VCS car park charge - Ignored letters - now got County Court Claim form

[rogerdodger]

I had parked on some private land next to my work, (about 20 other cars did every day) on this day a traffic warden came along and ticketed every car. I then started to get letters from VCS which on advise from others in the same situation I ignored as I was told they were unenforceable invoices.

I now have a Claim Form from County Court Business Centre, St katharines house.

From my initial research this is an online clearing house of some sort.

My question is what do I do.

Some advice is that I have to respond acknowledgement of service and then I have 28 days to form my defense. (What defense? ) I am not sure what defence I can lodge other than i have had no contact with VCS and they can't prove I was actually the driver of the vehicle on the day

Other advice is to make them an offer, i.e £60 The Total amount being asked for is £160 plus court fee of £25

I am unsure what to do next, we are about to go on holiday in a couple weeks and will be away for 3 weeks and am worried this will all happen when I am away and come back to a CCJ

I know I can make this go away by handing over £185, but this claim form is not a court case is it?

How can I represent myself, and if it went to court and VCS won, I assume I would have to pay even more money?

Or are they saying if they went to court and won I would have to pay £185

I would be happy to pay them £60 if they would accept it.

Thanks

[ostell]

Eidt you post so that the identity of the driver cannot be inferred, use "the driver........" etc.

As you have found out ignore is not the correct advice, it has not been since 2012. The advice you received was correct in part in that they are invoices. Have you also ignored the Letter before CLaim that you should have received?

So first is to acknowledge the claim online using the details and password on the form.but do not put anything in the defence. This gives you a total of 33 days from date of issue to provide a defence to the court.

The don't have to show who was the driver of the car, they can claim from the keeper of the car if they follow the provisions of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. You must, at sometime have received a Notice to Keeper. Can you post it up. VCS are know to make mistakes on this so if it does not comply they cannot hold the keeper liable only the unknown driver. No requirement to identify the driver.

People seem to have been using the site for some time. Are there signs in existence? some photos would be nice.

As you are going on holiday then you must get your defence to the court before you go. This part of the procedure is, to all intents and purposes, unstoppable, Failure to respond in time will probably result in a default judgement against you.

You only have one shot at a defence, you can't amend it without paying a considerable sum, so you need to get everything in to the court.

Once you get your defence in to the court then any actual hearing will be months away, at a court of your choice. There is other paperwork to be completed but you should be back from holiday by then. You can represent yourself, hundreds do.

Get that acknowledgement done, give some information and answer the questions and people may be able to help contruct a defence