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    • Thanks for all the suggestions so far I will amend original WS and send again for review.  While looking at my post at very beginning when I submitted photos of signs around the car park I noticed that it says 5 hours maximum stay while the signage sent by solicitor shows 4 hours maximum stay but mine is related to electric bay abuse not sure if this can be of any use in WS.
    • Not sure what to make of that or what it means for me, I was just about to head to my kip and it's a bit too late for legalise. When is the "expenditure occured"?  When they start spending money to write to me?  Or is this a bad thing (as "harsh" would imply)? When all is said and done, I do not have two beans to rub together, we rent our home and EVERYTHING of value has been purchased by and is in my wife's name and we are not financially linked in any way.  So at least if I can't escape my fate I can at least know that they will get sweet FA from me anyway   edit:  ah.. Sophia Harrison: Time bar decision tough on claimants WWW.SCOTTISHLEGAL.COM Time bar is a very complex area of law in Scotland relating to the period in which a claim for breach of duty can be pursued. The Scottish government...   This explains it like I am 5.  So, a good thing then because creditors clearly know they have suffered a loss the minute I stop paying them, this is why it is "harsh" (for them, not me)? Am I understanding this correctly?  
    • urm......exactly what you filed .....read it carefully... it puts them to strict proof to prove the debt is enforceable, so thus 'holds' their claim till they coughup or not and discontinue. you need to get readingthose threads i posted so you understand. then you'll know whats maybe next how to react or not and whats after that. 5-10 threads a day INHO. dont ever do anything without checking here 1st.
    • I've done a new version including LFI's suggestions.  I've also change the order to put your strongest arguments first.  Where possible the changes are in red.  The numbering is obviously knackered.  Methinks stuff about the consideration period could be added but I'm too tired now.  See what you think. Background  1.1  The Defendant received the Parking Charge Notice (PCN) on the 06th of November 2020 following the vehicle being parked at Arla Old Dairy, South Ruislip on the 05th of December 2019.  Unfair PCN  4.1  On XXXXX the Defendant sent the Claimant's solicitors a CPR request.  As shown in Exhibit 1 (pages 7-13) the solicitors helpfully sent photos of 46 signs in their evidence all  clearly showing a £60.00 parking charge notice (which will  be reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days of issue).  There can be no room for doubt here - there are 46 signs produced in the Claimant's own evidence. 4.2  Yet the PCN affixed to the vehicle was for a £100.00 parking charge notice (reduced to £60 if paid promptly).  The reminder letters from the Claimant again all demanded £100. 4.3        The Claimant relies on signage to create a contract.  It is unlawful for the Claimant to write that the charge is £60 on their signs and then send demands for £100.   4.4        The unlawful £100 charge is also the basis for the Claimant's Particulars of Claim. No Locus Standi 2.1  I do not believe a contract exists with the landowner that gives MET Parking Services a right to bring claims in their own name. Definition of “Relevant contract” from the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4,  2 [1] means a contract Including a contract arising only when the vehicle was parked on the relevant land between the driver and a person who is-  (a) the owner or occupier of the land; or  (b) Authorised, under or by virtue of arrangements made by the owner or occupier of the land, to enter into a contract with the driver requiring the payment of parking charges in respect of the parking of the vehicle on the land. According to https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/section/44  For a contract to be valid, it requires a director from each company to sign and then two independent witnesses must confirm those signatures.  2.2  The Defendant requested to see such a contract in the CPR request.  The contract produced was largely illegible and heavily redacted, and the fact that it contained no witness signatures present means the contract has not been validly executed. Therefore, there can be no contract established between MET Parking Services and the motorist. Even if “No Parking in Electric Bay” could form a contract (which it cannot), it is immaterial. There is no valid contract. Illegal Conduct – No Contract Formed  3.1 At the time of writing, the Claimant has failed to provide proof of planning permission granted for signage etc under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Lack of planning permission is a criminal offence under this Act and no contract can be formed where criminality is involved.  3.4        I also do not believe the claimant possesses this document.  No Keeper Liability  5.1        The defendant was not the driver at the time and date mentioned in the PCN and the claimant has not established keeper liability under schedule 4 of the PoFA 2012. In this matter, the defendant puts it to the claimant to produce strict proof as to who was driving at the time.  5.2 The claimant in their Notice To Keeper also failed to comply with PoFA 2012 Schedule 4 section 9[2][f] while mentioning “the right to recover from the keeper so much of that parking charge as remains unpaid” where they did not include statement “(if all the applicable conditions under this Schedule are met)”.    5.3        The claimant did not mention the parking period instead only mentioned time 20:25 which is not sufficient to qualify as a parking period.   Protection of Freedoms Act 2012  The notice must -  (a) specify the vehicle, the relevant land on which it was parked and the period of parking to which the notice relates; 22. In the persuasive judgement K4GF167G - Premier Park Ltd v Mr Mathur - Horsham County Court – 5 January 2024 it was on this very point that the judge dismissed this claim. 5.4  A the PCN does not comply with the Act the Defendant as keeper is not liable.   Interest 6.2  It is unreasonable for the Claimant to delay litigation for four years in order to add excessive interest. Double Recovery  7.1  The claim is littered with made-up charges. 7.2  As noted above, the Claimant's signs state a £60 charge yet their PCN is for £100. 7.3  As well as the £100 parking charge, the Claimant seeks recovery of an additional £70.  This is simply a poor attempt to circumvent the legal costs cap at small claims. 29. Since 2019, many County Courts have considered claims in excess of £100 to be an abuse of process leading to them being struck out ab initio. An example, in the Caernarfon Court in VCS v Davies, case No. FTQZ4W28 on 4th September 2019, District Judge Jones-Evans stated “Upon it being recorded that District Judge Jones- Evans has over a very significant period of time warned advocates (...) in many cases of this nature before this court that their claim for £60 is unenforceable in law and is an abuse of process and is nothing more than a poor attempt to go behind the decision of the Supreme Court v Beavis which inter alia decided that a figure of £160 as a global sum claimed in this case would be a penalty and not a genuine pre-estimate of loss and therefore unenforceable in law and if the practise continued, he would treat all cases as a claim for £160 and therefore a penalty and unenforceable in law it is hereby declared (…) the claim is struck out and declared to be wholly without merit and an abuse of process.” 30. In Claim Nos. F0DP806M and F0DP201T, District Judge Taylor echoed earlier General Judgment or Orders of District Judge Grand, stating ''It is ordered that the claim is struck out as an abuse of process. The claim contains a substantial charge additional to the parking charge which it is alleged the Defendant contracted to pay. This additional charge is not recoverable under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4 nor with reference to the judgment in Parking Eye v Beavis. It is an abuse of process from the Claimant to issue a knowingly inflated claim for an additional sum which it is not entitled to recover. This order has been made by the court of its own initiative without a hearing pursuant to CPR Rule 3.3(4)) of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998...'' 31. In the persuasive case of G4QZ465V - Excel Parking Services Ltd v Wilkinson – Bradford County Court -2 July 2020 (Exhibit 4) the judge had decided that Excel had won. However, due to Excel adding on the £60 the Judge dismissed the case. 7.7        The addition of costs not previously specified on signage are also in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, Schedule 2, specifically paras 6, 10 and 14.  7.8        It is the Defendant’s position that the Claimant in this case has knowingly submitted inflated costs and thus the entire claim should be similarly struck out in accordance with Civil Procedure Rule 3.3(4).  In Conclusion  8.1        I invite the court to dismiss the claim. Statement of Truth I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. 
    • Scottish time bar: Scottish appeal court re-affirms the “harsh” rule (cms-lawnow.com)  
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Council Tax and Housing Benefit Overpayment help


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Hi there,

 

Me and my parnter received a letter from our council regarding overpayment of council tax and housing benefit

 

on the letter it says that it was due to a fault on their part for not adding something on.

that it is my fault for not noticing their mistake when i am no expert.

 

They are trying to claim it back.

the council is part of the goverment just like the DWP to which my mum works

and she has told me if they make a mistakes they can not force you to pay it back to which my council are doing.

 

Any advice will be grately appericated

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Hi Andrew

 

You need to appeal the decison of the overpayment. You only have 28days from the date at the top of the letter from LA. There is an extension to this 28 days of 12 monthts but only if there is good reason to it being appealed late.

 

Ok i need to know a few things first to see if you would have a chance at a tribunal.

1 Is this your first claim for housing benefit/ council tax?

 

2 Is there any illnesses/disability?

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Andrew

 

1 Is this your first claim for housing benefit/council tax benefit?

(Have you ever claimed housing benefit before? even at a different address.) sorry can not make the question anymore straight forward.

 

2 Can a doctor confirm in writing your illnesses?

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1. Yes i have claimed it before at the present address and antoher address but i was exempt so never got a breakdown off what everything meant, i only got this after my finacee started working so had nothing to compare against

 

2. yes a doctor can confirm each of the above as i have got medical reports detailign it

 

the appeal was submit about 20-30 days ago with no reply as yet

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Andrew

 

Firstly it takes up to 12 - 16 weeks for h/b appeal to take place. There will be an internal review of there original decison, which never usually overturns there decison. This is then sent to the appeal services who will prepare all paperwork (submisson) this paperwork consists of LA reasons for the overpayment, how it came about, why they think you should have reasonabily been expected to have noticed the error, it also includeds copy of your claim for h/b and your appeal letter.

 

When this submisson is sent to you there is an enquiry form in it called a tas1, this needs to be returned signed and dated by you within 14 days or the appeal will be struck out.

 

Prepare well in advance for the tribunal, try to get some one from your local CAB office or free advice agency to represent you during the appeal. If you can not get someone to represent you get back to me nearer the time i will help you prepare the submisson, and you can represent yourself.

 

On sending back the tas1 to the appeal service you will recieve a date for the appeal, usually within the 4 - 6 weeks following the return of the tas1.

 

On the day you will sit before a chairman who is a lawyer, he will question you on your resons for not having seen the error (this you have made clear to me in your last post and i belive is cause enough not to have been reasonably expected you to notice the error, but then on the other hand they may see that your girlfriend could).

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Hi Andrew,

I have had exactly the same problem from my council.

 

I have been fighting with them since last June.

 

Firstly someone put my working tax credit in twice and then they put my wages through as monthly rather than 4 weekly, creating an overpayment.

 

I filled in all the forms for appeal.

They then discovered they had made the first mistake and asked me to not reply to the appeal and it would be struck out.

Then they would access my acount again and i would be entitled to fresh appeal rights.

 

I was not happy with the amount they had written off, (£242) from over a thousand

i have spent many hours in meetings with them.

 

they have since discovered another 2 departmental mistakes and are now considering writing off another £380 and just under £200.

I have been waiting for a decision for about 3 months now.

they say it has to go to top management.

 

I would advise you to appeal and keep pestering them.

The council do not work like the tax credits.

 

Tax Credits base your income on a yearly basis,

the council only work off 2 monthly wage slips and calculate your earnings from that until the next review,

if you have worked overtime in they 2 months then you will be entilted to less rebate.

 

Years ago this is the way they worked out your Fizz money so you could work lots of overtime for 4 months and none for the other 2 and still have a high rebate.

 

The council are still on this very old fashioned way of working out your rebate.

Persevere and keep at them, i hope i have been of some kind of help

 

Tracyx

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The council have now issued a final notice for the otustandign council tax, and have threatened sherif action, the outstanding blance is due to there overpayment by there fault,

 

1st do i need to pay it or can i stand my ground due to its tehre fault?

2nd if i paid it can i claim it back after the appeal goes through

3rd they have had the apeal for more than there 28 days now so are they breaching any laws by not replying in some form?

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As far as i know you should try and make some kind of payment arrangement whilst the appeal is going on. The best thing to do is keep up the communication and keep them informed of what is going on. If it is paid back your account will be in credit and yes you can ask for that credit back. As another poster said it can tak up to 16 weeks for an apeal to go through. It is the claimant who has 28 days to appeal.

Ex CAG helper ^_^

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello Andrew, I have been fighting over a housing benefit overpayment now for 2 years.

I also had bailiffs round for the council tax element and did have to pay it,

 

I have also been paying a proportion of my housing benefit back to the benefits service whilst all the hearings go through.

This leaves a shortfall in my rent and I was advised to approach the benefits service for a discretionary payment to cover the shortfall.

 

My counterclaim went to Appeal and they ruled that I could have "reasonably been expected" to notice the error and that the onus is on the claimant even though it is a local authority error.

 

I am self employed and had been claiming maternity allowance when I had my baby.

Despite supplying them with all my accounting records and tax returns etc.

and telling them how long my maternity allowance was for

and that my income would return to the calculations prior to giving birth

they continued basing my payments on maternity allowance.

 

They admitted this error but said I had still been overpaid as they did not take previous years losses into consideration.

I am now facing a £5000 repayment bill despite having had no money and all otehr benefits services recognising that previous years losses create no income in following years that do have profit.

 

These include Inland Revenue, Tax Credits and Legal Aid.

It is a loop hole for the Benefits Service whose guidelines are not in-keeping with other means tested benefit guidelines.

 

By refusing to acknowledge pervious years losses they do not recognise nil income which means a shortfall in my rent,

a large bill and potential homelessness.

 

There is no way I could have known that the Benefits Service guidelines fell out of sync with legal aids and tax credit or that they missed this when I had given them the figures for previous and current years.

 

My case has now gone onto an independant tribunal as my Solicitors have argued that the "reasonable expectation" was subjective NOT objective and that this is "An Error In Law" Who knows what will happen - I feel this is now in the hands of a tangled bureaucratic paper-swapping system that has little to do with the fact that I did or didnt have any money to cover rent and entitlement. However, if you are low income then you may get legal aid and someone else to sift through the mountains of notices that benefits services send you - often wrong and always in duplicate or triplicate making it very difficult to understand even with a legal background. I have been prejudiced against for having shown initiative and intelligence but I felt confused and drowning in the sheer volume of communication that often contradicted from the Hackney Benefit Service. Perhaps if you are able to prove your illness and reading difficulties it might save you. GOOD LUCK! it is a minefield and I do feel Solicitors might drag it out but do act as a bit of a sound board so you don't have to deal with endless call centres!

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please can someone have a look at my thread and see if they can help? im really stuck, and ive got 7 days before the bailiffs take action....

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bailiffs/78406-housing-benefit-bailiffs.html

 

they wont even tell me when this supposed overpayment took place?

08/02/07-Prelim letter & SOC sent to Barclays

22/02/07-LBA & updated SOC sent to Barclays

23/02/07-Prelim letter and SOC sent to RBS

05/03/07-Offer letter recd from RBS - full settlement, no conditions. Accepted

08/03/07-Paid in full from RBS:D

12/03/07-Offer from Barclays - less than 1/3 of the full amount, rejection letter sent with updated SOC:mad:

26/03/07-Claim #2 against RBS...Prelim letter and SOC sent (same account, more charges since settling last claim!)

18/05/07- recfd offer from RBS for full amount claimed, accepted!

25/0507-recd offer from barclays for full amount!!!! yippee!!! acceptance sent

26/0507-recd letter from barclays saying that they have closed my account???? help!?

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