Letter before action

cataclyptic

Hi Guys
I've read the sticky's and a lot more and still wondering what is best response...
I have received a letter from BW legal containing a 'Letter before action' to fill in on
behalf of their client excel parking.
I hadn't heard from Excel for nearly three years after phoning to tell them I hadn't parked there.
Next event was a letter from BW, in April, asking for payment - or else.
I suggested they ask their client about our conversation in 2015 and to look at their camera's to see I didn't park there.
I next received copies of original PCN and NTK and the LBA.
I'm wondering if anyone can suggest best response to this?
Thanks

cataclyptic

I should add that this was a site with in/out cameras, so no tickets on-site.

KeithP

Post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread gives comprehensive guidance on how to respond to a Letter Before Claim.

The_Deep

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.

cataclyptic

I've just watched an hour + of the HOC debate and glad to see there is a chance that things might improve.
It seems people like BW treat it like a sausage machine with very little common decency.
I shall watch some more later and try and find post #2 again.
I'm 78 and will end up offering £1 a month on my income I reckon.

Coupon-mad

I'm 78 and will end up offering £1 a month on my income I reckon.

We don't reckon you will pay a penny!

I didn't park there.

What do you mean:

- your car was never there

or

- the car was there but you were not the driver

or

- the car was parked but not where they say

cataclyptic

(24/7/2015) What happened was that the car kept stalling so driver turned off the main road onto a store car park and after 40 mins of trial and error, a bare wire was found to be intermittently touching the power steering pump so put some cardboard there and drove off. car not left or parked, camera's signs etc not noticed due to stress of stalling in busy traffic and trying to get somewhere safe. I received a 'PCN' in the post a week or so later followed by notice to keeper. Phoned them up said just that I hadn't parked there and to look at cameras to see what happened. That was Sept 2015. Never heard from them again till May this year and it was from the solicitors mentioned in parliament - not the parking company.

Coupon-mad

The car was parked there.

Just because someone is with it/in it doesn't mean it wasn't parked, I would have thought a long term driver would know that. I've been driving 35 years and I know that is stopping/parking. You had little choice but it was still parked.

Better to have stopped on a yellow line, on street. No idea why people look for private land, it is madness! You can stop on street as long as it's not a red route or clearway or causing an obstruction, or in a bus stop/taxi rank, school zigzags, on a crossing or other daft place.

Anywhere else on street would have been fine, round a corner would do if the main road was unsuitable to stop.

cataclyptic

It was an unfamiliar town centre between bus station, train station and supermarket with no friendly corners. The supermarket carpark seemed the best option at that point in time. I wasn't in a very observant mode and missed the fact that the car park was run as a money machine. So - lost cause and not much point in prolonging the agony I guess.

Coupon-mad

So - lost cause and not much point in prolonging the agony I guess.

No, you can defend it but would have to appear at a court hearing - and Excel will drag you there.

Excel don't have 'CCTV cameras' so they couldn't look at them to see what you were doing. ANPR is not a CCTV camera that looks at cars/people in the car park. It's just a system that harvests number-plates at the entrance/exit, to scam money out of people.

We do win 99% of cases defended well on this forum and you would have the grounds of defence that the car was broken down - but a Judge might say all you had to do was pay for a Pay & Display ticket since your car was taking up space.

If BW Legal are demanded something silly like £250, you would be mad to pay that. Even if you lose at a hearing you wouldn't pay that.

Have you tried a phone call to the Retail Park? DO THAT TODAY, THEY CAN CANCEL IT.

nosferatu1001

I would suggest the vehicle wasnt parked; it was broken down, until it was repaired.
That isnt the same thing at all, as parking.