Parking company taking me to court

[Guest]

I have just received a county court claim for a parking ticket posted to me from February 2018 ish. I parked in Burger King in aldershot where there was an offer of free parking. In short the date they are stating on the court document does not match the ticket they sent me. Does this make it null and void and I can simply state this as my defence or do I need to go with more detailed and formal defence?

Regards

M

[ostell]

So you need to show us the PCN you received and copies of the signs.

Yes the mismatch of dates will be helpful to show that their statements are unreliable but that's all.

[DTong]

Yes I have a scan of this at work. I have double checked the dates and my recollection was inaccurate and seems it was August.

The place is a considerable distance from me so unlikely I can get a photo of the signage. I believe though from the PCN that there is a 1hr parking limit which I exceeded by 12 minutes. So they initially wanted to charge me £100 for 12 minutes parking.

Am am I right in thinking that this signage may be prohibitive as there is no invite to pay for parking or an extension in anyway even if I did see the signs which I didn’t?

another piece of information which may be useful is that I have retained my food receipt which shows they took about 20mins to serve me and as it was busy with priority being given to drive through customers I had to wait another 15 to 20 mins for my food. Then as soon as was finished went to the loo and left as was on way to the Aldershot Health centre where I paid to park and again retained this receipt as I always do.

any help in making my reply to the courts would be very welcomed and then there will be the matter of the court hearing.

[ostell]

Edit so that the identity of the driver cannot be inferred, use "the driver....." etc. You are the keeper. Please post up the PCN, suitably redacted.
They have to give you a period to read and accept the signs, if you saw them, and a grace period to leave at the end.

Is this the place? The signs are not that apparent, other than for 60 minutes. An it would be possible to go into the restaurant without being aware of the signs. What time of day was this?

You will need to prepare a defence with as much to throw at them as possible but in the first instance acknowledge the claim online using the details and password on the form. put nothing in the defence. This will give you 33 days from the date of issue to get your defence into the court.

[DTong]

Oh and yes it does look like the place. To be honest I didn’t see any signs at all and never expected any problems. It is not in the town centre so don’t expect anyone would want to park there for any other reason than going into Burger King.

Lastly I refused to answer any letters trying to extract money as I recifnosed

[DTong]

As I don’t recognise any legality in the requests for extracting money from me.

[ostell]

What's on the back of the PCN

THeir legal position is that they are claiming the money that you agreed to pay if you broke one of the conditions of the parking contract you accepted by your action of parking.

[DTong]

On the back is payment details, Appeals process and Data usage and reason for obtaining details from DVLA.

So so are you saying I entered into a contract?

[ostell]

Yes, the driver entered into a contract when they parked

[DTong]

So you think I should pay? That’s not very good advice is it? Not like the threads I have been reading on here?

[DTong]

So I can say they entered into a contract with me for taking my picture and requested from the DVLA my details without my permission or something like that? Then I can go on to say there was a sign on my rear parcel shelf saying just that but you didn’t see it. I have always been led to believe that a contract is not legally binding unless an invitation had been made, accepted, both parties are aware and agreed it’s terms. Expecting someone to see silly little signs when just going into a fast food restaurant for something to eat then saying, by the way you owe us £100 for 12 mins parking because you went over the hour really should be made illegal.

I am also able to show I actually bought and ate in the restaurant and that they took 20mins to serve me I the first place or am I detracting from the issue I need to address?

Sorry for all the questions but I need to be sure I have an argument. Using Vine Vs Waltham borough council for instance or a suggestion already mentioned on here about prohibition as there is no invite to pay for parking. Only prohibiting going over an hour for which the charge is £100?

[ostell]

The offer was for parking, you accepted the contract and conditions by parking. If you did not like the offered contract then you leave. It has been decided by the courts.

Yes, a delay not of your making is a good reason.

So give us a photo of the back. The front is not good enough to hold the keeper liable IF they don't know the identity of the driver. Is the required wording on the back. But as you seem to ignore requests to edit then why should we bother if you can't be bothered to respond to reasonable requests? They are made for a purpose, not for the fun of it, and the purpose involves this bit of legislation.

[DTong]

I’m trying to get the back but when I take a picture or scan the file size is too large. Bear with me but as I said, there is nothing of use but will upload when I can. Would it be helpful to upload the a copy of the claim the courts have also sent?

[DTong]

[DTong]

Hope this is useful Ostel.