Letter before claim

Coupon-mad

Kind_Of_Irritated wrote: »

Many thanks if you can suggest any route to take without sending me here there and everywhere else on these forums. I've been everywhere, man - and I have about 50 windows open already on this laptop.

Why would you have 50 windows open? You only need one after searching 'Link Gladstones claim' then reading the top 10 or so most recent results - closing each one then reading the next.

You would see a pattern to defence wording if you narrow your search down only to relevant threads.

Does anyone have any idea as to my chances of winning this case should they decide to proceed to "court" with it?

Read the Parking Prankster blogs about Link/Gladstones, easy to find, and many cases are won by defendants as Gladstones bungle them.

Kind_Of_Irritated

Please - don't be so touchy, BargePole. Those findings of mine reflect badly on me, not on the people here who all do a great job.

Kind_Of_Irritated

Thank you for this, coupon mad. As I said in reply to bargepole, it's probably me, opening so many great linked pages and then leaving them open to refer to them.

I'll have another dig around later when I have a few hours. And I think I'll need to visit a legal beaver to cut through it all for me. Perhaps at a CAB.

Umkomaas

And I think I'll need to visit a legal beaver to cut through it all for me. Perhaps at a CAB.

Jeez, not the CAB. They know next to nothing about it, work from a script from the BPA and will most probably tell you that since Beavis, it's best that you pay!

But it's free - come back and astound us.

beamerguy

Kind_Of_Irritated wrote: »

Thank you for this, coupon mad. As I said in reply to bargepole, it's probably me, opening so many great linked pages and then leaving them open to refer to them.

I'll have another dig around later when I have a few hours. And I think I'll need to visit a legal beaver to cut through it all for me. Perhaps at a CAB.

Don't waste your time with CAB and don't waste your money on a solicitor, they know little about this scam.

Even solicitors like Gladstones who like to scare people, know little about it either ..... They make a pigs ear of it in court anyway

Everything you need to know is on here, you just have to ask

Kind_Of_Irritated

Thank you so much. You might have saved me a trip this morning, beamerguy.

Don't waste your time with CAB and don't waste your money on a solicitor, they know little about this scam.

Even solicitors like Gladstones who like to scare people, know little about it either ..... They make a pigs ear of it in court anyway

Everything you need to know is on here, you just have to ask

I have been asking for a couple of weeks now, but I don't seem to be getting all that much back, I'm afraid. Although I think it may be because I am finding it all a little tough to distil down and process the points that I personally can make in my case.

I described my situation here on 2nd September in *Letter Before Claim from Gladstones Solicitors re Link Parking*. This is it, below, with any updates I can think of:

2nd Sep 16, 3:08 PM

First of all thank you for the great information on this forum. I recently had a parking ticket from Link Parking Limited [dated 17th May 2016] for parking in the car park at my son's rented property as I dropped something off for him. I was probably parked there for no more than 20-30 minutes.

My position is that although I do possess a parking permit on this occasion it had slipped out of sight on the dashboard. This is complicated by the fact that I had not parked in his parking spot (as his car was already there). I had parked in a space just inside the parking lot, which although used by a business within the premises is often vacant. There are no visitors' parking spaces at all at the premises.

On receipt of this PCN my son and I both contacted the property owners' management as well as my son's personal landlord. We seemed to get very little empathy from them, although the personal landlord was more sympathetic than the general company manager (who also uses a premises there).

I then wrote to Link Parking explaining the situation. Since I am the mother of a tenant (for whose protection, presumably, the LP account is in force), it seemed reasonable to me that Link were not protecting clients' interests by fining one of their parents for dropping something off at their flat.

I'd have expected reasonable people to say - slap on wrists, but since we are here to stop others (and not such as you) from using & abusing the facility, your fine will be dropped. Instead I have now received a Letter before Claim from Gladstones Solicitors, giving me 14 days to pay the full amount of £150. The date on their letter to me was 25th August but I did not receive it until 2nd September, a gap I pointed out to them in my reply.

On 6th September after reading up on this forum, I sent Gladstones a "formal acknowledgement" . I said I'd get back to them with a full response by next Thursday (20th Sep). Btw, I found the "14 days" to respond point in their letter to me badly written and possibly purposely misleading, something I pointed out to them in my response.

I think the weakness in my case might be that they know who the driver is because I, foolishly, had told Link Parking when I first responded to them.

I just read a thread where someone advised asking the Management company if it has a financial interest in the tickets issued by Link Parking. Do you think this is worth a shot? I am loathe to sound suspicious of the Management company as my son has to live there and he comes into regular contact with the Secretary of the Management company.

The other day I met the Director of the Management Company Board, parked in the space I parked when I was fined. It IS his space. He was very pleasant and sympathetic but that was all. He said that he and his family had also had tickets from Link. When pressed he told me they had managed to get one such ticket stopped by ringing the company up. He said they had paid other such fines, but he didn't say how many. If he managed to get through to a person at Link he is doing far better than me. I get only answer machines.

I'm glad you say that this is a scam, but from reading through the forums I think I may need to look for a legal loophole and that is proving hard to find at the moment.

I am also vague as to when the POPLA thing kicks in. Would that be AFTER I fully reply to Gladstones or should I do it now? I didn't go through any formal appeal process as described by Link on their PCN
as to be blunt I never expected them to pursue it.

Anyway, as you suggest, I think I'll leave the CAB visit today.

Many thanks for any help you or others can offer. I want to get my letter off to Gladstones by next Tuesday so they have it by Thursday, 20th.

Coupon-mad

Oh, so you needed to reply on that thread then. We'd find it soooo much easier to keeper one case to one thread so we could see all that in one place. Every time just reply on your thread to bounce it back to the top even if you think we are ignoring you (it probably just slipped from page one on a busy day, needed bumping back up the forum by you, that's all).

Please click on the username of a Board Guide (Soolin or Crabman or Browntoa) and ask them if they can please merge your two threads, that would really help us to help you.

Umkomaas

Go to the Crabman sticky here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4896178

Half way down the index is a link to an advisory post by retired solicitor lazydaisy. It was written 3 years ago and some of the references within in might be a bit out of date, but it is a comprehensive advisory from a professional.

It will most certainly give you a framework against which to set your response to Gladstone. You need to make sure you reply to a LBC, otherwise a judge might deem you as being 'unreasonable' and costs against you might be greater than had you responded.

I know this is all 'work', but there is no magic wand (other than a cheque) to get rid of this for you.

bargepole

Kind_Of_Irritated wrote: »

I'm glad you say that this is a scam, but from reading through the forums I think I may need to look for a legal loophole and that is proving hard to find at the moment.

I am also vague as to when the POPLA thing kicks in. Would that be AFTER I fully reply to Gladstones or should I do it now? I didn't go through any formal appeal process as described by Link on their PCN as to be blunt I never expected them to pursue it.

Anyway, as you suggest, I think I'll leave the CAB visit today.

Apologies for being blunt, but you need a dose of cold, hard reality.

POPLA is completely irrelevant, Link are IPC members, but the time to use the so-called Independent Appeals Service is long past.

It makes not a jot of difference what you put in your reply to Gladstone's LBC, you are making the mistake of thinking you are dealing with reasonable or sensible people here. You are not, all they want is your money.

Gladstone's WILL issue a County Court Claim on behalf of Link, and they WILL pursue this all the way to court.

You can defend the claim, and looking at the circumstances as described, the lines of defence are likely to be based on inadequate signage, reasonable endeavours on your part to comply with the contractual terms, and the lack of any legitimate interest in enforcing charges against genuine residents and visitors.

If and when the court claim arrives, you should come back and people here can help you to compose your Defence Statement.

But you need to understand that this is not so much a matter of loopholes, more an interpretation of contract law, and you need to be absolutely on top of your arguments so that you can persuade a Judge to rule in your favour.

Not for the faint-hearted, but then we only advise people to defend in court if they are the sort who can take a hot buttered crumpet up the rear end without blubbing.

Coupon-mad

bargepole wrote: »

Not for the faint-hearted, but then we only advise people to defend in court if they are the sort who can take a hot buttered crumpet up the rear end without blubbing.

We do indeed - and we only advise people in the open - not by private message - on this forum (you really do need your threads merged).

To the OP, you can do this but you need to be more than ''Kind Of Irritated'' and more ''Mr Angry but well informed''.

DO NOT REPLY IF YOU GET A PRIVATE MESSAGE FROM ANY POSTER HERE WITH LESS THAN 1000 POSTS, OFFERING TO 'HELP'. COULD BE ANYONE, COULD BE A PARKING FIRM AND WILL NOT BE A PERSON WITH YOUR BEST INTERESTS AT HEART.