County Court Letter N9A form completion

unionjackboy

Back on 08/03/14 I received a parking fine at a private car park which was my own fault for thinking it was an area owned by the council and free at 6pm. Admitted I feel I've stupidly taken the 'Militant' approach and ignored every letter so far from VCS, Zenith, Newlyn, and BWLegal but am now a little worried about the claim form from the county court.

My main question is what to do now? I've never sent an appeal letter, refusal letter, or hassasment letter and I believe it's too late, so I was thinking do I have to pay the full amount asked or complete the N9A form and argue a lesser amount.

Amount Claimed £172.56 (£100 Claimants Claim, 8% interest per year at 0.02p of £18.56, £54 Contractual costs.
Court Fee £25
Legal Representative's Costs £50
Total £247.56

First of all is the full total due, or is the court fee and representative cost something I've not had personally so should only pay £172.56?

Secondly if I'm to pay how reasonable are they if I request to pay a lessor amount?

Finally how reasonable are they if I request a delay until the end of the month (pay day)?

HO87

Before we go any further when did you receive the claim form?

Secondly, what is the issue date (top right-hand corner of front page)?

unionjackboy

Letter came today 23rd and is dated 21st top right.

Coupon-mad

so I was thinking do I have to pay the full amount asked or complete the N9A form and argue a lesser amount.

Neither.

You should read other BW Legal claim threads and acknowledge this claim online on MCOL (not completing paper forms), ticking that you will DEFEND IN FULL (do not contest jurisdiction).

This basic initial/paperwork stuff is covered in the NEWBIES thread under the heading 'Small Claim?'

Finally how reasonable are they if I request a delay until the end of the month (pay day)?

You do need to stop, take a deep breath and go back to the drawing board with your thinking. No idea why you think you have to offer to pay/make excuses. Now we fully realise this is your claim form and it's up to you - but the sum they have set out in the claim is higher than they are likely to be able to recover anyway, so you may as well defend it. Even if you lost at a hearing you'd like pay less! No CCJ either.

But VCS can't hold you liable as registered keeper, hence why you defend it as registered keeper. Please start reading once you've acknowledged the claim which buys you a whole 28 days to read threads and learn why this is defendable.

Loads of threads like yours here and no-one else is saying 'they've asked me to jump so my question is - how high?' People are defending these claims. They (VCS/BW Legal) do not know who was driving and they need that piece of the jigsaw - DON'T give it to them.

EDIT your first post then!!

beamerguy

unionjackboy wrote: »

Amount Claimed £172.56 (£100 Claimants Claim, 8% interest per year at 0.02p of £18.56, £54 Contractual costs.
Court Fee £25
Legal Representative's Costs £50
Total £247.56

BWLegal YES ????

Do they really state interest owed when no debt has been proven

Do they really state "Contractual costs of £54" ??
What the hell are Contractual costs ????

Sounds like yet another complaint to the SRA about BWLegal

Coupon-mad

Do they really state interest owed when no debt has been proven

That is correct on a claim form, they can include interest.

beamerguy

Coupon-mad wrote: »

That is correct on a claim form, they can include interest.

Interest on what though ?

Coupon-mad

True, interest on any actual money 'owed'.

Yet they've plucked other figures out of thin air and are trying to pursue a registered keeper who isn't going to recall from way back in 2014 who was driving...!

beamerguy

Coupon-mad wrote: »

True, interest on any actual money 'owed'.

Yet they've plucked other figures out of thin air and are trying to pursue a registered keeper who isn't going to recall from way back in 2014 who was driving...!

Yup the dreamers called BWLegal. The court will decide if money is owed and then they maybe can claim interest but until proven they are talking out of their backsides.

What do you think this means
"£54 Contractual costs"

It's new name for their £54 legal fee and now they are adding on £50 for their legal fees.

BWLegal are genuine scammers and the SRA should kick them out, no sanctions or warnings ...... TERMINATION

HO87

beamerguy wrote: »

Yup the dreamers called BWLegal. The court will decide if money is owed and then they maybe can claim interest but until proven they are talking out of their backsides.

What do you think this means
"£54 Contractual costs"

It's new name for their £54 legal fee and now they are adding on £50 for their legal fees.

BWLegal are genuine scammers and the SRA should kick them out, no sanctions or warnings ...... TERMINATION

It is the additional costs they will allege were detailed on the signage. The sign may (or may not) have stated something like "Where the charge remains unpaid after 28 days additional charges for administration, debt collection and legal costs will be incurred"). Hence the word "contractual" costs.

Unfortunately, C-M is entirely correct. They are fully entitled to add interest and show it in the claim. We know why its being added but it doesn't change the fact that this is perfectly allowable under the CPR.

unionjackboy

Thanks everyone for the replies, this has been really helpful.

I didn't think I could argue/lie that I wasn't the driver as it would get me in further trouble, and then thought it may be too late so was in the frame of mind to try and offer to pay sumit and get them off my back. I did read everything but but my worrying got the better of me when reading small claims stuff.

I'll go back and read more on the small claims, and I'll most likely begin to write my complaint to the SRA tomorrow.

Sorry to sound like a broken record but am I to go along the lines of 'I can't remember who was driving on that date'? If they know I'm the registered keeper and nobody else is on the policy would it not look an obvious lie or is it simply the case of they can't prove me wrong?

Finally do I need to reply to this latest letter as well as my letter to the SRA, either BW Legal listed as the address for documents and payments, or to the County Court business centre?