BW Legal letter after ignored advantis

HolMeg

Good morning,

Sorry to start a new thread I have read the newbies section and spent the last 24 hours reading various threads but still unsure of course of action.

I received a letter from Britannia Jan/Feb 2018 for “failure to make valid payment”. I followed advice to ignore these letters and subsequent letters from Advantis. I hadn’t heard anything since until yesterday when I received a letter from BW Legal.

It isn’t a Letter of Claim, they have yet sought their clients instructions but I’m now panicking that I should’ve responded and gotten this over with.

Any advice on my next steps is very much appreciated, I’m happy to go to court but would rather not!

Some context on parking ticket, we paid for parking using pay and display I believe but overstayed. We assumed it was like the other parking spaces where charges do not apply after a certain time in the evening.

Many thanks

fisherjim

Can you point to post on here where you were told to ignore?


That was not the right thing to do unless in NI or Scotland.


However you are where you are now, and all you can do is ignore debt collectors rubbish, you don't want to pay the charge plus their ridiculous fees on top.


If you get a real court claim come back here, Britannia are that court happy as I remember but do try with bigger claims.

Umkomaas

We assumed it was like the other parking spaces where charges do not apply after a certain time in the evening.

Which 'other parking spaces' would they be? 'Certain time', which would be when exactly?

There are so many assumptions being made by motorists - and each wrong assumption is potentially costing them £100 a pop.

The days of drop the car off and waltz into town without a further care have long gone. Read the signs in the car park, the only thing you can now assume in a private car park is that there is a parking company lurking and waiting for you to make the slightest of stumbles in order to relieve you of £100.

The_Deep

… followed advice to ignore these letters

No-one on here would advise you to ignore a PPC, it takes a lot more time to sort it out if you do.

Now you have to learn the complicated rules, (available above), of the game into which you have been co-opted. While you are so doing, complain 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. The Bill has passed through the HOC without hitch, and goes to the Lords soon. 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.

HolMeg

Thank you. I thought the thread about ignoring the letters was on this site but seems not, sorry.

May I ask, am I ignoring these debt collector letters because they may just stop or because they have no legal action until a letter of claim?

Umkomaas

I thought the thread about ignoring the letters was on this site but seems not, sorry.

Neither would it be found on any other dedicated parking forum since late 2012.

May I ask, am I ignoring these debt collector letters because they may just stop or because they have no legal action until a letter of claim?

Definitely the latter - sort of! The debt collector cannot issue any legal proceedings; they are powerless to do anything other than write you letters - that's why you ignore them!

HolMeg

Is it likely that I’ll get a letter of claim? The ticket was from Britannia, I hate this sort of thing hanging over me and I’m annoyed that I’ve followed inaccurate advice to ignore.

fisherjim

HolMeg wrote: »

Is it likely that I’ll get a letter of claim? The ticket was from Britannia, I hate this sort of thing hanging over me and I’m annoyed that I’ve followed inaccurate advice to ignore.

We seem to have lost our court activity figures resource, but Britannia aren't that court happy and a little charge like this is unlikely to excite them.
But as it stands now you have 6 years of waiting to find out, unless parliament alters this with their new bill.

The_Deep

Get your MP involved, that may well persuade them to ignore your transgression.

HolMeg

I shall write to my MP, is there a template on here that people have used before?

I dug out the letters and they have had three/four different debt collectors contact me with various different fake add on fees

Umkomaas

There's no template. Tell it like it is. People (like MPs) who receive lots of mail learn very quickly to spot templates, which then have much lower impact.

From the heart ......