Euro Car Parks court claim – defence help and keeper liability

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: POPLA Decisions.

EPC133

Hi, Just wondering if someone can give me a hand please as I am a new user here. I have had parking charge which was for a parking site for retail car park where a JD gym is present. The car park is managed I guess by Euro car parks as they have sent me a Claim form for court through DCB Legal. I have done the AOS and think I have a few days before the defence needs to be submitted, the issue date on the claim form is 21st july 2026. I was just wondering what i would need to put in the defence and if i need to edit the template with anything extra and where the latest template is please. They issues the ticket as i assume I may have not entered the reg at the gym to get the free parking time as it was after 10pm but since it was so long ago (4/9/25) i can't even recall this. Also for these is the keeper automatically liable if they haven't been told the driver?

Any help is much appreciated and thank you in advance.

Le_Kirk

You should start your own thread and copy all that into it, rather than jumping into the POPLA decisions thread. When you do, please tell us the date of issue of the claim form and we can advise you of your deadlines for AoS and defence.

MSE_Stephen

@EPC133

We've created a new thread for your post.

Coupon-mad

The template defence is in the Template Defence thread, top of the forum.

Your facts (para 3) briefly responds to the allegation but do NOT assume fault.

You do not know whether you didn't use the screen the gym to get the free parking time, or whether the system signal or data retention failed at the time you did it, nor even do you know whether you could have made a VRM typo, that ECP could certainly have matched up easily.

The case will be discontinued by Christmas anyway because that's DCB Legal's MO. No defended ECP claims reach hearings and nobody pays a penny.

EPC133

Hi @Coupon-mad the issue date on the letter of claim is 21st july and i have done the AoS already. I also emailed the gym regarding it as i read the newbie 2nd post and it said contact the retailers first. The gym responded with the below:

I have sent them the PCN. Am i too late to file a defence as it is the 20th today and the letter of claim was sent on the 21st of july? if the gym are able to get it cancelled does the court hearing without my defence get over turned? Sorry if i am doing these in the wrong place, someone mentioned a thread was opened for this i am not sure where to find it.

EPC133

I have received this email from them now.

I assume euro car parks can't deny this even if the ticket is at the stage it's at right? Since they are working for JD gym please can you let me know as it is quite stressful with where this is currently at and I am in no financial position to pay this.

Gr1pr

Its a court claim against you ( so not a letter of claim ) , issue date 21st July, AOS completed so the defence deadline on MCOL will be 4pm on Monday 24th August, so early next week

EPC133

@Gr1pr Ah thank you for clarifying, sorry not sure on the correct vocab for the letter. what things should I include in the defense. Also 24th is a monday and DCB Legal is closed over the weekend, i could call them monday morning to see if they received the cancellation request from JD gym, if so and they are happy to cancel do i still need to send over a defense? I am just not sure if there is anything specific to add in the defense for my case.

EPC133

@Coupon-mad what kind of things would i add in the defense in para 3 please?

Gr1pr

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82110824#Comment_82110824

Do the defence anyway, because you dont have time to wait for ECP to tell dcblegal to cancel the court claim, but they can do so at any time, whereas your deadline is set in stone

Use the 10 paragraph template defence in announcements, adding an ending to paragraph 2 and using your own paragraph 3 ( we dont write these paragraphs for you, but the other 8 paragraphs are already completed, so no changing them )

Ps, there is no S in DEFENCE