NCP and BWLegal

Ranulphus

Hi all,

I've been doing a lot of reading on here and have used some of the excellent advice in my own case with NCP. Today I received a Letter of Claim from BW Legal saying that they have been instructed by NCP to commence legal action. Apparently I have until 17th January to respond or pay the £160. As with other cases posted on here they have then detailed how the costs can escalate further.

Background:

Apparently my car was parked on an NCP car park in late March 2018 and whoever was driving "Parked without payment of the parking charge". Now the problem is I was moving house around that time and due to the hecticness of life I didn't update my V5 address with the DVLA until May. In that time presumably NCP sent a PCN to my old address and I was completely unaware of it. Then in late July I received a letter from Trace Debt Recovery saying that I owed NCP £160 and that I should pay. I then contacted NCP via the appeals email address asking them what this letter was that I had received and was it genuine. I recieved the following response:

Thank you for your email,

We can confirm that the letter you have received is not a scam letter.

The reason you have been unable to locate this on our system is the time to PAY/APPEAL has expired and as a result has now been passed to Trace Debt Recovery.

We ask that you direct any further questions/quires to Trace debt recovery in regards to making any outstanding payments for that notice.

Kind Regards


Appeals Department
National Car Parks Ltd

I then contacted Trace Debt Recovery and told them that I had contacted NCP and that I was going to appeal the PCN as I have never received one and I have no recollection of any parking contravention. They immediately put the "case on hold". Honestly I then forgot about it for a few weeks and then I got the following from Trace Debt Recovery:

Good morning,

Our client have advised us that no appeal has been received for this PCN.

You did contact them but this was after the account was passed to us.

Please note that your avenue of appeal has now expired, our client will not assess an appeal at this stage.

The original Postal Notification of this charge offered you an opportunity to appeal against this PCN and also gave you the appropriate information on how to do so. Our client also sent you a second reminder which went unanswered.

Your next opportunity to appeal is the county court.

In light of the evidence we hold I have to advise that the PCN and its associated processes are in line with industry standards and are compliant with the British Parking Association’s code of practice.

Please accept this email as written confirmation that the debt remains due of £160. You will have 7 days from this email to make payment.

You can pay online at (URL) or by phone calling 03300 080 477.

If you are having difficulty paying, please phone our payment helpline on 01604 968 123 to discuss payment options. Please be advised we are open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and we are closed on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.

If you do not pay the full amount within 7 days of this email or you have not contacted us to agree a payment option by then, we will be forced to take further recovery action which will include passing the case to our solicitor and could include court action.

We will be unable to enter into any further correspondence regarding this matter.

Kind regards

From reading these forums I learned that the time to appeal a private PCN never expires, especially as I never received the PCN or a NTK, so I decided to send an appeal to NCP using a template from this forum, admitting nothing but demanding a copy of the PCN, evidence of the contravention, and a POPLA code. To date I have received no response to that appeal letter from NCP.

A few weeks ago I then received the first letter from BW Legal saying that they are now involved in the case. Now today it's the Letter of Claim. That is all I have received. No PCN, no NTK, no POPLA, no response to the appeal.

Should I let BW Legal make the court application? Is there something I can do to kill it now? In truth if I'd ever received a PCN I probably would have just paid it immediately (as I normally do) but the fact that I've had nothing from NCP despite me asking multiple times and the fact that they've decided to inflate the charge by (I'm guessing) £100 just makes me want to fight it.

Thanks

Redx

there is no easy answer or magic bullet


if B W LEGAL have given 30 days notice and issued the financial forms as well, then its rebut the LBC and dont fill in the financial forms


plus send NCP a SAR to their DPO to get all the data they have on you, including paperwork


then prepare for an MCOL in the New Year

Ranulphus

Thanks for the reply.

Just to be clear, you are suggesting I don't respond to BW Legal in any way and just wait for the MCOL?

I will indeed send a SAR to NCP. To date I have received absolutely nothing from NCP themselves, only their third-party contractors.

If this were to go to court, what would be my best line of defense? I've never received a PCN/Invoice? Ignored my appeal? No POPLA code? Not proved who was driving?

Ranulphus

Sorry for double post

I have been emailing my appeal(s) to NCP and I've just noticed an automated email that I get it every time that says:

Thank you for your email, we aim to respond to all emails within 14 days, however please see below guidance;

This email address is for enquiries in regards to Parking Charge Notices beginning with ‘ZP’;

· If you have lost your ZP reference number

· Have a question in regards to payments

· Are unsure on the status of your appeal (You will receive a response up to 14 days, on receipt of your appeal)

If you wish to appeal, please use the following link: (URL)

OR you can appeal in writing to:

National Car Parks Ltd
PO Box 5538
Manchester
M61 0RH

Any appeal submitted via this email address is not within our appeals process and does not place your notice on hold.

Kind Regards

Appeals Department
National Car Parks

Are they allowed to do that? Surely they could deny receiving it by post?

KeithP

If you haven't appealed using one of the methods they specify, then yes they can ignore it.

If sending by post, the use standard First Class post getting a free Certificate of Posting at the Post Office counter.

It is deemed delivered two working days later and it is up to the intended recipient to prove otherwise. They cannot do that.

Anita_Ashby

My son has been contacted by trade debt recovery for payment of £160 on a car he sold 8 months before the alleged offence. !! Trying to e mail trace debt and their e mail address seems bogus!!!

Redx

this is their website


https://www.tracerecovery.co.uk/


this is their DPO


https://www.tracerecovery.co.uk/privacy-policy/


they are only a debt collector and tracing service


nobody should be contacting them other than issuing a SAR by email, see post #4 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread about debt collectors and IGNORING THEM

Ranulphus

Just had the SAR response from NCP which contains copies of the PCN and NTO etc which I had never received before (because I'd moved house), photo of my car apparently entering and leaving the car park etc.

I sent the SAR on the 20th December 2018 in which I referenced that they needed to, by law, respond within one calendar month. They responded yesterday 24th January 2019, over a month later and included a copy of my SAR email which clearly shows I sent it on the evening of the 20th. Even if they didn't see it until the morning of the 21st it's still over one month. What should be my position on this?

Still no response from BW Legal after my letter refuting and an SAR.

beamerguy

Ranulphus wrote: »

Just had the SAR response from NCP which contains copies of the PCN and NTO etc which I had never received before (because I'd moved house), photo of my car apparently entering and leaving the car park etc.

I sent the SAR on the 20th December 2018 in which I referenced that they needed to, by law, respond within one calendar month. They responded yesterday 24th January 2019, over a month later and included a copy of my SAR email which clearly shows I sent it on the evening of the 20th. Even if they didn't see it until the morning of the 21st it's still over one month. What should be my position on this?

Still no response from BW Legal after my letter refuting and an SAR.

NCP think they are god's gift to arrogance, it is the way of scammers, at least you got a reply, are you happy with it ?

BWLegal are playing the ignorance game so just wait to see what they reply with as it could result in a complaint to the SRA and the ICO

The_Deep

Let them take you to court. From what you have told us they would likely crash and burn.

The whole industry is a scam, relying on threats of court, and the public's ignorance of the Law, A bill is currently before parliament which will regulate the scammers, many of whom are ex-clampers.

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 Second Reading in the Lords this month, and, with a fair wind, will l become Law later this 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.