Link Parking / BW Legal

marketsqhero

Hi;

Just a little bit of advice required at this early stage. I have just received what I expect to be the first of many letters from BW Legal and wondering whether to ignore for now or contact them. Details of the situation that led to this below:

I live in an apartment complex with private parking (around 20 non-allocated spaces) for which I believe there is a £50 per month charge. This is added into my rental, and I have a valid permit to park there, and have had since I moved in early march this year. I have parked in one of these allocated spaces almost every singe night since moving in, and continue to do so, as I have a valid permit.

On the day in question which was a Sunday morning in June I went to my car to find a PCN stuck to the windscreen. Bemused by this I opened my car to find that the permit had blown off the dash and landed on the passenger seat, still clearly visible, just not on the dashboard.

I took photos of both the location of the permit before moving it, and then a close up of the permit.

I did the obvious thing and appealed only to have it rejected. I then re-appealed to the IAS who upheld the original claim. At this point I made a decision to go the whole way to court if they were so stupid to follow this through.

4 months on and I now have the first letter from BW asking me to pay the £100 fine plus the associated £60 costs.

My grounds for letting this run are based upon the facts

a) I did have a valid permit, still do, and pay £50 a month for it. This is easily provable.
b) That I can't have been denying anybody else a parking space because as above, I have a valid permit to park there.
c) That I'd been parking there every night for the previous 3 months so it's quite likely the operative knew I had a permit anyway.
d) That the signage states "must be clearly displayed", it makes no mention of where, doesn't state it needs to be on the windscreen or dashboard. If the operative had looked through the window he'd have clearly seen the permit.

So, the quick question is, do I ignore this letter for now, or do I contact them and try and make them see the futility of this, or just go all the way to court?

Regards

D

beamerguy

This is now typical rubbish from BWLegal.

This will be yet another whooping for BWLegal as the
courts do not like residential cases even though you
have a permit, albiet not visible .... you have a permit

The IAS .... you can expect them to support their scammers
as they are a complete scam set up by Gladstones solicitors

The £60 is a fake add-on and BWLegal are now trying to
extort money from you.
This all stems from failed debt collectors looking for their
share of the action.

In reality, the court will allow £100 plus £25 court fees
and £50 legal costs. But as this is a residential case
the judge will treat this as timewasting by BWLegal
as you have unfettered rights especially as you can prove
you pay monthly for parking.

Have you spoken to the MA yet to get this cancelled ?

Some on here will say to ignore until you get a LBA
(LETTER BEFORE ACTION)

You could reply as keeper pointing out the above and
warning them that if they do take this court you will
be be claiming your costs

You also need a breakdown of the £60 because BWLegal
contrive many different reasons for this,

You simply cannot accept the BWLegal rubbish

The Daily Mail are asking for stories like this

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cars/article-6251825/Fight-against-private-parking-tickets-campaign-stop-sharks.html

Asking for stories of unfair charges to editor@thisismoney.co.uk

Then there is Sir Greg Knight who is heading the new
parking bill ...... https://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/sir-greg-knight/1200

Government already know of the very poor practice of
BWLegal

And have a look at this .... all about BWLegal
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5672664/bwlegal-the-list-of-failures-growing

They are far from being smart ?

Were you chased by DRP a debt collector ??????

Umkomaas

Wait for a formal Letter Before Claim, which will (should) give you 30 days to respond, or a formal county court claim. You then follow the process as per the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #2 which civers everything you need running from the LBC right up to the court hearing. Do some preparatory reading then you're ahead of the curve.

Your tenancy/leasehold agreement is all-important as that lays out your rights of occupancy and the use of the residential confines. Check it out, read it carefully, pick out anything and everything connected with your right to park.

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 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.
each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P.
for unprofessional conduct

marketsqhero

Umkomaas wrote: »

Your tenancy/leasehold agreement is all-important as that lays out your rights of occupancy and the use of the residential confines. Check it out, read it carefully, pick out anything and everything connected with your right to park.

This is the only thing in the tenancy agreement:

7.8 Parking

IT IS MUTUALLY AGREED BETWEEN THE PARTIES, that the Landlord will supply one parking space only. IT IS FURTHER AGREED that, prior to commencement of the tenancy, the Tenant shall supply to the Landlord his car registration, and for subsequent vehicles changes. The Landlord may issue a parking permit which must be on display in the registered vehicle, at all times. FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT the Landlord may withdraw the parking space whereupon any misuse has taken place.

beamerguy

FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT the Landlord may withdraw the parking space whereupon any misuse has taken place.

So the choice is GET RID OF THE PPC as they are
abusing the rights of residents

Umkomaas

What about:

Rights to peaceful enjoyment?
Rights to pass and re-pass?
Rights of any MA to alter the regulations of the site to benefit residents?

All the above could be parking-related too.

We don't need to see them, just that you need to be aware of them and their potential implications.

marketsqhero

Umkomaas wrote: »

What about:

Rights to peaceful enjoyment?
Rights to pass and re-pass?
Rights of any MA to alter the regulations of the site to benefit residents?

All the above could be parking-related too.

We don't need to see them, just that you need to be aware of them and their potential implications.

3.5 Quiet Enjoyment

The Landlord hereby warrants that the Tenant and Occupier paying the rent and performing and observing the several agreements and conditions on the Tenant's part hereinbefore contained may quietly posses and enjoy the premises during the Tenancy without any interruption by the Landlord or any person rightfully claiming under or in trust for the Landlord.

marketsqhero

So I asked my Letting Agent about this, and was sent a copy of a letter which was issued to tenants in November of last year when Link were contracted to manage to parking.

I moved in early March and was never given a copy of this letter. Contents below:

"I am pleased to advise that the parking management at *********** will come into effect shortly. As soon as signage is ready to go up and the remaining details have been finalised the official start date will be confirmed but we expect this to be 1st November 2017. Below is a summary of the system & how it will work:

Please note the system will be strictly enforced. Once tickets have been issued, details go straight to DVLA electronically and enforcement action follows within prescribed timescales. Tickets will have the headline charge of £100, reduced to £60 for payment within 14 days.

• Parking spaces 1-22 on the attached plan have been earmarked for residential use.

• ********** residents with a right to park (“authorised residents”) may park in any of these 22 spaces. They may not park in spaces 23 or 24 or any of the other spaces further along ******* which are allocated for staff and contractor use.
• Link Parking will shortly issue a Parking Permit for each authorised resident, which will be available for collection from ******* upon notification.

• The Permit will simply be numbered (no names or registration numbers) but we will hold a master list of who has been allocated which Permit and their registration number.

• The Permit is to be displayed on the dashboard of the car being parked in the residential spaces. Windscreen Permit cases will not be supplied.

• Residents may transfer the Permit to another car temporarily. For example if a new car is bought they can use it straight away rather than wait until their new registration details have been passed to Link Parking. Or if a resident has a visitor, you can let the visitor use an available space by placing your Permit in the visitor’s car. The resident cannot park in a residential space as well while the visitor is using their Permit.

• Any car parked in a residential space without a Permit properly displayed will receive a ticket. Likewise any resident parking in the staff parking spaces will be ticketed, whether displaying a Permit or not.

• There will be no exceptions so if an authorised resident does not display their Permit, they will receive a ticket. We will not enter into discussions about cancelling tickets because the resident forgot/the Permit fell off/the Permit has been lost etc. A Permit must be displayed and parking must be in the right location for it to be allowed.

• Lost Permits should be reported to ****** by email as soon as possible so that Link parking can be notified. There is normally a £10 fee for replacing a lost permit but we will waive this for the first loss. The resident will have to pay £10 each time thereafter – Link parking will organise this directly with the resident. Whilst a new Permit is being organised, arrangements will be made with Link Parking so that the resident can continue to park from the time the Permit was reported lost until the new Permit is received. Tickets issued before the Permit has been reported as lost will not be cancelled and must be paid."

Does not being given a copy of this letter push the liability onto the Letting Agency?

I've started getting calls / texts from BW Legal by the way, all ignored.