County Court claim for unpaid PCN from March 2017 in a new car park.

[Newboy2019]

Thank you for your assistance and guidance, the driver would like to defend this and would be grateful for advice. They have received a county court business centre claim form asking for £248.80 for a PCN which has not been paid. This has been returned online that it will be defended and have 14 days left to do so.

Particulars of claim include £100 PCN, interest £13.80, contractual costs £60. then on then the sum totals amount claimed £173.80,court fee £25, Legal representativ'e coasts £50, total £248.80. Are the contractual costs not legal costs?

21st March 2017 the driver overstayed their time by 19 minutes by their PNC camera. You do not have to pay to park but maximum stay is three hours. Parking here was free until a recent development and parking restrictions had been in place for four months and had caught out many local residents. They wrote to the property owners who acknowledged and referred them to the car parking company. They appealed to Britannia Parking who rejected their appeal. Then local media published an article saying Britannia had cancelled a PCN for a family who had also complained. The driver again wrote to Britannia again citing this their actions and asking for the cancellation parking notice. Their response was this issue had already been decided by them and an appeal would have had to be through POPLA within 28 days of the original decision. They did not appeal to POPLA as they thought they were out of time. They decided not to respond to further communications from them until BW legal letters seeking money, then a CC letter.

In Britannia's T&C's it does not matter if cars are parked 19 minutes or 19 days over the three hours the penalty notice fee is the same?

On the ccbc claim for there is no signature just a printed name, not sure if that has any relevance?

Any guidance would be most welcome. Thanks

[charitynjw]

Hi Newboy

Well done for acknowledging the court claim.

You should now have 33 days from the claim issue date in which to defend.

When you appealed to Britannia, did you admit who was actually driving/parking at the time?

(There are many issues to explore here, so one at a time.)

Could you post up B's Particulars of Claim? (Redact any identifiers.)

Btw, could you edit

21st March 2017 overstayed my time by 19 minutes by their PNC camera.....

To

The driver overstayed (etc)

Never ID who was driving. (Even on an internet forum.)
Always put 'The driver did [this], the registered keeper received [that] etc.

[Newboy2019]

Thank you for your reply, in regard to admitting who the driver was, the letter to Britannia may suggest the author of the letter could have been the driver although they did not state they were the driver. Particulars of claim attached and post edited.
Many thanks.
NewBoy

[charitynjw]

Ok

You have , by my calcs, until 16th March (latest) to file your defence (33 days from court claim issue date...28 days + 5 days allowed for you to have received the court claim form).
But please check my atrocious math!

By any slim chance, do you have the original PCNs?
(Postal one's, windscreen ticket if applicable)

As the claim is for a 2017 incident, has the car park signage changed?

Could you clarify?
This incident is from 2 years or so ago.
But you say (post #1) that restrictions were put in place recently. (4 months)

**Btw, redact your vehicle reg from the posted court claim**

[Newboy2019]

Original PCN attached, both sides.
Incident from 29th March 2017. It was a new car park which had been in operation for about four months (from Nov/Dec 2016) after a redevelopment of site and shops. Prior development the car parking here was free. Driver thinks when the new car park opened it was unrestricted parking until Nov/Dec 2016, may be a few months.
Parking signage was changed after driver received their PCN due to local pressure on parking restrictions, details attached PCN 23 June 17.

[ostell]

That PCN can't hold the keeper liable due to several failures of POFA. Has the driver been identified.? Yes or No

Go through your correspondence please

Can you get a photo of the signs please to see what they say about parking time rather then stay and time on site

[charitynjw]

It is possible that the private Britannia are not going to rely on PoFA 2012.
They might try & use the (common) law of contract instead.(I could be wrong but best to be prepared, I reckon.)

Blimey....it's difficult to (for me, anyway) to see the dates on that postal notice. ('cos of the blue background.)

So....date of issue of the notice?

If my assumption is correct, the site signage (which forms the basis of the alleged contract) will be important.
&, of course, it would have to be the one that existed at the time of the incident.
It is under those (historic) terms that the driver elected to contract with Britannia.

Btw, it doesn't matter too much about the printed name on the court claim (form N1).

Strictly speaking It (the N1) ought to be signed by the person making the claim, or by their legal rep.
But Small Claims courts don't seem to worry about that. (It may well be that, if filed electronically, that is acceptable in lieu of a 'wet ink' sig. After all, you can apply for a credit card online & the 'tick box' counts as a signature.)
The court rule that covers this is here. (CPR 21.1 & 2) & this is the relevant Practice Direction.
But as I say, it is fairly standard for a printed signature to be accepted.

[Newboy2019]

That PCN can't hold the keeper liable due to several failures of POFA. Has the driver been identified.? Yes or No

Go through your correspondence please

Can you get a photo of the signs please to see what they say about parking time rather then stay and time on site

The original correspondence to Britannia is not now available, the driver responded to Britannia's PCN in the first person with their name so it could be 'assumed' that they drove the car. Will get photo's of current signage although it was changed in june/july 2017.
Thank you

[Newboy2019]

It is possible that the private Britannia are not going to rely on PoFA 2012.
They might try & use the (common) law of contract instead.(I could be wrong but best to be prepared, I reckon.)

Blimey....it's difficult to (for me, anyway) to see the dates on that postal notice. ('cos of the blue background.)

So....date of issue of the notice?

If my assumption is correct, the site signage (which forms the basis of the alleged contract) will be important.
&, of course, it would have to be the one that existed at the time of the incident.
It is under those (historic) terms that the driver elected to contract with Britannia.

Date of contravention 21st March 2017, date of notice 29th March 2017. Thank you

[charitynjw]

Date of contravention 21st March 2017, date of notice 29th March 2017. Thank you

Thanks for that.

Fire off a SAR to both Britannia & BWL, asking for all data they hold pertaining to this claim.
(you won't get site signage with this as it's not personal data.)

&; a CPR 31.14 request to BWL only (as they have been 'instructed' by Britannia.)

Ref: PCN (ref no, [xxx], court claim no [yyy],

Ask for

• A true copy of the relevant site signage
• True copies of the demands as mentioned in the Claimant's Particulars of Claim.
• Any other documents, pictures, etc that the Claimant intends to rely on to evidence their claim.
• A true copy of the agreement between the landowner (or any agent of same) and the Claimant, Britannia.

& any other thing you think may be relevant.

All are free of charge.
Get proof of posting if via land mail.....very important!

If you intend to use email, let us know before you send anything off.

Did BWL ever send you out a PAP before issuing the court claim?

[Newboy2019]

That PCN can't hold the keeper liable due to several failures of POFA. Has the driver been identified.? Yes or No

Go through your correspondence please

Can you get a photo of the signs please to see what they say about parking time rather then stay and time on site

The T&C's sign is different to the one in March 2017 which did not have times on it and the driver is pretty certain there was no entrance signage either.

[Newboy2019]

SAR's sent and CPR 31.14. They did send PAP before claim and over the 30 days required.

Have noticed the address for Britannia on the court claim form is incorrect and different from their original communication?

[charitynjw]

Excellent....that'll give them summat to chew over!

That is their registered address at Companies House.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08182990

[Newboy2019]

Excellent....that'll give them summat to chew over!

That is their registered address at Companies House.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08182990

Does it mater that the address on the claim form is laid out incorrectly?

[charitynjw]

Does it mater that the address on the claim form is laid out incorrectly?

Not really.

The address (Britannia?) on the claim form is probably a contact address.
The one in the link above is their registered address for Companies House purposes.