Parking Eye County court claim letter

help101_2

Hi...... Help......... I parked in a retail car park which I thought was free in jan 2013 and received a Parking Charge Notice reminder in feb 2013 stating that I had gone over the maximum 2 hour free stay. I did not receive a previous Parking Charge Notice. Then in march 2013 I received a Parking Charge Amount Due letter asking for the amount of £85 to be paid in full.

In April 2013 I received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd. asking for £135. In May 2013 I received a notice of intended LITIGATION from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd.
In July 2013 I received a letter before action asking for a full payment of £85 or court proceedings would be issued.
I have just received a Letter Before County Court Claim letter asking for full payment within the next 14 days or court proceedings will be issued and I will have to pay £50 solicitor's costs and £15 court claim issue fee.

I have not acknowledged these letter as I have taken advice from the Martin Lewis website Moneysavingexpert.com and also the BBC Watchdog program advising people to ignore these type of letters. Could you please advise me as what I should do next. Should I offer to pay part of the amount they are asking for or should I wait and see if they will send a court summons?

I would be very grateful as I find this situation very stressful.

da_rule

Unfortunately the advice to ignore is about 18 months out of date.

Read the Newbies sticky thread (which you should've done before posting). There is an entire section on responding to LBCC's.

liseylou

Hi 101,

Have you read through the Newbies sticky thread at the top of the page? It will point you in the right direction. IN PARTICULAR within the Parking Tickets Board Sticky you'll see the LBCCC fight back Guidance Thread.

It's very important that you read the guidance in the first two threads and follow the Step by Step guide.

Once you've done that and worked out where you are in the process, come back onto this thread and let us know.

Then someone will be able to help you further if necessary :-)

liseylou

da_rule wrote: »

Unfortunately the advice to ignore is about 18 months out of date.

Read the Newbies sticky thread (which you should've done before posting). There is an entire section on responding to LBCC's.

Sorry da_rule, cross posts :-)

sma11person

The advice to ignore is not 18 months out of date. That advice changed in March 2013 - I checked. Not to be a pedant, but details like that can be quite important. Presumably, one may reply to the PCN/threat of court action with an e-mail, so as to avoid postal strikes, delays, and so on?

Umkomaas

sma11person wrote: »

The advice to ignore is not 18 months out of date. That advice changed in March 2013 - I checked. Not to be a pedant, but details like that can be quite important. Presumably, one may reply to the PCN/threat of court action with an e-mail, so as to avoid postal strikes, delays, and so on?

Whilst email can be used, we advise that when things start to 'turn legal' everything is done the old fashioned way - by letter, with a certificate of posting from the Post Office.

da_rule

sma11person wrote: »

The advice to ignore is not 18 months out of date. That advice changed in March 2013 - I checked. Not to be a pedant, but details like that can be quite important. Presumably, one may reply to the PCN/threat of court action with an e-mail, so as to avoid postal strikes, delays, and so on?

Unfortunately as this is a Letter Before Claim, a very specific legal document, not a PCN or just a threat of court action, the reply should be by post.

sma11person

So almost everyone who followed the advice to ignore just 12 months ago is now being told to trawl through the great long thread. Great. I wonder how many of those, "We *will* take you to court" letters PE have sent out this week? Perfect timing: send out a letter that will take a week to arrive, knowing that most recipients will recall the advice to ignore (if they're not already away on holiday), and those who notice the slight change in tone (from "may" to "will" take action) apparently end up with 4 working days to sort out a response. It's almost like a great big set-up....

Nodding_Donkey

sma11person wrote: »

So almost everyone who followed the advice to ignore just 12 months ago is now being told to trawl through the great long thread. Great. I wonder how many of those, "We *will* take you to court" letters PE have sent out this week? Perfect timing: send out a letter that will take a week to arrive, knowing that most recipients will recall the advice to ignore (if they're not already away on holiday), and those who notice the slight change in tone (from "may" to "will" take action) apparently end up with 4 working days to sort out a response. It's almost like a great big set-up....

The newbies thread isn't really that long. If people can't be bothered to read it they could always just pay.

sma11person

Nodding Donkey, you're missing the point. People were told to ignore these things. 12 months on, "oh, you need to defend yourself against it, and you have to read this thread to start". I appreciate that someone has gone to great trouble to help out there, but this is a Bank Holiday weekend. People are going to be receiving these whilst on holiday, and perhps not even know about them until they arrive home. *That* stinks. That these cowboy firms are allowed to behave so badly.

"If people can't be bothered to read it, they could always just pay." There's no need for the tone exerted in your script. This is a ridiculous situation: we had legal experts telling us we could ignore these things. Now, we're being told we have to react, and spend time dealing with hem. I simply don't understand what changed. If the charges are spurious and won't stand up, they shouldn't be taking valuable court time. It really is that simple.

Redx

yes it is, but these parking companies dont see it that way so they changed tack over 12 months ago , due to POFA 2012 coming in 18 months ago

there may have been a slow reaction time between the law changing and the forums realising what changes needed to be made, but the ignore advice was in relation to the law only allowing them to pursue the driver, which they usually did not know who it was so couldnt make it stick, but now the keeper can be held accountable so due to a lot more small claims papers being issued through the court system we are left in a situation where for up to 6 years you are held liable and many more court cases are happening in the last 9 months than happened in the previous 9 years , especially with PE who never used to go to court but now clog them up

what you have to realise is that this forum gives out advice , hopefully good advice , but at the end of the day it is YOU who has to decide what to do, if you wanted legal advice then you should go to a solicitor and pay for it, its that simple

there are volunteers helping to fight back , like prankster and bargepole and others, but the onus is still on the drivers to try to avoid getting the tickets and court papers in the first place, that is what prankster has said and is correct in saying it

thet the best way to win at court is never to get there !

it took 12 months before he published his PE court guides, as everybody was learning fast

ps:- some people are getting court papers for invoices going back up to 3 years now, so pre pofa2012 , the ignore advice was ignore back then too, still is for scotland and northern ireland