Free Traffic Legal Advice

UK Parking Control Limited & DCB Legal LTD – Not Parked Correctly Within The Markings of The Bay Or Space – Beckton Triangle Retail Park, 5 Claps Gate Lane, London, E6 6LG

Hi all & @b789,

I hope you are well and thank you for taking the time to look into this for me.

@b789 – I am tagging you here as I saw your response on another post dealing with something similar and I would appreciate your input.

Summary
I just received (09.12.2024) a claim form issued 05.12.2024 from UK Parking Control Limited issued by DCB Legal LTD.

The reason: Not Parked Correctly Within the Markings of The Bay or Space.

They claim an absurd amount of £259.88 in a free carpark, broken down as such;
• Amount Claimed £174.88
• Court Fee £35.00
• Solicitor Costs £50.00

I believe I need to respond to the “Acknowledgment of Service” by no later than 24th of December 2024 if my understanding is correct. I think there is also an option to extend this by 28 days.

The situation
The driver went to the B&M in Beckton Triangle Retail Park. The supermarket tends to be busy and from experience the driver knew not to park there and instead park in front of Harveys Furniture Beckton. Harveys Furniture Beckton never has any customers/lights on and the car park in front of it is basically empty. According to the following website the store is closed: https://foursquare.com/v/harveys/5bfda1d7dbde11002506c8ce

Here is the layout of the carpark, where the car was parked and some google images to show the business of the car park as per google. There are no pictures from the day. Happy to go back there should more pictures be required.

Bird’s View of the car park with where the car was parked:



Link to that location: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5225563,0.0696586,109m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIwNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Good representation of what the car park tends to look like i.e. B&M side busy and Harveys side empty(ier):




https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5223471,0.0697806,3a,87.4y,338.78h,87.41t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1st3Nt6x_YtkXo8cMbRMW3Rw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D2.593455110269119%26panoid%3Dt3Nt6x_YtkXo8cMbRMW3Rw%26yaw%3D338.7831079553184!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIwNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

The driver spent approximately 45min to 1h in B&M and left the car park.

It’s also worth noting that I, the registered keeper, spend half my time in one address in Bristol (where the car is registered to) and other half in a London address.

On the 12th of July, I, the registered keeper was notified by other households of the Bristol address of receiving some mail while I was in London (due to work, and other events). After which I drove to Europe and didn’t return back to the UK until mid-August. Now that PCN was seen mid/late August, past the discounted time-period. Here is the PCN:



Shortly after the registered keeper's return, I got the Final Reminder (even though nothing else has been sent since the above PCN):



And then at the beginning of November I got this Letter of Claim:



Followed by the letter from the Tribunal – see attached the scanned PDF file named “Edited Copy-redacted”

I would like to contest this however before I submit anything, I wanted to check with the forum first.

My questions:
1. Can anyone let me know what’s the best course of action?
2. I understand that my response will be back to the claimant who then decides if they accept my offer or goes to the court. As I am willing to give them £0 then I can imagine this would go to the court. Is it true that I need to pay a court fee of £303 to defend myself?
3. Any other advice is highly appreciated.

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You should show us the Particulars of Claim (PoC) on the N1SDT Claim Form. However, if you follow our advice, nothing will come of this a they will discontinue some time next year.

With an issue date of 5th December, you have until Tuesday 24th December to submit your Acknowledgement of Service (AoS). There is no advantage in delaying the AoS but having submitted it, you then have until 4pm on Tuesday 7th January 2025 to submit your defence.

For now, follow the instructions in this PDF on how to submit the AoS:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xvqu3bask5m0zir/money-claim-online-How-to-Acknowledge.pdf?dl=0

When you've done that, give us a reminder in a few days so that we can put your defence together.

Hi b789,

Thank you for your prompt response.

Are you after this?



This is the first page of the PDF in the original post.

I am doing the AoS now.

Yes, I missed that. You will also note one of the errors in their Particulars of Claim (PoC). The state that the PCN was issued on 7/7/2024 when in fact it was "issued" on 9/7/2024. Just one of their typical failures to do their homework. A Notice to Keeper (NtK) PCN cannot be "issued" o the same day as the alleged contravention because the operator has to apply to the DVL for the Keepers data.

It's just one point of several that will be used for the defence.

No worries, and once again thank you for your help on this.

I can confirm that the AoS was now submitted:





COuld you tell me what are the next steps/timelines?

You will submit your defence (and a draft order to go with it). This will then be sent to DCB Legal for their review. They will respond by letter to you saying that their client has reviewed the defence and intends to proceed with the claim. They usually include a copy of their N180 Directions Questionnaire (DQ) which you can simply file away.

You will receive your own DQ and you will have to complete it and send it to both the court and DCB Legal. After that you will receive a date for a mediation phone call. You are required to "attend" the call but it is not part of the actual judicial process and does not involve any judge or solicitor. It is a complete waste of time in cases like this and you simply offer £0 and I tis over in minutes and has no bearing on the process.

Eventually the case will be allocated to your local county court and you'll receive a date for a hearing if the claim hasn't already been struck out. The claimant has to pay the £27 trial fee around a month before the hearing. They will discontinue before having to pay that fee.

If they don't and you are the only one out of thousands I will have seen that has to go all the way to a hearing, you'd have to make your Witness Statement and send it to the court no later than (usually) 14 days before the hearing.

However, this case is 99% likely to be discontinued.

Got it and to be crystal clear, you will kindly help me with my defence and it will be sent via an e-mail?

Here is your defence and a link to the draft order that goes with it. You only need to edit your full name, the claim number and to sign the defence by typing your full name for the signature and dating it. There is nothing to edit in the draft order. When you've done that, you should save both documents as PDF files and attach them to an email addressed to claimresponses.cnbc@justice.gov.uk and CC in yourself. The claim number must be in the email subject field and in the body of the email just put: "Please find attached the defence and draft order in the matter of UK Parking Control Ltd v [your full name] Claim No.: [claim number]".

IN THE COUNTY COURT

Claim No: [Claim Number]

BETWEEN:

UK Parking Control Ltd.

Claimant

- and -

[Defendant's Full Name]

Defendant

---

DEFENCE

1. The Defendant denies any liability for this claim.

2. There is a lack of precise detail in the Particulars of Claim (PoC) in respect of the factual and legal allegations made against the Defendant such that the PoC do not comply with CPR 16.4.

3. The Defendant is unable to plead properly to the PoC because:

(a) The contract referred to is not detailed or attached to the PoC in accordance with CPR PD 16(7.5);

(b) The PoC do not state the exact wording of the clause (or clauses) of the terms and conditions of the contract (or contracts) which is/are relied on;

(c) The PoC do not 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;

(d) The PoC do not state exactly how the claim for statutory interest is calculated;

(e) The PoC do not state what proportion of the claim is the parking charge and what proportion is damages;

(f) The PoC states that the Claimant is suing the defendant as the driver or the keeper. The claimant obviously knows whether the defendant is being sued as the driver or the keeper and should not be permitted to plead alternative causes of action.

4. The Defendant has attached to this defence a copy of an order made at another court which the allocating judge ought to make at this stage so that the Defendant can then know and understand the case which he/she/it faces and can then respond properly to the claim.

Statement of truth

I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Signed:


Date:

Draft Order for the defence

You may want to delay sending it until nearer the deadline so as to leave it all to early in the new year. Enjoy the holiday season without having to deal with these time wasters.

The auto response (and your CC copy) are your delivery receipt. It may actually take longer than 10 days to get a response, especially at this time of year. Don't be surprised if it takes longer.

The next comms you should expect it a letter from the CNBC telling you that your defence has been passed to the claimant. What you don't know is when the CNBC actually sent it to them.

You should also expect a letter from DCB Legal saying that they have reviewed your defence and their client intends to proceed. They will also include a copy of their N180DQ which you simply file. You are waiting for your own N180DQ.

You can check your MCOL history to see when yours has been sent. However, you can preempt that by downloading your own and completing it online ready to save as a PDF file and attach it to a single email which will be sent to both dq.cnbc@justice.gov.uk and info@dcblegal.co.uk and Ccd to yourself.

Do not send your DQ until it shows in your MCOL history that yours has been sent. When the paper version arrives, you can bin it as long as you have your PDF copy on your computer.

You sign it by typing your full name for the signature and make sure that the claim number goes in the email subject field.

Here are some answers for the most commonly asked questions about the form:

Having received your own N180 (make sure it is not simply a copy of the claimants N180), do not use the paper form. Ignore all the other forms that came with it. you can discard those. Download your own here and fill it in on your computer. You sign it by simply typing your full name in the signature box.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-n180-directions-questionnaire-small-claims-track

Here are the answers to some of the less obvious questions:

The name of the court is "Civil National Business Centre".
To be completed by "Your full name" and you are the "Defendant".
C1: "YES"
D1: "NO". Reason: "I wish to question the Claimant about their evidence at a hearing in person and to expose omissions and any misleading or incorrect evidence or assertions.
Given the Claimant is a firm who complete cut & paste parking case paperwork for a living, having this case heard solely on papers would appear to put the Claimant at an unfair advantage, especially as they would no doubt prefer the Defendant not to have the opportunity to expose the issues in the Claimants template submissions or speak as the only true witness to events in question."
F1: Whichever is your nearest county court. Use this to find it: https://www.find-court-tribunal.service.gov.uk/search-option
F3: "1".
Sign the form by simply typing your full name for the signature.

When you have completed the form, attach it to a single email addressed to both dq.cnbc@justice.gov.uk and info@dcblegal.co.uk and CC in yourself. Make sure that the claim number is in the subject field of the email.

Does the Money Claim Online (MCOL) portal also show the AoS and defence submission dates?

The message "A bar has been put in place on this claim. You cannot respond to the claim at this time." on the MCOL system indicates that the claim has progressed to the next stage of the process, and no further submissions or responses can be made by the defendant for now.

Since you have already submitted both the Acknowledgment of Service (AoS) and the Defence, this message usually means the claimant is now reviewing the defence. They have 28 days from the date the defence was served to decide whether to proceed with the claim, withdraw, or settle.

If the claimant chooses to proceed, the case will be transferred to your local court for the next stage, such as allocation to the small claims track. If the claimant does not take any action within the 28-day period, the claim will be stayed (put on hold), and they will need to apply to the court (and pay a fee) to resume proceedings.

This is standard procedure and nothing to worry about. At this stage, you should monitor your MCOL account for updates and wait for further correspondence from the court or the claimant. If you need to take any action (e.g., complete a Directions Questionnaire), you will be notified in due course.

Occasionally, the MCOL system may show this message due to a technical issue, especially if the system is temporarily restricting access for updates or internal processing. If everything else is in order (AoS and defence submitted on time), it might just be an anomaly.

The court may have flagged the case for administrative reasons, such as verifying the defence submission or ensuring all required documents are processed. This could temporarily "bar" further responses while the court updates the status of the claim.

Confirm that your AoS and defence were submitted within the correct timeframes. If these were submitted late, the claimant could have requested a bar.

You can call the MCOL helpdesk at 0300 123 1057 to clarify why this message appears. They can provide insight into whether this is a routine update or if further action is required.

If the defence has been correctly submitted and you are within the timeline, the system will typically update once the claimant’s 28-day period to respond elapses or they take further action. If this message persists and you receive no updates, document the timeline of your submissions and interactions. This ensures you can defend against any procedural error claims by the claimant

I can now see the online MCOL website being updated stating that they got my defence.



I will keep checking this until it says that I need to submit the N180 Directions Questionnaire (DQ)

Updated Timeline:
05/12/2024 A claim was issued against you on
09/12/2024 at 15:42:35 Your acknowledgment of service was submitted
09/12/2024 at 16:05:06 Your acknowledgment of service was received
16/12/2024 at 10:12:00 My defence was e-mailed to claimresponses.cnbc@justice.gov.uk
16/12/2024 at 10:13:00 Auto Replay from the e-mail I sent
19/12/2024 at 19:30:00 I noticed that MCOL has the "A bar has been put in place on this claim. You cannot respond to the claim at this time." message
20/12/2024 at 10:07:00 I called 0300 123 1056 and after 15min on hold I was told they put the bar in place so the case won't progress further while they review the documents.
21/12/2024 Your defence was received.