LBC response from Gladstones - help please

Kanye_West

I stayed in a parking lot for 17 minutes, which, I think from reading a similar situation, was 2 minutes over the 15 minute grace period and Gladstones want to charge me £150 for it.

I ignored all letters up till Gladstones sent an Letter before claim (silly I know), so I read the Newbies thread and sent back an 'Acknowledgement' response stating all their failings in following the practice direction.

They responded with a letter [attached in link below] stating they were compliant with the PD (they weren't). They then said I should have read the signs, which have tiny writing on them and said because I parked the way I parked I deemed to accept the charges.

They're asking for the driver of the vehicle at the time - do I have to give them this?

They're also refusing to break down the £150 they're charging me as 'The charge is a core price term, and as such our client does not need to pre-estimate the loss'. Everywhere I've read, it says they need to be able to break it down.

Do I have a strong enough stance following this letter to tell them to get lost in the most professional way? TIA

http://imgur.com/a/zR63H

Umkomaas

I ignored all letters up till Gladstones sent an Letter before claim (silly I know), so I read the Newbies thread and sent back an 'Acknowledgement' response stating all their failings in following the practice direction.

After all the help we gave you in 2014 & 2015 for multiple tickets, with over 100 inputs from regulars, you decided to ignore a subsequent private parking charge that you then could have so easily dealt with by appealing? Unbelievable!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5016513
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5282312

The work this will now involve you in is considerably more than you would have faced by dealing with this at the time.

Do plenty of searches here and on PePiPoo for Gladstone LBA (or similar), there's hundreds of cases and come back and let us know how you are going to proceed. Guidance can be given then.

The_Deep

This company is being investigated for alleged fraud by the Solicitors Regulatory atthority. . That demand for £150 is one of many such demands, they can only claim the original sum, plus some allowed costs if the judge so directs. They should also give you the breakdown of costs as you have requested, and should not have asked for driver details. Have they mentioned Elliott v Loake?

You should therefore complain to Duncan Allen

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

that they are demanding monies to which their client is not entitled, and the other "offences" above. With a bit of a push we may be ablte for force this firm of solicitors into becoming an ex firm of solicitors.

Be warned, since Beavis far more ignorers are being taken to court, you should treat this matter seriously or you could find yourself with a CCJ.

Kanye_West

The_Deep wrote: »

This company is being investigated for alleged fraud by the Solicitors Regulatory atthority. . That demand for £150 is one of many such demands, they can only claim the original sum, plus some allowed costs if the judge so directs. They should also give you the breakdown of costs as you have requested, and should not have asked for driver details. Have they mentioned Elliott v Loake?

You should therefore complain to Duncan Allen

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

that they are d.....

Ah very interesting, thank you for the help. No mention of Elliot Vs Loake. I shall complain to Duncan Allen. Should I respond to Gladstone to tell them they aren't following the practice direction, state where they have gone wrong and that tell them I am following up with Duncan Allen?

I've filled out the report document to SRA and this is my draft so far to SRA:

Dear Duncan Allen,

I am the registered keeper of vehicle FD54 AEC and I received a ‘parking charge notice’ from Minster Baywatch Ltd on 10th June 2016 through the post for allegedly parking two minutes over the grace period of 15 minutes in a parking space. The time to acquire a POPLA code had expired so matters were passed over to Minster Baywatch Ltd’s solicitors, Gladstones Solicitors Ltd, and on 16th September 2016 I received a ‘Letter Before Claim’ with a new charge of £150. The ‘Letter Before Claim’ was not compliant with the Practice Direction, so I responded with an Acknowledgment letter [attached in envelope] on 23rd September. This letter was compliant with a typical Acknowledgement and kindly requested the correct information before I could respond properly. I have attached their response in the envelope.

Their response was not compliant with any Practice and it seems that they are just trying to get this £150 out of me. They began by wrongly stating that their Letter Before Claim complied with the Practice Direction. In my Acknowledgement I rightfully requested a breakdown of this £150 to which they responded, ‘The charge is a core price term, and as such our client does not need to pre-estimate the loss.’. They should give me the breakdown of the costs as such my request. Furthermore, in their letter they asked for the driver details, which they shouldn’t have. They are demanding monies to which their client is not entitled.

This is disgusting scare tactics and extremely unprofessional coming from a solicitors firm authorised and registered by the SRA.


How is this?

The_Deep

I would cut out the "why you got it" and concentrate on their transgressions. The SRA are only interested in solicitorial bad behaviour, of which there is plenty. Add at the end, "and brings your profession into disrepute".

Kanye_West

Sorted that, thanks The Deep for your help. I'll send that off first thing tomorrow to SRA and let Gladstones know I'm pausing the process while they get into even more trouble with SRA.

Kanye_West

Update on this:

Sent letter off to SRA and sent letter off to Gladstones telling them I'm pausing the process as they weren't following the PD and I had submitted a complaint to the SRA.

Just received an official County Court Claim Form. What do I do? In a state of panic right now because it's still in the registered keeper's name - my sister. Please please help

Quentin

Your sister must deal with this. She either pays or defends.

Assuming she will defend this, the first thing to do is send back the Acknowledgement of claim to buy an extra 14 days to sort the defence.

Read up here on the sources of help over court claims in the newbies FAQ thread

beamerguy

Kanye_West wrote: »

Update on this:

Sent letter off to SRA and sent letter off to Gladstones telling them I'm pausing the process as they weren't following the PD and I had submitted a complaint to the SRA.

Just received an official County Court Claim Form. What do I do? In a state of panic right now because it's still in the registered keeper's name - my sister. Please please help

Assume you have not named the driver.
Is your sister aware of all this ?

No need to panic and are you sure it is a real court claim.
If so, you need to respond to it giving you time to form your defence. Help will be given here for you

Sounds like the Gladstones boys have got the hump because you complained to the SRA so in view of their Predator type actions, you should now send in a severe complaint to the SRA without advising "the boys".

Gladstones are not doing very well in court of late, this accounts for their lack of knowledge.

As the Prankster recently quoted ....

"Gladstones are famous for being an incompetent bunch of shysters who don't even know how to file a claim properly."

Kanye_West

Quentin wrote: »

Your sister must deal with this. She either pays or defends.

Assuming she will defend.thd first thing to do is send back the Acknowledgement of claim to buy an extra 14 days to sort the defence.

I've been sending everything prior to this, and I sent off the acknowledgement letter and their response wasn't following the PD. Do I need to send another acknowledgment letter to buy some time?

Kanye_West

beamerguy wrote: »

Assume you have not named the driver.
Is your sister aware of all this ?

No need to panic and are you sure it is a real court claim.
If so, you need to respond to it giving you time to form your defence. Help will be given here for you

Sounds like the Gladstones boys have got the hump because you complained to the SRA so in view of their Predator type actions, you should now send in a severe complaint to the SRA without advising "the boys".

Gladstones are not doing very well in court of late, this accounts for their lack of knowledge.

As the Prankster recently quoted ....

"Gladstones are famous for being an incompetent bunch of shysters who don't even know how to file a claim properly."

Yeah she's aware of all this, was just letting me sort everything out.

What I'm worried about is that, I go in to defend her and state my defence which would be something along the lines of them not following the PD correctly (haven't looked into a defence yet, but will do) and then if it doesn't work out well, her credit will get affected. What do you reckon?