Letter before claim received

hi3rophant · 25 November 2018 at 7:42PM

Hi
Just received a letter before claim from One Parking Solution. I did some reading on this forum and came across a response posted by Coupon-mad.

To whom it may concern,

I am in receipt of your 'Letter Before Claim' dated 20th November 2018.

You should know that since 1st October 2017, a new protocol is applicable to debt claims. Since proceedings have not yet been issued, the new protocol clearly applies and must be complied with, not just vaguely referred to with a link or otherwise unfairly disregarded by expecting the recipient to find the specific information and reply form for themselves online, which may well not be possible for all consumers.

This paperwork remains your burden to supply, not mine to seek out.

Your letter contains insufficient detail of the claim and fails to provide copies of evidence you place reliance upon. Your letter lacks specificity and breaches both the requirements of the previously applicable Practice Direction - Pre-Action Conduct, paragraphs 6(a) and 6 (c ), and the new Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims (paragraphs 3.1(a)-(d), 5.1 and 5.2).

Specifically, you are obliged to provide me with certain information and documentation relating to the alleged debt and you are to give me 30 days in which to reply. I am unable to reply to your letter without understanding precisely the claim against me and without sight of the documents which you are obliged to provide to me.

If you wish to pursue this matter any further, please send me a letter which complies with the Protocol. Please treat this letter as a formal request for all of the documents & information that the protocol now requires you to provide within 30 days, pursuant to paragraph 5.2. You must not issue proceedings without complying with that protocol. I reserve the right to draw any failure of the Claimant to comply with the protocol to the attention of the court and to ask the court to stay the claim and order you to comply with its pre-action obligations, and when costs come to be considered.

As you must know, the Practice Direction and Protocol bind all potential litigants, whatever the size or type of the claim. Its express purpose is to assist parties in understanding the claim and their respective positions in relation to it, to enable parties to take stock of their positions and to negotiate a settlement, or at least narrow the issues, without incurring the costs of court proceedings or using up valuable court time. It is astounding that you are sending a consumer a vague 'Letter before Claim' completely ignoring the pre-existing Practice Direction and the new Protocol.

Nobody, including you, is immune from the requirements and obligations of the Practice Direction and now the Protocol. I require you to comply with its obligations by sending me the following information & documents:

1. an explanation of the cause of action

2. whether you are pursuing me as (a) driver or (b) keeper?
(a) If the former, please provide your rationale and/or evidence for the assumption.
(b) If the latter - pursuing me merely because I am the registered keeper - please answer these specific questions:
(i) are you relying upon the POFA 2012 Schedule 4, and if so
(ii) do you contend that your Notice to Keeper is fully compliant and was served in time, and if not
(iii) on what basis are you harassing me, given the fact that I am not liable under any applicable law?

3. what the details of the claim are; where it is claimed the vehicle was parked, for how long, how the monies being claimed arose and have been calculated

4. is the claim for a contractual breach? Copy of the contract and proof of breach is required.
5. a copy of the contract with the landowner under which they assert authority to bring the claim, as required by the IPC code of practice section B, clause 1.1

6. Provide details of the original charge, and detail any interest and administrative or other charges added.

7. a plan showing where any signs were displayed
8. details of the signs displayed (size of sign, size of font, height at which displayed)

9. provide a copy of the Information Sheet and the Reply Form.
If you do not provide me with this information then I put you on notice that I will be relying on 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) !!!8211; 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 you and to 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 had complied with your obligations and provided this information, I am unable to respond properly to the alleged claim and to consider my position in relation to it, and it is entirely premature (and a waste of costs and court time) for you to issue proceedings. Should you proceed to issue proceedings against me without replying substantively to this letter and complying with your obligations, I will apply for an immediate stay pursuant to paragraph 7 of the Protocol and 15(b) of the Practice Direction and I will seek a costs order.