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

beamerguy

BWLegal yet again ..... terrible company.

The point of the practice direction is for BWLegal to prove to you their claim and also the provision for you to respond.

You did, BWLegal ignored you and proceeded to court ?

How can you be expected to defend a case when you are not provided with the requested information

The legal begals here will tell you the best way. BWLegal has not complied with the law

BWLegal has a duty to the court to show they have behaved in the correct manner, they did not, so report them to the SRA

KeithP

What is the Date of Issue on your Claim Form?

Quentin

The_Deep wrote: »

...... With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.

This now looks unlikely!!

OP, don't rely on this and don't miss any deadlines getting your docs into Court!

pparkedoff

keithp wrote: »

what is the date of issue on your claim form?

23/10/18
...

twhitehousescat

pparkedoff wrote: »

23/10/18
...

and the offence was " first half of 2013."

unless you live in scotland the cut off limit would be early 2019

KeithP

pparkedoff wrote: »

23/10/18

With a Claim Issue Date of 23rd October, and having done the AoS in a timely manner, you have until until 4pm on Monday 26th November 2018 to file your Defence.

That's three weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a perfect Defence, but don't leave it to the very last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence should be filed via email as described here:

1) Print your Defence.
2) Sign it and date it.
3) Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
4) Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
5) Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
6) Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defended". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
7) Wait for your Directions Questionnaire and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

Coupon-mad

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.

Same as all the other BW Legal PPS claims, all fairly similar, We have over 15 of them here now.

Look at defences on the threads by:

Matilda13
Prinndogs
phoenixfreespirit

and the other dozen that come up when you search this forum for PPS BW Legal

pparkedoff

Here's my proposed defence. The real version is properly formatted (Times 12 1.5 etc)
---
IN THE COUNTY COURT
CLAIM No: ***
BETWEEN:
Premier Parking Solutions Ltd (Claimant)
- and -
*** (Defendant)
DEFENCE
1. The Claim relates to an alleged debt in damages arising from a driver’s alleged breach
of contract when parking at *** **/**/2013. The Defendant
was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question at the material time.
2. At the material time, the Claimant operated strictly subject to the British Parking
Association (‘BPA’) Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice Version 2 March
2013 (‘CoP’), which includes the following relevant provisions:
Section 22 Complaints, challenges and appeals, subsection Operator Procedures:
22.4 If a driver or keeper challenges a parking charge you must review the case and
decide whether to:
● uphold the parking charge and explain why it was issued and should therefore be
paid, or
● reduce or cancel the charge and take no further management action other than
informing the driver
22.6 When you receive a challenge about the issue of a parking charge, you must stop
work on processing the charge immediately. You must not increase the charge until
you have replied to the challenge.
22.7 We consider it a reasonable timescale to allow 28 days from the issue of the
parking charge notice (in whatever format you send it) to allow the driver, keeper or
hirer to challenge the enforcement action.
22.8 You must acknowledge or reply to the challenge within 14 days of receiving it. If
at first you only acknowledge the challenge, you must accept or reject the challenge in
writing within 35 days of receiving it.
22.12 If you reject a challenge you must:
● tell the driver how to make an appeal to POPLA. This includes providing a template
‘notice of appeal’ form, or a link to the appropriate website for lodging an appeal
● give the driver a reasonable amount of time to pay the charge before restarting the
collection process. We recommend that you allow at least 35 days from the date you
rejected the challenge.
2.1. The Defendant submitted an appeal to the Claimant on **/**/2013 by email to
the Claimant’s appeals correspondence email address. The Claimant
acknowledged receipt of the appeal by email on the same day, including the
statement:
“ Please note that receipt of your appeal is acknowledged and is being
processed. Appeals against a parking charge may take up to 14 days to
progress but in any case you will receive a reply to your appeal within 35
days.”
For the avoidance of doubt it should be noted that the Defendant included with
their submitted appeal confirmation of their serviceable UK postal address,
which was the same as the address held by DVLA for the registered keeper of
the vehicle in question.
2.2. The Defendant did not receive any response rejecting or accepting the appeal
from the Claimant during the 35 days following the acknowledged submission
of appeal, either by email or by postal mail. The Claimant is therefore in
material breach of CoP 22.4, 22.8 and 22.12. For the avoidance of doubt, the
Defendant has as of the date of this Defence still not received any
correspondence from the Claimant directly addressing the rejection or
acceptance of the Defendant’s appeal, or informing the Defendant of their
right to use the POPLA appeal process.
2.3. Had the Defendant received a rejection of their appeal within the time allowed
by the CoP, such a rejection must have included the information required by
CoP 22.12, notably regarding the POPLA appeal process. Had such a rejection
been received, the Defendant firmly believes that they would have exercised
their right to use the POPLA appeal process. Having failed to provide a
rejection of the Defendant’s appeal, the Claimant has been denied their right to
use the POPLA appeal process.
2.4. In response to the apparent Letter Before Action from the Claimant’s agent
BW Legal dated **/**/2018, the Defendant wrote to the Claimant and their agent
on **/**/2018, including a request for copies of any correspondence the
Claimant claims to have sent to the Defendant in response to the Defendant’s
appeal, and to provide evidence of the dispatch and delivery of any such
correspondence. No reply was received prior to the Claimant issuing the Claim
herein defended.
3. Despite being explicitly requested by the Defendant, the Claimant has failed to
provide prior to issuing proceedings the documents and information required by the
applicable Practice Direction relating to Pre-Action Conduct (paragraphs 6(a) and
6(c)) and the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims (paragraphs 3.1(a)-(d), 5.1 and
5.2). As such, the Defendant may rely upon the cases of Webb Resolutions Ltd v
Waller Needham & Green [2012] EWHC 3529 (Ch), Daejan Investments Limited v
The Park West Club Limited (Part 20) - Buxton Associates [2003] EWHC 2872,
Charles Church Developments Ltd v Stent Foundations Limited & Peter Dann
Limited [2007] EWHC 855 in asking the court to impose sanctions on the Claimant
and to order a stay of proceedings pursuant to paragraphs 13, 15(b) and (c) and 16 of
the Practice Direction, as referred to in paragraph 7.2 of the Protocol.
4. In summary, it is the Defendant’s position that the Claim discloses no cause of action,
is without merit, and has no real prospect of success.
I believe the facts contained in this Defence are true.
---

Coupon-mad

What has happened since? You must be awaiting allocation to your local court?

pparkedoff

In the end, PPC had records of having sent a response to my original appeal, so my assumption was that in court, at best neither party was at fault as there was no strong reason to specifically disbelieve either party. Arguably, the case would then move on to the merits of the original PCN, which I had no compelling argument to contest. There were some procedural shortcomings from the PCN's solicitor, and arguably a judge could have, for example, allowed additional defence arguments to compensate. But wrt to the original PCN, there was not much defense to make.

On the basis that prolonging the case could give rise to additional reasonable claimant's costs; and that I'd not been able to find precedent for the "missing appeal response" scenario or get specific and unequivocal advice as to the likely outcome; and that I had no real defence against the original PCN itself; and that I'd had enough "fun" engaging in legal exchanges: I negotiated to settle for a sum equivalent to the PCN charge and the claimant's initial court fee, a considerable discount against what was demanded.

It has been an interesting experience, and I'd feel much more comfortable going though it another time. However, I'd either want clear and well-understood grounds for a defence (eg, missing signage), or, in the scenario of having received no response to an appeal, I would write to the PPC soon after the response deadline to declare that I had received no response and considered the case closed. While they may then reply claiming to have sent a response, I think that simply "keeping quiet" does not provide adequate cover if you are later taken to court. And remember to keep good records of any such communication for the full 6 years...