Britannia Parking letter from BWLegal

bogan671

Hello all!

New to this site and just want to ask for some advice regarding a parking ticket i recieved from Britannia Parking for a fine issued on the 8th April this year.

The back story behind this is that I went to meet a friend in the pub back in April. This pub had always been free to park in for the many years I've been going there. Turns out they'd recently put ANPR cameras in the carpark operated by Britannia Parking. When I received the ticket I went back to the pub to have a look for any signage and the only official sign that was displayed was one in the very dark, very narrow, very poorly lit alleyway leading to the carpark. Imagine trying to get a car down a tiny alleyway in the dark, very easy to miss such a ridiculous sign!! At the time there was no parking machine. All they had was a little chalk board out the front saying please pay for parking at the bar. I have photos as evidence of all of this. They do now interestingly have a proper machine in the carpark!

After looking online at various forums I decided (wrongly perhaps!?) to ignore all future correspondence from Britannia Parking and their so called "debt collection team" and hoped it would just be dropped.

Today I received a letter saying that they have passed the matter over to their legal team (BWlegal). There was a separate letter from BWlegal saying that I must pay £160 within 16 days or they will request county court proceedings against me.

While I've read lots online about these things never going to court I can only assume now that it will because I flat out refuse to pay such a massive fine for parking somewhere where there was no decent signage anywhere!

Could anyone please advise me on what to do next with this? Do I need to contact them?

I'm also just about to contact the pub to complain, though i assume it's out of their hands now.

Thanks in advance!

Redx

tens of thousands of these court claims go out every year and BARRY BEAVIS lost 3 times in 3 different courts, the last being 2 years ago

so assume this WILL go to an MCOL (COURT CLAIM) within the 6 years allowed for a small claim (and dont believe the myth that it wont happen)

the 16 days tells me its an allged debt letter, not an LBC

IGNORE it and come back when you receive an LBC or an MCOL

See the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread for details, plus edit your post to remove any idea of who was driving, only mention the words DRIVER and KEEPER, no "MY , ME , MYSELF & I" (no blabbing on internet forums)

send BRIT an SAR to their DPO and get all their evidence asap, so you have everything to hand for when the LBC arrives


ps:- this SHOULD have been appealed when the NTK arrived, and then to POPLA, too late for that now

beamerguy

bogan671 wrote: »

Today I received a letter saying that they have passed the matter over to their legal team (BWlegal). There was a separate letter from BWlegal saying that I must pay £160 within 16 days or they will request county court proceedings against me.

All designed to scare you. BWLegal are on a "debt chasing" rant
The clue is the BWL rubbish giving you 16 days ???
All copy and paste stuff.
These bad boys must send you a Letter before Claim, which must prove their case and give you 30 days to respond

No doubt BWLegal has pimped out their letterhead to Britannia

REAL SOLICITORS WOULD NEVER ACT THIS WAY.

You do not owe £160, the extra £60 rubbish is a fake add-on

BWLEGAL ADD ON A FAKE £60 ?
In addition to the 'parking charge', the Claimant's legal representatives, BWLegal, have artificially inflated the value of the Claim by adding costs of £60 which has not actually been incurred by the Claimant, and which are artificially invented figures in an attempt to circumvent the Small Claims costs rules using double recovery. >>>> thanks to bargepole

A judge can query this and probably whoop BWL if it gets that far.

You complain to the landlord of the pub and get this cancelled or if it goes to court, you will involve him/her as a witness

Very dodgy times for pubs especially if you expose them to your local media

You and the other regulars in the pub need to get together and get the landlord to oust Britannia as they will destroy his business

Maybe the landlord is looking for extra income

https://www.britannia-parking.co.uk/Content/ManageCarPark

If you own land with the potential to provide an income by operating as a car park, or if you already have a car park operating on your land and feel you are not realising its full potential in revenue terms

Coupon-mad

Why not simply read other BW Legal Britannia threads that are already past court defence stage?

Scatling

Please help I can't seem to post my own query on this site and I am struggling to work out the newbies section. I wonder if someone could reply to me in simple terms? 😂
I have received a letter from BWLegal saying that I failed to make a valid payment on Sunday 5th Feb 2017 at army and navy Britpark Chelmsford. At the time I had gone to buy my wedding dress and overstayed by an hour. Which I hadn't realised until I got the fine. As it was a stressful time I didn't respond until after my wedding in March. I phoned and said I was happy to pay £10 or £20 to cover their costs but there were lots of spaces there that day and it wasn't an intentional overstay. I was quite stressed. Also the day before I overpaid by £4.50 because I couldn't work the machine. Can someone tell me what to do please ? The letter says I have 16 days from date on the letter. Many thanks.

Coupon-mad

Read the second post of the NEWBIES thread, as you need to get ready to defend a claim in 2019. There is no dumbing down of the NEWBIES thread possible, just read the right section #2.

Scatling

Thank you but I can't find #2 can you tell me what the first sentence say so I can search the page sorey to be a pain

Scatling

Sorry 🙄 I can spell really

Coupon-mad

Why not search for claim ?

#2 is obvious the second post. If you are trying to read this forum on a phone - STOP. STOP.

Scatling

Oh it's the phone, ok thanks

The_Deep

you do not "request County Court proceedings" you initiate them. I suspect that what you have there is a begging letter from a scammer's poodle They have added on an unlawful £60 so complain to their regulatory body, the SRA

http://www.sra.org.uk/home/home.page

and to your MP

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers be put out of business. Hopefully that will take place in the near future. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers. Read this one which I wrote earlier

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.