County court - CPM/Gladstones - exhaustion as a defence?

[kc0793]

Brief background:

• Came back from holiday in north Scotland to London in Dec 2018 - long tiring drive.
• Parked in the passageway in front of my residence entrance (multi storey block of flat, I don't have an allocated parking bay there)
• Unloaded car, went up to my flat with my companions. Everyone was exhausted and the driver on that day sat down for a couple of mins, and then came back down to move the car to any available street parking.
• Driver saw PCN attached to windshield. Ignored that, didnt appeal, and now have a county court claim letter from Gladstones. Dont recollect receiving any letter before court claim, or any other correspondence.

While I am happy to prepare a defence statement based on the usual arguments for a residential parking ticket situation in this (supremacy of lease over PPC contract, etc) and other forums I have seen, I have a couple of questions.

• There was a recent case won by the defendant on the basis of 'exhaustion' (https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...rister-85-fine). The driver in my instance was similarly (or possibly even more) exhausted. Can I use this approach? This would mean letting go of the 'registered keeper' route and disclosing the identity of the driver?
• I own a flat in the building but I dont have any parking space in the building car park. Surely I still have a claim on the passageway in front of the building (not a public road, only the residents would need to use that passageway) - right-of-way to enable me to access my property?

I have to submit my defence by this Monday, and I aim to finish my draft defence statement by tomorrow morning - will post here for feedback. Grateful for any advice.

[ostell]

What does your lease say about parking and having to pay a third party?

[kc0793]

What does your lease say about parking and having to pay a third party?

My lease, unfortunately, is very unhelpful for my case:

"The Leaseholder covenants with the Landlord:
Not to park or permit to be parked anywhere upon the estate any vehicle
Not to park or permit any occupier of the Premises to park any motor vehicle on any other part of the Estate"

What would be my best line of defence in this case? Taking the Nicholas Bowen approach (I have proof of the long journey that day)?

[pt2537]

Check the notice to keeper, if they are pursuing under the POFA 2012 then they have to comply with the legislation and id bet a couple of quid they havent.