Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi FTLA,

The driver, an NHS staff member, attended a training at the hospital for a short stay.

When they arrived in the carpark (they found a space, they also check and found that the parking machine did not dispense tickets that could be displayed inside the car as it is a paperless system.)

The process as indicated on instructional signage was to enter your numberplate as you leave the facility which will then display the amount that needs to be paid.
 
The driver arrived at the hospital at 10:48 once parked the driver checked the ticketing machine which confirmed they needed to enter their details when leaving.

They attended their training which lasted approximately 2 ½ hours, when they return to their car they followed the instructions on the machine to pay for parking.
 
Once they entered their numberplate they had expected to be prompted to pay the amount in line with the 3 hour parking charge, however the machine required £10 to be paid (the maximum charge for a 24h period).

In addition, the machine would not allow payment by card ‘out of order’ and stated It would take cash payment only.

There was no option to amend the amount or dispute the charge and once paid no receipt was dispensed or option to request confirmation of payment again as the machine only accepted cash.
 
On 02/04/2024 they received via post, a parking fine from Parkingeye LTD. a discounted £60 fine charging them £100 if not paid ‘early’.

Their claim is that the driver parked and left without paying at the carpark on the day of their training (21.04.24).

The driver does not dispute parking between the stated hours, they do however dispute both having parked without paying the appropriate parking amount and remaining in the carpark longer than permitted.
 
In addition to the above they were unable to dispute the charge with Parkingeye LTD. As their appeals process on the parking eye website was unusable due to an ongoing website error which block the submission of appeals on their portal.

The driver attempted to contact the Royal free trust parking team close to the date of receiving the PCN but received no response for several months and this remained quite after following up in the last weeks.

The driver unfortunately did not contact POPLA as they waited for a reply from the NHS royal free trust parking team.

Now a county court letter arrived from parking eye. The details of which will be attached below.

Time is unfortunately very limited and the driver intends to defend themselves as they paid firstly more than what should have been owed and now are being pursued for £210. However lack of a receipt is a key issue challenge.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

We can’t see any images so it is difficult to advise. Have you followed the instructions in this thread:

READ THIS FIRST - Private Parking Charges Forum guide

There is already a thread on an almost identical situation at the location already running. However, in that case the driver has a receipt.

The date the PCN was “received” is irrelevant. The date it was “issued” is what counts if the keeper is trying to figure out whether they can be liable under PoFA.

You say you’ve received a “county court letter”. Do you mean an N1SDT claim form from the CNBC? If so, did you receive a Letter of Claim (LoC) before the claim was issued?

What is the date of “issue” of the claim form? Has it been issued by PE directly or are they using a solicitor, usually DCB Legal? The box under the claimants name and address tells you who any correspondence should be addressed to.

Ideally, please show us the claim form redacting only your personal details, the VRM, the claim number and the MCOL password. Everything else should remain.

With a claim issue date of 24th June, you need to acknowledge service (AoS) of the claim by 13th July. Here is a guide on how to do that:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gp4lan4cb225p7ajkoy6z/money-claim-online-How-to-Acknowledge.pdf?rlkey=pu8zhuiaxbva4cjdmge72nh4r&e=1&dl=0

There is no advantage to delaying AoS but by filing it in a timely manner, you then have until 4pm on Monday 29th July to file your defence. That's almost three weeks away.

Do not use MCOL to file the defence. Your defence will be filed as a PDF attachment by email to the CNBC. Do not use the MCOL website to file your defence.

Here is a link to the template for the defence. You only need to state whether you were the keeper, driver, both or neither and then add a single paragraph outlining your response to the allegation in the PoC.

There are a couple of additional paragraphs which I will give you to put in to the defence as preliminary matters once you've shown us the paragraph that is your defence. The rest of the template cover everything and must be used.

Do not write War & Peace. You are answering the woefully inadequate PoC. You will expand on everything at a later date when it is time for your Witness Statement.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2hnjkuljjr54pvs7m2pte/Updated-defence-Aug2023-4.rtf?rlkey=yzw080l0rw6l41dzv4m0867va&st=ohe4hf1m&dl=0

We could do with seeing the back of the NtK as PE have failed to show what the added £25 in the claim is for. The are in breach of PoFA 4(5) in that they are not allowed to claim for more than the amount that was on the NtK, which was £100.

The burden of proof lies with PE to show that the driver didn't pay. You say that the driver did. How do you think you can evidence that a parent was made? Would their payment machine keep a log of all payments made?

NtK = Notice to Keeper (the original parking charge notice received through the post)
PoC = Particulars of Claim (bottom left corner of the county court claim form)

You keep referring to the driver, and what he can/cannot argue, but the Claim Form suggests that ParkingEye are not suing the driver, but instead the Registered Keeper - if that's the case, it is the keeper who will be off to court. Has the identity of the driver been revealed to ParkingEye at any point in the process?

The driver and the keeper are two separate legal entities. A person can be either, both or neither. The driver is always the person that is liable for the alleged debt. PE have no idea who the driver is. If they issue the PCN (an NtK in this case) and fully comply with the requirements of PoFA, and the keeper doesn’t identify the driver to them, they can transfer the liability from the unknown driver to the known keeper.

As the keeper has not identified the driver, PE are pursuing the known keeper… you.

As the keeper did not appeal the PCN, there was no rejection. A POPLA code is only provided with the appeal rejection. A POPLA code lasts for 33 days. You cannot appeal to POPLA without a code.

Was any communication initiated with PE about the failure of their appeals web portal? Does the NtK mention any other way to submit an appeal?

You could go through the BPA Code of Practice (CoP) as there is a clause regarding circumstances when they should re-initiate the appeals process. It is also expanded on in the new joint CoP with the IPC. There is a link to the new joint CoP on the private parking forum home page and there is a link to the BPA CoP in @DWMB2’s signature.

Have you read this thread for a similar issue at the same location which was successfully cancelled by the PALS team after a complaint was sent as high as possible up the management food chain?

Parking Eye Chase Farm Hospital

Read it and use the same procedure as described in there and email the CEO of the NHS Trust, adjusting for your circumstances.

Whilst it is less likely to succeed as a claim has been filed, they can still order their agent to discontinue. PE won’t want to upset their contractor as this is probably a very lucrative location for them.

If it isn’t cancelled, then you will have to submit a defence. Have you done the AoS yet? You only have until tomorrow to do that. It is urgent that you do so.

Once the AoS has been done, you then have until 4pm on Monday 29th July to file the defence. That’s over two weeks away. If you don’t file the AoS in time, you are likely to get a CCJ by default which will be for the whole claim amount plus another £27 court hearing fee, whereas if you defend and lost, you’d pay less than the claim amount as the added £25 is not allowed.

So, AoS is your priority. Email the NHS Trust CEO or as high up the management food chain as you can go and complain about PE and this faulty/defective payment system and ask them to call off their agent. Be prepared to highlight this issue with your local media outlets and on social media too. Finally, think about your defence.

Once you’ve thought about the defence, show us the first five or six paragraphs. No need to show the whole defence as most of it unchanged. You will be sending all thirty or so paragraphs. Don’t send anything until we’ve reviewed and critiqued it.

Remember your deadlines.

Have you PM’d the user of that thread and asked for the contact info they used?

You don’t work your way up the management chain. You start at the top or as high as you can get.

Keep looking for how to reach the trust ceo or their deputy. Use online complaint form if necessary.

The “without prejudice” letter simply means that you can’t use it as evidence in court, for example, to show that their conviction about how weak they think their case must be if they’re prepared to reduce the debt they allege you owe them.

Please confirm that you used the MCOL webform to “send off” the AoS or that you downloaded a pdf of the AoS form and emailed it as an attachment to an email rather than “sent” it by snail mail.