[England] PCM & Trace Debt Recovery - too late to appeal

Rudixx

Shall I still treat it as Letter Before Claim even it does not state it is a letter before claim?

Would the below letter template that I found be suitable for my case?

Please note, this is an open letter and I reserve the right to produce it to the court at the appropriate time, should the need arise.

Firstly, I do not accept liability for the above parking charge and I have no intention of paying the money demanded by your client. Specifically, I do not accept that the charge demanded is in any way shape or form a genuine pre-estimate of loss. Further, I do not believe that your client has legal standing to pursue an action against me in its own name, since any loss (which is denied) would be the landholder's in any event. I am sure that you will have advised your client as to the recent cases in which parking companies have had similar claims dismissed owing to having no locus to bring a claim. For the above reasons, any court proceedings in connection with this matter will be vigorously defended.

Second, should it be your client's intention to start court proceedings, you must first provide a Letter Before Claim which complies with the requirements of Annex A Para 2 of the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct. Your letter clearly does not meet those requirements.

In particularly your attention is drawn to the Practice Direction requirement to utilise an appropriate form of ADR before starting court proceedings. In the circumstances I invite your client to refer this dispute to the Parking On Private Land appeals service ("POPLA"), which is the appropriate form of ADR set up by the parking industry for this precise situation.

Please note: Notwithstanding the fact that any decision of POPLA is legally binding on the parking company, and not the motorist, in the spirit of exploring an amicable resolution of this dispute, I am willing to give an undertaking to be bound by the decision of POPLA, thus ensuring that this case will not proceed to court.

A referral to POPLA will avoid your client incurring the fees and expenses set out in your letter, and perhaps more importantly will reduce the burden on the court (which, as you will be aware, is the reason for this Direction). Please do not seek to rely on any deadlines imposed by your client as POPLA has confirmed that it does not impose any time limit on an appeal to POPLA, and all that is required is for your client to issue a POPLA code.

I would also remind you that a failure and/or refusal by your client to agree to my offer of both parties abiding by a POPLA decision would be clear evidence of your client's failure to mitigate its alleged loss.

Should your client reject my offer to refer this dispute to ADR and instead chooses to instruct you to issue court proceedings, I shall invite the court to stay the case and make an order referring the case to POPLA. Further I shall strenuously resist any application for costs that your client may wish to make, owing to its failure to mitigate, and shall instead make an application for my own wasted costs according to the provisions of Schedule 4 of the Practice Direction and CPR 27.14.

In the meantime, and in the absence of a compliant Letter Before Claim, you should place a note on your file to the effect that this charge is disputed and your firm is required to cease and desist all further contact with me. [STRIKE]For the avoidance of doubt, the same applies to the debt collection agency, referred to in your letter.[/STRIKE]

Finally, please also note that should your firm issue court proceedings on behalf of your client, without first complying with all steps set out in the Practice Direction on pre-action conduct, I shall make an immediate complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for breach of the Principles contained in the SRA Handbook version 8, published on 1st October 2013.

I trust that I have made myself clear, and I suggest that you take your client's further instructions.

Also does below means that I can't appeal to POPLA as I did not appeal to PCM first?

Provided you made representations to the operator who issued the parking charge notice and these were rejected, you have 28 days to appeal against the operator’s decision. If you do appeal to POPLA, which is independent of both the operator and the BPA, an impartial Assessor will consider your case.

Please advise.

Thank you,
Rudixx

Coupon-mad

Specifically, I do not accept that the charge demanded is in any way shape or form a genuine pre-estimate of loss.

Nonono. Awful, old letter. Read current threads not old ones.

Same advice as here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5552915

HTH

Rudixx

How about these two?

Letter 1

I note your letter dated dd/mm/yyyy
I assume that an organisation as well-known as your own does not intend such an uninformative note to function as a Letter before Claim.
Regarding my proposal to deal with the matter, I deny any debt to your client.
Until I receive a valid Letter before Claim that meets the requirements of the Practice Direction - Pre-Action Conduct, I cannot provide a more detailed response. I certainly cannot be expected to make a payment.

Letter 2

I refer to your Letter Before Action, reference ****** and dated dd/mm/yyyy

Please note, this is an open letter and I reserve the right to produce it to the court at the appropriate time, should the need arise.

Firstly, I do not accept liability for the above parking charge and I have no intention of paying the money demanded by your client. Further, I do not believe that your client has legal standing to pursue an action against me in its own name, since any loss (which is denied) would be the landholder's in any event. I am sure that you will have advised your client as to the recent cases in which parking companies have had similar claims dismissed owing to having no locus to bring a claim. For the above reasons, any court proceedings in connection with this matter will be vigorously defended.

Secondly I am horrified that you have my personal details on your database.
You have no right to have them and I make an official complaint now to your data controller for immediate action.

Thirdly I would also like you to set out without comment how the Keefe v Home Guard (14 Serices) case was decided as I intend to use that in my defence as well as the Jopson v Home Guard (14 Services) case of which I have a transcript.

I am the registered keeper of vehicle registration number ***** and was served a demand for payment of a sum of money by PCM (UK) Ltd.

PCM have no right to obtain my details from the DVLA as being authorised to use the parking facility at the registered address the lease extends to me an unencumbered, unfettered right of peaceful enjoyment.

Accordingly PCM (UK) Ltd have no authority to override such terms of the lease and the access of my personal details from the DVLA is without any merit. In fact it a breach of the Data Protection Act. I have never agreed to any restrictions on parking and PCM (UK) Ltd have no overriding rights.

Whilst you may have no knowledge of the leaseholder rights in this parking case and rely on the facts as given you by PCM (UK) Ltd, I accept that you have acted innocently up to this time. However you now have the facts of my rights to the use of the parking areas and the subsequent conclusion that my details were obtained unlawfully.

I therefore require that you desist from the use of them and make known to you that I will take action against you for the continued unlawful use of my personal data and will claim an amount of £750 from you for that misuse.

Please consider this as a complaint to be presented for action to your data controller.
Any further action against me whilst this is being considered will be passed to the SRA.

The_Deep

Second one, without a doubt.

Have you read these?

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com.es/2016/11/link-parking-lose-in-wrexham-flat-owner.html

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com.es/2016/11/tenancy-agreement-not-overruled-by.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?377246-UKPC-liable-for-trespass-**SUCCESS**

Coupon-mad

Yes the second letter is so much better.

Maybe this instead of the paragraph in your draft:

I therefore require that you desist from [STRIKE]the use of them[/STRIKE] any further processing of my data. [STRIKE]and make known to you that[/STRIKE] Should you persist, I will take action against you [STRIKE]for the continued unlawful use of my personal data[/STRIKE] to claim damages of £750 from you, or your client and/or their client (the landowner/managing agent) who are jointly and severally liable for this persistent misuse and unlawful sharing of my data as registered keeper.

Rudixx

Update

Last year I sent the letter to Gladstones Solicitors, they replied by just saying that I need to pay and completely ignoring all my points. I ignored them and I was waiting for the letter before claim.

I did not hear nothing back for the last 8 months.

Ralph-y

sadly they have up to 6 years from the start of all this mess to reply / take this to court ...:(

so keep waiting ...

in the mean time ...

It may help to try your MP

this is a copy of a post by Bargepole ....

"Some action at last:

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/parkingcodeofpractice.html

This Private Member's Bill has Government and cross-party support, and stands a good chance of making it into statute.

The full text of the clauses will be published nearer the date of the second reading, but my sources tell me it's something we should support.

Now would be a good time to write to your MP urging them to support it."

let here know that there have been many complaints about this car park scam

he/ she may well help intervene

good luck

Ralph:cool: