Civil Enforcement - Letter before action

Milsey

Hi All

I am at the stage where I need to draft a response to a Letter before Action my wife received from Civil Enforcement.

The PCN was issued in May 2014, we appealed at the time by email and heard nothing until now.

The PCN was issued for not entering the registration into the system at Sportspace Hemel Hempstead. I am happy to provide more details on this if it helps.

I have spoken to Sportspace who have told me that they have served notice to Creative Parking/Civil Enforcement and they have been inundated with people now receiving similar letters.

I am planning on sending a reply requesting that this is resolved through the ADR route, as we didn't receive a response to our initial appeal and nearly 2 and a half years have passed with no communication. Is it reasonable to request a POPLA appeal at this stage?

I would be grateful for any input.

Thanks in advance

pappa_golf

I have spoken to Sportspace who have told me that they have served notice to Creative Parking/Civil Enforcement and they have been inundated with people now receiving similar letters


but are they contacting Creative Parking/Civil Enforcement in cases of complaints , and getting the tickets cancelled?


go back and ask them to ring / email Creative Parking/Civil Enforcement with your PCN number and get it cancelled

Milsey

pappa_golf wrote: »

I have spoken to Sportspace who have told me that they have served notice to Creative Parking/Civil Enforcement and they have been inundated with people now receiving similar letters


but are they contacting Creative Parking/Civil Enforcement in cases of complaints , and getting the tickets cancelled?


go back and ask them to ring / email Creative Parking/Civil Enforcement with your PCN number and get it cancelled

When I spoke to them, they informed me that even some tickets that had previously been cancelled had now resulted in letters going to registered keepers stating that they still owed £££. It would appear to be turning into a messy divorce.

I was told that as I had appealed directly in the first instance that they couldn't take up my case now, they have 2 people working on these problems apparently.

pappa_golf

ok , what you need is for them to actually get your ticket cancelled and get a email conformation that this HAS been done


they will be crucified in court when that is produced

Milsey

I shall email the Sports Centre now an ask them to cancel the ticket, I can provide them with details of our appeal etc.

I will ask for confirmation back that they have cancelled it.

In the mean time I presume that I need to respond to the Letter before Action and buy some more time - presumably I can say very little apart from that I am waiting for a response from Sportspace confirming that the ticket has been cancelled and once I have that the matter can be considered closed?

Thanks for your help so far, it is much appreciated

Coupon-mad

It is reasonable to ask for POPLA but you won't get it offered by CEL. As you appealed in the first instance why did you not just win at POPLA like we always do? You didn't give away the driver did you??

Expect court papers but expect to be able to see it off with a decent defence like the ones already on this forum, we've not seen one actually proceed to a hearing. here is a thread where a poster who was 'struggling' is now perfecting a decent defence with some help over a few days, nothing difficult and costs you nothing except time:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71484093#Comment_71484093

When you eventually beat this threat you will be using it as a story for your friends & on Facebook to encourage other people to learn about this scam.

You were right in calling it a 'messy divorce'. CEL have form for doing this to victims when their contracts are in danger of being cancelled - e.g. they sued shedloads of Co-op employees and shoppers, at the time that CEL was kicked out of Co-op car parks.

The Parking Prankster might be interesting in Blogging about the fact that Sportspace Hemel Hempstead has given notice to kick out CEL, because this has been a cash-cow for CEL for many years, we've had loads of threads and always beat them on appeal (too late for that now, you WILL NOT get POPLA).

Also because you know that Sportspace Hemel Hempstead have had so many complaints that they have had to kick out the parking firm, can I ask please that you tell your MP and local Trading standards and Mrs May/Mr Corbyn (yes I am serious!) about the issue you are suffering and the court claim that is likely to threaten you further? Tell them that you know CEL have form for messy divorces and please tell them that Co-op employees were sued by CEL a few months ago (they will be horrified and it is a fact):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5524754

HTH - fightback and be ready for the claim. You can do this.

pappa_golf

await the reply from the sports centre , follow it up with a visit after a couple of days , photocopy the ticket and write your name and email on it , hand this to the Boss , you want the reply in the form of an email , not verbal ,


you can then forward this to cel and tell them to get **uffed

Milsey

Coupon-Mad - our original appeal was sent by email, not naming the driver. We were customers at the sports centre and our stay was for 1h 10m - our "infraction" was not entering the vehicle registration into the terminal - we had moved away from the area 2 years prior and were unaware of the changes to the parking system and it wasn't mentioned to us when paying at reception. As far as I can recall we had no response from CEL to our appeal and this is the first communication from them in 2 1/2 years.

I am fully prepared to put together a robust defence and will certainly send letters to those mentioned in your post. Thank you for your help.


Pappa golf - email is being drafted to the sports centre now, I will pop in to see them too and ask that they cancel the ticket and confirm in writing.


In the mean time what do you guys suggest that I reply to CEL?

The_Deep

If they were to take you to court they would struggle, especially if you threaten them with a counter claim for unreasonable behaviour.


Do you have proof of posting for your appeal? Do you have a copy?

hoohoo

If the letters are from Michael Schwartz, consider complaining to the SRA

Email is report@sra.org.uk

I wish to file a complaint regarding Michael Schwartz, 118966

On your website at http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicitor-check/118966.article it lists that Mr Schwartz was the subject of control of practice restraints which were imposed on 15 August 2016 and published on 15 September 2016.

These restrictions state: Mr Schwartz may act as a solicitor, only as an employee whose role has first been approved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

I enclose a copy of a (letter|claim form) dated xx October 2016, signed by Mr Schwartz, and therefore suspect that he is acting as a solicitor, but in a role for which he has not been approved.

Milsey

The_Deep wrote: »

If they were to take you to court they would struggle, especially if you threaten them with a counter claim for unreasonable behaviour.


Do you have proof of posting for your appeal? Do you have a copy?

Our appeal was sent by email at the time, 2 days after receiving the PCN. Nothing further was received from CEL until last week. We have the original email appeal that was sent from my wife's email account.