It's certainly a weight off my mind! Thank you all for all the great advice and for taking the time to answer questions etc.

Hi. Apologies it has been a long while since my last update. In the meantime I had a phone call from UKPC's Legal Representatives requesting a conversation without prejudice, asking if I would be willing to settle the case for the original value of the PCN, which I declined. All the while the process was rumbling on, I had requested which court I would like the case to be heard and so on. Then had an email offering to settle out of court, which represented a small discount over what they were asking for. I have now received a Notice of Discontinuance and have also received an order from the court stating that the trial is vacated. This all feels like great news to me?

I have checked mcol. It says DQ filed by claimant. They filed theirs the same day it was sent to me.

Afternoon. Quick update. The N180 has been completed and sent - copy to the court and copy to the claimant (their legal rep). Is it just a case of sit tight and wait now, should I be looking at my witness statement just yet? Thanks as always!

Quick update. So as was said, it being stayed after 28 days is clearly not a thing as I have now received the Notice of Proposed Allocation paperwork. I must complete the Small Claims Directions Questionnaire (Form N180) by March 31st, so that's an activity for this weekend!

Do you mean the 28 day limit for the Claimant to respond? This was just what the court told me and just took it as read, but having no previous experience of this I'll take it thats not the case? My primary concern was that I had missed something and things were happening without my knowledge, so I am happy thats not the case.

Hi. There has been a bit of a lull in activity recently. I got a letter from the Courts saying the defence had been served to the Claimant and they need to respond within 28 days. No further comms since. In other news, the DVLA SAR info has come back. UKPC Ltd requested my details on 4/1/22 and their speculative invoice, a copy of which they sent me as part of the CPR31.14 request, was dated 5/1/22, so unfortunately it seems they have done everything within requisite time. The only thing they may not have done is actually post it, or Royal Mail may have neglected to deliver it!

Thanks dx for confirming. Defence submitted. I guess now I await further direction from the Courts?

Quick (possibly silly) question... when I post my defence on the MCOL site, should I add the additional contact details (phone, email) or leave it blank? Thanks

I am going to post the defence today, just to be sure, is there anything that stands out as being wrong with what I have? As always, any help greatly appreciated.

I have read through some threads on here and have put together my first crack at a defence - taking head to keep it brief and not go mad on adding too many points. I did read CPR 16.4 and 16.5(3) to make sure those statements were accurate before adding them. The Defendant contends that the particulars of claim are vague and generic in nature which fails to comply with CPR 16.4. The Defendant accordingly sets out its case below and relies on CPR 16.5 (3) in relation to any particular allegation to which a specific response has not been made. 1. The Defendant was the recorded keeper of vehicle XXXX XXX, at the time of the alleged incident. The Claimant is not in a position to state if the Defendant was the driver at the time. 2. It is denied that the Defendant entered into a contract with the Claimant. 3. There are no contractual costs and interest cannot be accrued on a speculative charge, further it is denied that the Claimant’s signage is capable of creating a legally binding contract. 4. As held by the Upper Tax Tribunal in Vehicle Control Services Limited v HMRC [2012] UKUT 129 (TCC), any contract requires offer and acceptance. The Claimant was simply contracted by the landowner to provide car-park management services and is not capable of entering into a contract with the Defendant on its own account, as the car park is owned by and the terms of entry set by the landowner. Accordingly, it is denied that the Claimant has authority to bring this claim. 5. In any case it is denied that the Defendant broke the terms of a contract with the Claimant. 6. Therefore the claimant is put to strict proof to evidence its cause of action and contractual costs and what loss it has suffered. 7. The Claimant is further put to strict proof that it has sufficient proprietary interest in the land, or that it has the necessary authorisation from the landowner to issue parking charge notices, and to pursue payment by means of litigation. 8. The Particulars of Claim is denied in its entirety. It is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief claimed or any relief at all.

This is my concern as well, however, once DVLA respond to the SAR I should be able to see if the date on the PCN is actually accurate or not... there is always a risk of course that they requested details immediately and then sat on it for some time and backdated the PCN to ensure compliance...

Thanks for the feedback. The original PCN does have the correct address on it, odd that I never received it but have received all subsequent letters from their legal teams. This is the frustrating thing about it, it may seem like it was wanton disregard but for the duration we were genuine customers of one of the retail outlets which is why I am really annoyed that DFS left me high and dry with it. I assume that an overstay is a more challenging situation to defend against? The date on the PCN suggests it was sent within the required time frame as well.

I have managed to get everything into a single pdf, but the file size is up at 16MB, so I am going to have to break it down into multiple files to get it up here.

Got a reasonably prompt answer to my CPR31.14 request, which includes the PCNs I never received and a copy of their contract with the land owners.

I've contacted DVLA and requested it via a SAR. It can take up to 30 days though.

Thank you dx and FTMD for your responses, much appreciated. I'll get to work on it, ready to file at the right time (not too early!).

I am probably over thinking this, but would the normal defence approach apply here? My biggest concern is on the face of it it looks like I have just ignored it, but with no PCN or NTK does this adversely affect my approach?

Initial message was sent on 8th August '22 I sent another on 24th August I got their unhelpful reply on 30th August Yes, all before the court claim was issued.

I sent the below after receiving a begging letter from dcbl Ltd: Dear Sirs, I have recently received your unfounded and unsolicited demand for payment, I have also received equally unfounded demands from an organisation called Debt Recovery Plus, in fact, however, the only company I have to this day not received any form of communication from is UK Parking Control Ltd who, I am led to believe, is the organisation who made the initial allegation? Had UK Parking Control Ltd actually made any effort to contact me themselves I could have very easily explained that I was legitimately shopping that day, this whole issue would have then been resolved, which would no doubt have saved a number of people a lot of wasted time, myself included. That day my Wife and I were shopping for a new sofa and as you may, or may not, be aware that shopping arcade offers a great number of furniture outlets. I am sure you can imagine, visiting each one in turn can take some time in itself, our trip was further extended when we actually found a sofa we liked and spent some time talking through the finer details with the sales representative before making a purchase. Whilst in the shop, I was told, quite categorically, by the sales representative in DFS that remaining in the car park will not be an issue as we are a customer and we are making a purchase. If required, I am, of course, happy to send proof of the purchase we made to show that we were parked legitimately that day; and on doing so I am sure this will satisfy this matter and any further speculative invoices demanding payment will be ceased. Yours Faithfully, I got no response to this. Instead I got another 'beg-o-gram' through the post, so then sent this: Dear Sirs, I have received yet another unfounded and unsolicited speculative demand for payment from yourselves, however, to date have received NO response to my previous email of 8th August 2022. It seems that you are equally as adept as UK Parking Control Ltd when it comes to effectively communicating, whom, to date, have not made any effort to make any contact with me, You also incorrectly state that I have not responded to your previous letter; on the contrary I have, I strongly recommend that you check your Email Inbox more frequently moving forward to prevent further embarrassment. In order to help you save your printer ink and paper, please understand that I will not be making any payment to you in regard to your speculative invoice, so please immediately cease and desist in continuing to send them. I consider your consistent, unrelenting demands for payment to be nothing more than harassment. As I have previously stated I was parked legitimately, which I can evidence. Yours Faithfully, I then got this response, which as LFI stated previously clearly demonstrates that 'fairness', honesty or integrity are not within the remit of these crooks. At this point I realised that any further communication was futile and just waited for the inevitable, which has now arrived. Dear .... We write further to your recent correspondence. We are instructed by our Client to recover the outstanding balance in relation to the Parking Charge Notice (PCN) issued to you. Please note, the timeframe in which to appeal the PCN expired prior to our instruction. You were given the opportunity to lodge an appeal when the initial Notice was issued to you. As the person named by our Client, you remain liable for the outstanding balance. You can pay easily by using Scan to Pay, simply scan the QR code located on our letters with your phone and pay by card. You can also pay by card on the secure payment page on the website 24 hours a day www.dcbltd.com/pay-online/. Alternatively, use our 24/7 Payment line: 01302 897022— Office number: 0203 434 0432 Office opening hours: Monday—Friday 8am—5pm. Bank Transfer Sort Code: 20-24-09 Account Number: 60430781 Please quote your DCBL reference number as the payment reference. Please note, should the balance remain unpaid, it would be the decision of our Client on how they choose to proceed. Kind regards, I have tried and tried with DFS, but unfortunately they are less than interested. They simply tell me that they are not the landowners and therefore cant do anything about it... I will have a look to see if I can find the CEO's details though and try that avenue. From a defence perspective, any advice would be greatly appreciated - does this fall within the defence under the sticky given the circumstances around having not received a PCN?

For PCN's received through the post [ANPR camera capture] (must be received within 14 days from the Incident) Please answer the following questions. 1 Date of the infringement 31/12/2021 2 Date on the NTK [this must have been received within 14 days from the 'offence' date] NTK was never received. First comms were from the legal team. Searched and searched and no NTK was ever received. [scan up BOTH SIDES as ONE PDF- follow the upload guide] please LEAVE IN LOCATION AND ALL DATES/TIMES/£'s 3 Date received NTK was never received 4 Does the NTK mention schedule 4 of The Protections of Freedoms Act 2012? [Y/N?] Unknown 5 Is there any photographic evidence of the event? None received 6 Have you appealed? [Y/N?] post up your appeal] First correspondence received was from Debt Recovery Plus and stated that it was already too late to appeal Have you had a response? [Y/N?] post it up N/A 7 Who is the parking company? UK Parking Control Ltd 8. Where exactly [carpark name and town] Forbury Retail Park Phase 2, Reading For either option, does it say which appeals body they operate under. BPA There are two official bodies, the BPA and the IAS. If you are unsure, please check HERE If you have received any other correspondence, please mention it here Received numerous demands from Debt Recovery Plus, CST Law, Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd, and a Pre-Action Protocol letter from DCB Legal

Hi. I have double checked the email I sent and it went to DCB Ltd, who are the solicitors for UKPC

Thank you all for taking the time to help and offer advise so far. AOS is complete and CPR31.14 is winging its way to them. I guess next steps is to start looking at my defence? One quick question - I sent a snotty email to a collections company after they sent me a letter demanding payment (annoyed because I had not received a NTD or NTK etc), in that I did admit to having parked in the car park, I assume this doesn't help me much?

No, we have been at that address for about 14 years, same address when I bought the car so no need to update the v5c or anything like that.

I dont know why their letters could have gone missing, although in the past I have had some other post not turn up. I didn't change my address of anything like that though. It could be they never sent it, but that would be impossible to prove. I did have one yes. I'm assuming that not responding to this was bad? In hindsight I realise I should have started my investigations at this point.