I Won!! Minster Baywatch - to pay or not to pay?

Gin_and_Milk

Hi,

I've read the Newbies sticky, but I'm still a bit confused about the best course of action to take.

In July I received a PCN from Minster Baywatch. I ignored the ticket on the windscreen and the first letter which arrived a few weeks later.

Today I received another letter informing me that the case has been passed to their internal collections team, bringing the charge to a total of £155. They have also made reference to schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, and from what I've gathered so far this is yet another scaremongering tactic. Letter also states that if I don't pay by the date listed, my case will be passed to an external DCA or 'our solicitors' to recover any amounts outstanding. I have to say I'm surprised they have their own solictors.

The reason I'm posting this is because some people have ignored their letters, others have appealed and I'm not sure which course of action to take. My husband is the registered keeper and is happy to ignore all letters but then again they are registered with the BPA, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference. There is no mention whatsoever of a POPLA and the photos of the car in the letter are so poor that even if I had bought a ticket, it probably wouldn't have shown up anyway. I'm not sure what the photos look like on their website as I'm not too keen on the idea of registering to look!

Any advice gratefully recieved.
Thanks

Fruitcake

Ignoring has been a bad idea since the law changed in 2012, (the law that you think is scaremongering) and has not been recommended on this site since then.

You haven't been offered PoPLA because you didn't appeal.

The best thing to do is go back an reread the NEWBIES then make a late appeal using the BPA template in blue. They will no doubt tell you that you are too late to appeal, so add the following, but without revealing who was driving at any point.

"Changes in EU law last year say that appeals should be allowed (Alternative Dispute Resolution) for up to a year."

"It is the will of Parliament, as a result of the EU Consumer Rights Directive, that ADRs must imminently be made available for not less than a year."

Gin_and_Milk

Thanks for clearing that up for me Fruitcake. Some of the things I read mentioned the new law in 2012, but some people seemed to be ignoring that too whereas others were lodging appeals.

Do I quote both of your sentences in quotation marks? I know it's a daft question, the different coloured sentences has thrown me.



Thanks for your help.

The_Deep

£155 is £55 too much. Write to Duncan Allen, SRA, querying it, open copy to the SRA who are already investigating them for attempting to obtain money to which they are not entitled.

http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page

Notwithstanding that I deny any debt to UKCPS, I note that your letter demands £150 for legal costs

Your client has either failed woefully in its duty to mitigate costs or the sum has not been incurred and the demand is fraudulent
In neither case am I liable for the payment

If you insist that the charge is justified, please provide a copy of your invoice to UKCPS
If this is not possible, please confirm :

1 The Invoice number and details of the VAT component
2 The date that your client paid the invoice
3 Details of the time spent and activities performed for which you charged the client £150

If none of the requested information is provided, I require a full explanation for the charge (ack Gan)

Gin_and_Milk

Thanks for your message. Apparently the extra £55 is for passing it on to their internal collections team. Which is probably another desk in the same office.

I've emailed them using the template Fruitcake suggested alongside the quotes provided in their post, so they should provide me with a PoPLA.

Once I've received my unsatisfactory response, I suppose I could email them and copy the SRA into it, or should I just do it now anyway?

Thanks

Gin_and_Milk

By SRA do you mean Solicitors Regulation Authority?

The_Deep

Sorry, ignore my posts. I was reading another post and hought that you had been contacted by solicitors. You can ignore debt collectors.

Fruitcake

Gin_and_Milk wrote: »

Thanks for clearing that up for me Fruitcake. Some of the things I read mentioned the new law in 2012, but some people seemed to be ignoring that too whereas others were lodging appeals.

Do I quote both of your sentences in quotation marks? I know it's a daft question, the different coloured sentences has thrown me.

I may (or may not) have a couple of lines of defence as I didn't realise the car park was owned by Mecca bingo and neither did the reception staff at the outpatients clinic I was visiting - very confusing! I knew I would only be there for a short while and whilst I should have paid £1.50 for parking, the machines don't accept 5&10p and I didn't have a 50p piece on me. Do you think I should mention this in my appeal whilst avoiding 'me myself and I' as mentioned on the newbies sticky, or should I keep my powder dry?

Thanks for your help.

Quote the lot. The words in black are mine, the words in blue I cribbed from another poster.

You can look up the Act yourself and find the relevant parts to quote at them. I don't have a link, but it begins,

S T A T U T O R Y I N S T R U M E N T S
2015 No. 542
CONSUMER PROTECTION
The Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015
Made - - - - 16th March 2015
Laid before Parliament 17th March 2015
Coming into force for the purposes of Parts 1 to 3 7th April 2015
for the purposes of Parts 4 & 5 9th July 2015
The Secretary of State, as a Minister designated for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(a), in relation to matters relating to consumer protection(b), makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2(2) of that Act.
PART 1
General
Citation and commencement
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015. (2) Parts 1 to 3 come into force on 7th April 2015. (3) Parts 4 and 5 come into force on 9th July 2015.


Don't mention not having the correct change as you will be admitting you didn't pay. You should edit your post to remove it.

Gin_and_Milk

Thanks again Fruitcake. I've emailed them the template letter with the quotes you provided. I didn't mention the other stuff.