Parking Eye

[Lola3940]

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well. I find myself in a bit of a predicament and could use some advice.
I've been taken to court by Parking Eye for an alleged 20 minutes overstay at the hospital, despite paying for a 2-hour stay. I think we have a 10 min allowence so basically their claim is based on 10 minutes overstay. On the day in question, their card machine and a couple of cash machines were out of order. I scrounged up the coins for a 2-hour stay and thought nothing of it until I received a penalty notice. Knowing that I paid for 2 H , I ignored it and missed Popla. They have wasted no time and took me to the Court. I eventually found proof of my payment, sent my defense letter on time, though the court initially failed to register it. After some back and forth, my defense was finally registered.

I expected the case to be dropped, but after waiting for over a month without hearing anything, I relaxed. After 4.5 months, to my surprise, last week I received an order from the court in the mail, instructing me to respond within 7 days and send a Directions Questionnaire. This came as a shock since I hadn't received any prior communication from the court.

Spent all morning trying to contact the Court, sent an email, and then went to my job. At 2:40 pm, I received an email from the Court, advising me to contact the Claimant and ask to delay the defense(?). No success over the phone in contacting the Claimant, so I wrote an email that I was planning to send after I finished my job. At 6 pm, ready to send the email to the Claimant, I noticed the Court sent me another email 30 minutes after the first one, allowing me an extension of 43 minutes and asked me to complete the Questionnaire within 43 minutes. I did not expected the Court to send me another email with different instructions, so I haven`t checked my email(I am a childcare provider we are banned from using the phone during working hours) I printed, completed, and sent it back with a delay of 2 hours and 48 minutes.

Now, the Court is indicating that my defense may be struck out, and I'd have to pay £108 to reinstate it. I'm at a loss for what to do next. Should I:

1.End it here and mediate with the parking company, hoping they'll accept the money?
2. Pay £108 before knowing if I will be struck out.
3.Wait and hope my defense won't be struck out and continue the case (but will cost me more to reinstate it.

I called the Court twice and they seem sure that the defense will be struck out so they push for £108 penalty.

I'd greatly appreciate any advice or insights you may have.
Thank you a million in advance. Lola

[des8]

I'm wondering how good your defence is.

If it is likely to fail (and parking eye rarely make mistakes)you will probably better off trying to negotiate a reduced sum.

I'm afraid not complying with court directions does tend to come at a cost of some sort

R0b or atticus might have more advice regarding court procedures

[atticus]

Have you completed your directions questionnaire and sent it to the court? If not, do it now.

You will find numerous threads here about how to complete a directions questionnaire.

[R0b]

Afraid your post is confusing and makes no sense to me. What I don't understand is, the court has ordered you to do something to progress the claim and you decided not to do that but instead call the court, contact Parking Eye etc. If the court asks you to do something, you do it (or appeal) or risk facing sanctions.

First things first, has the 7 day period now passed or not? If you are within your 7 day period, then do as Atticus has said and get the directions questionnaire to the court and to Parking Eye immediately before the end of that 7 day window.

Also if the defence is struck out because you were out of time, the fee to reinstate is not £108 as that is a consent order application. Requesting to reinstate a defence that has been struck out will cost you £275 as you are essentially asking the court to give you relief from sanctions, the sanction being you failed to comply with the court order.