Letter before Action - advice please?

blossom1948

Does this look OK? Does it cover everything??


Date: xxxxxxl 2013


LETTER BEFORE ACTION







Dear Sir or Madam,

XXXXX Parking Notice Issue No: XXXXX
Reason for Issue: In a disabled bay without valid badge displayed
Vehicle Registration No: XXXXXXXX
Location: XXXXXXXXXX
Date: xxxx 2013

On receipt of this “Parking Notice” which distressed me greatly as I had never, in over 45 driving years, ever received such a notice, I wrote an appeal to XXXXX at the above address enclosing a scanned copy of my Council Issued Disabled Parking Card.

I also enclosed a cheque in the sum of £60 as the timescale for payment after 14 days was stated to rise to £100 and as a 69 year old on a pension I could ill afford £60 let alone £100.

As I had enclosed a scanned copy of my Council Issued Disabled Parking Card I expected my cheque to be returned to me uncashed, however, the cheque was cashed the day after receipt despite XXXXX being notified of my disabled position and denying my appeal. This is a breach of the Equality Act 2010.

There was no breach of parking regulations on my part whatsoever under the terms of the Equality Act 2010, however, there is a breach of disability Law on the part of both XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX Ltd and XXXXX Ltd to whom this Letter before Action is addressed.

As it has not been possible to resolve this matter amicably and it is apparent that Court action may be necessary, I write in compliance with the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct.

I am claiming the sum of :-

1. the original payment made to XXXXX of £60
2. Statutory Interest of 8.5% on £60 from the

xxth XXXXXXX 2013
3. Correspondence, copying, postage, mileage time to date of 15 hours @ £12.50 per hour totaling £187.50

4. Monetary damages for stress, intimidation & harassment of a disabled person in the sum of £500.00

Listed below are the documents on which I intend to rely in my claim against you:

1. The original Parking Notice Charge issued at the XXXXXXX XXXXX car park
2. My appeal letter to XXXXXXX dated
3. Photo-copy of my cheque and bank statement showing debit date
4. My Council Issued Disabled Parking Card
5. XXXXX letter rejecting my appeal
6. email requesting POPLA reference to which no reply has been received

Should I not receive a positive response to this letter by the XXth XXXXX 2013, Court action will be commenced with no further reference to either XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX Ltd or XXXXX Ltd.

Yours faithfully,




XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tilt

Most of it is irrelevant TBH. For a start you do not have to display a BB on private land as it has no legal meaning what so ever. You need not of paid the £60 charge in the first place.

Problem you have is that they will defend using contractual law, meaning that you have entered a contract with them as you have identified yourself as the driver. They will argue that you were in breach of that contract and subsequently paid a 'charge' for doing so. You of course can argue that the charge was in fact a penalty which is not recoverable by a private concern via legal process under current law.

By all means issue a small claim to recover the £60 but your consequential losses will be limited to interest at 8% per annum (or what ever the current allowed rate is), loss of earnings for attending any hearings and travel cost to and from court.

Doubt very much that you will successfully recover part '3' of your claim.

I would get a few more opinions before posting the letter.

Coupon-mad

I like it a lot and vaguely recall your case I think. So pleased you are not letting this lie!! :T


Add the potential Court fees to this bit though (look them up or ring your County Court and just ask what they would be for a claim of under £1000, in fact you could even ask your Court to send you a few copies of the form you need and then enclose a blank copy with your letters, stating that a blank copy of the Court form is enclosed in order to show you that I am not merely threatening a claim. As they can see, the papers have been obtained from the Court already and you are more than prepared for your legal representatives to complete them if the matter is not settled to your satisfaction!!):


''I am claiming the sum of :-

1. the original payment made to XXXXX of £60
2. Statutory Interest of 8.5% on £60 from the

xxth XXXXXXX 2013
3. Correspondence, copying, postage, mileage time to date of 15 hours @ £12.50 per hour totaling £187.50

4. Monetary damages for stress, intimidation & harassment of a disabled person in the sum of £500.00''



I do think you need to state how the Equality Act 2010 has been breached, so that the landowner/occupier knows.

Was it for an alleged 'overstay', I can't remember? If so then state that the Equality Act has been breached because an arbitrary time limit cannot be the same for disabled visitors as they need longer to get about, so the car park owner/occupier and the agent are all jointly and severally liable for failing in their duty of care under the Equality Act 2010 as regards disabled people.

And that the agent has further compounded this breach by seeking to profit from the situation - which is reprehensible harassment. The cheque was sent because you were so scared by their threats, but to comply with the Equality Act 2010 they should have returned it immediately they saw this was a disabled visitor. Indeed there should be a policy in place to prevent this even happening - no fake PCNs should be issued to disabled visitors at all as it's not only unlawful but a breach of the BPA Code of Practice as well - but there is nothing in place, so the actions of the parking agent have been wholly unreasonable throughout. And as they are mere third party agents on that site, those who they have contracted with are also liable under contract law.

What you could also do is add a final paragraph stating that you will accept a smaller settlement (state the amount) out of court but only if you get a written apology and payment of said amount within 14 days of receipt of your letter. Maybe an amount (state exactly) which could be everything except the damages (which would only be a for a judge to decide) then you wouldn't be out of pocket and you'd have made them apologise too?

That's what trubster on pepipoo has done, and is hopefully close to getting settlement soon. Easier than having to go to Court and looks very reasonable to a judge of you do end up going there.

And make sure that each party can see who else is named in the claim, so 'Letter Before Action' Named parties in Court claim will be................. and .................:'' so that they can all run around madly squabbling between themselves when they get these letters. If you send them by recorded delivery then don't send them on a Friday, make sure it's going to be received on the same working weekday by all of them.

blossom1948

Tilt wrote: »

Most of it is irrelevant TBH. For a start you do not have to display a BB on private land as it has no legal meaning what so ever. You need not of paid the £60 charge in the first place.

Problem you have is that they will defend using contractual law, meaning that you have entered a contract with them as you have identified yourself as the driver. They will argue that you were in breach of that contract and subsequently paid a 'charge' for doing so. You of course can argue that the charge was in fact a penalty which is not recoverable by a private concern via legal process under current law.

By all means issue a small claim to recover the £60 but your consequential losses will be limited to interest at 8% per annum (or what ever the current allowed rate is), loss of earnings for attending any hearings and travel cost to and from court.

Doubt very much that you will successfully recover part '3' of your claim.

I would get a few more opinions before posting the letter.

Would you be kind enough to elaborate on the "contractual law, meaning that you have entered a contract with them as you have identified yourself as the driver".!!!!!!!!!

As far as I am concerned, I did not enter into any contract with "them" !!!!!!!!!

blossom1948

Thank you Coupon, the letter is addressed firstly to the land-owner of the car park (one who gives dividends) and copied to the PPC beginning with U!

It is a very stressful situation.

Will, with help, adjust it accordingly.

Thank you again for all your help.

Coupon-mad

blossom1948 wrote: »

Thank you Coupon, the letter is addressed firstly to the land-owner of the car park (one who gives dividends) and copied to the PPC beginning with U!

It is a very stressful situation.

Will, with help, adjust it accordingly.

Thank you again for all your help.

Go for it! :T If you want some back up from people who have done this already, send a pm to caryl2506 and/or trubster.

Guys_Dad

blossom1948 wrote: »

Thank you Coupon, the letter is addressed firstly to the land-owner of the car park (one who gives dividends) and copied to the PPC beginning with U!

It is a very stressful situation.

Will, with help, adjust it accordingly.

Thank you again for all your help.

Hoid on a little bit. Is this your first communication with the landowner? I assume your appeal was to the PPC, And it was the PPC that you wrote the cheque in favour of and who cashed it.

I think you are getting into muddled waters here. You are trying to reclaim a sum from the supermarket ( and are you 100% sure that they own the land?) but you paid that sum to a 3rd party.

Please don't think I am not on your side, as I am, but I do think you are in a bit of a mire. It would have been different if you had not paid already, but your primary LBA should be to those who have your money, not just a cc to them as it were.

If you are contemplating a joint action, then you should make that crystal clear.

Not a lawyer, so check out what I write, but have had some experience in LBAs before.

Tilt

blossom1948 wrote: »

Would you be kind enough to elaborate on the "contractual law, meaning that you have entered a contract with them as you have identified yourself as the driver".!!!!!!!!!

As far as I am concerned, I did not enter into any contract with "them" !!!!!!!!!

Yes of course.

By parking there, you (the person driving) enter a contract with the land owner as you are using his property. However, whether the PPC is fully authorised to act on behalf of the land owner would need to be established for them to bring (or defend) a claim.

Plus the PPC would need to identify the driver of the car to direct a 'contractual' dispute against. By communicating with a PPC (especially enclosing a copy of your BB), you have identified yourself to them. This is why we always advise against communicating with the PPC.

Having said all of the above, they would have to prove to the judge that there was adequate signage in place stating their T & C's.

But on the other hand, if you convince the court that the charge was in fact a penalty as opposed to a charge, then you should succeed as a private concern has no legal status to issue penalties of fines.

Coupon-mad

Yes but...this OP is threatening to sue for harassment under the Equality Act 2010 - so the £60 charge paid under duress is just a small part of that.

Guys_Dad

The point about the LBA in question is that it is along the lines of 'I required you to do something. You didn't so I am giving you one chance to remedy that or I will take some action'

The 'something' is getting a refund. So the 'you' should be the people who were paid. The supermarket has not got the money or indeed the proof of disability, nor the original demand/appeal so the LBA should either be addressed to the PPC or rewritten to provide the proof to the supermarket that was sent to the PPC.

At the moment it is, as I said, confusing the two companies by addressing it to the supermarket.

esmerobbo

The LBA should be sent to the PPC and any other party involved, in my instance it was UKCPS, Savilles the landlords and British Land the owners.

The PPC will ignore it, but the landlords/owners may not like the threat of court action and it's expense. In my case UKCPS kept up the fight until Savilles and British land got an LBA by email. (just to speed things up they would have received a postal one) However one hour later I had a bank transfer from UKCPS!!