Intimidating LBCCC from UKCPS.. I am losing my nerve - help!! Any advice please?!x

Jessica_84

Hi everyone

Would be so grateful for any advice on this matter. It is the first time I have ever had wranglings with these private parking companies.. Following advice of several friends who said they had experience, I just ignored the ticket on windscreen and first letter. Now I have received a LBCCC and inevitable panic has set in!! :eek:

Having read the (very helpful) forums on this topic I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction from here. The 'parking incident' as follows:

I parked up in a bit of land in my local town, behind some shops, on a Saturday evening in late Sept. It was dark. The land had parking bays and was behind an opticians. I parked literally right in front of a big clear sign that said "Parking for Opticians patrons only". Given this was well after trading hours and the opticians was shut, I parked up. Left car for about an hour, came back to find ticket on windscreen from UKCPS demanding £60. I then scrutinised the 'car park' more carefully with my torch (!) and spotted 2-3 small UKCPS signs stating you had to have a permit to park here.

Mulled it over with friends/family, who all agreed 'these things are a scam' and if you 'just ignore them, they eventually get bored chasing you' and aka The Ostrich Technique... So I did ignore it... and then a few weeks later got a letter saying the fine had increased to £100. Also ignored this, trying to hold my nerve. Then a few days ago, I received this LBCCC (typed word-for-word):

Reason for ticket: Without a valid permit or authority to VRM: ******* Amount NOW owing £125

Dear ****

10 day notice before Court Action

This 10 day notice is for the ticket shown above and any other outstanding ticket that you may have obtained from UKCPS.

This letter gives notice that the parking charges are now being prepared for Court Action. If you choose to ignore this, the next correspondence you will receive will be from Her Majesties (sic) County Court. The County Court Claim form will list several options which you should carefully read and reply to the appropriate conditions as set out on the form.

If you choose to pay the amount in full in order for us to withdraw our claim against you, you must send a payment to us within 10 days, upon receipt we will write to the Court and you will not need to do anything further. (You should note that the standard Court issue fees will be added and included at this point).

Avoiding paying Court fees and paying less than the claim will not remove the claim from the Court records, the amount will still be classed as unpaid and you may still receive a County Court Judgement. It is therefore important that you pay the full amount shown on the Claim form. If you choose to dispute the claim you must follow the actions of the court.

If you choose to ignore the claim against you, the Court will order you to make a payment, if you fail to respond you will then be issued with a County Court Judgement (CCJ). A CCJ will be entered onto your credit reference file and will remain for a period of 6 years which may affect any credit arrangement that you apply for during this time. We may also ask the Court to send a Court bayliff to recover the debt by the removal of goods. There are also several other options available to us to collect any amount you owe us, for example an attachment of earnings; this will allow us to take the amount from your income etc; you can find out more about recovering money owed from HMCS online or any County Court.

It is not too late to settle this matter; provided you contact this office within 10 days from the date of this letter and make payment we will withdraw the Court papers listed for Court. If you contact us after the 10 days have expired, Court costs will be added to the amount and it will be too late to pay a lower amount, it is therefore in your best interests and to avoid additional costs, to contact us and make payment or arrange instalments if you cannot pay it all at once.

Yours sincerely
***********

That is the letter I received on Friday. I now have only this week to do something (having read MSE forums all morning, I thought they were supposed to give you 14 days notice, not 10 days?! Maybe the Grinches don't want to eat into their Xmas break)

Anyway I read a really helpful thread for newbies like me about what to do when you receive a LBCCC (not allowed to post link but its the one for NEWBIES) and my first action was to phone the opticians and ask if they would consider contacting UKCPS on my behalf, or I could write them a template letter which they could sign to the effect "yes she parked on my land but I don't mind" etc -which I understand has the power to cancel the charges. But unfortunately it turns out the optician doesn't own the land, he rents the shop and land off some bloke who now lives abroad.... sigh... *dead end*

I have now learnt from the smart people in the MSE forums that ignoring it is stupid and futile... (will not take my friends' advice in future haha) ...so wondering where to go from here? I clearly need to respond to UKCPS - shall I just throw my lot in and pay the £125? Or does anyone think I have a case to fight?

*just what I need days before Christmas... the swines!!*

Really would appreciate any advice, input, thoughts...
Thanks all xxx

bod1467

Another typical UKCPS threatogram? If I remember correctly, UKCPS have engaged ONE court action this year, which they LOST.

I think you're probably OK to remain in ostrich mode, until and unless you actually receive court papers or a real LBCCC. (I'm not sure that this was an LBCCC/LBA. Was it actually headed Letter Before County Court Claim / Letter Before Action, and did it provide a reference to the Practice Direction for LBAs?)

Jessica_84

"threatogram" haha!

The letter started:

Dear *******

10 day notice before Court Action

...then continued as above. I was assuming this meant it was an LBCCC? Reading through it again, there is no reference at all to practice direction. Just concerned as this is the second letter (not incl the ticket on windscreen) and amount has more than doubled, quite unreasonably.

If I am wrong and this isn't an LBCCC, do you think I still have time to pursue an appeal/POPLA code? When I read about this on the MSE forums, I believe you have to do this within 28days - is this right?

Thanks for your reply & help so far! Really appreciate it.

bod1467

You're past the point of being able to use the appeals process.

But this was just a threatogram. Until or unless you get a real LBCCC/LBA or court papers from Northampton County Court (and I have my doubts you'll get either) then continue to ignore this and the subsequent threatograms.

(The next ones may be from Debt Recovery Plus and/or Zenith, who are the same people with different headed paper).

spacey2012

Yours sincerely
***********

Yours sincerely
***********
WHO that is the most important bit of the whole letter.
Who are they and who do they claim to be ?

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

bod1467 wrote: »

Another typical UKCPS threatogram? If I remember correctly, UKCPS have engaged ONE court action this year, which they LOST.

I think you're probably OK to remain in ostrich mode, until and unless you actually receive court papers or a real LBCCC. (I'm not sure that this was an LBCCC/LBA. Was it actually headed Letter Before County Court Claim / Letter Before Action, and did it provide a reference to the Practice Direction for LBAs?)

Thats not true actually, uckps issue quite a few claims
https://www.parkingticketappeals.org.uk

Umkomaas

kirkbyinfurnesslad wrote: »

Thats not true actually, uckps issue quite a few claims

Yep, 900 of them in the past 12 months!

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/179544/response/444525/attach/3/A%20FINAL%20REPLY%20TO%20LEWIS%2085865.doc

bod1467

All these PPCs have similar sounding acronyms.

But I knew someone would be along with the FOI link.

hoohoo

Read the sticky on letters before action and send a reply. These are mainly for parkingeye, but put a draft up here and we will advise.

Coupon-mad

jessica_84 wrote: »

"threatogram" haha!

The letter started:

Dear *******

10 day notice before court action

...then continued as above. I was assuming this meant it was an lbccc? Reading through it again, there is no reference at all to practice direction. Just concerned as this is the second letter (not incl the ticket on windscreen) and amount has more than doubled, quite unreasonably.

if i am wrong and this isn't an lbccc, do you think i still have time to pursue an appeal/popla code? When i read about this on the mse forums, i believe you have to do this within 28days - is this right?

Thanks for your reply & help so far! Really appreciate it.

That is UKCPS' version of a LBCCC and they ARE litigious, so you need to respond as per the ''LBCCC Fightback'' sticky thread at the top of the forum!

esmerobbo

Is that a LBCCC or a LROCC?

Letter Rambling On Containing Crap

However since its UKCPS it needs dealing with appropriately.