PPC fine from 2013 went quiet after appeal, now a debt collect letter out of the blue years later

pparkedoff

Apologies if this is covered in other threads, I've spent an hour searching as best I could.

I appealed against a fine from a PPC issued and promptly appealed in the first half of 2013. I followed the relevant MSE advice at time time. I appealed by email, and I have that email. The PPC acknowledged receipt of my appeal email (by email), noting that I would "receive a reply to your appeal within 35 days". I have that acknowledgement email. I heard nothing further, by email or post, until recently when I received a letter from a debt recovery agency claiming to act on behalf of the PPC. Their letter contains details that correctly identify the original fine. Their letter alleges that the PPC attempted to engage with me and agree a suitable payment arrangement. However, according to the communications I received, this is simply not true - the PPC just never responded to my appeal letter.

The original email acknowledging my appeal identified the debt recovery agency that the PPC would use if necessary, but this is not the same company that has written to me recently.

The debt recovery agency demand a reply soon, and claim they will issue a County Court Claim without further notice if they do not hear from me.

beamerguy

pparkedoff wrote: »

The debt recovery agency demand a reply soon, and claim they will issue a County Court Claim without further notice if they do not hear from me.

Is this DRP ?????? or one of the other retards debt
collection idiots.

THEY CANNOT ISSUE A COUNTY COURT CLAIM, they
are simply powerless cretins

Who is the idiot debt collector ??????????

Umkomaas

The debt recovery agency demand a reply soon, and claim they will issue a County Court Claim without further notice if they do not hear from me.

I don't for one moment believe that is what the correspondence said. Prove me wrong!

In anything you write here, you need absolute accuracy, not skim read and guess what it says, then type - that just consumes unnecessary and abortive time on a very busy forum.

pparkedoff

The agency is bwlegal. The exact wording is "We have been instructed by [PPC] to commence legal action in the form of issuing a Claim against you in the County Court in respect of the above debt. If payment or a response is not received before [date], we are instructed to issue a Claim against you in the County Court without further notice."

Quentin

You disguised the date you were given to pay by??


If this is a lbcca (how long does it give you to pay and are their forms to return enclosed?) then read up in the Newbies FAQ thread in #2 there for all advice on dealing with a lbcca and court claim

The_Deep

This is not a DCA, this is a real life dirty shirt, albeit a bottom feeder with scammers as clients.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5672664/bwlegal-the-list-of-failures-growing&highlight=bwlegal+the+lis%20%20t

You need to treat this seriously.

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 House of Commons recently

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

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

Castle

Follow the advice given in post 5 and also send the PPC a SAR.

Fruitcake

As above, it is not a fine, it is not a letter from a debt crawler.

It is a LBC from a solicitor.

You need to urgently read post 2 of the NEWBIES on how to deal with a court claim, and respond accordingly.

pparkedoff

Thanks for the advice, all.

I've looked at Newbies #2. The tone of response letters seems to imply that there's been a train of correspondence leading up to that point. In my case, there has been no prior correspondence with the solicitor, and the only correspondence with the PPC was an appeal letter sent in 2013, acknowledged by the PPC but never actually replied to. Does that original appeal have any weight? The PPC promised a response within 35 days, but none was received - where does that leave the appeal? Should I mention this appeal in communication with the solicitor?

The deadline for my reply is "by 7th Aug" (tomorrow) - apologies for not replying to the forum sooner, I did not know how to turn email notifications on and did not realise that people were replying (I have subscribed to the thread now!).

nosferatu1001

Yes of course it does
The BPA code of practice states it is deemed accpeted after 35 days. So PART o the response denying the debt will be that an appeal was sent on X date and therefore on Y date (35 days later) as no response was received it was deemed accepted. Their client cannot possibly have a cause of action against you, as compliance with the Code of Pracice is a mandatory element to recoever parking charges.

Just send the LBC repsonse youve found, and obviously amend it with your details. This isnt that trickuy - there is no true template here. Just make it clear this is the first youve heard since the original PCN back in X, after Y days of yourappela and you hadnt heard you thought nothing more, and as such you require all the following documents...

pparkedoff

Ok, so I replied as suggested by @nosferatu1001 within the response period requested by the LBA. I responded by email, and cc'd the PPC. I received automatic acknowledgement from the PPC, but nothing from BW Legal. I have now received a County Court Claim (CCC) from Northampton, repeating the claim stated in the LBA. To be clear, I had no response whatsoever from BW Legal or PPC to my reply to the LBA.

I have acknowledged the CCC and stated that I intend to defend all of the claim.

Whatever I do next, I don't want to risk any significant increase in costs claimed against me - or at least I want to retain the option to pay up and be done with it to prevent that increase in potential costs.

I am wondering if I can ask for the claim to be struck out on the simple grounds that the original PCN was appealed back in 2013 and the appeal was never responded to, so should be deemed accepted. I filed the appeal by email, and have the acknowledgement email sent back by the PPC, and I received no further communication whatsoever until this year. In my reply to the LBA, I requested any evidence of a response being made to the appeal, but none was provided. Could this be grounds for getting the claim struck out? If so, can someone point me at exactly which legally relevant practice directions etc and/or industry association rules define the requirement to respond to appeals and the appeal being deemed accepted if not answered? The PPC, Premier Parking Solutions Ltd of Newton Abbot, are presently an IPC member. Also any specific wording that I need to use in my defence.

Further, their LBA is almost certainly inadequate wrt practice direction, and I requested all the stuff required by the practice direction in my reply to the LBA. So that's another possible reason to request striking out. Should I keep it simple and stick to the "unanswered appeal" route, or include "inadequate LBA" as a fallback if the clerk discounts "unanswered appeal" as a reason to consider striking out?

I have about 2 weeks to file my defence.