County Court Claim Form, Civil enforcement limited Options

[Frank White]

Good evening all,

I'm completely new to forums but have found a lot of relevant information to my case on this website in the last few days. There is a lot i am still confused about though so i hope one of you can offer some advise on how to go about the next steps. I'll tell you about the form and the incident that its for first...

My Fathers business has received a County Claim Form from Civil enforcement limited via the County Court business centre. Pretty much the same as many others have posted on previous topics. The form states one of our company vehicles had over stayed at a Burger king car park in Aldershot on the 11/02/2018 from 15:29 to 18:01 to be exact. We now need to pay £271.08 according to them. The date of issue was the 31st of January. I have been authorised to deal with this claim on the companies behalf.

The parked vehicle mentioned on the claims form is a company vehicle and wasn't on company business that day as it was a weekend. We can only remember one letter being sent to us about this parking notice and we ignored it as it seemed like a scam and nothing like a normal parking fine. We only ignored the letter after reading up on parking notices of course and the advise we found at the time was that they are not backed by the law and are basically just invoices for a breach of contract. I lived at the businesses address but i moved away a few months after so i am unaware if we received any more letters as my parents don't actually recall receiving any more apart from this claim form a year later.

The driver was having lunch with friends and doesn't remember seeing any parking signs. I will go and check if there are any signs at the BK car park in question as i will be ale to use it in our defence if there aren't.

My Plan was to acknowledge the claim against our company first on moneyclaim.gov.uk and defend the entire case but i'm not sure if it might be better to get in contact with Civil enforcement and tell them that the company van was driven by an employee that lives at a different address.

After reading a few topics on here and other websites i am a little unsure on how to proceed next as there is so many different cases on here all similar but still different.

I would greatly appreciate some advice on how to proceed next

Thank you in advance

This post has been edited by Frank White: Sat, 9 Feb 2019 - 20:26

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[Redivi]

Acknowledge service immediately before you forget

The claim has been issued against your company as the registered keeper
Once the claim has been issued it's too late to name the driver

Even if you could, CEL could argue that the company is liable for the actions for its employees

There are dozens if not hundreds of Civil Enforcement defences on the Forum
Use one from no earlier than 2018

They all cover the same points - No cause of action, unsigned Particulars of Claim, No landowner contract, bad signs, fake debt collector and solicitor charges, fake legal representative fee
All points that CEL won't want to explain to a judge

They rarely need more than a couple of sentences to be changed
In your case that might be a failure to meet the conditions of POFA to recover payment from the registered keeper and a declaration that you weren't on company business

[ostell]

It's best to not give hints at who was driving so edit your posts.

So the driver was having lunch and was not on company business.

[nosferatu1001]

Indeed, the driver MUST NOT be identifiable.

2.5hr at BK? Yikes

With an ISSUE DATE of 31.01, you have 33 days frmo that date for the court to RECEIVE your defence
You get ONE SHOT at this
You will NOT get a reminder.

[Frank White]

Thank you for your replies so far.

I have followed your advise and acknowledged the service and will defend the entire case.

I went back to the BK car park and was shocked to see signs all over it. The signs look very new to be honest so i have no way of knowing if they were there on the day of the incident.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction for my defence. I have found a lot of cases on here and MSE and have been reading through them all day. I'm confused on what to actually do with the defence though. Do you type it up and send it to the county court business centre that we received the claims form from? If that is the case should i do this as soon as possible?

I apologies in advance if my questions seem stupid but i would appreciate your guidance

This post has been edited by Frank White: Sat, 9 Feb 2019 - 20:24

[Ollyfrog]

You still need to edit so as not to give away the driver's identity though, in both of your posts now.

Parking slime read the forums and pick up any info they can so don't give them any help.

The driver went to BK, the driver didn't see the signs etc etc. Your father's company is the registered keeper and you are authorised to deal with the claim on their behalf. You went and looked at the signs, the driver said he didn't remember them. Edit both posts to read like that.

[Frank White]

Good evening people

So i am currently working on my defence and i would greatly appreciate it if one of you could give me some advise on it when its done. Will post it on here when its complete.

I have been reading about Part 18 of the Civil Procedure Rules and wonder if i should send one of them to CEL? If so by E mail or Post? or both?

I have also come to notice that there is no mentioning of a solicitor on my county court claim form. Just CEL + address as claimant and the same again in the box below it that is marked as " Address for sending documents and payments"
Does that mean anything to you ?

Thanks in advance for any advise !!!

[nosferatu1001]

Youve been reading an OLD thread if youve found info on part 18. Doesnt apply to small claims track cases.

No. You send them a SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST to their DPO (google it) via the best method you have - post is worst as its slow and can go missing. First class, frree proof of posting of course. No other method of posting, ever.

Yes, it menas they have likelychargd the "filing fee" of £50, whcih can ONLY BE CHARGED BY A SOLICITOR. They dont have a solicuitor and, to my knowledge, dont have in house solictors either, meaning theyc annot charge this amount. Charging amounts they KNOW they are nto entitled to is an abuse of process. If you look at CEL defences and look for the filing fee argument you shoudl see this.

Advice.

Remember you are looking 2018 defences and on ONLY. NOTHING. OLDER.

[bearclaw]

Thank you for your replies so far.

I have followed your advise and acknowledged the service and will defend the entire case.

I went back to the BK car park and was shocked to see signs all over it. The signs look very new to be honest so i have no way of knowing if they were there on the day of the incident.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction for my defence. I have found a lot of cases on here and MSE and have been reading through them all day. I'm confused on what to actually do with the defence though. Do you type it up and send it to the county court business centre that we received the claims form from? If that is the case should i do this as soon as possible?

I apologies in advance if my questions seem stupid but i would appreciate your guidance

Whats the location? Google streetview goes round a lot of places and can show that new signs appears recently... you can often get a series of imaghes through time on a GSV