LBCCC received from ParkingEye - which letter do I send back?

NewBornBaby

Are there any howlers in here or is this OK to send as reply to LBCCC?

Dear Sirs,

I am in receipt of your Letter Before County Court Claim dated XXXX.

Your letter contains insufficient detail of the claim and fails to provide copies of evidence you will relying upon. You admit as much, stating “…it is impossible for ParkingEye to state exactly the documents that will be relied upon.”

You have clearly not adhered to the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims (the Protocol) which must be complied with by all parties. Therefore I must ask you to provide further information as detailed below before I can decide how to proceed.

Your Letter of Claim lacks specificity and as such I believe it breaches both the requirements of the previously applicable Practice Direction - 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. Please consider this letter a formal request for all the currently outstanding documents and information that the protocol now requires you to provide.

You must not issue proceedings without complying with that protocol. I reserve the right to inform the court of your failure to comply with the protocol, and furthermore to ask the court to stay the claim and order you to comply with your pre-action obligations.

Surely you are familiar with your obligations under the Protocol. As you must know, the Protocol binds all potential litigants, whatever the size or type of the claim. The objectives of pre-action conduct and protocols are to assist parties in: understanding the claim and their respective positions in relation to it; to make decisions about how to proceed; to try to settle the issues without court proceedings; to consider a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution to assist with settlement; to support the efficient management of those proceedings; and to reduce the costs of resolving the dispute. I therefore find it wholly inappropriate that you have sent me, a lay person, a vague and unevidenced Letter of Claim in complete ignorance of the Protocol.

Nobody is immune from the requirements and obligations of the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims. As such, I require you to comply with its obligations by sending me the following information:

• An explanation of the cause of action.
• The precise details of the claim e.g. where it is claimed the vehicle was parked, for how long, the time of the alleged event, how the monies being claimed arose and have been calculated.
• All evidence you are relying on in connection with the claim including all photographic evidence, and including the procedure for the gathering of evidence.
• The exact nature of the claim. E.g. is the claim for a contractual breach? If so, please provide a copy of that contract; full details of the date of the agreement; the names of the parties to it along with the evidence that a contract was formed.
• A map showing where any signs were displayed where the alleged contravention took place.
• Full details of the signs displayed (size of sign, size of font, height at which displayed).
• Are you the landowner? If not please provide me with a copy of written authorisation of the landowner giving you authority to bring any claim relating to that land, as required by the BPA code of practice clauses 7.1, 7.2 And 7.3 a-e.
• Evidence of your reasonable endeavours to ensure that the person being written to is the correct party, as required by the BPA code of practice clause 23.1c.
• All documents relating to the application to the DVLA requesting information used in connection with this alleged claim, as required by the BPA code of practice.
• Evidence of who was driving the vehicle. As PATAS and POPLA Lead Adjudicator and barrister, Henry Michael Greenslade, clarified in 2015 with regards to keeper liability: “there is no reasonable presumption in law that the registered keeper of a vehicle is the driver, and operators should never suggest anything of the sort.”

If you do not provide me with the above information I will ask the court to impose sanctions on you and order a stay of the 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.

Until you have complied with your obligations and provided this information I am unable to respond properly to your alleged claim, or to consider my position in relation to it or to mount any appeal. It is entirely premature and a waste of costs and court time to issue proceedings in the meantime.

As I am sure you are aware, the court will frown upon any party wilfully disregarding the required procedures and protocols. Furthermore, I will consider it a complete waste of and imposition upon my time to have to deal with any further action from you until the required Protocol is satisfied and all the above information has been provided. If you persist in pursuing this action without first satisfying the above requests and the Protocol, I will regretfully have to mount a claim against you for time incurred, distress and harassment.

Yours faithfully,

NewBornBaby

(I have also already complained to the landowner).

Coupon-mad

• Evidence of your reasonable endeavours to ensure that the person being written to is the correct party, as required by the BPA code of practice clause 23.1c.
• All documents relating to the application to the DVLA requesting information used in connection with this alleged claim, as required by the BPA code of practice.
• Evidence of who was driving the vehicle. As PATAS and POPLA Lead Adjudicator and barrister, Henry Michael Greenslade, clarified in 2015 with regards to keeper liability: 'there is no reasonable presumption in law that the registered keeper of a vehicle is the driver, and operators should never suggest anything of the sort.

Remove all of the above - there is no point talking about them not knowing who was driving, unless this was a Golden Ticket (non-POFA version).

NewBornBaby

Ok, wait, so they need to write to me at a different address? Is that the aim for now?

Coupon-mad

I spelt it out.

There is nothing wrong with a person in the household giving PE your address, so you get a PCN to appeal.

NewBornBaby

Even though I've already contacted the landowner about the same PCN?

I know this seems obvious to you but it's all new to me.

Thanks.

NewBornBaby

OK my family member has asked PE to re-send their correspondence to an address where I will be able to receive it.

Meantime I wait for a response to my COMPLAINT to the landowner and will chase them up if not heard tomorrow.

Is there anything else I need to do at the moment please?

Coupon-mad

No just wait, and hope to get the PCN posted to you to appeal.

NewBornBaby

Success. PCN cancelled after complaint to landowner.

Thank you all.

Please keep going and keep fighting these scammers until they are obliterated.

Coupon-mad

Yay, so glad to hear it!

It is particularly satisfying for a landowner to stop them, when PE are gearing up for court.