Ignored VCS & BW legal letter and now I'm worried

Daveybaby

Hi all,

I received a PCN on my windscreen last July and have been ignoring the letters ever since (VCS, DRP, Zenith etc) . My car was parked overnight in a car park where my co workers have never gotten a ticket, (we all worked for dominos pizza and its a shared car park between them and a dry cleaners). Also the signage is crappy and I didn't actually see it until the morning because it was dark. I've looked in the newbies thread but can't work out if the letter I received 3 weeks ago should have been replied to or not.

It's a letter from VCS saying 'Your account has been passed to our legal team' accompanied by a BW Legal letter with information about possible County Court Proceedings at the bottom. This letter was dated 28 May 2016.

Is this a letter before court and should I prepare for the worst? I've also had a phone call yesterday from BW Legal but I acted dumb and was like 'no thankyou' and put the phone down.

I have the orignal PCN saying I was filmed from 7am till 8am. But driver no present, if that helps at all.

Many thanks.

Redx

just use the search words BW LEGAL in the forum search box to read lots of similar cases

treat the latest letter as an LBC and respond accordingly, like others have done

it is likely that an MCOL will be issued if you dont start playing letter tennis at this pre-court stage

Daveybaby

The only problem is, the 16 days have passed since I received this letter!

Umkomaas

Daveybaby wrote: »

The only problem is, the 16 days have passed since I received this letter!

What help are you asking us for?

Half_way

who owns the car park?

Coupon-mad

Daveybaby wrote: »

The only problem is, the 16 days have passed since I received this letter!

So you need to send a robust response this week, as a formal letter. It's not too late to respond. Have a look at the dozens of other threads like this about VCS or Excel.

If you search 'BW Legal £54' I think you will find a suitable letter suggested by hoohoo on one of the many, many results.

Daveybaby

I'll look at the letter you suggested thankyou. So this is definitely a Letter before court one? I couldn't pin down if it was or not. That was my problem. I'll find out who owns the car park too.

Thanks for your help. I'll keep you updated.

Coupon-mad

No it's not necessarily/definitely a LBC, but we know BW Legal have taken some Excel ones to small claims recently (not VCS yet that we know of) and any Judge would wonder why a consumer ignored a letter from a Solicitor. To maintain the high ground respond now, because we know BW Legal have tried a few claims (early stages so far and they are probably useless so don't panic!).

Several examples on here. Half a dozen threads today alone telling people just to search 'BW Legal £54' and find the letters discussed on some threads (one was posted today but I also found a good one from April written by the regular poster, hoohoo.

And I'm not linking it! I always just suggest a few key words for a forum search here, that I know will bear fruit. I encourage newbies to use the forum as intended and search and find the nuggets you need because it stands you in good stead if you need to research a defence to try to beat this later on, if they try a claim.

Daveybaby

I've edited the letter stated on Boohoo's submission in that threat and deleted the parts that don't apply, do you think I should include anything else? More information?

Why they started ticketting me from 7.15 - 8.15 on a Saturday when only one business on that retail park is open at 8?

That I parked my car at night, overnight so didn't see the signage due to no light above it?

That all of the letters until this BW Legal one stated my name in the wrong order i.e 'Alan John Doe' instead of 'John Alan Doe'?

Are these things I should be including or should that be left for if I get a response?

Dear BW Legal,

The debt is denied. The signage was not sufficiently visible to form a contract. Please refer the debt back to the principal.

Please also note that as the debt has been formally denied from day one, your debt collection costs of £154 are not appropriate. The amount is also excessive. I refer you to ParkingEye v Somerfield where debt collection costs of £60 were found to probably be a penalty by HHJ Heggarty.

Additionally, you are misrepresenting the legal process. A CCJ is not automatically entered following a successful hearing. The losing party has 14 days to make payment and if they do this has no effect on credit or employability.


Please follow your formal complaints procedure. If I am not happy with your response, I will escalate to the CSA.

Thanks for your help, I'm way out of my depth here.

Coupon-mad

Why they started ticketting me from 7.15 - 8.15 on a Saturday when only one business on that retail park is open at 8?

To make money of course.

Private parking firms (correct me if I am wrong with this opinion anyone...anyone...?) don't have any other main agenda, certainly we never see a hint of interest in 'parking management' nor the interests of retailers or customers, ordinary people. Nope. Rarely have we seen any fairness to speak of because this greedy 'industry' generally evolved at breakneck speed from the gutter, made up of clampers and similar moneygrabbers; some of them opportunists, some of them nasty thugs and some surprisingly better educated but still (allegedly) just after that fast buck, at the expense of hapless UK drivers.

Private parking firms have hoodwinked people for years, using people's 'fear' of getting parking tickets and 'bills escalating', to trouser millions for no service to drivers at all.

IT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY.

And the Supreme Court lapped it up without even a hint of recognition of what they were waving through (except from one Judge who held it was an unrecoverable penalty) when ParkingEye explained their business 'model'.

That all of the letters until this BW Legal one stated my name in the wrong order i.e 'Alan John Doe' instead of 'John Alan Doe'?

Doesn't matter.

Thanks for your help, I'm way out of my depth here.

We are helping you swim. Hoohoo's letter is fine. You DO NOT add who was driving!! So no, NOT THIS:

[STRIKE]That I parked my car at night, overnight so didn't see the signage due to no light above it?[/STRIKE]

Daveybaby

Thanks Coupon-Mad, I'll send the letter I've shown you, although I'd love for this to just go away, I'm sure it won't. I'm not really sure what to expect next, more phonecalls maybe?