Claim Form received from Smart Parking

BitteryButteryBread

Hi There,

I've had Claim Form letter through the post from from HM Courts and Tribunals service, with a money claim against me for a parking charge in 2022. I've already done some actions, and I have read through the guides however I'm still a little lost, so I'm posting here to check what I've done and any advice what to do next!

The claimant is Smart Parking Limited and their address for sending documents is DCB Legal.

This is the first correspondence I have received, assuming any previous letters have gone to an old address. At the time of the the the Parking Charge (10/08/2022), I'd moved house a couple months earlier and had not updated my address with the DVLA, so perhaps any letters went to the old address? I did later update the address on DVLA to the correct one. Note, I no longer have this vehicle and it's never been registered at my current address, so they've successfully been able to find my current address.

The parking was at The Crown Bolton pub on 10/08/2022. They have signs up saying "Customers of the Crown only" (checked on google streetview, dated Oct 2022, I can't make out the small print so I'm going to go back and grab a picture).

Some back story -

I was a customer and I did have a drink there along with 3 other people. A friend I was with bought the drinks. I've asked my friends to check their bank apps but there's nothing listed so we must have paid cash.

We had previously been on a bike ride, all of our strava shows us cycling around the area. 2 friends then cycled to the pub, their strava shows them ending the cycle at the pub, whilst myself and a friend collected our cars and drove to the pub. My friend has his google timeline showing we were at the pub for 1 hour and 10 mins.

Claim Form Details -

The Issue date is 08 May 2026.

Particulars of Claim:

1. The Defendant (D) is indebted to the Claimant (C) for a Parking Charge (PC) issued to vehicle [Car Reg] at The Crown Bolton (EPS).

2. The date of contravention is 10/08/2022 and the D was issued with a PC by the Claimant

3. The Defendant is pursued as the driver of the vehicle for breach of the terms on the signs (the contract). Reason: Unauthorised Parking

4. In the alternative the Defendant is pursued as the keeper pursuant to POFA 2012, Schedule 4.

AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS

1. £170.00 being the total of the PC and damages.

2. Interest at a rate of 8.00% per annum pursuant to s.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 from the date hereof at a daily rate of £0.04 until judgment or sooner payment.

3. Costs and court fees

The amount being claimed, shown in the table on the bottom right of the form is £223.52, plus court fee and legal representative's cost.

What I've done -

Before knowing about this forum, I consulted ChatGPT and Claude (probably a stupid thing to do!). They said to file the Acknowledgment of Service and contact DCB Legal, therefore I have completed the Acknowledgment of Service saying "I intend to defend all of this claim" and did not put anything in the defence box.

I then send the following to response@dcblegal.co.uk and CC'd info@dcblegal.co.uk, litigation@dcblegal.co.uk and myself. I received an auto-response back from info@dcblegal.co.uk.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Claim Number: [Claim No.]
Claimant Reference: [Claimant Ref. from form]
Vehicle Registration: [Car Reg.]

I acknowledge receipt of the claim issued on behalf of Smart Parking Limited.

Please provide copies of all documents and evidence upon which the Claimant intends to rely, including but not limited to:

Photographs of the vehicle;

ANPR entry and exit records;

Copies of the signage in place at the material time;

Copies of all notices and correspondence allegedly sent;

A copy of the contract or other evidence of landowner authority permitting Smart Parking Limited to operate and litigate at this site;

A detailed breakdown of the sum claimed, including the basis of the additional £70 added to the original parking charge.

For the avoidance of doubt, the occupants of the vehicle were genuine patrons of The Crown Bolton on the date in question.

I also note that correspondence relating to this matter appears to have been sent to a previous address following a house move and delayed DVLA update at the time. Accordingly, the correspondence received from HM Courts & Tribunals Service is the first correspondence I have received in relation to this matter.

For the avoidance of doubt, this correspondence is sent without admission of liability and without prejudice to my right to file a full defence to this claim. Nothing in this correspondence should be construed as an admission of liability. I reserve all rights in relation to this matter.  

Yours faithfully,
[me]

What to do next -

I'm asking for advice on what happens next / what to do next, or to be pointed in the right direction! Am I likely to get a response from my email to them? Do I just write a defence stating I was there and was a customer, presenting my evidence, and fill out the response form for dispute the whole claim?

Thank you for any help in advance!

Gr1pr

Regardless of any response, you must submit your defence on MCOL

Use the defence template by member meltof dated 12th April, no changes at all, Use "as is'

Copy and paste into the defence box on MCOL, Save & Submit

Job done for now

Then study and follow the 8 steps in the defence template thread in announcements near the top of the forum

Coupon-mad

They said to file the Acknowledgment of Service and contact DCB Legal, therefore I have completed the Acknowledgment of Service saying "I intend to defend all of this claim" and did not put anything in the defence box.

OMG that is terrible!

Show us the Claim Form page (a photo, redacting your data and claim number and your VRM and MCOL Password of course) and tell us the date - top right - and the date you did the AOS?

My goodness, that is a truly awful AI epic fail. You don't write to the solicitor. Eek! Obviously you have to defend on MCOL and your claim form tells you how.

As does our Template Defence thread, which we won't link. See my signature to see where your hyperlinks to page one are:

BitteryButteryBread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81998886#Comment_81998886

I realise that now that it was a terrible idea, I was in a bit of a state of panic at the time! Stupid me for tructing AI 😅

Issue date - 08/05/2026
AOS submitted - 12/05/2026

Coupon-mad

Smart Parking - easy! - so you just completely copy the defence by @Meltof which they posted last month near the end of the Smart Parking Claim Defence Group thread.

Search and ye shall find! No link given.

🙂

BitteryButteryBread

Thank you, I've found the post at the bottom of page 3. I see I should update  inflating a £75 PC (already increased from £37.50) to £135 were disproportionate to inflating a £100 PC to £170 were disproportionate.

Point 3, The Defendant is unable to recall who may have been driving on an unremarkable date and unspecified time , however looking back, I can remember this and have 3 others who can confirm we were there. Should I change this paragraph to state this, or leave it unaltered and save this for the witness statement stage?

Coupon-mad

I've found the post at the bottom of page 3. I see I should update  inflating a £75 PC (already increased from £37.50) to £135 were disproportionate to inflating a £100 PC to £170 were disproportionate.

Of course you don't change those figures! That is a specific case law summary.

I would remove the other sentence though, if it is untrue to say you can't recall the day.

Le_Kirk

With an issue date of 08/05/26 and providing you complete(d) the AoS after 13/05/26 and before or on 27/05/26 your defence deadline date is 4.00 p.m. on 10/06/26

BitteryButteryBread

Ah, I'd seen some discussion further down that thread saying to make sure the sum in the defence matches the pcn plus debt recovery figure added together, so thought it was a comparason of the HHJ Hegarty case to mine, but after re-reading it I see now that it's not. I don't see any other monetary values there so I assume it doesn't need to be listed.

Noted on recalling the day, I'll remove that part. There's also a sentence in section 2 about having little knowledge of events.
I see in your Template Defence Suggestion that point 3 must respond to the allegation, should I be stating that we were there and it's the first I've heard of this? Something along the lines of:

3. It is denied that any breach occurred. The Particulars of Claim allege 'Unauthorised Parking' but fail to explain the basis upon which the occupants of the vehicle were allegedly unauthorised. The occupants were genuine patrons of The Crown Bolton on the material date and were therefore authorised to use the car park. The Defendant has witnesses who can confirm that the occupants were customers of the premises. The Claimant is put to strict proof of the alleged breach, including photographs of the signage as it appeared at the time and evidence of the terms allegedly breached.

3.1. The correspondence received from HM Courts & Tribunals Service is the first correspondence the Defendant has received regarding this matter and no evidence has been provided in support of the allegation.

(Drafted with ChatGPT, sorry, I'm not great at the legal literature. but setup live broadcast system, I'm your man 😅)

Coupon-mad

You could add that … but mainly this is the standard advice in the hundreds of current Smart Parking threads we are drowning in::

just click on the username @Meltof

Copy their version of a Smart Parking final defence posted on April 12th.

No changes. No added facts.

Don't copy & paste it here as we really don't want to keep being asked to check this defence in thread after thread in May, which is driving us regulars a bit mad with this current Smart Parking batch!

Literally read any Smart thread…

Then follow the 8 steps in the Template Defence thread. Easy peasy. It'll be discontinued just before the hearing fee falls due in the Autumn/Winter.