What to do

Luce2120

Hi Guys......Here goes.

I own and run a scaffolding company. Approx 6 months ago I received a letter in the post from a company called amtrac security services saying that one of my vehicles was involved in a contravention (the contravention was 'Obstructive Parking')? They were asking for the name and address of the driver and requesting payment of fine. I asked my employees about this and no one claimed to know anything about it or recalled receiving a ticket. I assumed that this was some sort of a scam and binned the letter.


A while after this I received another more threatening letter from the same company telling me I had to provide them with the name and address of the driver and the money was owed. Looking back at who was working in the alleged area on that day it could have been one of two people but both no longer worked for me anymore. This meant I couldnt tell them who was driving even if I had wanted to. This letter prompted me to look into this online though and I saw some advice that said if they dont know the driver then they cant touch you, so once again I ignored the letter and binned it.

I then received another letter from them but being that I was under the assumption that if i ignored them it would go away i did just that and once again ignored the letter.

This brings me to now. I have received a letter from a BW Legal saying that the case has been refered to them and I now owe £100 PCN plus their clients legal costs of £60 totalling £160. Apparently this is detailed in the car park terms and conditions? Because I didnt appeal within 28 days I have 16 Days to pay from the date of the letter. If i fail to make payment they will seek their clients advice to commence legal proceedings against me in the county court. The next line of the letter makes no sense to me but says ' upon being served with a Letter of Claim pursuant to the Pre -Action Protocal for Debt Claims as contained within the Civil Procedure Rules.


The letter is dated the 29th November although I only just received it meaning I only have 5 days left of the 16 days they state.

I have still never seen any evidence from anyone of the fact that my vehicle was parked anywhere it shouldnt be? So basically I am asking what I do now and is this all correct because i dont know what to think now.

I have tried looking throught his forum for help from other posts but they are all full of accronyms that mean nothing to me so could someone please explain to me where I stand in layman's terms.

Thanks in advance

Redx

as with the dozens of others on here, its B W LEGAL with their debt collectors hat on, it is not an LBC , not yet anyway, so IGNORE it

acronyms are explained in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread , post #5

LBC and MCOL are explained in post #2 of that same thread

post #4 of that thread deals with debt collector letters

that thread is your "bible", so take note

an LBC will have 30 days notice and include financial forms too , you have not received this yet, hence their warning

is the vehicle registered to a business or to you as keeper ?

KeithP

If i fail to make payment they will seek their clients advice to commence legal proceedings against me in the county court.

That sentence tells us that this is just a debt collectors letter and can be ignored.

It is quite likely that the next letter will be a Letter of Claim which should not be ignored.
A Letter of Claim will give you thirty days to respond and should include some reply forms.

Post #2 of [URL="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread[/URL] suggests how you should respond to a Letter of Claim.

beamerguy

I have received a letter from a BW Legal saying that the case has been refered to them and I now owe £100 PCN plus their clients legal costs of £60 totalling £160. Apparently this is detailed in the car park terms and conditions?


Go and take pictures of the signs ..... THE CLUE: ..... are the T&C's easily seen by a motorist driving in to the area or are they in small letters that only a sharp eyed EAGLE could see

Check out the cr*p of BWLEGAL
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5672664

The letter you have is ... "The BWLegal 16 days rubbish"

Next load of rubbish from BWLEGAL
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

As BWLegal are attempting to extort money from you, you must complain to the SRA
https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.page

Luce2120

Thanks for the replies and help.

The registered keeper of the vehicle is my business.

This is now who they are aiming correspondence at now rather than demanding I give them the drivers name and address which I do not even know anyway.

Does this change anything because it is linked to my business?

Redx

yes it does, because it is one business claiming from another business, not a person

so when you said I have received a letter, you should have said MY BUSINESS has received a letter , because that letter is addressed to the business and not a person (not you) - the devil is in the detail

a business cannot be the driver (think about it)

look at the MCOL site to see why this is different when its business to business (the claimant can name their closest court when its a business to business claim)

your business does not know who was driving , so proceed on that basis, as a business defendant stating that a business cannot be the driver and so isnt liable, especially if the claimant has failed POFA2012

look at other recent court claims where its business to business, to see the differences compared to when its a business sueing a private person like me


ps , plus its NOT from AMTRAC, that is the USA rail operator, its from ARMTRAC in cornwall

Luce2120

Ok, So the Letter of Claim has arrived just before Christmas, as you guys said it would so if i'm right now is when I need to do something?

Once again it is addressed to my business and not a specific person. They only use the main part of the business name and not the (SW) Ltd part which should be on the end to give our full trading name. Not sure if this matters?

The letter has come with a load of warnings about failing to pay and a bunch of reply forms that it says I should return within 30 days.

Basically where and what do I do next? Most of the forms mean nothing to me and I am concerned that it is adressed to my business. Does this mean I should do anything different to usual?

Thankyou in advance for all your help with this.

Redx

if its clear which business and address are bring targeted, then it probably makes no difference to their LOC

you can send the DPO of the PPC a SAR to get all their data, plus send them a data rectification notice if you want the correct business name to be used

you can send an LOC (LBC) rebuttal to B W LEGAL as well, plus telling them to change their data to the correct name etc at the same time, read other recent B W LEGAL threads for the wordings to use

Luce2120

Ok thanks for the prompt reply. I have seen a SAR template on here which I had planned to use if necessary but the first part of the template which calls for 'Full Name', 'Telephone number', 'name of organisation' etc etc. worried me.

Should I use my personal name and details? As yet they have no idea who I am, all they have is my business name.

Should I not return the enclosed forms to BW Legal at all then?

Redx

you should reply in the same manner that they have addressed you , so as the business, same goes for the MCOL when that arrives too

their claim is against a business , not a person , so use the business name , business address and business telephone number (if this is common knowledge)

do not return any forms to B W LEGAL, especially not the ones they sent you

your are constructing your own bespoke LBC REBUTTAL and your own SAR as well

ps:- its clear you are not doing enough research on here because this was all explained in another court case thread a couple of months ago, please read it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5907593/county-court-claim-form-vcs-limited-parking-fine


ie:- you are being reactive instead of proactive

Luce2120

I have found info on here that SAR can be emailed to Armtrac Security but cant see how I should correspond with BW Legal? Can this also be done by email? Apologies if this has been mentioned before also.