Parking Eye Issued a Claim Form

[Guest]

My daughter entered a car park in Aire Street, Leeds, with the intention of parking. She drove around and could not find a space.Then someone looked like they were returning to their car so my daughter waited until they returned. but the simply put other shopping in their car and did not leave. After a few more minutes of waiting to see if a space became available, my daughter left to find parking elsewhere. Her sister, who is the registered keeper of the car received a £100 parking charge from Parking Eye as a result of their ANPR in the car park, detailing 19 minute stay. We wrote to Parking Eye, without saying who was driving and explaining the circumstance and the fact that she did not park put purely waited for a space to become available, but this was rejected. We went away and missed the deadline for appearing to POPLA. We have since had a claim form from Northampton Court claiming £175 (£100 claim, £25 cost fee and £50 legal representatives costs - Rachel Ledson). This was received on 19 August and on 30 august I completed the acknowledgement of service online form. I understand that mu deadline is pretty mush up to put in a defence now but would welcome any help in putting in an online defence today.

[ostell]

As you have acknowledged the claim then you have 33 days from the date of issue to get your defence to the court.

Put PE to proof that the car was actually parked.

As the driver was unable to park then PE did not fulfill their part of the alleged contract, ie they did not provide a space.

There is a case where the judge ruled that waiting for a space is not parking. This was PE and you may care to remind them of that: http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co...t-parking.html

[qc398]

Hi Ostell. I've now received a directions questionnaire (N180) copy from the court saying that PE are proposing to proceed and agree to mediation and I have now received a N180 too with the offer of mediation. What is the next step? Various forums say that mediation in such cases is pretty pointless and there is more chance of success going to the small claims court! They also say that PE try to get at least £50 via mediation. Bear in mind the defendant is my daughter who, although the registered keeper, was not the driver and has not driven the car for more than 2 years and I do not really want her to take time off work to go to court for something she is third party to. I did put on the original defence that I would represent her so can I legally do that? Should I agree to mediation or not bearing in mind that I am really arguing the principle here that the vehicle could not be parked because there were no spaces available.

[ostell]

I presume you are the same as guest. You've got this far so what was in your defence?

[qc398]

Yes -it is me!
This is a transcript of the defence submitted:

My daughter entered a car park in Aire Street, Leeds, with the
intention of parking. She drove around and could not find a
space.Then someone looked like they were returning to their car so
my daughter waited for them to walk to their vehicle but, when
they did, they simply put other shopping in their car and did not
leave. After a few more minutes of driving round to see if a space
became available, my daughter left to find parking elsewhere. Her
sister, Ellie, who was not the driver but is the registered keeper
of the car, received a £100 parking charge from Parking Eye as a
result of their ANPR in the car park, detailing a 19 minute stay.
We wrote to Parking Eye explaining the circumstance and the fact
that she did not park as there were no spaces but this was
rejected.Surely driving round a car park for a few minutes to find
a space does not constitute actually using the premises for
'parking'as Ms Ledson claims. This is an obvious fault with the
ANPR system as it purely logs vehicles entering and leaving the
premises. If there had been a space, my daughter would have parked
and paid. Mike Gill