Parking - Letter Before Action? Letter Before County Court Claim? Fight back!

pilch1984

Please see my thread

I'm not allowed to post links as i am a new user. The thread is entitled 'Excel Parking - Letter Before Action'

Thank you all!

notaskyofearth

Please see my thread.

Umkomaas

notaskyofearth wrote: »

General question which I'm hoping someone might be able to help with (get well soon Daisy.)

I used the very helpful information on here to write a response to a Parking Eye LBC and received one of their unpleasant template letters in response (despite going for the 'soft' option).

I then sent a calm reply requesting information required by the PD which they have so far refused to provide.

My question is: what happens now? How will I know whether they are going to drop it or not? I don't want to be in a position where a couple of months pass, I start to relax and forget the whole thing, and then a court summons drops through my letter box. At what point in the process would I become liable for further costs etc?

Any advice on this would be much appreciated for peace of mind and may perhaps be useful to other readers of thread.

Many thanks.

Not sure I can answer all your questions precisely, but here goes with what I know.

I don't think you'll get anything more from PE after your last letter. If you hear any more it will be the arrival of official court papers. But you may have already done enough to flag to PE that you may be a hot potato and they'll drop it and move on to a more vulnerable victim. I don't think there's anything more you can do of an 'appeals' nature.

If you do get court papers DO NOT IGNORE you must acknowledge and prepare a defence (with help from here or Pepipoo).

Cost-wise, I think they are adding a standard £50 (very questionable) solicitor fees, £35 court fee and a further £15 (can't recall what that's for, sorry) on top of their non-discounted charge that they've already notified you of.

So, I know you didn't want to, but I'm afraid, short of paying up under duress to get rid of this (and that's their game here) it's going to be wait and see!

HTH

zzzLazyDaisy

Hi, I can't add much to Umkomaas's post.

At the moment we are in a game of 'suck it and see'.

When you say 'so far they have refused provide' the information by the Practice Direction - do you mean they have actually written to you refusing to comply, or that they have just not replied to your letter? (Sorry for the nit-picking... I'm a lawyer....:o )

My own view is that heir 'stinky template letter' is probably a last ditch attempt to intimidate the recipient into paying up. By keeping the dance going, you have shown that you are made of sterner stuff, and hopefully, they will just drop you and go after easier targets.

Can we promise that will be the end of it and you won't get court papers further down the line? No.

What I would say is that *if* this goes to court, these letters become part of the court documents to be placed before the court. Only a legal department staffed by idiots would place such a letter before the court in support of their case, especially since it is addressed to an unrepresented defendant, and effectively says 'Stuff the Practice Direction, we are playing by our own rules'. The problem is..... we can't be certain we are not dealing with idiots....

So, how do you deal with this?

You can simply choose to let sleeping dogs lie and hope that they have gone after easier targets (this is one time when 'ignore' is a valid option).

Or you can write to them once more, with a view to drawing a line under this. If you choose to do this, I'd wait at least three weeks to give them time to respond (the idea being to show the court how reasonable you have been in the face of their UNreasonabless). If you haven't heard by then, I'd send a letter along these lines:

Dear Sirs

I refer to your template letter dated [xxxx] and my reply dated [xxxx], to which I have had no response.

In the light of your repeated and persistent refusal to comply with the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct, I must remind you that under the Practice Direction the parties must complete the pre-action steps before the Claimant starts proceedings. Please therefore provide the information prescribed in Annex A para 2 of the Practice Direction, by return. I shall then seek advice with regard to providing a Response to you within 30 days, in accordance with the pre-action steps set out in the Practice Direction.

PLEASE NOTE: If I do not hear from you within 7 days of the date of this letter, I shall presume that you have cancelled the charge and I will consider this matter closed. Should you later seek to start court proceedings, I shall produce this correspondence to the court, and ask the court to exercise its power to invoke sanctions and costs against the claimant pursuant to the provisions of para 4 of the Practice Direction on non-compliance and sanction.

Yours faithfully

PRINT NAME

zicok

How do I start a new thread to get advice wether to defend myself in court,??

pogofish

zicok wrote: »

How do I start a new thread to get advice wether to defend myself in court,??

Just click the "New Thread" button at the top left of this forum:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

zzzLazyDaisy

pogofish wrote: »

Just click the "New Thread" button at the top left of this forum:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

And when you've started a new thread, come back here and edit your post above to read 'please see my thread' and we will come and find you.

As a plea to others - please don't post on this thread as it is for guidance, and not individual advice. Start your own thread, leave us a very short message here and we WILL find you.... honest!

Daisy

salmosalaris

Just a quick drop in from the other side
To clear up the costs issue asked a few posts ago
If a claim arrives from PE after an LBA it will be for £65 more than the ticket cost on the LBA.( £50 solicitor fees and £15 court fee )
Keep up the good work

zicok

Hi as per your posts could you please help me with my post.

Thanks

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/62813828#Comment_62813828

zzzLazyDaisy

Shamelessly bumping my own post........:A