Debt collector letters - note to the regulars

zzzLazyDaisy

I know previous advice has always been to ignore debt collector letters, and I agree that has been good advice until now.

But I am now coming to the conclusion that posters should be advised to respond robustly to ANY letter from a debt collector - not just the last one that threatens court action.

Why?

1 PPCs are becoming increasingly litigious
2 Ignoring debt collector letters is likely to result in the PPC marking the motorist as an easy target and issuing an LBC
3 A significant number of posters who ignore these letters seem to go on to ignore LBCs, and only seek help when the court papers drop through the letter box, so encouraging a response now, should also result in a higher number challenging the LBC, thus giving them a better chance of avoiding court action.

In short, I think it is time for the 'hot potato' process to start at an earlier stage in the process.

I have posted a couple of letters on recent threads today, which are reposted below for ease of reference.

Comments/views please?

Dx

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1 - letter to debt collectors (newlyn, debt recovery plus etc)


Name
Address

Date



Dear Sirs

Parking Charge Number xxxxx

I refer to your letter of [insert date], and earlier correspondence.

Firstly, I have no intention of paying the money demanded by your client, and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

Second, should it be your client's intention to start court proceedings, they must provide a Letter Before Claim which complies with the requirements of Annex A Para 2 of the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pro...action_conduct

Please also note that a failure and/or refusal to comply with the Practice Direction will result in a complaint being made to the court and an application for a stay of the action and costs pursuant to the provisions of paragraph 4 of the Practice Direction on non-compliance and sanctions.

In the meantime, you should note that this charge is disputed, and you must now refer this matter back to your client and cease and desist all further contact with me. Failure to do so will result in a complaint to the Credit Services Association.

I trust that I have made myself clear.

Yours faithfully

PRINT NAME

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2 letter to solicitors engaged in debt recovery (ie threatening letters that are not clearly headed 'Letter Before Claim' and/or do not refer the recipient to the Practice Direction process, eg JMW solicitors of Manchester, The Ellen Court Partnership, the now defunct GPB solicitors etc

Name
Address

Date

[Insert their reference number: xxxx ]

Dear Sirs

Parking Charge Number xxxxx

I refer to your letter of [insert date], and earlier correspondence.

Firstly, I have no intention of paying the money demanded by your client, and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

Second, should it be your client's intention to start court proceedings, you must provide a Letter Before Claim which complies with the requirements of Annex A Para 2 of the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pro...action_conduct

Please also note that a failure and/or refusal to comply with the Practice Direction will result in an immediate referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for breach of the Principles contained in the SRA Handbook version 8, published on 1st October 2013.

In the meantime, and in the absence of a letter before claim, you should place a note on your file to the effect that this charge is disputed and your firm is required to cease and desist all further contact with me.

I trust that I have made myself clear, and I suggest that you take your client's further instructions.

Yours faithfully

PRINT NAME

Hovite_2

I just wish I could write letters like you Daisy !

peter_the_piper

Hope you don't mind I've posted on pepipoo, good to spread the word.

Stroma

Been thinking about this exact thing over the last few weeks. Can I just ask does this apply to Scotland and Northern Ireland? I mean the practice direction ?

bazster

Good grief, have we completely lost sight of the fact that 99.99% of private parking charges never get anywhere near a court? Now we are proposing that people should waste even more of their precious time writing to toothless scum like debt collectors!

Please people, get a grip. ParkingEye must be peeing their pants laughing.

Guys_Dad

bazster wrote: »

Good grief, have we completely lost sight of the fact that 99.99% of private parking charges never get anywhere near a court? Now we are proposing that people should waste even more of their precious time writing to toothless scum like debt collectors!

Please people, get a grip. ParkingEye must be peeing their pants laughing.

I watch nature programmes on the tv occasionally. I see the vast herds of Wildebeest that cross the swollen rivers that are crocodile infested. The vast majority get through and carry on to the savannah. Maybe even 99.9%. However, the odd few get caught by the crocs.

It ain't a lot of fun for them so I would say that a cut and paste of daisy's letter sent be email or even surface mail would be a small price to pay to keep the reptiles away.

And it is only those who have the PPCs nibbling at their bits that come on here anyway, possibly in the 0.1%

peter_the_piper

Presumably because most people are not aware of the ways of not paying and just cough up, well its official isn't it? More and more are now realising that you don't have to pay their arbitrary amounts and if it does get to the debt collector stage its great that the likes of Diasy have taken the time to try and help. PE are so pPEing that they are selling up whilst the going is good.

Stroma

Yes you are right, but look at the 2.2m tickets issued to October and the 12k county claims in that period, which when you look at it is about 99.5% of the time nothing happens. Or going to popla where again less than 1% will go there.

So we are advising on the far less than 1% going to each, couldn't it be construed as we all need to get a grip ? This letter is no different to telling the debt collectors to do one! And if they don't complaints can be made.

I think that is no different than complaints we are already advising on the bpa, dvla, ICO, landowners, retails and service providers.

bazster

There are complaints that need making (such as those to landowners/retailers) and those that are a complete waste of time which could be better spent writing to someone else.

If anyone has half-an-hour to research and write a pointless letter to worthless debt collectors, my advice would be: don't. Spend that half-an-hour instead writing to your MP about the entire fraudulent private parking "industry". That would be a far better investment of 30 minutes of your life.

Stroma

But why not do this as well ? It wasn't long ago before coupon posted the complain to the retailers thread that I was advocating that, and certain people on here were debunking it as a waste of time!

The fsa or whatever they called this week are minded to cancel roxburghe's credit licence (still!!) , how do you think it got to that stage? Without complaints the status quo would continue!

Putting a spanner or many spanners in their business should be our obligation, and getting 100s or 1000s of complaints means that each one has got to be reviewed. If we simply sit still nothing will change except that the parking industry and their brethren dca's will ride over people.

bazster

The suggestion that I advocate sitting still and doing nothing is offensive. I believe one letter to an MP concerning the depredations of the fraudulent private parking industry will do more in the long run to fix the problem than 1,000 appeals to the POPLA kangaroo court (all of which, win or lose, are counter-productive in that they actually serve to reinforce the illusion that the BPA Limited is a responsible trade association), or an infinite number of letters to debt collectors. And I correspond regularly with my MP on the subject. Do you?

And suggesting that people "do this as well" is very glib and easy if you have plenty of time on your hands and a passion for writing legalistic letters. Most people have neither.