDR cases and if you read that thread to the end you will see what to remove.