ParkingEye Letter Before Action

Krayzee

On Saturday 12th January 2013, we parked at the local A&E walk in centre as our young child was poorly, and subsequently received a private parking charge through the post. I assumed this was similar to the one in 2010 and could be safely ignored. After a couple more letters in the post, they stopped. Having forgotten about this altogether, today (29th) we received a Letter Before Action (dated 26th July) stating court proceedings will be issued unless the £100 fine is paid! It's one-sided, the reverse is blank except for a small QR box.

Has something changed recently with regards to having to pay these invoices? Usually junk with our details on it gets shredded and recycled but I may still have the original letters which could help with what our next step should be.

Can you please advise on what to do next, and I will see if we still have the previous letters.

Thank you


EDIT: Got the dates wrong. 'Offence' occurred in the afternoon of 12th January, we received the the first letter dated 24th February 2013. Have found the letters, will attach in a post below. Just realised I can't attach things to these posts!

Krayzee

As promised, I have found 3 letters:

- The original letter dated (Sunday! ParkingEye work on Sundays apparently...) 24th Feb advising us of the event on 12th Jan (43 days later - is that outside a time limit?), it also tells me POPLA is no longer available... "the RK becomes liable for the Parking Charge once 29 days pass from the Date of Issue" - so the amount now payable is £100 (inferring it was less than that at some point), as 29 days have passed since the Parking Charge was issued but this is the first time they have told me that a Parking Charge was issued!


- A reminder dated 23 April (do they normally wait two months before sending a reminder? I ask only because I can't find a letter from March, I assume there would've been one!) where the outstanding amount is suddenly £150 not £100

- And a Notice of Intended Litigation, still £150 outstanding.

Note on the LBA (which I have read should really be an LBC) the amount due is back down to £100.


I will begin working on my Letter of Acknowledgement (there are a lot of threads on it so it's a lot to take in, in order to get it right, but I'll post a draft copy here before I email it off to enforcement@parkingeye.co.uk unless anyone knows of a different email address to send it to?) but I wanted to know if anything on any of these letters (wording or otherwise), or the LBA, would lead to me taking a different course of action, or at least word my LoA differently. OR, whether this is something to be saved for my formal Response.

Krayzee

It turns out we got the parking charge whilst parking out of hours in a local GP surgery car park, which is right next to the A&E walk in centre. I'll have to go and check the signage.

Re the Letter of Acknowledgement, I really don't know what to put. I have had a go below from a previous thread, and have tailored it to my specific case, but is there anything else I can add (or should remove) based on the letters we have received that I have attached to my previous posts on this thread?


Dear Parking Eye

Re Reference: xxxxxx/xxxxxx

This letter is the Defendant's formal letter of Acknowledgment of the Claimant's Letter Before Claim dated 26 July 2013 as required by the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct.

I deny any liability for what is an unlawful penalty. The Claimant’s LBC does not comply with the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct so the Defendant is unable to comply with the Practice Direction until the Claimant has provided the further information requested in this letter. As you are aware it is necessary for both parties in any dispute to exhaust all possibilities of resolution prior to the commencement of court proceedings. I suggest that you issue me with a POPLA verification code for me to refer the matter for independent adjudication. In addition I require:

1. Is the Claimant the landowner? If the Claimant is not the landowner, please explain ParkingEye's standing to act as Claimant in bringing these proceedings and provide a copy of the contract between the Claimant and the Landowner authorising it do so
2. The name and address of the party who contracted with Parking Eye for the provision of their services
3. The name and address of the landowner if different from 1
4. A copy of the contract authorising Parking Eye to offer and enter into contracts for parking, and pursue unpaid parking charges including through litigation
5. An itemised breakdown of your losses as a result of this parking incident
6. An itemised breakdown of the landowner's losses as a result of this incident
7. An explanation of how the requirements of schedule 4 of POFA making the keeper liable have been satisfied. The creditor has not been identified as is required under para 9(2)h under POFA and hence keeper liability for the alleged debt does not exist
8. Any other documents not referenced above, that the Claimant is going to rely on in court

Alternatively, you may simply cancel the parking charge

Kind regards



Now, I do understand what it is that I am asking of ParkingEye (with the exception of point 7) but I need to know if all the above is relevant to my case, is there anything else I can add, and should anything above be removed or altered?

I can then get this printed, posted, PDF'd and emailed

Thanks all

zzzLazyDaisy

Hi Krayzee

Please go to this thread and read post 1 carefully.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4705657

You need to lose a lot of the extra points and focus on the areas where the LBA does not conform to the practice direction.

If you feel that getting a nasty agressive letter from the PPC might intimidate you (that, after all, is their intention) then when you have read post 1, go to post 45.

Either way you need to reply to the LBA within 14 days, even if it is just to say 'I need to seek advice and I will get back to you within 30 days'

Daisy

Krayzee

I have, it's how I managed to draft the above, whereby the next step is to ask for advice on the draft!

The LBA is up on PePiPoo at http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=81701 so hopefully someone can look through it for me and advise on which are the important points to keep and which to remove.

I do not know where the LBA does not conform to the PD and I don't know which are the extra points in order to remove them, this is where I'm asking for help!

Receiving letters won't bother me, it's the next step in the process and I'll then ask for advice on how to proceed further.

Krayzee

Also, on the original parking charge received through the post, it doesn't say why the charge was issued. So I have no idea whether we went over a time limit for example.

Krayzee

I really have to get my Acknowledgement sent out today, to ensure it arrives by post within the 14 days (I will send it via email also), so I'm getting desperate with regards to finding out if my draft above is acceptable, and if not, what to edit or remove please?

zzzLazyDaisy

You only posted your request for help yesterday. We can't always respond that quickly. If you are pushing time you should send a short letter saying something like:

'I refer to the letter before action dated [date]. I wish to obtain advice and will respond shortly'.

I am not a member of pepipoo as I am ill, so choose to only post on this forum. So it would also be helpful if you could post your LBA here (or alternatively you may choose to seek advice on pepipoo where your lba is posted, as you will also get excellent advice there).

Krayzee

Not a problem, I'll type the original notice out, and then the LBA, as this forum doesn't allow attachments, or I can't see where to do it.


Dear Sir / Madam,

The requirements of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedom's Act required for keeper liability have now been satisfied and as a result, we must inform you that in accordance with Schedule 4 ParkingEye now has the right to recover any unpaid part of the Parking Charge from you, the registered keeper.

This is because we are either, not in receipt of the correct name and current postal address of the driver and/or no information has been provided or you have identified someone who has denied they were the driver at the time of the parking event or has not responded at the address given. In these instances, as outlined by Schedule 4, the registered keeper becomes liable for the Parking Charge once 29 days pass from the Date of Issue.

The 29 days have now passed and the amount now payable is £100.00, this payment is required within 14 days to avoid further action.

If this letter is ignored, further action may be taken such as the instruction of solicitors to secure immediate payment or the issuing of court proceedings which could incur further costs. To avoid further unnecessary costs or action, please pay the outstanding Parking Charge amount as stated above, in accordance with the parking terms and conditions.

Further information including how to pay, the right to appeal (please be advised that the independent appeals service (POPLA) is no longer available), etc. can be found on the reverse of this notice.

Yours faithfully

Legal Department


That's the initial letter we received regarding the parking incident, I hope I'm not required to type out the entire reverse of the letter! I assume it's the standard Payment Information, Appeals & Complaints Procedure and Further Information on every letter of this kind.

The car park isn't pay and display so there are no losses to speak of. And their reference to "29 days have now passed from the Date of Issue and the amount NOW payable is £100" is interesting in that nothing was issued and this letter is the first we've heard of any such parking event.

LBA to follow shortly - we did receive two letters from Debt Recovery Plus in between, which I can type out here too if necessary.

I'm sending my Acknowledgement today, wasn't able to do it over the weekend, and I understand, from my end at least, it's a request for more information at this stage (and an offer to cancel the parking charge!) and that anything more formal comes later if required.

Krayzee

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

On the xxth February 2013 we notified you that, as the registered keeper of this vehicle, you had become liable for this Parking Charge Notice (see above reference), which concerned a breach of the terms and conditions at xxxxxxxxxx, on the xx January 2013. This was because the requirements of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedom's Act 2012 required for Keeper Liability had been satisfied. Further to this, we advised you that the amount payable was £100.00 for the Parking Charge Notice and that you were required to make this payment or further action would be taken.

ParkingEye is still not in receipt of this payment. As such, we must inform you that unless payment of £100.00 is made within the next 14 days further action will be taken and court proceedings will be issued, which will incur further costs. These costs will include, but are not limited to £50.00 solicitor's costs and £15.00 court claim issue fee.

Yours faithfully

ParkingEye Legal Department

zzzLazyDaisy

Okay, the LBA was the one I needed to see. It is definitely does not comply with the PD in numerous respects - PE are aware of this but are choosing to ignore the practice direction.

You need to check out the guidance on this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4705657

I know you say you have read this before, but it has been updated (see the blue paragraphs)

In the meantime I will have a look at your acknowledgment that you posted above, and make some suggestions. Be aware that if you send a robust acknowledgment, you are likely to get an aggressive and vitriolic reply back - it is just another layer in their intimidatory tactics. Personally I would just ignore it and carry on, as this is part of the court process and what you are doing is exactly what the court says you must do. No more, no less, and should they eventually issue proceedings against you, this exchange of correspondence will be produced to the court. But a 'soft reply' is also perfectly valid.

Daisy