BW Legal: correspondence advice

Reggie12345

Hi all,
Some advice needed.
BW Legal have sent me through a letter of claim via post. I have since responded asking certain questions I have researched about (most of what I have leaarned from this forum).
From here I have recieved the following response:

Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted on file.
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-!!!!!!!!! The Car Park is Private Land
-!!!!!!!!! Our Client's cause of action is that you breached the terms and conditions of the contract which you entered into by parking your vehicle in the car park whilst failing to make payment of the parking charge.
-!!!!!!!!! Our Client is pursuing you as the Registered Keeper of the vehicle.
-!!!!!!!!! The Driver of the vehicle contravened the rules of the site.
-!!!!!!!!! Our Client does intend to rely on Schedule 4 of Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 for Parking Charge Notices (PCN): ZP11351806 and ZP11255361. Our Client does not intend to rely on Schedule 4 of Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 for the remaining PCN’s.
-!!!!!!!!! The £100.00 charge is regarded as a charge for contravening the terms and conditions. The sum payable following the issue of the PCN occurs on the happening of a specific event (i.e. a material breach of the Terms and Conditions) and is therefore a core term of our client’s contract with you.
It is irrelevant whether or not the charge as displayed bears any relation to the cost for parking (even where there is no cost involved). Our Client relies on the leading authority of ParkingEye Limited v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67, where the Supreme Court held that PCN charges, like this charge, serve a legitimate commercial interest. The relevant car parking Codes of Practice, also give guidance that £100.00 is a reasonable sum to charge.
The signage in situ makes provision for our client to recover any additional costs (Contractual Costs) incurred by them in relation to the PCN. The Contractual Costs referred to above formed part of the terms and conditions (of the parking contract) which were accepted by you in the course of staying at the Car Park. Save for the fact that the sum of £60.00 attributable towards these costs are entirely reasonable for nature and type of work involved in recovering the parking charge, such costs are recoverable under the relevant parking code of practice.

Your advice on where to go next is much apreciated.

Quentin

Assuming that you have received a lbcca then expect a claim from Court

In preparation for this see the newbies FAQ thread

#2 explains the court process right through from the lbcca to the hearing

Then if a claim does come action the advice there

Reggie12345

Thanks for the quick reply Quentin. Firsty, as a newbiw what is Ibcca?
From what I read where you have pointed me I have two feasible options:
1. Wait for the claims Court form to be issued and respond as suggested.
2. Contact them again as I have defence with pictures of car park etc.
Please advise on next move.

Reggie12345

In addition to option 2 I listed in last post, would it be worth settling before the claims Court form comes through? When I say settle I would be willing to pay original fee of the tickets.

beamerguy

Reggie12345 wrote: »

The Contractual Costs referred to above formed part of the terms and conditions (of the parking contract) which were accepted by you in the course of staying at the Car Park. Save for the fact that the sum of £60.00 attributable towards these costs are entirely reasonable for nature and type of work involved in recovering the parking charge, such costs are recoverable under the relevant parking code of practice.

Your advice on where to go next is much apreciated.

Unsure who writes this stuff for BWLegal but it's not the way a court will read it.

Yes, £100 can be seen on most parking signs but what is not seen is this attributable sum of £60 ..... if it is there, it will be in such small writing, it could never form a contract.

BWLegal are currently doing this £60 to death just as they did with
CPS v AJH Films which the courts kept telling them it was not applicable .... took ages for them stop and that was after being whooped and whooped in court
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5672664/bwlegal-the-list-of-failures-growing

They tell you the £60 is a attributable sum, they tell others it's an admin fee and others it's contractual ????

In reality they are adding on fake debt collector charges.

Were you chased by debt collectors DRP ??

This standard claim of £60 is rather odd in that it is always £60, not a penny more or a penny less ??

You are being scammed

Quentin

Is this letter from the court or BW?

A lbcca is a letter sent by the claimant (or claimants representative) as a last resort prior to issuing a claim through the court)

Paying now for the original parking charge won't kill this

Reggie12345

Hi,


Update on my case. I have recently recieved a County Court Claim Form (issue date of 20/12/18) day of service 25/12/18 (low blow if you ask me. No taste).


Anyhow, I have responded online where I have disagreed with the claim against me. Ultimatlely, this gives me 28 days from the day of service to gather and send my defence to Court.


Over next week or so I will be gathering my defence so I was wondering if you could give me advice on how to takle this. Any previous threads that will aid me?


Your help is much apreciated.

Le_Kirk

Start with the NEWBIE thread where you will find in post # 2, a comprehensive guide (a walkthrough) written by Bargepole, of the whole small claims process. You will also find several different defences written for different scenarios. You should pick one of the concise defences written by Bargepole and expand upon it to DEFEND against the POC brought by the claimant. Make sure you use all the arguments you want to as you cannot add to a defence once submitted to the court.

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 20th December, you have until Tuesday 8th January to do the Acknowledgement of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. To do the AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox link from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread.

Having done the AoS, you then have until 4pm on Tuesday 22nd January 2019 to file your Defence.

That's over three weeks away. Loads 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 suggested here:

Print your Defence.
1. Sign it and date it.
   
2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
   
4. 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'.
   
5. Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defended". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive a copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to put you under pressure.
   
7. Wait for your DQ from the CCBC, or download one from the internet, and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

Reggie12345

Hi,

Thank you for your advice on all things to date.

As an update, I have BW legal back the following:

Good Afternoon,

See attached pictures of the car park in December 2017 of which you will clearly see there is no signage at all within the car park as such making it impossible to be a unilateral offer. I have requested evidence of signage within the car park in my first correspondents and have received no such clarification or evidence to back up your claims. The car park signage is clearly not fit for purpose and I am struggling to see how it can be argued that it is compliant with any guidelines as it is non-existent. Thus making it impossible to enter a contract.

Your statement of your client pursuing me as the registered keeper of the vehicle has no substance. Yes I am the registered keeper, but not the only possible driver of this vehicle.

Your statement 'the driver of the vehicle contravened the rules of the site'. Find attached a picture of the car park entrance which has all signage covered by a huge tree coming up and entering the car park,!again making it impossible to enter any contract.

The defence!included is in response to no evidence from yourselves other than a “letter of claim” which I have responded to and had no formal response. I am within my rights as the registered keeper to see what evidence you’re basing the claim on, I have received no evidence of the driver not paying, no evidence of terms and condition within the car park, no evidence of signage within the car park.!!!
My defence states the facts which are known, I requested information from yourselves within the allocated time on your “letter of claim” and received no response before you issued court proceedings so the comment about trying to resolve this dispute amicably is laughable.

Furthermore, not only is the signage upon entering the car park covered, there is no signage within the car park itself and despite lighting columns being installed they are never on at night which again does not comply with any guidelines or regulations including BS EN 12464-2 which I am very familiar with. All of which make it impossible to enter into a contract any time of the day or night.
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To summarise my position;
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I have cooperated with your letters and responded to all
You have started court proceedings despite ignoring my requests for information which as the registered keeper I am entitled to.
The car park itself is clearly unfit for purpose at the time of the alleged “offence” !as seen on the attached photos
No form of evidence has been provided to prove payment was not made
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Your constant bombardment of letters making claims of payment, expressing disappointment and threats of legal action and CCJ’s despite me promptly responding to all correspondence and not receiving the evidence to back up any claim is adding huge undue stress and anxiety to my life and as such further harassment from yourselves will not be accepted.
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I trust the above clarifies my defence and position on the matter.
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Regards,

Reggie

Reggie12345

To which I have been repplied to with the following:
Good afternoon,
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Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted.
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Please see attached signage for Manchester Store Street Car Park, dated 15 November 2017.
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We note that you have filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 28 December 2018, therefore we look forward to receiving updates or your Defence from Court.
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We trust the above is in order, if you wish to discuss the matter further please contact The Collections Team on