Court letters Options

[pt8]

Hi,

I've been sent forms from the County Court Business Centre over a parking fine.

I was parked in the car park of an apartment building I was visiting with a former partner. The occupants of the apartment made no mention of me needing to use a parking permit, so I came out to a ticket.

I immediately responded to the ticket with a photo of the required parking permit next to the fine and then heard nothing else from VCS until 4 years later.

Now they're threatening me with court and damage to my credit score.

I can't argue against the fact that I didn't have the permit in the window, but how can they have the audacity to continue with a claim when I've proven the legitimacy of being there?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

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[Redivi]

VCS isn't interested in whether you were entitled to be there

First step is to follow the instructions to acknowledge service of the claim

You don't dispute jurisdiction unless you don't live in England/Wales
You dispute the entire claim
Do not put anything at all in the defence box

This gives you an extra two weeks to write and send the defence

This will include:

The inadequate Particulars of Claim
The VCS contract with the land-owner
Entitled to park
Failure to respond to an appeal
The inadequate signs
The signs do not offer a contract
VCS has no legal capacity to issue the claim
The fake additional charges
VCS failure to comply with its Code of Practice
There is no public interest in the Penalty Charge

[pt8]

VCS isn't interested in whether you were entitled to be there

First step is to follow the instructions to acknowledge service of the claim

You don't dispute jurisdiction unless you don't live in England/Wales
You dispute the entire claim
Do not put anything at all in the defence box

This gives you an extra two weeks to write and send the defence

This will include:

The inadequate Particulars of Claim
The VCS contract with the land-owner
Entitled to park
Failure to respond to an appeal
The inadequate signs
The signs do not offer a contract
VCS has no legal capacity to issue the claim
The fake additional charges
VCS failure to comply with its Code of Practice
There is no public interest in the Penalty Charge

Does that mean I've already shot myself in the foot by responding online to their claim? I filled in the defence box with the details about sending them the proof via email back when the fine was first received. They've now sent the small claims mediation forms to me and I was going to send them back stating that I want it to actually go to court rather than small claims.

[Jlc]

It does appear you’ve been hasty. Changing a defence should incur a charge.

The signs must also say that retrospective proof will not be accepted.

Let’s see pictures of the signs? Also, you’ll need to find out the terms of the lease (unfortunately not yours).

Small claims is court - just a particular track where costs are limited.

[pt8]

It does appear you’ve been hasty. Changing a defence should incur a charge.

The signs must also say that retrospective proof will not be accepted.

Let’s see pictures of the signs? Also, you’ll need to find out the terms of the lease (unfortunately not yours).

Small claims is court - just a particular track where costs are limited.

My defence is basically along the lines of having no way of noticing signs when I'm visiting for the first time and distracted by helping someone to move into the apartment.

It's not even something that should need to be debated, but obviously VCS are disgusting. If I'd seen the signs then I'd just have asked for the permit at that moment and would have been given it. The occupants of the apartment gave me no indication that a permit was needed. It didn't help that they're not even from this country, so probably had no idea what the permit was even for.

No chance of me being able to access the lease terms now.

I don't have photos of any signage that may have been there at the time. I certainly didn't see any then, but it's 4 years later now, so they may have added some more obvious ones.

Would it be of any benefit to attempt to push it to full county court or not at all?

This post has been edited by pt8: Sun, 23 Jun 2019 - 17:08

[Jlc]

In terms of signage, if they were ‘sufficient’ then whether you actually look at them or not does not matter. They will be deemed accepted by your conduct (parking).

That said if they have updated them then that can be attacked.

In terms of fighting it they just want you to pay. Taking it to a hearing is not high risk unless you are deemed ‘unreasonable’ but that is unlikely.

Even if you lose then as long as you pay within 30 days your credit will not be impacted.

This post has been edited by Jlc: Sun, 23 Jun 2019 - 17:40

[pt8]

In terms of signage, if they were ‘sufficient’ then whether you actually look at them or not does not matter. They will be deemed accepted by your conduct (parking).

That said if they have updated them then that can be attacked.

In terms of fighting it they just want you to pay. Taking it to a hearing is not high risk unless you are deemed ‘unreasonable’ but that is unlikely.

Even if you lose then as long as you pay within 30 days your credit will not be impacted.

Yeah, I can present a very strong case if it's needed, so I'm happy to defend it and see what happens.




Thanks for the replies.

[nosferatu1001]

You can only present a case based on the defence you submitted. You can get a cpoy of this from the CCBC, if you didnt keep one yourself. We need to know this verbatim.