First Parking LLP county court claim

[smithx1x]

Hi,

I received 2 parking tickets at university on separate occasions in April and May 2019 from 2 different car parks owned by First Parking LLP. After reading online I ignored all letters and now have a court letter through. I live away from home now however all of these letters have gone to my mums address 100 miles away as that is still my registered address. She opened the first one so when similar ones came through with the same return address on the back, I knew they would be parking letters and I asked her not to open them. I opened them all at once several months later and binned them. I didn’t communicate or dispute these claims at all, but now I am extremely worried as it’s going to court. Any advice? Do I pay in full now by going into my overdraft? The first fine was for a £5 all day ticket that I did not buy and the second one was for a £1 all day ticket (weekend) that I totally forgot to buy as I pay on my phone usually and received a phone call at the time! I have several transactions on my phone of tickets I had previously paid for which is why this is so frustrating, although I fully accept that I chose not to pay for the first £5 ticket.

There is no evidence that I was the driver (although I did attend that university during that time).

The total claim costs are now £442.69 (£50 legal rep costs, £35 court fee, £357.69 amount claimed). I have SEVEN more days to respond to this court letter. I need to protect my credit file at all costs and feel so stupid for letting it get this far. Do I have any sort of defence at all?

Any advice or directions to threads would be appreciated!!

[ostell]

If this is a form from Northampton then acknowledge the claim online using the details and password on the form. This will give you 33 days form the date of issue to get your defence to the court.

So you can dispute the charge £200 max for the parking charges they are claiming from the keeper. Anything above that is possibly an abuse of process.

Ignoring has not been the advice since 2012.

Since you don't have the PCNs any more then a letter to the solicitor requesting all the documents that they intend to use in court in order to narrow the issues between you as expected by the courts. Since they must have the documents to hand to raise the claim then you expect them by return or in any case within 7 days.

[smithx1x]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry what do you mean dispute the charge £200 max? Is there any way I can negotiate with them on cost or is it too late now?

[ostell]

If it's in court then you have to put it in your defence. Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 limits the amount they can claim from the keeper to the amount if the initial PCN

Pictures of the signs might help