Hi, and thanks for reading my thread.

I overstayed in a Parking Eye car park by around 20 minutes some 4 months ago. I received all their letters, including a "Letter Before Action", and I ignored all of them as was advised previously in this forum and in others. I have now received a Claim Form from Northampton County Court (7 days ago).

I have completed the Acknowledgement of Service online, which means I have some 21 days from today to put in my defence.

I've read around on the forum and know which arguments to go by, but am having difficulty in compiling the defence in a way that's appropriate for a county court, with all the legal terminology and such. I wonder if someone would be so kind as to help me put something together?

Here are my main arguments:

- A Punitive charge, not a genuine pre-estimate of loss, and hence unenforcible.

- Lack of contract - no proof that lad owner has given PE proper authority to enter into a contract with the motorist

- Unfair contract - contract not negotiated individually.

Further Information:

- 22 minute overstay (2 hour free parking, stayed for 2h 22 mins)

- Received the first letter with pics of car within 14 days of incident.

- Was a retail car park serving 2 different supermarkets. One of them has agreed to write to Parking Eye on my behalf, I have requested a headed letter telling me that they don't wish to press charges. I'm a genuine customer, but have no receipts. The other supermarket sent me a template response telling me they can't do anything.

- The claim is against the registered keeper (me). My wife was driving at the time, but I don't want to get her involved. I am happy to say that I was the driver, though I haven't notified them of the driver yet.

- Note sure if the claim is for tresspass or breach of contract, neither terms are mentioned in the particulars of claim box in the claim form. I am assuming it's breach of contract.

- There WERE signs at the entrance to the car park that clearly advised the terms and conditions

- ParkingEye Ltd is the Creditor. The occupier has not been mentioned anywhere.

- I have not yet received a diections questionnaire from the court

That's an interesting way of getting away from the wife for a few days / months.

not the brightest of ideas

''There WERE signs at the entrance to the car park that clearly advised the terms and conditions'' !!

Really?! That would be a first seeing as entrance signs have to be seen from the car, read and understood without turning your head away from the direction of driving (i.e. not up in the air as per usual for PE). See the Appendix B in the BPA Code of Practice (in fact read the BPA CoP, it's not too long and should shed some light for you on what you can pick up on. It's on the BPA website).

It will be breach of contract because PE cases always allege that, as do their signs (high up and unreadable in my view...). So you can say that where breach of contract is alleged, PE have to show this to be a genuine pre-estimate of loss (not just that it's under the BPA £100 minimum). See here, cite the OFT as in bold here because the industry has been warned that these tickets are likely to be viewed as unenforceable:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showth...22#post63327422

Cite cases won against PPCs:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpo...mp;postcount=65

and follow all the usual links here about defending these small claims, the links that flow from here should give you a basis of a defence:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showto...mp;gopid=862298

HTH for starters. DO NOT NOTIFY ANYONE OF WHO THE DRIVER WAS!!! Your defence position as registered keeper is stronger, due to the POFA 2012 requirements having to be met.

edit

Thanks SchoolRunMum. I've actually read quite a few of your posts on this forum, and also on the moneysaverexpert forums. Interesting take on the signage. I'll add that into my defence.

I'm aware of the OFT statement and have already added it to my draft. I've also cited some cases that were similar to mine. And I will not notify anyone of who the driver was

Say, do you think I could PM you a copy of my defence for you to look over? That would be really helpful.

I would have done before the Summer but am not taking pm's at the moment I am afraid - still too much on my plate after a family death in August.

Oh, so sorry for your loss. Not to worry, I'm sure I can find someone else. Thanks very much for your help thus far.

Hey all

I received a county court claim form over a week ago.

I'm in the process of trying to get my parking charge cancelled by the supermarket. The supermarket have written to Parking Eye, and Parking Eye are asking for a receipt or bank statement to prove that I was actually shopping at that supermarket on the day.

Unfortunately I did my shopping with cash and didn't hold on to any receipts. What should I do?

do you use a nectar/loyalty card ?

Acknowledge the claim first of all then it'll give extra time to do a defence.
Do you have a points card for the supermarket?
If so, and if you presented it to them at the time of your shopping it will have sufficient details on it to conform your shopping trip.

It would be a good idea to do an email to the customer services Dept asking how they can get the ticket cancelled when you did shop there and paid by cash.
You need a response that tells you that they do have an option to cancel the charge in such circumstances. It'll be in your favour later.

No, it's one of those shops that doesn't have nectar/loyalty cards. Just a simple cash transaction, with receipt left in the bag and thrown in the trash along with the bag.

Then tell the Supermarket that but that you are a regular customer and were indeed a genuine shopper. Show any bank statements that show you to be a 'regular shopper' there even in other recent weeks. Tell the Supermarket you think it is unacceptable that Parking Eye expect cash paying customers to keep every receipt in case of ever getting one of their fake PCNs - which arrive weeks later.

Did you have a reason for the overstay? Elderly, disabled or pregnant driver or passenger? Delay within the shop at the tills? How long is the alleged overstay?

I have emailed customer services. Customer services then contacted Parking Eye, and customer services have no gotten back go me, telling me Parking Eye is asking for proof of shopping.



Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by this. A response from the supermarket that tells me that the supermarket has an option to cancel the charge?

Was it aldi/lidl?

I do all of my shopping by cash! There's no way of proving that I'm a regular customer.



Will do!



Overstay was 20 minutes. No real reason, except that I had a lot of shopping to do in two of the shops that own the same car park, and long queues.



Farmfoods.

There's a LIDL store there as well. LIDL are being difficult, they sent me a template reply saying they can't help due to BPA rules. I sent them a reply telling them BPA rules state they CAN cancel the charge, and forwarded the email to the managing director in the UK. That was 2 days ago, still don't have a reply to my second email.

Farmfoods were really good with one of my cases. Told pe to back of and sent her some vouchers to

Did she have proof of shopping?

No idea it was someone I was helping

It's a very roundabout way of doing it, but make a SAR to Farmfoods for a copy of any CCTV that you were caught on, on the day...

They don't want proof of shopping they want proof of purchasing. Shopping does not mean that you actually bought anything. They may have been out of stock. You may have thought the price too high. You may have gone in to compare prices. There are plenty of reasons why a genuine shopper may not make a purchase on that occasion.

Hey all, just to let you know, the charge and court case were canceled by ParkingEye.

I spoke to FarmFoods customer support via email. They were very nice in offering me a voucher (which I haven't received yet, been over a week!), but they then wrote back saying ParkingEye are asking for proof of purchase - a receipt or a bank statement. I had neither, so I emailed back with receipts on other dates to show I was a regular customer, and I haven't yet heard back from them :s

LIDL were horrible to begin with. They sent me a template reply saying there's nothing they could do because BPA doesn't allow them to interfere. I wrote back saying BPA does allow them to intervene, sending them the link to the BPA website. I said I wouldn't be shopping at LIDL any more, and forwarded the email to the managing director in the UK. A few days later I received a voicemail from LIDL telling me the parking charge had been canceled. I then called up the court, and they confirmed that the court case had been canceled.

Awesome stuff, thank you all for your help.

I hope the people who support, run and work for these private parking companies are one day punished for their crimes against innocent motorists. At the very least, I hope they see the error of their ways. Their method of monetisation is not just unlawful, it's highly immoral, and I wonder if those without socio- or psychopathic tendencies don't at least feel a tinge of remorse about what they do.

well done. weren't fobbed off and got the right result.
last para a cogent commentary that is hard to deny.

Well done! Another court claim bites the dust (glad you checked with the court to make sure, always worth doing as you can't trust PE further than you could throw them).

Trisontana on MSE has posted about your case and I have added your thread to the 'PE links' in this sticky info thread on MSE, to inspire others:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4766249

Nice result.