County Court Business Centre Parking Charge Notice

[Whitecroft75]

have received County Court Business Centre Form for a Parking Charge Notice for exceeding Maximum Stay Period (ANPR) dated 11th October 2019. I'm not sure how to proceed.
The PCN Reminder Notice for £100 was originally sent to me on 11th April 2018 stating the PCN was was issued on 13th March 2018 at a specified time and location. This was sent by UK Parking Patrol Office. I didn't think it was genuine and therefore ignored it as the date and time specified was a date I was at work in a different town.
During May and June I received further letters from DRP (Dept Recovery Plus Ltd) for the same PCN. I ignored the letters especially as the date of notice had now changed to 25th Feb 2018.
During July and August 2018 I received further letters from Zenith Collections for notice of debt recovery. I again chose to ignore them (based on other online forums) as I believe they were not genuine.
In August 2018 I received a letter from Gladstone Solicitors, which online forums had indicated were not genuine and therefore I ignored the letter.
During June and July 2019 I received letters from BW Legal who are Legal Recovery company requesting the payment of the debt. I again ignored the letters based on online forums.
In October 2019 BW Legal had sent me a Notice of County Court Claim referal and shortly afterwards a County Court Business Centre Claim was sent, where UK Parking were the claimants with BW Legal acting on their behalf. The total amount now due is £246.86 (£100 original PCN + £11.86 "Statutory Interest" + £60 Contractual costs + £25 court fee + £50 legal representation)

As stated the first letter PCN was 13th March 2018 at a specified time where I was in a different town at work.
The sudden change of date to 25th Feb 2018 was my daughters birthday and I was not in the Specified Location on that date.
There has been no date and time stamped photographic evidence provided and the 25th Feb 2018 does not have a time of day attached to it.

[ostell]

So read up about other parking claims and court

Acknowledge the claim using the details and password on the form. Put nothing in the defence. This gives you 33 days from the date of issue to get your defence to the court. Get this done quickly as you are approaching the time that a default judgement may be given against you if you don't respond.

Don't know which forums you have been reading that advise to ignore. DRP and Zenith (DRP with another name) yes but nothing else.

So you do not enclose the identity of the driver, you are the keeper. Did the driver have a ticket on the windscreen? The wording you have used suggests that this may have been the case. If not can you post up the first PCN that was received, suitably redacted but leave dates.

If the event was 25th of Feb and the notice was not issued until 13th March then they have failed to comply with the requirements of schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 to hold the keeper liable for the actions of the unknown driver.

[Whitecroft75]

I have acknowledged the claim.
I am the owner of the car. . To my knowledge I am not aware of this PCN.
There was never a ticket attached to the windscreen during that time
The first correspondence to me was dates 11th April 2018, headed as "Reminder Notice" and in the letter it states that "We recently issued PCN to your vehicle.."
The First letter states the Issue date as: 13th March 2018 together with a Notice number.
All subsequent correspondence from all the other persons (DRP, Zenith, BW Legal etc) state the same Reference number or Notice number but with the date of 25th Feb 2018.
I definitely do not recollect being in the location they state,
Please advise

[ostell]

Please repeat after me: DO NOT IDENTIFY OR HINT AT THE IDENTITY OF THE DRIVER.

So can you show that you, the registered keeper were not the driver at the time, or even you and the car were elsewhere.

Can you post up the original PCN or are you saying you never received the first one? Bearing in mind that the PCN has to be DELIVERED within 14 days of the parking event if there was no windscreen tickets. From the dates you gave did they achieve this? Assume 2 working days for delivery.

As the keeper you can not be held liable for more than the amount of the original PCN.

SAR to PPO requesting copies of all data they hold about you

Letter to solicitor requesting all documents that they intend to use in court in order to narrow the issues between you, as expected by the courts. As they have these in their possession in order to prepare the claim you expect these by return or within 7 days at the latest

[Whitecroft75]

So can you show that you, the registered keeper were not the driver at the time, or even you and the car were elsewhere - Not absolutely as there is only a date given for 25th Feb, no actual time.

I never received the First PCN nor was there any Windscreen ticket.

Also just on the off chance if I was to lose the County Court Claim, what are the outcomes? And will I have to pay extra costs?

[ostell]

If you lose then it's circa £200.

So what was the time between the alleged parking and the alleged issue of the first notice?

Have you got those letters ready to send?

Can you provide statements from others that you were elsewhere at the time?

What I'm trying to get to is no keeper liability as the notice wasn't delivered within 14 days a d you weren't there anyway

[Whitecroft75]

The first letter I received dated 11th April which states it is a Reminder Notice, states: Issued date 13th March 2018 Issued Time 14:13
All subsequent letters was from DRP, Zenith Collections and BW Legal state Parking charge date/ Date of Contravention of 25th Feb 2018 but no time given.
The County Court Form states PCN Issue date of 25/2/2018, but no time.

I'm in the process of putting letters together to post tomorrow, to go to UK Parking Patrol Office and BW Legal.

If 13th of March is the date in question I can confirm I was at work at that time and no where near the location they say.
If the date is 25th Feb, I was with my family at home, as it was my daughters birthday and it is only the family who are able to say this.

So I'm still confused.
The date they seem to be pursuing is 25th Feb, but the very first letter I received from PPO was the Reminder Notice dated 11th April for a PCN stating it was 13th March.

[Whitecroft75]

If the previous post is not clear I can scan and attach samples of the correspondence received

[ostell]

Edit your post #3 so that the identity of possible drivers can't be inferred

I think I've got my head round it.

alleged contravention date 25th Feb
alleged PCN issue date 13th March
reminder sent 11th April.

So they have failed to deliver a NTK within the required period of 14 days to be able to hold the keeper liable for the actions of the unknown driver. Issued 13th March, assumed delivered 15th March

So your defence is that you were not there on the date given
They cannot hold you liable as the keeper as they failed to comply with the requirements of POFA (list them all)

Here's POFA: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/...dule/4/enacted check that everything required in section 9 is actually there and on the correct format

[Whitecroft75]

Attached are samples of the letters which include the very first correspondence I received from each of the companies.

[ostell]

You have deleted the dates, we need actual dates not just months. You have no Notice to Keeper, just the reminder. In which case you, as the keeper , have no liability in this matter as there was no Notice to Keeper received within 14 days of the event.

DRP and Zenith are the same company, DRP, and Zenith are breaking the law by not identifying that in their letter. They used to but people got wise. Ignore debt collectors.

The solicitor is adding £60 as "initial legal costs" This is not allowed in small claims. This changes on the claim form to "contractual Costs" Object to the initial legal costs as not allowed and the name change. A PCN cannot create a contractual charge.

Start preparing your defence. You cannot change it later without a hefty charge. Comment on the inaccurate dates between letters.

[Whitecroft75]

Please find rescanned letters with clear dates.

The £60 'Initial Legal Costs' changes it's name to 'Debt Recovery Costs' later and in the letter states that, it was stated in the Terms and Conditions, which was accepted upon entering the site and are recoverable under the relevant Parking Code(s) of Practice (Independent Parking Committee) Is this possible?

[Whitecroft75]

Please note there is a copy from Gladstones Solicitors which on the Money Saving Expert site states "known to be a serial issuer of generic claims with no diligence, no scrutiny of details nor even checking for a true cause of action"

[ostell]

Initial legal costs are not recoverable, which is why the amount quickly changes its name. The keeper is only liable for the amount of the initial PCN, that the law (POFA). The CoP can say what it likes, it's not law. And it's International Parking Community now. They had a name change 'cause the old one got a really bad reputation.

[Whitecroft75]

Do you think it's worth mentioning post #13