NPS letter before action

busby3000

This relates to 2 tickets received end of 2015 (consecutive days). We stupidly (before becoming more educated here) admitted to the fact that the driver was the same as the keeper and entered into email correspondence. Our defence was that we had paid (by phone, showed call log and bank statement showing payment made to Whoosh. They say we must have paid another car park. Unfortunately we did not keep the confirmatory text on payment and could not recover it. I also pointed out that one of the tickets did not show a clear picture of the ticket on the windscreen (there was only one ticket on return to the car). I also note that they are not POFA compliant in missing off the paragraph re 28 day keeper liability on one of the NTKs.

Anyway, after writing as NPS, HFM and DCBL up to May 2016 they have now sent an LBA (from NPS acting on behalf of NPS) and gone back to original £200. They do not appear to be compliant with the Practice Direction required. their letter was dated 10 April and received 18 April.

What do I reply? Below is rough copy of their letter

(address at top - NPS)

"Re: Letter before action
NPS v ******

I act on behalf of Northern Parking Services (North East) and write to inform you that I am instructed to commence legal proceedings on behalf of the company.

I understand you are indebted to the company for the sum of £200 and this consists of the following Parking Charge Notice by the vehicle registration *****

(then encloses details of 2 consecutive dates, place and amount)

Payment of this debt is now overdue and unless payment is received within the next 7 days I will initiate legal proceedings against you without further notice to you.

The commencement of proceedings will involve additional expense of payment of interest & legal costs

(para re possible CCJs etc)

Yours sincerely

NPS"

The_Deep

See if there are any more cases of disappearing letters from this company, if so, mention it to the judge.


Also, the monies they are asking for are excessive, ask for a breakdown.

Coupon-mad

They do not appear to be compliant with the Practice Direction required.

Respond along those lines and also asking for all photos taken and confirm again that you paid Whoosh as instructed on the sign and that's an end to the matter. If they cannot locate the payment via Whoosh that is a problem between them and Whoosh. send a copy of the Bank Statement again, be very assertive, no please and thankyou.

busby3000

We have just heard back from NPS following my reply using your suggestions Coupon-mad. They have enclosed a copy of email communication between themselves & Whoosh showing that payment was actually made to another car park not run by NPS and again requesting £200. I'm not sure what to do now?

As I said, we have admitted that the keeper and the driver are the same. Do we have a case on the following grounds...

1) For the 1st ticket, there is no clear picture taken by NPS of an actual ticket on the windscreen ( and there was only one from the following day on return to the car)

2) For the second ticket, the NTK arrived 74 days later and does not mention the 28 day keeper liability clause as per POFA 2012.

There is also the practice Direction on pre-action conduct required

Any suggestions gratefully received please

busby3000

Can anyone help?

Umkomaas

Not much you can do but wait to see what their next move is. Sometimes there isn't a 'next step' that you can make until they move. Chess springs to mind.

They might threaten 'court' to squeeze you a bit more, but until you receive court papers, wait and see. They are not one of the skimdustry's serial litigators, that's for sure.

http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/Northern_Parking_Services_North_East.html

busby3000

Thanks Umkomaas. I realise they are not litigious, but they seem to have put quite a bit of time into this - contacting Whoosh etc.

What I would like to do is offer the original £18.20 as it was an honest mistake. The machine wasn't working, there was a blizzard and it wasn't easy. If they do not accept this, then request they follow relevant Practice Direction if they wish to take us to court

Loadsofchildren123

Can you clarify what are you saying about this Whoosh issue? It's rather odd that you stood there, phoned the number, gave the info and paid, and it's ended up against the wrong car park

Are you saying it's Whoosh's mistake?

Or do you think you made a mistake and gave the wrong information when you were paying by phone (eg does the carpark have a code and you entered it wrongly?)?

Even if it was your mistake, you might be able to argue that the mistake wasn't your fault because the typing was very small and the weather conditions were poor etc. Or you must have pressed an incorrect key on your phone. You may be able to argue that you used reasonable endeavours to pay and the system isn't fit for purpose because it is foreseeable that mistakes will be made typing in the code and there should be a second stage where the car park is identified and you are asked to confirm it.

Is Whoosh an automated system - or does a human being answer the phone - in which case if there was a mistake, was it yours or could it have been theirs?

Don't make any offer until we have properly considered these issues. If you do make an offer, make it at the same time as pressurising them in respect of their pre-action obligations.

busby3000

Whoosh takes automated payment for lots of car parks all over the country using a different number for each car park. The one apparently paid for is in another County and run by a different company. NPS enclosed a copy of email correspondence between themselves and Whoosh. I actually tried to email Whoosh twice when this all started, but had no reply. Apparently you are supposed to keep the confirmation text, but we didn't, and there is no way of recovering it, with it being O2

Loadsofchildren123

So it's a voice-activated system or you have to key in the carpark code?


Just trying to get to the bottom of whether you can say it's their mistake or not.


The text you no longer have - would it have just confirmed payment or the specific car park? It's not fatal you no longer have it, you will say you got it and checked it and you will be willing to be cross examined on this and unless you come across as fundamentally dishonest the judge will not believe you. Nobody from the PPC or Whoosh will be able to categorically deny a text was not sent or that it said something different because it's computer wot does it, not a human. So the judge will have to belive you.

busby3000

The code had to be keyed in on a mobile. We already admitted to deleting the text. NPS also sent their sheet of all cars that made payments by phone to that particular car park that day. There were 6, the last being at approx. 1.30pm. We paid at 6.30pm. they also say they checked to see if payment was made by mistake to their other car park in the area.

This, together with the emails from Whoosh, pretty well prove that it was our mistake. However they have still not adhered to pre court Practice Direction, or POFA 2012 re 28 day keeper liability clause for one of the tickets, or other things mentioned above. I don't know how relevant any of this is as we have admitted who the driver was