Free Traffic Legal Advice

On 2nd March 2022, driver (not reg keeper) parked here. Machine was faulty, big queue trying to pay. Most coins were rejected, (many others in queue were paying by cc, getting duplicate payments and wrong carpark option). When our turn, most coins rejected, eventually enough stayed in machine to cover cost, (large sign says, no need to display ticket but machine says, you MUST display ticket) so as being printed, asked son to run to put ticket in car as getting worried about time. On return to carpark, saw men at machine, asked, have you fixed it? Told, not broken was full.
Later got PCN, appealed that we did pay. Reply said you didn't pay enough. I replied to the next two letters, explaining, the instructions say, put enough coins in to cover charge (no change given), I did that. I did not realise that the last coin must have got stuck and not showed on ticket. But the instructions don't mention what to do if machine is faulty. I followed all instructions. The machine has my money, therefore there is no more payment to collect. No reply or reference to my letters. I assumed they had accepted it.
We moved house a few months later. I can't find the PCN or letters but they might be in my attic.
May 2024, over two years later, got a DCBL letter, I replied hurriedly by hand, something like, please refer to my previous letters, machine was faulty, I did pay enough coins into it. There is no missing payment for you to collect, I followed all instruction.
No reply, just auto next letter, then letter of claim. On 28th Aug 2024 CNBC claiming £290.08 with interest accruing daily. I was away, got back just in time to acknowledge online. I have 20 days left to send a defence.
Any advice gratefully received. Especially what to say and what not to say on the defence.
Thank you already to DWMB2 for helping start this .
Should I contact council and ask them if they would cancel this?
Do you think my reason might be enough for a Judge? The signage is clear, the fee is reasonable, why would anyone deliberately hold back a few pence, knowing the cameras are connected to state of the art fining systems. What else should I have done?
Should I fill in the counter claim and claim for my time? Or without proof is there no point? I have a picture of the men emptying the machine.
I have sent a subject access request to DCBL and to Euro Carparks.
Thanks so much for all the help you are giving everyone

photos are here [REMOVED BY MODERATOR]

For what it's worth, I have recently had a "victory" over DCB Legal. I followed instructions here and DCB backed out (discontinued the claim) shortly after I submitted my final defence.  My understanding is that this is what happens in 99% of cases, or perhaps in all cases.  I am happy to show you my discontinuation notice if it helps put things in context.

My advice, as someone who was in a similar position as you, would be to keep calm, follow the advice of members here, and remember that you are not up against the government or the council. You are up against a bunch of nasty cowboys who operate on the fringes of lawfulness and would rather make easy money from gullible people than do the hard work of fighting a (probably losing ) battle in court.

I've removed the link. As b789 says, be careful that you're obscuring personal info that we do not need to see (also bear in mind that your Flickr account contains your full name).

With a claim issue date of 28th August, you had until 4pm today to submit your AoS, which you confirm has been done. Good. You now have until 4pm on Monday 30th September to file your defence. That's two weeks away.

As this is a DCB Legal issued claim, it will be easy to deal with as long as you follow the advice. For future reference, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, communicate with a debt collector such as DCBL (separate from their bulk litigation arm, DCB Legal) or any other DRA. No DRA has the power to do anything and can be safely ignored. They are not a party to any contract that the driver is alleged to have breached.

Here is a short defence you can use together with a draft order that will be emailed as PDF attachments to the CNBC. Do not, under any circumstances use the MCOL defence webform. Do not put so much as a comma in there otherwise that will be the sum total of your defence.

Remember, when defending the claim, you are responding to what is in the Particulars of Claim (PoC). Imagine that the claim form is the very first you have heard about this PCN. Forget all previous communication. How would you respond to what is actually alleged in the woeful inadequate PoC?

Have you checked the date stated in the PoC that the PCN was "issued"? I will bet you that that is not the date the PCN was issued at all. The PCN can only be issued as a Notice to Keeper (NtK) after they have requested and obtained the Keepers details from the DVLA. That cannot happen in under 24 hours and not at weekends or bank holidays. The PCN will have been "issued" at least a coupe of days after the date mentioned in the PoC.

How can you check that the interest claimed is accurate? Do you know from what date the interest started accruing? Is the sum claimed including "damages"? If so, who are the damages calculated? If they are not damages, are they debt recovery costs? Can interest be charged on those costs?

What is the exact wording of the clause (or clauses) of the terms and conditions of the "contract" which the Claimant is relying on?

What is the reason (or reasons) why the Claimant asserts the defendant has breached the "contract"?

Do the PoC state with sufficient particularity exactly where the breach occurred, the exact time when the breach occurred and how long it is alleged that the vehicle was parked before the parking charge was allegedly incurred?

Do you know what portion of the sum claimed is for the parking charge and what portion is for damages?

There is so much wrong with those PoC that it is impossible to properly prepare any defence. So, you use the following short defence and draft order. You only need to edit the defence with the claimants name, your name, the claim number and you can sign it by simply typing your name in the signature part and date it. There is nothing to edit in the draft order.

Short Defence

Draft Order

They should be emailed as PDF attachments to claimresponses.cnbc@justice.gov.uk and CC in yourself. If an auto response email is not received back from the CNBC within a few minutes, try again and if still no luck, try emailing using a different email agent.

Do you think the amount claimed, £205.08 is the £170 plus interest?

It's most likely the (disputed) invoice total plus the county court claim registration, which is £35.

The 8p I don't know.  The cost of the gum they were chewing while they sent off the claim? (joking of course!)

My bad. Here is the correct link to the Draft Order:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yjj8nwoc6sknmc9uawecf/short-defence-order-copy-3.pdf?rlkey=y3xyz2s8vumu0k3webocx9sza&st=rln10f9m&dl=0

There is nothing to edit in the Draft Order. It is sent together with the Defence, which is edited for your claim details and signed by the defendant simply by typing their name for the signature and dating it. If you need a Word or Pages (Mac) version just say so and I can let you have one.

The questions I posed to you about the PoC were rhetorical. I wanted you to consider the PoC and understand why they are not adequate to be able to form a proper defence and so are in breach of CPR 16.4 and that is what the short defence is meant to do and the Draft Order is to make the Claimant squirm and try and fully comply with the order, which they are almost certainly unable to do so and so the claim is struck out

Even if it isn't struck out, it will eventually be discontinued, as long as what you tried to do with the AoS hasn't caused some unforeseen buggerance factor.

You need to clarify what has happened here before we go any further.

• Who is the claim form addressed to?
• Whose details did you provide when acknowledging the claim on MCOL?