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VCS 'Parking Outside Designated Bay' defence helpppp needed!

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bambooparking
bambooparking Posts: 30 Forumite
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Long story short, I was issued 2 parking notices over a weekend from VCS because a part of my wheel was parked in my neighbours bay. The ticket had pictures of my car parked over the line. There was also an image with a visible sign, though the signs have too much text. It's a private resident parking bay and the charge (2 charges of £160) seem extortionate.
I've done the online acknowledgement of service and been working on my defence, based on other threads. I'd really appreciate some help as i really have no clue what i'm doing!

Vehicle Control Services Ltd (Claimant)

-and-

Miss
(Defendant)

____________
DEFENCE
____________
1. It is admitted that the Defendant is the keeper of vehicle registration number --- which is the subject of these procedures.

2. It is admitted that on the material date, the Defendant’s vehicle was parked at Bay -- at the location stand, with a valid resident parking permit.

3. It is denied that any “parking charges, damages or indemnity costs” (whatever they might be) as stated on the Particulars of Claim are owed. The alleged debt is denied in its entirety.

3.1. The residential site that is the subject of these proceedings is not a site where there is a commercial value to be protected. The Claimant has not suffered loss or pecuniary disadvantage.

3.2. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, at Section 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper, in this case £100. The claim includes an additional £60, for ’debt collection’ costs. Request for data to evidence any ‘debt collection’ costs were ignored by the Claimant.

4. It is denied that the Claimant entered into a contract with the Defendant. The Claimant is a third party company contracted by ---- Management Services to provide car-park management services and is not capable of entering into a contract with the Defendant on its own account, as the car park is owned by and the terms of entry set by the landowner.

4.1. In the absence of a contract that expressly permits the Claimant to do so, it is denied that the Claimant has the contractual or other lawful authority to make contracts and/or bring proceedings against the Defendant. The Claimant is put to strict proof.

4.2. The Defendant has the reasonable belief that the Claimant does not have the necessary authorisation from the landowner to issue parking charge notices on this land in their own name, and to pursue payment by means of litigation.

5. Further and in the alternative, it is denied that the claimant's signage sets out the terms in a sufficiently clear manner which would be capable of binding any reasonable person reading them. They merely state that vehicles must be parked correctly within their allocated parking bay, giving no definition of the term 'correctly parked', nor indicating which bays are allocated to whom.!

5.1. The Defendant submits that any signage present on the site even if seen by a motorist is not clear or legible in its construction, and therefore not able to form a contract. The Defendant brings to the attention of the Court A0QZ7658 UKCPS v Anonymous 4/7/14 at Bradford, and A3QZ1305 UKCPS v Anonymous 2/7/14 at Sheffield. The Judges in these cases found that UKCPS Ltd signs were ‘gibberish, too wordy and with conflicting terms’. The Defendant submits that the signs on this site fall into the same description and are therefore unable to form a contract even if seen.

5.2. The terms on the Claimant's signage are also displayed in a font which is too small to be read from a passing vehicle, and is in such a position that anyone attempting to read the tiny font would be unable to do so easily. It is, therefore, denied that the Claimant's signage is capable of creating a legally binding contract.

6. The claim states that the vehicle was parked “OUT OF DESIGNATED BAY”. The Defendant asserts that the markings of the bay are not plentiful and easily visible, as they are only marked on the corners, with no consistent line marking the parameters of the bay.

6.1. In Parking Eye v Beavis 4th November 2015 UKSC 2015/0116, in paragraph 310 Loud Toulson states “There may be reasons why a user parks with his wheels outside the marked bay (for example because of the way the adjacent vehicle is parked or because he is a wheelchair user and none of the blue bays are available). Examples could be multiplied. The point is that the penalty clause makes no allowance for circumstances, allows no period of grace and provides no room for adjustment”

7. In summary, it is the Defendant's position that the claim discloses no cause of action, is without merit, and has no real prospect of success. Accordingly, the Court is invited to strike out the claim of its own initiative, using its case management powers pursuant to CPR 3.4.

Statement of Truth:

I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true.

Name
Signature
Date

Do I include quotes from my lease saying I am entitled to peaceful and quiet enjoyment? Or does that go in the WS?
I also have specific learning difficulties associated with visual spatial awareness - is this worth mentioning?
Also, one more thing, I wasn't the registered keeper at the time of the incident, though I was the driver (its my dads car). I plan to make myself the registered keeper before I submit this defence - is that okay?

My deadline is next Wednesday so any help would be greatly appreciated!
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  • KeithP
    KeithP Posts: 37,996 Forumite
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    What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?
  • bambooparking
    bambooparking Posts: 30 Forumite
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    The issue date was on the 05/04/19
  • Coupon-mad
    Coupon-mad Posts: 133,091 Forumite
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    Do I include quotes from my lease saying I am entitled to peaceful and quiet enjoyment? Or does that go in the WS?
    You need something about it in the defence too as I can't see it even tells the Judge about the primacy of contract, in that draft?

    Re-read bargepole's concise defence example that talks about residential primacy of contract (one of two by him linked in the NEWBIES thread). I am sure it has a para that quotes a bit from a lease...
    I also have specific learning difficulties associated with visual spatial awareness - is this worth mentioning?
    Yes but by doing that, you'd be admitting to being the driver which in a residential case might well be the best stance - looks more honest in front of a Judge.
    Also, one more thing, I wasn't the registered keeper at the time of the incident, though I was the driver (its my dads car). I plan to make myself the registered keeper before I submit this defence - is that okay?
    No point - I suggest you defend as driver.
    PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
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    Forum Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD
  • KeithP
    KeithP Posts: 37,996 Forumite
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    The issue date was on the 05/04/19
    With a Claim Issue Date of 5th April, and having done the Acknowledgement of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 8th May 2019 to file your Defence.

    As you say, that's next Wednesday.


    When you are happy with the content, your Defence should be filed via email as suggested here:
      Print your Defence.
    1. Sign it and date it.
    2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
    3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
    4. Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
    5. Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defence received". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
    6. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to keep you under pressure.
    7. Wait for your DQ from the CCBC, or download one from the internet, and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.
  • bambooparking
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    Thank you for all your help so far @coupon-mad and @keithp !
    Here is my second draft, using the bargepole example too.

    Vehicle Control Services Ltd (Claimant)

    -and-

    Miss ---- (Defendant)

    ____________
    DEFENCE
    ____________
    1. It is admitted that the Defendant is the driver of vehicle registration number ---- which is the subject of these procedures.
    2. It is admitted that on the material date, the Defendant’s vehicle was parked at Bay ---, ---. The Defendant has, since 10.06.2016, held legal title under the terms of a lease, to Flat No. -- at that location. At some point, the managing agents contracted with the Claimant company to enforce parking conditions at the estate.
    3. The car parking area contains allocated parking spaces demised to residents using a parking permit. Guests of the residents can park in the allocated spaces marked ‘V’ using guest passes. The Defendant’s vehicle displayed a valid resident parking permit at the time of the incident, so it was well known to the Claimant that the Defendant lives in the flats as a resident, and therein authorised to park there.
    4. Under the terms of the Defendant’s lease, section 1.1 lists ‘parking space numbered P -- shown edged with red on the Site Plan and numbered -- on the ground’ under ‘the premises’.
    4.1. There are no terms within the lease requiring lessees to display parking permits, to park within allocated bays or to pay penalties to third parties, such as the Claimant, for non-display of same, or for parking outside marked bays.
    5. The Defendant, at all material times, parked in accordance with the terms granted by the lease. The erection of the Claimant’s signage, and the purported contractual terms conveyed therein, are incapable of binding the Defendant in any way, and their existence does not constitute a legally valid variation of the terms on the lease. Accordingly, the Defendant denies having breached any contractual terms whether express, implied, or by conduct.
    6. The Claimant, or Managing Agent, in order to establish a right to impose unilateral terms which vary the terms of the lease, must have such variation approved by at least 75% of the leaseholders, pursuant to S37 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1987, and the Defendant is unaware of any such vote having been passed by the residents.
    7. Further and in the alternative, the signs refer to ‘Authorised Vehicles Only/Terms of parking without permission’, and suggest that by parking without permission, motorists are contractually agreeing to a parking charge of £100. This is clearly a nonsense, since if there is no permission, there is no offer, and therefore no contract.
    7.1. The Defendant’s vehicle clearly was ‘authorised’ as per the lease and the Defendant relies on primacy of contract and avers that the Claimant’s conduct in aggressive ticketing is in fact a matter of tortious interference, being a private nuisance to residents.
    7.2. In this case the Claimant has taken over the location and runs a business as if the site were a public car park, offering terms with £100 penalty on the same basis to residents, as is on offer to the general public and trespassers. However, residents are granted a right to park/rights of way and to peaceful enjoyment, and parking terms under a new and onerous ‘permit/licence’ cannot be re-offered as a contract by a third party. This interferes with the terms of leases and tenancy agreements, none of which is this parking firm a party to, and neither have they bothered to check for any rights or easements that their regime will interfere with (the Claimant is put to strict proof). This causes a substantial and unreasonable interference with the Defendant’s land/property, or his/her use or enjoyment of that land/property.
    7.3. The Claimant may rely on the case of!ParkingEye v Beavis![2015] UKSC 67 as a binding precedent on the lower court. However, that only assists the Claimant if the facts of the case are the same, or broadly the same. In Beavis, it was common ground between the parties that the terms of a contract had been breached, whereas it is the Defendant's position that no such breach occurred in this case, because there was no valid contract, and also because the 'legitimate interest' in enforcing parking rules for retailers and shoppers in!Beavis!does not apply to these circumstances. Therefore, this case can be distinguished from!Beavis!on the facts and circumstances.!
    8. It is denied that any “parking charges, damages or indemnity costs” (whatever they might be) as stated on the Particulars of Claim are owed. The alleged debt is denied in its entirety.
    8.1. The residential site that is the subject of these proceedings is not a site where there is a commercial value to be protected. The Claimant has not suffered loss or pecuniary disadvantage.
    8.2. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, at Section 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper, in this case £100. The claim includes an additional £60, for ’debt collection’ costs. Request for data to evidence any ‘debt collection’ costs were ignored by the Claimant.
    9. It is denied that the Claimant entered into a contract with the Defendant. The Claimant is a third party company contracted by Broomhall Management Services to provide car-park management services and is not capable of entering into a contract with the Defendant on its own account, as the car park is owned by and the terms of entry set by the landowner.
    9.1. In the absence of a contract that expressly permits the Claimant to do so, it is denied that the Claimant has the contractual or other lawful authority to make contracts and/or bring proceedings against the Defendant. The Claimant is put to strict proof.
    9.2. The Defendant has the reasonable belief that the Claimant does not have the necessary authorisation from the landowner to issue parking charge notices on this land in their own name, and to pursue payment by means of litigation.
    10. Further and in the alternative, it is denied that the claimant's signage sets out the terms in a sufficiently clear manner which would be capable of binding any reasonable person reading them. They merely state that vehicles must be parked correctly within their allocated parking bay, giving no definition of the term 'correctly parked', nor indicating which bays are allocated to whom.
    10.1. The Defendant submits that any signage present on the site even if seen by a motorist is not clear or legible in its construction, and therefore not able to form a contract. The Defendant brings to the attention of the Court A0QZ7658 UKCPS v Anonymous 4/7/14 at Bradford, and A3QZ1305 UKCPS v Anonymous 2/7/14 at Sheffield. The Judges in these cases found that UKCPS Ltd signs were ‘gibberish, too wordy and with conflicting terms’. The Defendant submits that the signs on this site fall into the same description and are therefore unable to form a contract even if seen.
    10.2. The terms on the Claimant's signage are also displayed in a font which is too small to be read from a passing vehicle, and is in such a position that anyone attempting to read the tiny font would be unable to do so easily. It is, therefore, denied that the Claimant's signage is capable of creating a legally binding contract.
    11. The claim states that the vehicle was parked “OUT OF DESIGNATED BAY”. The Defendant asserts that the markings of the bay are not plentiful and easily visible, as they are only marked on the corners, with no consistent line marking the parameters of the bay.
    11.1. In Parking Eye v Beavis 4th November 2015 UKSC 2015/0116, in paragraph 310 Loud Toulson states “There may be reasons why a user parks with his wheels outside the marked bay (for example because of the way the adjacent vehicle is parked or because he is a wheelchair user and none of the blue bays are available). Examples could be multiplied. The point is that the penalty clause makes no allowance for circumstances, allows no period of grace and provides no room for adjustment”
    12. For all the reasons stated above, the Court is invited to dismiss the claim in its entirety, using its case management powers pursuant to CPR 3.4, and to award the Defendant such costs as are allowable on the small claims track, pursuant to Civil Procedure Rule 27.14. Given that the claim is based on an alleged contractual parking charge of £100 - already significantly inflated and mostly representing profit, as was found in!Beavis!- but the amount claimed on the claim form is inexplicably!£160, the Defendant avers that this inflation of the considered amount is a gross abuse of process.

    13. Given that it appears that this Claimant's conduct provides for no cause of action, and this is intentional and contumelious, the Claimant's claim must fail and the court is invited to strike it out.!
    13.1. In the alternative, the Court is invited, under the Judge's own discretionary case management powers, to set a preliminary hearing to examine the question of this Claimant's substantial interference with easements, rights and 'primacy of contract' of residents at this site, to put an end to not only this litigation but to send a clear message to the Claimant to case wasting the court's time by bringing beleaguered residents to court under excuse of a contractual breach that cannot lawfully exist.

    Statement of Truth:

    I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true.

    Name
    Signature
    Date

    Is this okay?
    I have two tickets (over a weekend where the car wasn't used), so do I just send the same defence for both? Is there any way I can combine the two?
    Thank you so much again!!!
  • The_Deep
    The_Deep Posts: 16,830 Forumite
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    Also get your MP on side as they are obviously trying to scam you.

    Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, and persistent offenders denied access. Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers.

    Until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

    Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.
    You never know how far you can go until you go too far.
  • Coupon-mad
    Coupon-mad Posts: 133,091 Forumite
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    demised to residents using a parking permit.
    Don't say that, if it is demised to you FULL STOP, not subject to using a permit!

    This is why you should not say what I quoted above:
    4.1. There are no terms within the lease requiring lessees to display parking permits

    I would add a point denying that the fact the Defendant uses a permit suggests that they have somehow agreed to the regime as if they had a choice. Residents were in fact given no option to opt out and like all the others, the Defendant acquiesced to showing a permit as a courtesy - a mere indicator that they are a resident and not in the knowledge or agreement of any 'relevant obligation' or 'relevant contract' with the meaning defined in Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

    Remove this - it is pointless citing anonymous cases about a completely different parking firm's signs that are not on all fours with yours:
    The Defendant brings to the attention of the Court A0QZ7658 UKCPS v Anonymous 4/7/14 at Bradford, and A3QZ1305 UKCPS v Anonymous 2/7/14 at Sheffield. The Judges in these cases found that UKCPS Ltd signs were ‘gibberish, too wordy and with conflicting terms’.

    Did VCS place actual parking tickets on the car, or red cards in an envelope that actually said 'this is not a parking charge'? There is a VCS defence example already produced in the NEWBIES thread that covers the hybrid 'not a PCN' model.
    I have two tickets (over a weekend where the car wasn't used), so do I just send the same defence for both? Is there any way I can combine the two?
    If they are both part of this single claim then you should just add a point that the POC refer to two PCNs but the car was not moved in between, so this was only one 'period of parking' and if private firms like this Claimant wish to be viewed on a par with Councils then they should follow the same path, check wheel valve positions and routinely cancel second & subsequent PCNs where the wheel valves have not moved in between observed times in the same bay over the same weekend.

    Or do you mean you have two claims issued (same date)? If so, you need a point asking the Judge to consolidate the PCNs into one claim. we have such a point seen in lots of defences if you need it (only if you have two live claims).
    PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
    CLICK at the top of this/any page where it says:
    Forum Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD
  • Le_Kirk
    Le_Kirk Posts: 22,439 Forumite
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    The Defendant’s vehicle displayed a valid resident parking permit at the time of the incident, so it was well known to the Claimant that the Defendant lives in the flats as a resident, and therein authorised to park there.
    Perhaps you meant: -
    The Defendant’s vehicle displayed a valid resident parking permit at the time of the incident, so it was well known to the Claimant that the Defendant lives in the flats as a resident, and [STRIKE]therein[/STRIKE] therefore authorised to park there.
  • Guys_Dad
    Guys_Dad Posts: 11,025 Forumite
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    Just out of interest, why did you encroach on your neighbour's parking space? Would that not have made it difficult for them to use the space they had a lease for?
  • bambooparking
    bambooparking Posts: 30 Forumite
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    I was driving back home late from work and a tiny part of my wheel was parked over the line into my neighbours bay!
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