ZZPS Ltd, Wright Hassall and formal letter of claim

Umkomaas

At what point do I need to be concerned, do you know?

There's no point you need to be 'concerned'. That's what these outfits rely on, it means you're closer to cracking and giving them money!

You need to be alive to any letter that sols send which state 'Letter Before (LB) Action' or 'LB Claim' or 'LB County Court Claim' on behalf of PP (not ZZPS). I don't think I've seen WH go that far.

And obviously if you get real county court papers via the national county court business centre at Northampton county court.

Redx

Emmaargh wrote: »

No I suppose you're right, I wouldn't bat an eyelid at it.
It just scares you when you see the words 'court' and 'ccj.'
At what point do I need to be concerned, do you know?

I appreciate everyone's help, thank you

it shouldnt do, its only a bit like Judge Rinder, its not like being Rolf in the dock at the Old Bailey

and a court case does not automatically lead to a CCJ, if you lost in the small claims court , PAY UP , IN FULL , promptly (within 28 days)

if you do this , no CCJ will be issued and no effect on your credit rating

if you win , no CCJ is issued and you can claim up to £95 costs because you will have turned the tables on the PPC, and if they fail to pay you get the court to enforce the judgment against them

the time to definitely act is if you get an MCOL in the post from Northampton

Coupon-mad

This may help:

https://bmpa.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203747112-Wright-Hassall

Come back if you actually get a court claim to defend. We win them.

Emmaargh

Thank you everyone, I feel less worried now

sawahtee

Hi Emmargh!

I'm in exactly the same situation as you. Right down to the location and time overstayed.

Have you received anything else following the "FORMAL LETTER CLAIM"?

I received this email reply after I reiterated that I (registered keeper) wasn't the driver:

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Our Reference:
[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Client Reference:
[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Car Parking Operator: Premier Park Ltd [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Instructed by: ZZPS Limited[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Balance outstanding: [/FONT][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]£ 208.00 [/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]With reference to your recent correspondence, the contents of which have been duly noted.[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]We can confirm our clients have no cause of action against the driver, as they have only instructed us to recover the above balance from you as the registered keeper.[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]This file will therefore remain on hold until 06 October 2017 to allow time for payment, before further actions are commenced.[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Please see below our payment methods we have enclosed for your convenience.[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Debit Card/ Direct Debit: Call 01926 758101[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif][FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Please quote our reference number with all payments.[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Yours sincerely[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Tim Hawker[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Head of Debt Recovery Operations[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,sans-serif]I've ignored this too.[/FONT]

Umkomaas

Eemaargh hasn’t been back to the forum for over 4 months, so is unlikely to see your post.

Have you read the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post # 4 about how to deal to deal with debt collectors?

Despite WH having their letterheads used, they don’t seem to get involved at the dirty end of pursuing parking charges at court level.

So why not send them a Johnersh letter to flush them out. Johnersh is a lawyer and has drafted this special letter for WH.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=72802210&postcount=21

sawahtee

Thanks Umkomaas!

I've just this moment fired off that template complaint to the complaints department (legal services, NOT debt recovery!) of Wright Hassall and copied in their senior partner and compliance officer. I'll await a reply.

I have indeed trawled through the NEWBIES sticky. I've taken what I can from that as appropriate to my situation and looked up other threads similar in nature.

I ignored Premier Park, ZZPS and WH until the FORMAL LETTER OF CLAIM - where I read on here that I better reply (hadn't stumbled upon this thread before hand) - so replied simply saying I wasn't the driver, please stop pursuing. (although having checked through all my received correspondence and checked dates, they HAVE complied with POFA 2012). I obviously then received the above reply via email.

I hope I'm on the right track!

sawahtee

Hi all,

We’ve received the following reply from the same Tim Hawker from the “Debt” department of WH, not from a complaints department;


I write further to your letter where you advised that you wished to make a complaint.

My understanding of your concerns is that you feel that our letter is threatening, misleading and an abuse of the process of debt recovery and refer specifically to the Law Society Warning Notice 11.06.2013. Further, you state that you feel that the balance outstanding is beyond a level which you believe would be recoverable in the smalls claim court. You also advise that the individual named as the Head of Debt Recovery Operations is not named on our website.

Wright Hassall LLP were instructed on this matter on August 2017. The two further letters sent to you informed you that we had been instructed by our Client ZZPS Limited to recover the balance of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) that was issued against you by Premier Park Limited at the Parc Tawe North Retail Park (ANPR) - SWANSEA SA1 8AW. We understand that ZZPS Limited has previously written to you with regards to the PCN and gave you warning that the file would be passed to Wright Hassall LLP if payment was not made. The letter sent to you by Wright Hassall gave you the opportunity to pay the outstanding balance and provided you with all the details of the PCN.

We deny that the letter is misleading or threatening. Within the letter the following statement is made:

“Failure to make payment in full or contact us to discuss repayment of this debt may result in us recommending to our Client that we pass this matter over to our Litigation Department.”

This is not a threat, but a statement to make you aware of the action that we may be instructed to take if the matter remains unresolved.

The letter goes on to state that a County Court Judgment (CCJ) may negatively impact your credit rating and also details the various enforcement methods that are available where a CCJ is obtained. This is not intended to be threatening, as a litigant in person it is important that you are made aware of the consequences of a CCJ and the possible enforcement options, therefore we sought to convey these options to you within the letter.

The letter provides you with a telephone number should you wish to discuss the matter further. The letter is intended to give you the opportunity to narrow any issues prior to the file being considered for litigation, a last resort. A list of free independent advice organisations is also attached to the letter for your reference.

All parties involved in the recovery of your unpaid PCN/s – The CPO, ZZPS and ourselves - believe that our charges are fair and reasonable, and are in line with the British Parking Association guidelines, and have been tested at the Supreme Court in the case of Parking Eye v Beavis. Further, ZZPS are a member of the British Parking Association and follow the BPA Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice.

We have reviewed your comments made and the Law Society’s Warning Notice 11.06.2013 and are satisfied that the debt recovery process is not in contravention of this notice.

Turning to your point regarding Wright Hassall LLP employees not appearing on our website. Wright Hassall LLP does not detail all employee names and positions on the website. This is not a requirement and employees who send correspondence do so in accordance with their authority parameters and in line with our procedures.

It does appear that an increasing number of motorists receive misguided and often misleading advice from online forums who claim parking charges are ‘unfair’ and ‘illegal’. Should you chose to rely on this advice or use template letters sourced from the internet we will not respond further and you can consider this letter our final response on the matter. Further should you choose to rely on a template defence at court we will seek an immediate strike out.

We will place a further 14-day hold on this matter to allow you time to make payment in full or alternatively provide documentary evidence to substantiate non-payment of the PCN.
Please see below our payment methods for your convenience:

Online: link removed.

As the payment is now long overdue, unless you have any additional information you have not already brought to our attention, any further correspondence will be noted and filed, but we will not respond.

Yours sincerely
Tim Hawker
Head of Debt Recovery Operations

Considering they are just straight up denying all points made from the complaint, should we now just wait for the court papers to come through and get ready to formulate the defence?

Thanks again for your help. Not sure how they can just fob us off by saying they won’t reply if we use advice from forums??

Umkomaas

@sawahtee. This isn’t your thread, so it would be better if you could open a new one of your own, as if the OP comes back for more advice on this, their thread, things could get confusing.

In opening your new thread, please give a short synopsis of your parking event, the advice I’ve given you already, and a copy and paste of the WH response (which, by the way, is a template we’ve seen before - what a cheek for them to complain that you might use template letters!). We’ll then be able to give you specific advice on how to continue with your case on your own thread.

Thanks.