Country Court Business Centre - Parking charge issued to supermarket employee

[A2006B]

Hi all!

I have received a County court claim form last week and the claimant is Civil Enforcement Ltd .
I have to write a defence and spent hours reading through the forums but my case seems to be different. I would be grateful if anyone could give me any advice on how to defend this claim.

CEL wrote me a letter on 4 September 2020 and it was a - Letter before action.
This was the first time that I was informed about this problem, however in their letter they stated that they have written to me on “several occasions” regarding an unpaid parking fine of £182.
I did not receive a PCN or any of their “several letters”, therefore I was not given a chance to appeal.

It was related to a TESCO carpark parking charge back in September 2019.
I am a Tesco employee and I have been working at Tesco for years. My car is registered for parking purposes and I have been using this car park 3-5 times weekly since 2014..

I replied to their letter and proved my employment, which they accepted. However, they said it’s too late now and offered me a reduced rate fine of £100. They ignored the part of my letter which states that I have not received a PCN and their “several” letters, therefore I could not appeal by proving my employment status straight away.

I never answered their reduced offer letter or their following letter - Final reminder before legal action, which I received on 27 October. I naively thought they were just trying to threaten me, since I didn’t breach any contract. I simply went to work and parked my car there, where I am authorised to park.

In addition to this, every letter that I received about this case was addressed to my husband (keeper of the car) despite the fact that I filled out the CEL form and clearly stated I was the driver of the car.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[ostell]

So they are claiming from the keeper, your husband, when you have told them that you were the driver ?

Can you get a letter from your employer stating that you are an employee and your car details have been given to CEL to show you are entitled to park?

If the court claim is in your husband's name then he must respond.

He must a acknowledge the claim using the details and password on the form. Nothing in the defence. This gives the lesser of 28 days from acknowledgement or 33 days from date of issue to get the defence to the court

Does the V5, logbook, for the car have the correct address?

basically defence will be

• The details of the driver have been given to the claimant
• they are taking action against the wrong person. The correct defendant is the driver.
• The driver has permission from her employer to use the car park,without charge
• the claimant has been informed of this but failed to recognise the right
• the claimant has admitted the charge was issued in error but has failed to cancel

Send a SAR to CEL to get all the paperwork they have about you. They gave 30,days to comply
A CPR 31.14 request to the solicitors to request all the documents they intend to use in court.

Templates in the Shortcuts panel on this page

[A2006B]

First of all, thank you for your reply Ostell, I am grateful for your help! Happy New Year!

Yes, they are claiming from the keeper (my husband) despite the fact that I wrote them a letter and filled out their form with my name and details.

Yes, I will ask for the letter from my employer and hopefully they will help with this.
The car park is a shopping centre car park and Tesco is a part of the shopping centre. When I started my employment in 2014, I gave them my car registration number and they forwarded it to the shopping centre administration.

You said that my husband must respond to the court claim.
I probably made a mistake as I have already acknowledged the claim (on 30 December before I wrote my post in the forum)
not the defence, but I wrote my name as defendant and signed it with my name as well.
I have never had to deal with this type of issue before, so I hope I didn’t mess it up too much.
Does it matter or will they ignore it ? As the claim is against the keeper. I assume I can’t change the name back to my husband’s name now.

The V5 logbook – I checked it and the address on it is our old address. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would’ve never known. We changed our driving licence and the vehicle tax is on direct debit. I honestly thought I fulfilled all our obligations to the DVLA. I will change it now. Is this the reason I did not receive any of their letters prior to their ‘letter before action – claim for debt’? Did they find me through DVLA ? I don’t understand it, but I will change the address on the V5 logbook. Thank you! Will it be a problem?


I am writing a SAR to Civil Enforcement Limited using the templates you have mentioned with my husband name’s, as well as our current and previous address.
Do I need to include more information, such as, our car registration number or PCN number and/or court claim number? Or is the name and address enough?

And about the CPR 31.14 request to the solicitors.
I only know the claimant’s legal representative name, who signed the country court business centre claim form. There is no letter from solicitor.
So I need to send this request to the claimant (CEL) as well, is that correct?
In the particulars of claim: the only document they mention is the PCN. Everything else is “claim for monies relating to a parking charge for parking in a private car park managed by the Claimant in breach of term and conditions” and the details: date, claimed sum, time, PCN number, car registration, car park.

So I need to request copies of the notice to driver, notice to keeper and any other documents from CEL to the defendant that they intend to use in court.
Do I need to request anything else?

Thank you again for your valuable help, I really appreciate it.

[ostell]

They will have used a tracing service to find you. You are not the first, and probably not the last, to forget about the V5 and only change your licence details

When requesting details give personal details and the VRM.

If there is nothing in the address for service and sending documents panel then you send the CPR request to CEL otherwise to the organisation named there. You need the PCN and a copy of the contract that authorises them to operate, and a copy of the signs that created the contract with terms and conditions

The SAR to just CEL

I gave you an outline of a defence, which needs to submitted and signed by your husband. Hope you didn't give a defence when you acknowledged. Everything from now on in has to be by your husband. The court will not have noticed the name difference

Legislation, schedule4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga...dule/4/enacted, allows them to claim from the keeper if they don't know the identity of the driver. As they know the identity of the driver they cannot claim from the keeper, only the driver. The driver has permission to park.

Start writing your defence and put it on here for critique.

[A2006B]

Thank you very much!
I sent the SAR letter to CEL and the CPR request to CEL as well as they were the organisation named in the address for sending documents panel.
I will start writing my defence and I will post it here.

[A2006B]

I have written my defence and If you would be kind enough to read it and let me know your thoughts, I would be grateful. I have read several defences in the last two weeks and I have no legal knowledge, but I tried my best to include every detail and create a proper defence.
I didn’t receive a response for the CPR, or for the SAR requests, but I know they have 30 days to reply for the SAR.


1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.
Each and every allegation in the Claimant's statement of case is denied unless specifically admitted in this Defence.

The facts as known to the Defendant:
2. (a) It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but liability is denied. Further, the Defendant denies being the driver of the vehicle in question at the time of the alleged offence.
(b) The facts are that the vehicle, registration number xxxxx of which the Defendant is the registered keeper, was parked on the material date at xxxxxxxxx.
(c) The details of the driver have been given to the Claimant. The driver completed the Claimant’s reply form of the Letter before action, and provided all of the personal details and circumstances related to the claim.
(d) Due to the fact that the driver was identified, it is unclear as to what legal basis the claim is brought. The Claimant is taking action against the wrong person. The correct Defendant is the driver, not the keeper of the vehicle.

3. (a) The Defendant first heard about the alleged ‘parking charge’ by post - Letter before action - Claim for Debt - requesting a payment of £182. It was received on xxxxxxxx, 11 months after the alleged offence.
The Defendant sent a CPR31.14 request on xxxxxxxx and is still waiting for the Claimant to respond.
(b) The Particulars of Claim states that the Defendant breached the contract terms and conditions.
The Defendant denies that there is a breach of contract.
The Defendant replied to the Letter before action on xxxxxxxxx and identified the driver who has permission to use the xxxxxxx car park, without charge.
(c) The Claimant was informed of the driver’s eligibility to use the xxxxxxxxxcar park but failed to recognise the right.
(d) The Claimant has accepted the driver’s proof of employment status, but failed to cancel the charge.
(e) Even if the driver at the time had a valid contract with the Claimant, the Claimant has no claim against the Defendant as the Claimant failed to satisfy several of the requirements of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedom Act 2012 (POFA) and so cannot transfer liability from the driver at the time to the Defendant as the keeper.

In the matter of costs, the Defendant seeks:
4. (a) Standard witness costs for attendance at Court, pursuant to CPR 27.14, an
(b) that any hearing is not vacated but continues as a costs hearing, in the event of a late Notice of Discontinuance. The Defendant seeks a finding of unreasonable behaviour in the pre-and post-action phases by this Claimant, and will seek further costs pursuant to CPR 46.5.

5. The Defendant asks the court to dismiss the claim because of unreasonableness.

Statement of Truth
I believe that the facts stated in this defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

[ostell]

I thought you said you had never done this before

just one thing, at the moment you cannot know how they have not satisfied POFA as there is no PCN available yet. Aprt from they have failed 9(4) failure to deliver and condition 5 (1) (b) has not been met to allow keeper liability

[A2006B]

Thank you very much!
It's a relief to know I didn't do too bad.
I will amend it with your suggestions and submit it later on this week.
I will also keep you updated about the claim progress.

[A2006B]

Update about the case:
The court sent me a letter straight away when I submitted my defence - Acknowledge receipt of the defence.
Then CEL finally replied and contacted me via email and I was able to see the original PCN, as well as the letters, photographs and Debt Collection letters that were sent to our old address.
They offered me to pay £150 this time (it was £100 when I sent them my employment contract)
which I obviously still do not want to pay because I did not breach any contract; I went to work and parked there as always for the last 6 years, several times a week.
My only mistake is that I forgot to update the vehicle log book. ( It’s updated now.)

My question is :
Do you have to answer the CEL offer? Or just leave it and the claim will stay in court ?

[ostell]

So just leave it and it will proceed to court but then CEL may just not pay the hearing fee as they know they would lose. Or you could write to them with a "drop hands " offer, ie both sides withdraw with each side meeting their own costs. I think this may be a better idea because when you win then you can show it to the judge when you claim for your full costs because of their unreasonable behaviour

Can we see the redacted PCN but leave dates

All this, of course, is in your husbands name as he is the defendant,

[A2006B]

xxxx

[A2006B]

New update about the case.

I’ve sent a “drop hands” offer to CEL like you suggested and asked them again for a copy of the contract with the land owner, just like in the CPR 31.14 request.
They replied that this information is business sensitive material and that they can confirm they have authority to operate on behalf of the land owner.

Is it normal that they are refusing to show me this contract?

They also said that their offer of £150 is the final settlement of the claim.
The base of their claim that they did not receive any response from me (husband) just a year later (when we first received a letter from them, to our recent address)

They totally ignored everything else, despite me briefly going through the facts again in my offer letter, stating that they have been informed who the driver was, and that they have permission to use the car park.

Do I have to answer them? or Can I leave it and wait for an answer from the court and follow the court procedure?

[ostell]

Always follow the court procedure.

Write back to them again and point out that, as has already been pointed out them, the identity of the driver has been given to them and therefore 5 (1) (b) of POFA has not been met and there can be no keeper liability. Continuing is perverse and unreasonable.

Yes it's normal to refuse to show the contract.

[A2006B]

xxxx