Private parking court summons!

[Onthemoor]

Hi,

my local post office car park has a private firm filming cars entering and leaving and the time limit to stay is 30 minutes.

 

I have a small business and regularly visit twice in a day.

 

Back in March i went twice in one day and

 

a few weeks later received a letter with 2 images of me entering and leaving the car park and claiming I'd stayed for 6 hours

when actually the image was of me entering on my 1st visit and leaving on my 2nd.

 

I wrote back to say this was the case and asked them to review their footage as I'd been twice

and I was told that they had and that I'd still outstayed the limit (which I hadn't).

 

I went through the appeals channels and

 

yesterday received a court notice to say I was being chased for money.

 

It also stated that their solicitor had written to me requesting payment but I never received that letter.

 

Although the amount they're asking for is about £250 (which I can't really afford)

I partly feel that I should pay it to save hassle

but on the other hand I'm really angry that I'm completely innocent

and am being bullied into paying money for something I haven't done.

 

I don't have any proof of being at home in between visits on the day in question

so I really don't know where to go from here

 

- can anybody help?

 

Many thanks...

[DBC]

What is the name of the parking company, please?

[Onthemoor]

Hi, it's Premier Park

[DBC]

They are a very "tame" company who don't usually take people to court. I am sure somebody will be along soon to help you with a good, sound defence. Are you sure they are proper (stamped) court papers and not just a letter threatening to take you to court?

[Onthemoor]

Thanks, yes they are - quite scary!

[silverfox1961]

Hi (and welcome)

 

I think that once you acknowledge service (which you should do) and FULLY defend(which you will do) they may just back down.

 

As it's the weekend, advice may be limited

 

Can you post up word for word what the Particulars of Claim are (minus identifying detail and reference numbers)

 

Are Premier Park the claimant or the Landowner (if not PP)

 

I don't believe PP can issue claims on their own behalf if they don't own the land in question.

 

Please read as much as you can on other ANPR companies (parking Eye being the main one)

[Onthemoor]

Hi, thank you.

 

Premier Park are the claimants but not the landowners. The particulars are as follows:

 

1) The claimant's claim is for the sum of £156.90 being 150.00 for monies due for breach of contract by the Defendant in respect of which a breach of contract notice has been issued by the Claimant to the Defendant (as referred to below) and the sum of £6.90 interest.

 

2) On (DATE) at (TIME) the Defendants vehicle (the Vehicle) was parked at (LOCATION) which is private land the Claimant manages. The Vehicles registration is XXXXXX. The Vehicle is a (MAKE OF CAR) and Vehicle is registered to the Defendant. The Defendant entered into a contract with the Claimant when they entered the premises and parked their Vehicle on the Claimant's property that they manage.

 

3) A breach of contract notice numbered (NUMBER) was issued by the Claimant to the Defendant on (DATE) in respect of the Vehicle in breach of the following terms and condition(s):

 

Condition 25, Exceeded maximum stay period.

 

The terms and conditions are prominently displayed on the premises the Claimant manages.

 

4) The Claimant's solicitors sent letters before action to the Defendant before proceedings were issued to attempt to recover the outstanding amount.

 

5) Further the Claimant claims interest pursuant to Section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum from the date of the breach to the date herein namely the sum of £6.90 and continuing interest at a daily rate of £0.03 pence per day until Judgement or sooner payment.

 

That's it - they've got number 2 wrong as the vehicle is registered to my husband not me and I also never received a letter from their solicitor but that may be because they sent everything to my old address.

 

Thanks again for reading this!

[silverfox1961]

Unless PP have an agreement with the landowner that they can act on their behalf, PP cannot sue.

 

While this post

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?390479-REceived-Court-Papers-From-A-Private-parking-Speculative-invoice-How-To-Deal-With-It-HERE***&p=4272973&viewfull=1#post4272973

 

is to do with Parking Eye, the actions should be the same

 

Plenty of reading for you

[Onthemoor]

Thank you very much

[ericsbrother]

As you know the times of your visits and how long you were there for on each occasion write to the company and do a Subject Access Request under the DPA for all images that will contain your vehicle or yourself at these times. Cost you £10 but add the cost to your counterclaim. Whist you are at it, if you know the people in the post office ask them if they will give statements to say that you were in twice on that day. What were you doing at these times, do you pay for postage in cash or by traceable methods like debit card. There will be a time stamp on the transactions and your bank will provide this for you.

Have you had any other correspondence with this company between then and now other than what you state?

You can fill out a court form demanding the images as evidence but make sure that you demand all of the frames visible at the time you arrived and left on each occasion, so for example continuous footage from 11.00-11.10 and 16.00-1610 otherwise they will edit what you get to fit their claim. If they refuse to do this then that should be written into your defence.

Other parts of the POC can be dealt with by following the guide given in the sticky but it would be betetr if it was knocked on the head before then.

[Onthemoor]

Thanks that's brilliant. For the subject access request, would I write to their solicitor to request this or directly on the defence form for the court? It says it takes up to 40 days but I only have 28 days to prepare my defence.

 

Yes I have just checked my statements and there are 2 post office visits on the day in question so that's good - I will ask my bank to confirm times.

 

No, the only correspondence I've had is the process they gave me for appeal - requesting an appeal number then sending the appeal form.

 

The only other thing I was concerned about is that my husband forgot to register the vehicle to our new address so we only found out when we received the first claim that had been re-directed. I know we could be fined for that but I'm guessing it's separate from the small claims court?!

[esmerobbo]

They are claiming "breach" of contract rather then trying to claim for a contractually agreed sum, that would be a penalty. They if they have the right to sue would be entitled by a breach of contract to be returned to the position they were in before the allege breach was committed. So in a free car park that would be £0.

If they are going to relay on the CCTV evidence they would need to produce the complete unredacted images from your first entrance to the second exit.

 

As ericsbrother has pointed out try and find as much evidence of you using the post office twice, were you posting tracked items, or signed for items, these have a time of receipt on them.

 

Once a good defence is offered I would wager they would drop it or not turn up.

[ericsbrother]

For SAR you write to the parking company directly and emclose a cheque for £10. let them know this cost will be added to your counterclaim. Your 28 days for defence is purely to say whether you are defending or agreeing to pay up. send off the form saying you are going to defend the claim in its entirety and that a full defence will be submitted within the allowed time. This makes the claimant have to pay the alloocation fee and the choice of court will be down to you- nearest one to you is the default choice.

The bank statements will blow their claim of continuity away so you can tell them that you have unequivical proof of 2 visits and suggest that they cease their action before you make a claim of harassment and common tort for their breach of the DPA (failure to protect the data they held on you and misuse of the data) that caused you a loss and abuse of process (using court claim to try and intimidate you into paying when there was no contractual reason to do so). Might seem a bit long-winded but they might just swallow the £25 they have paid out so far rather than risk a damn sight more. There are others they can chase more easily so they wont lose sleep.

[ericsbrother]

The change of address is nowt to do with this but you are lucky that it has only been a mickey mouse outfit that pulled your details.

[Onthemoor]

Thanks for all your help, I'm feeling a bit more confidant now!