Hello everyone,
I found this forum while searching for advice regarding the below, any help & guidance would be appreciated.
I received a claim form in the post today informing someone claims I owe them money, and a money claim has been made against me. I have been given 14 days to respond.
Issued by 'The Civil National Business Centre, Northampton'
Claimant is 'Civil Enforcement Limited, Liverpool'
Claim is for £188.59: £170 (unpaid parking charge) + £18.59 (interest)
As stated, particulars of the claim are:
Claim for money relating to a parking charge for breach of contract terms/ conditions (TCs) for parking in private car park (CP) managed by claimant. Drivers may only park pursuant to TCs of use displayed in CP and agreed upon entry/parking. ANPR cameras or manual patrols monitor vehicles entering/exiting the CP and TC breaches.
Charges of £170 claimed.
Violation date: 07/12/2024.
SUMMARY
I have continued to dispute this parking charge by Civil Enforcement Limited. It was posted directly to my home address and has slowly increased over time to the current amount of £170. It was assigned to a debt collector at a stage, repeatedly calling my mobile and landline. Seeing they were unsuccessful, the collection was later returned to Civil Enforcement Limited and they continued to send me letters through the post until now. I have received various letters with titles such as reminders, final reminder, final notice of debt recovery, notice of intended legal action, letter before action to which I responded to inform that I dispute the debt (Box D ticked) and provided documents such as my restaurant booking receipt, letter of support from my colleague that I was a paying customer and supporting pictures as well, to show how dark the car park was on a cold winter night, and the blank walls of the marquee in which we were entertained, no signs in sight. I declined to complete the included financial statement. Below is a copy of the dispute letter I included with the 'letter before action'. It pretty much tells the whole story for me. FYI, therre was no lift barrier to access this car park, it was just a drive in.
They replied that the points I raised have been reviewed and that it remains their position, that the parking charge notice was correctly issued, and that the parking charge remains outstanding in their own opinion.
VEHICLE REGISTRATION –
PCN REFERENCE & PARKING FEE YOU HAVE REQUESTED – £170
DATE – 7 DECEMBER 2024
SITE DETAIL –
Dear Civil Enforcement Limited,
In response to your recent letter, I ticked ‘BOX D – I dispute the debt’ in my response because;
After receiving your first ‘PCN – 28079729812’. I returned to ‘The Restaurant’ to inform its management about it. I provided the relevant booking information to Patrick, the Manager on duty, to inform I was a paying customer on the said night & to justify why my car was parked on the site. I explained that it was too dark to make out the sparse notices, I had to make my way inside as it was too cold to wait about outside, the notice I saw reassured that ‘parking was for customers’, my group was not catered for in the main building where I later learnt the registration machine was located, we were catered for in the Marquee outside in which there was good illumination but it was void of any notices, to prompt customers of the need to register their cars. Not a single waiter, waitress, host mentioned the need to register my car. I therefore requested for the parking charge to be removed and obtained consent to take pictures of the site in broad day light (copies included in this mail). I need to stress that, in addition to the poor illumination outdoors on the winter night I was there, notices were sparse and small lettered. I was only able to see them in broad day light.
Patrick said he had the capacity to request you to remove the charge on the system but only a few could be done per month, so it might take a while. Subsequently, I visited again each time I received a new notification or reminder, and I was repeatedly told that the process to have it cancelled was underway.
I visited again on the 12/3/25. Izzy, the manager that day informed she was aware a cancellation had already been requested by Patrick, so she was frustrated that I had yet again received another reminder. She planned to escalate the matter by emailing the management of ‘civil enforcement limited’. She called and spoke to me later that day, confirming she had escalated the situation as planned.
Despite all the attempts by the management of the restaurant to remove this parking charge, you have repeatedly disregarded their requests, and at some stage, passed the charge to debt collectors.
I also contacted you before, returning a call in response to one of the numerous messages left for me, I stayed on the call until I was able to speak to an actual person to whom I explained all the above, but her only response was that it was too late for an appeal, she was only interested in my money. She had no other solution to offer, a ‘telephone bot’ would have been more proactive.
It all looks like an elaborate ploy to outsmart unsuspecting customers, rather than penalize non-customers using the site for free parking. I fall into the former category, but civil enforcement’s only interest has been to get me to make this payment. Most recently they have tried to make me pay by saying that they will take me to court, despite their actions being against the spirit of the law. The court will see right through it. I need to again stress that I was a paying customer, I did not just park my car and go shopping for a few hours. And, do you really think anyone would intentionally not enter their car reg into a machine but rather choose this tedious process?
It is a matter of principle for me, I refuse to take responsibility for what I have not done, I did not park illegally, I had a right to have my car in the parking area on the aforementioned night & date, in so much as I was present on site throughout, with my work colleagues, for our Christmas dinner party as a paying customer.
I have included
- a copy of the booking and letter from my colleague who completed the booking
- an email communication with Izzy, who is one of the managers at the restaurant
- pictures showing vast areas of the site with no notices, specifically, at the entrance and within the marquee where my group was hosted, sparse & small lettered notices in other areas which were poorly placed and difficult to make out, especially on a dark winter night, compounded by poor lighting, some hand written notices which could easily have faded, been wiped or rain washed on the night in question
I therefore request the cancellation of this parking charge as it is unlawful.
Cc:
The Management of the restaurant
1) I am not sure where to go from here and how to appropriately respond to this claim form
2) I live in Chelmsford (Essex), the restaurant/parking is in Colchester (Essex) but the claim tribunal is at 'The Civil National Business Centre in Northampton', Why so far & outside of the area of the car park?
Thanking you in advance for any assistance
