BW Legal county court claim 3 years later - deadline is tomorrow

[hlm2504]

Hi there.

A similar situation to me was posted a few days ago but I will detail my situation anyway as I'm on day 27 since the CCC was sent over.

On 23/12/2015, I overstayed at the car park of my university halls by a-number-under-10 minutes whilst loading up my car to go home for the Christmas break. I lived on the third floor of the block, and the car park was completely empty at the time.

The car park is managed by Premier Park but on the land of the halls. I believe the car park had a 10 minute free period before you had to pay, however the signs have changed since 2015 so I have no evidence of what they said at that time. The signs currently say 5 minutes free as the halls sent me current images last week. I thought I left within that period but setting up my sat nav for a long drive home in the dark had taken me over by a few minutes.

My car was always registered at my home address. A PCN was sent at the time but I was back at university 10 days later and my mum didn't open my post so it didn't get seen until months later.

Three and a half years later, I don't have the car anymore nor live at the previous address and have moved 3 times since then. Luckily (or unluckily?) my mum still lives at that address otherwise I wouldn't have even seen any of the letters.

She received some letters from BW legal and passed them onto me but I threw them all away due to all the advice online to not pay them anything.

On 17/07, I received a county court claim form, claiming £264 (£186 fee plus court and legal costs). She didn't inform me of this letter straight away due to not opening someone else's post and not thinking it would be something serious seeing as it's been 3 and a half years since. She gave me the letter in person on 09/08 in which I was obviously quite taken aback upon opening it. I immediately went online and submitted the AOS even though it was past the deadline and they have received it.

I haven't had any progression 5 days later and I am now at day 27 so unsure how to proceed, I may have to go to court anyway due to missing the 06//08 deadline?

My thought was to defend the whole claim, but I don't think my defence is strong enough as I obviously went over the time. However online it says that you should always fight for it so I'm conflicted.

Ultimately I would be happy to pay the initial £126 fee if this meant not going to court - I know this might mug me off but I'm starting a stressful new job in 2 weeks and this will really affect me negatively during a stressful time. Should I offer to pay the £126 and defend the rest? Or defend it all? Can I go back to BW Legal or is it all further on than that now?

I have done some basic research into constructing a defence but obviously it's very complicated to understand and I only have today to figure out a plan.

My main points would be
1) The two signs were in darkness, with terms and conditions in a tiny font illegible from a car (the halls is claiming they're lit up but I don't think they can prove that 3 years later after a sign change)
2) I went over the free period by such a short time (under 10 mins although I don't have the original letter to get an exact time but I remember it was small) - grace period to leave?
3) All correspondance has been going to a previous residence for 3.5 years
4) Loading isn't parking?


Any help would be much appreciated.

[ostell]

Loading isn't parking and this was confirmed by a judge in an appeal case. Jopson v Homeguard. As it was an a
peal it carries more weight. Suggest you search for it and read it then make your defence.

your defence is due 33 days from the date of issue. Have you calculated correctly?

[hlm2504]

Amazing thankyou, I’ll give it a read. Do they need visual proof I was loading? There would have been CCTV footage at the time but I doubt it’s around now.

My letter is dated 17th July but I didn’t do the AOS until 9th August, so that’s 23 days - aren’t you meant to acknowledge within 14? I would have done this if I’d have received the letter to my own address.

So do I have until 19th August (33 days) to submit my defence online?

Thankyou for your response!

[ostell]

Yes you were late in acknowledging but it would appear it wasn't noticed.

Create your defence in a word processor (don't forget to include a signature) and print it out as a PDF and attach it to an email to the court. That way you can keep your formatting correct and please the judge

[Baker2323]

Hi ....I have been harassed by Premier and now BW Legal for 2 years now. To summarise I parked in one of their car parks and paid £2 for a ticket with an expiry time of 23:59
. I left the carpark at 21:30 so no problem with timings, however, they are going after me because I didnt put the correct vehicle reg number in the machine and therefore not shown on ticket. This was due to a faulty ticket machine keyboard. I sent them a copy of my ticket (thankfully not thrown away). They pursued me for an invalid ticket!. I appealed to POPLA and was amazed when they rejected my appeal. It went quiet for months and months until BW got involved. Got a CC procedings letter. Disputed it and again sent my ticket and a "defence" statement. BW have again responded advising their Client wishes to pursue through the court. Since when did paying for a ticket and actually being able to produce that ticket (times concurring with my arrival and departure as verified in their photos) make my contract with them invalid!!!
I almost wish them to take me to court as I can prove that I paid their poxy parking fee!!!
Do you think they will eventually drop their relentless pursuit of their extortionate "costs"

[ostell]

Start your own thread so that matters don't get confusing. Post up the redacted PCN.

BWL won't drop it, they don't care. They get paid win or lose