County Court claim form received for privatePCN

[Squishy21]

I've received a County Court Claim form for a PCN for alledged breach of contract at a Brittania Parking managed car park. The legal claim being managed by BW Legal who took it in in November 2019.
The charge has risen several times and now sits at £260.90. I've attached the claim form and a recently received letter. I would be grateful if anyone can advise on the best approach to take. The car was parked in the car park in good faith as a customer of the business it was for but there was an overstay of approximately 30 minutes beyond the 2 hours.

I have a few queries:
1) is it worth making a final nominal offer for settlement without prejudice?
2) can I request a court hearing nearer home?
3) is there any point attending court for this with reasonable chance of success? I have a few factors which I have previously raised (responses to those were received as per the attached) and a few further ones to raise.

Any help is much appreciated!

<a href="https://ibb.co/b3ScBNM"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/b3ScBNM/20211209-221825.jpg" alt="20211209-221825" border="0"></a> <a href="https://ibb.co/cvxwRqF"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/cvxwRqF/20211209-221846.jpg" alt="20211209-221846" border="0"></a> <a href="https://ibb.co/qd7xYWW"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/qd7xYWW/20211209-220259.jpg" alt="20211209-220259" border="0"></a> <a href="https://ibb.co/KjCJZX8"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/KjCJZX8/16391264951976808021655410061490.jpg" alt="16391264951976808021655410061490" border="0"></a>

[Squishy21]

[echat11]

ostell Can you please take a look and advise, many thanks.

[ostell]

So have you aske the firm you were visiting to cancel?

Post the original redacted PCN

You appear to have made an appeal that has been rejected, possibly an out of date appeal. Has the driver been identified?

The matter will eventually move to a court of your choice.

The first thing is to acknowledge the claim using the details and password on the form. Nothing in the defence. This gives you 33 days from the date of issue to get your defence to the court..

Have a read of Excel v Wilkinson and include it in your defence for the the additional sums claimed. G4QZ465V Excel v Wilkinson.pdf (dropbox.com)

[Squishy21]

Many thanks for the reply. I'm away with work at the moment so I will dig out the original PCN on return. I wasn't the driver at the time and haven't identified the driver. Yes I've appealed to them but not through other 3rd party industry bodies.

Thanks I will acknowledge. The fact it will be a local court makes life a lot easier than the two hour trip I was going to make (out of principle).

Thanks for the reference to look into

[Squishy21]

Despite putting my defence back, they are still keen to proceed. I now am required to complete the Directions Questionnaire (Form N180). I plan to not elect for use of the mediation service as I don't think that will get anywhere but wanted to check whether this is a good idea first.

The main this is I want to check whether the fee of ~£260 which includes court fee £35, their £50 legal fee and original fine with interest is able to go up at court? I am happy to pay that if required and the court does award against me, but don't the legal bill to substantially grow. I've been under the impression their legal representation fees are capped /limited?

Thanks in advance!

[Squishy21]

Just preparing the questionnaire at the moment. I assume nothing wrong with skipping the mediation and requesting a hearing straight away?

[MIKE770]

Judge's expects mediation save as to courts time

[Squishy21]

OK thanks. So may reflect not so favourably to jump past it without a good reason?

[Squishy21]

Ok, to update - latest is I'm attending court (via MS Teams) in a couple of weeks. I was just wondering if anyone could help with anything to counter their countering of my arguments? Anything much appreciated!

In summary there was an overstay of 23 minutes and 32 seconds of the 2 hour allowance as my partner was in the Costa Coffee late Sunday afternoon when the car park was pretty quiet. Initially correspondence was ignored until the claim started then that was responded to. I have not wanted to settle as it seems unreasonable out of principle and now it stands at £287.

ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] is referenced as not considering the charge unfair (£100 if not settled quickly).

It also states it was the defendant’s obligation to familiarise himself with the Terms and Conditions as confirmed in the case of Vehicle Control Services v Alfred Charles Crutchley [2017].

My arguments provided to them previously:

1. It is disputed that the sum is recoverable
2. The sum claimed is unconscionable and unfair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015
3. The claim involves and element of double recovery and is disproportionate
4. The use of the car park was as a customer of Costa Coffee and not an abuse of the facility

Also I put ‘it is disappointing to have to defend a case when no loss can be attributed to the use of the car park’.

I have attached an extract of their letter received on Saturday countering of my arguments.

They also have supplied a map of the car park with the signs in plan as well as photos from 2018.

I have to send any final points back today as I have 14 days before the hearing (Tuesday two weeks).

Thanks in advance!

[Squishy21]

Is it worth bringing this up as part of the argument for excessive fine (granted this is a press release from the government for a code of practice, also possibly not retrospective, but may still be some use)?


Government clamps down on rogue parking firms with new Code of Practice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

• Code of Practice launched to crackdown on cowboy private car parking firms
• Fines cut by up to 50% in most areas across England, Wales and Scotland
• New Appeals Charter will eliminate fines for motorists who make genuine errors or have mitigating circumstances
• Additional rip-off debt collection fees banned
• Rogue operators who do not follow the Code could be banned from accessing Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) data

Edit: on further reading it looks like the government may have put on hold in June pending review, so maybe not so useful.

[echat11]

ostell Can you please take a look.

[Squishy21]

Looks like court hearing is now delayed due to unavailability of judicial staff..