Help with LBC response please!

Darwinjbo

Hello everyone, following some serious internet surfing hours I have read the Newbies page and some Pepipoo threads and am about to respond to an LBC. Can I saw from which law firm?

Should I give a story overview? My office parking is restricted, parking for me and my colleagues is a nightmare, sometimes over the past years we have resorted to parking in a shopping car park and the common office knowledge was to ignore the windscreen parking charges as it's private land (now I know this is incorrect, damn it!), so although we try best to avoid using the space, it just became the go-to solution if you can't get parked anywhere else and need to be in on time. Now however, I have received this LBC and will be leaving my house MUCH earlier than my co-workers!!!!!! It includes multiple occasions, totaling quite a sizable debt!

I an about to respond and I feel this forum has given me ample information to do so, however I still need some guidance on how I pursue this. Should my very first letter back to them, using zzzLazyDaisy's thread from august 2013, be to follow her advice of not getting into a war of words and sending this letter first?

Here is the LBC I received and my planned response below that.

Here's my LBC:

We act for *** **** and are instructed to recover the charges shown below incurred by you in relation to parking of your vehicle:

There are then details of parking for longer than the allowed time, as per the signage

*** **** is entitled to these sums under contract law. When you parked your vehicle at the above mentioned site(s), you agreed to be bound by the terms and conditions of parking which was displayed on signage throughout the site. You breached the terms and conditions of parking on each of the above stated occasions for the reasons stated. For each contravention, a parking charge notice was issued, for which sums owed remain outstanding. If you were not the driver of the vehicle for any of the above stated contraventions, please provide us with the name and address of the driver as a matter of urgency.

We refer you to the Supreme Court decision in ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67. In this case, the Supreme Court found that parking charge notices do not contravene the penalty rule of Unfair terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 provided they protect legitimate interests.

Unless payment is made within the next 14 days, we are instructed to issue court proceedings to recover the same and any of our clients legal costs, without further recourse to you.

We reserve the right to refer to this letter, in particular on the question of costs, should this matter proceed to trial.

In the event that a Count Court Judgement is obtained against you and payment is not made, our client will consider all enforcement options, which shall result in further legal costs, including but not limited to:

****And here are court bailiff threats****

If you wish to avoid the steps outlined above being taken, please contact us on by telephone on ****** to make payment within 14 days.

Please note that this letter is to be considered a letter before claim for the purpose of the Practice Direction on Pre-action conduct. Please read this Practice Direction, in particular paragraphs 13 to 17, concerning the Court's powers to impose sanctions for failing to comply with its provisions.

Please also note that we do not consider that this matter is suitable for Alternative Dispute Resolution.

My response using zzzLazyDaisy's template:

Dear **** *****

**** v *****
Proposed Legal Proceedings


Thank you for your letter of **date***

First, the alleged debt is disputed and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

Secondly, despite the wholly inaccurate statement that the letter is 'fully compliant with the Practice Direction' it is in fact woefully defective and appears to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the recipient.

Please therefore provide a Letter Before Claim which complies with the requirements of Annex A Para 2 of the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct:

I confirm that I shall then seek advice and submit a formal Response within 30 days of receipt, as required by the Practice Direction.

Please ensure that someone does actually read and respond to this letter, providing the specific information relating to the county court claim that your client intends to make against myself as the defendant to the proposed legal proceedings. Please DO NOT send a generic FAQ letter in reply as to do so does not meet the requirements of the Practice Direction and will take this matter no further forward.

Please note, a refusal to comply with the Practice Direction will result in an immediate referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for breach of the Principles contained in the SRA Handbook version 8, published on 1st October 2013.

I trust this will not be necessary, and look forward to receiving a fully compliant letter before claim in due course.

Yours faithfully


Should I do this? Can I send this exact template and is this tactic ok? Or would I be better to begin aggressively highlighting paragraph 4 in the Practice Direction, the information they need to send me to make the letter compliant and any other flaws I might be able to highlight such as "The driver is not identified in your letter and your client has failed to meet the requirements of The Protection of Freedoms Act, schedule 4 to pursue me as keeper."??

Any advice is enormously appreciated!

twhitehousescat

who act for *** ****

how many tickets , where tickets on car , was paperwork recieved on time?

Darwinjbo

Multiple tickets, notice left on my windscreen. What paperwork are you referring to? If you mean was the LBC received on time, yes it was

Quentin

Tell us the ppc & who sent the LBC for best advice!

Darwinjbo

I've read on other threads that sharing the PPC and legal firm will enable them to search the forum for me??

But I'll take your advice and edit later if needed. The PPC is Britannia Parking and the LBC was sent by SCS Law.

Quentin

Darwinjbo wrote: »

I've read on other threads that sharing the PPC and legal firm will enable them to search the forum for me??

But I'll take your advice and edit later if needed. The PPC is Britannia Parking and the LBC was sent by SCS Law.

No probs in posting these details as long as you don't identify yourself in any way


(If you have inadvertently included your real name in your board name then you should contact MSE to get it changed)

Darwinjbo

Ok good to know, my username is totally random so I think I'm safe

Is my LBC reply ok to send as I really need to post it today or tomorrow!? I'm thinking of chaning the opening paragraphs to a more assertive, informed tone of:

First, the alleged debt is disputed and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

Also, I must refer you to paragraph 4 of the Practice Direction because despite the wholly inaccurate statement that your Letter Before Claim is 'fully compliant with the Practice Direction' it is in fact woefully defective. Your Letter Before Claim appears to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the recipient.

Please therefore provide a Letter Before Claim which complies with the requirements of Annex A Para 2 of the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct: