Private Parking Company issued county court claim

[Getadvice]

I have been issued a Court claim on Saturday claimant as private car parking company.

I have a good parking history (over 30 times) on the site in question and every time I have parked onsite I used the “pay by phone” app to make payment.

On the 4 occasions that I have not paid, the application could not load or kept crashing.

I was issued with PCNs that’s I ignored and then when they wrote in November 2017 demanding payment, I responded and offered to pay £6.30 x 4 which is the cost I usually pay.


I also sent copies of receipts for previous parking and the “paybyphone” app update history to prove that I was in no way pulling a fast one on them.

They returned the cheques and in the letter demanded payment of £125 x2 PCN and £115 x2 PCN.
They in fact duplicated one of the PCN in that letter.

They also had an ambiguous calculation of the costs incurred I.e about £10 per letter etc.

I have received a total of 6 letters as all the 4 PCN have been addressed in one correspondence since the November.

So total of any correspondence costs would be £60 for all PCNs plus some other costs they have detailed.

They also said that there would be no further correspondence in relationship to the matter.

No room for sorting the issue out was offered.


About 2 or 3 months ago they sent a pre court action letter that I ignored as it demanded £100 per PCN.

The charges had gone down for some reason with no explanation.


Most recently was a county court claim amounting to £640 in parking charges.


The land is a previous post office sorting office purchased by private developer (unlikely to be Parking company).

They did not accept payment offered and has not proved consequential loss amounting to £160 per PCN.

They have also seemed to adjust charges from £125 and £115 to £100 plus an additional £60 for each PCN.

These cost a quite ambiguous.

I intend to admit only to the £6.30 x 4 that I paid in November and was subsequently rejected by the parking company.


My question is where I stand with this?

All advice is welcome and appreciated.

[ostell]

So are those payments shown on your bank account?

[Getadvice]

Hi Ostell,
I issued 4 cheques each with a sum of £6.30 and they returned the cheques with rejected written across them.
Their response letter also stated that no further correspondence would be made regarding this matter.
Before the court claim they issued a pre court action letter that I ignored.

[ostell]

Does your bank account show the Pay by Phone payments?

[Getadvice]

No, my bank account does not.

I have been to the parking site today and they seem to have removed the signs of being able to pay by phone.
Could I use this in my claim since I want to base it on not being able to use the app at the time?

[Getadvice]

Just a correction.
I have receipts to my email of all previous payments through pay by phone.
On the 4 occasions, I was not able to make the payment.
I can also get my credit card company to provide statements showing the previous payments

[R0b]

If I were a judge hearing your case I would ask you two things:

1. Why didn't you contact the parking company if you were not able to pay for the parking?
2. Was there another method of payment i.e. cash and if so, why did you not attempt to use that method instead of not paying at all on those four occasions?

I think it would be more understanding to a judge if this was just a one time thing but the fact that it happened on four separate occasions and you wilfully refused to pay for any parking or attempt to pay by another method (if applicable) then to my mind, I really don't think a judge is going to let you off the hook as easily as you might think.

A judge might say that you didn't take any reasonable steps to mitigate the issue such as contacting the parking company immediately or if that was not possible then notify them as soon as is practicable. It was only when you received the PCNs did you try to curb the costs being claimed by showing them the receipts but I am not sure a judge is going to accept that position.

At the end of the day it comes down to whether you were being reasonable and if a cash payment method was available then a judge might think that if you have had previous problems with paying for parking using the app then you might want to take some cash just in case, or find an alternative parking site that is able to take payments by an app if you were really insistent on using that method.

I guess my view is harsh but you have breached the terms and conditions albeit you had four failed attempts which as far as I can see, you never informed the parking company as soon as you were able nor did you try the cash method (if available) and as it happened on four occasions, you ought to have been more cautious.

Of course I could be completely wrong and the judge might sympathise with you and make an order that you only pay the 4 lots of £6.30. Unless you have another defence available to you (which might be a problem if you have acknowledged or implied that you were driving at the time) then you might have have a problem.

[Getadvice]

Hi Rob,

I understand my predicament but point out that the app was advertised as a means of payment.
I also dialled the number that is advertised but no response.( I usually park at 6am in the morning)
On one of the occasion I made a payment well after I had parked.

The signs for using the pay by phone app have now been taken down so not sure if it has anything to do with issues similar to mine.

As the land is owned by company registered in the British Virgin Islands, can I defend based on land ownership?

[R0b]

I understand that payment by phone was one means of payment but was it the sole means? If there was the option to pay by cash as well as by phone then a judge is probably going to consider whether it was reasonable to use the cash method instead. The likelihood is that the judge will say that there was an alternative method of payment available to you and it would have been reasonable to use that method in the absence of your preferred method not being available. As you chose not to pay by the the alternative method, then it was you, not the parking company being unreasonable and therefore you impliedly accepted the consequences of not paying.

Do the signs show the contact number along with opening hours? Even if the signs did not specify opening hours it comes to whether it was reasonable for you to make several attempts (at perhaps different times) rather than just one attempt and then not bothering afterwards.

If you made payment after you parked, the judge might be a bit more lenient towards you on that because you have made attempts to do so but on the flip side he/she might not because if the conditions of the car park says you must pay at the time of parking, and you didn't, then you were clearly in breach.

I would go out and take photos of the car park as evidence the signs have been removed, inferring that there were actual issues with the payment by phone. That might assist you but to what extent only a judge could say.

Ownership of the land and the whereabouts of the company is irrelevant I think at this current point in time unless you can expand on what you mean by defending based on land ownership.

Anyhow, you've been issued with a court claim but you haven't mentioned the date of it, and you will need to acknowledge within 14 days if you wish to defend otherwise the parking company could apply for default judgment against you. It would also be helpful to know who the parking company is, and if you could upload the claim form itself with your personal information redacted so we can see what we are working on.

Out of curiosity, have you said or in some way implied that you were driving at the time? Did you receive a windscreen ticket / notice to keeper or any other documentation?

[Getadvice]

Hi Rob,

The claimant is SIP Parking Limited.

I did not specify that I was the driver but registered keeper / owner of the vehicle.
I offered to make payment as the registered keeper of the vehicle.

The signage at the time just had the pay by phone info and a telephone number (up until Jan 2018).
Please note that also the signage was not everywhere in the car park and this has been updated recently, removing the pay by phone information and also sticking the terms and conditions in a number of new places.

Please find attached a picture of the summary of the claim. I have removed the PCN and reg number.

[Getadvice]

Also the claimant is SIP car parks