Response to pre-court ‘offer’

Adriaan

Hello my lovelies

I have had periodic correspondence from VCS in Sheffield for the last 5 years and in the last six months they’ve told me they are taking it to the small claims unless I cough up £xxx.

I’ve responded to their inadequate/insufficient/poorly worded supposed ‘letter before claim’ and then received some small claims paperwork in which I wrote my response and returned - I got cc’d in to the small claims response to the claimant which basically said you must file a full and proper claim and pay your fee by early December or the case will be dismissed and the defendant will be entitled to claim costs if they wish - following that I received a really kind and generous ( :rotfl: ) letter from VCS offering a lowered charge of £xxx to close the matter - I haven’t responded, but I just wanted to check in case I need to reply and say “no thank you”...?

Thank you for reading! 😊

waamo

Is the letter headed "Without prejudice save as to costs"?

If so there is no obligation to reply. If it doesn't have that at the start what does it say?

Adriaan

It says -

“We write regarding the above Claim.

This matter has now proceeded to the Small Claims Track and Directions have been set by the District Judge.

We are confident that we have a strong case against you and we are entitled to recover the outstanding Parking Charge Notice and any additional costs, however we are mindful that under the civil procedure rules litigants are expected to try and resolve the dispute where possible.

Therefore, we are willing to accept a reduced settlement charge payable within 14 days from the date of this letter. This offer is made on a without prejudice basis. Should you fail to accept our offer and we will continue with our Claim for the full amount and bring this letter to the Court’s attention upon the question of costs. To make payment please pay into the following bank details blah blah. “

Le_Kirk

Did they say what the "reduced settlement charge" would be and would that be acceptable to you?

Umkomaas

Discontinuance more than likely on its way. Do a forum search 'Umkomaas is psychic' to read very similar, recent VCS discontinuations.

The_Deep

I? suspect that they are not so confident of a win in court as they claim.

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP after the election, it can cause the scammer extra costs and work.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.[/FONT]

beamerguy

Adriaan wrote: »

It says -

“We write regarding the above Claim.

This matter has now proceeded to the Small Claims Track and Directions have been set by the District Judge.

We are confident that we have a strong case against you and we are entitled to recover the outstanding Parking Charge Notice and any additional costs, however we are mindful that under the civil procedure rules litigants are expected to try and resolve the dispute where possible.

Therefore, we are willing to accept a reduced settlement charge payable within 14 days from the date of this letter. This offer is made on a without prejudice basis. Should you fail to accept our offer and we will continue with our Claim for the full amount and bring this letter to the Court’s attention upon the question of costs. To make payment please pay into the following bank details blah blah. “

TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH
We are unsure that we will win and as we do not want to be whooped in court again, you may be silly enough to pay us.
And we are aware that when you win, you will claim costs against our client.

BrownTrout

For everyone's info this is now a standard letter sent for all vcs court claims. It is not case specific

Adriaan

Thanks folks. I’ll await the next letter, the claims court said they had to enter a full proper claim and pay their £25 by the 10th December.

beamerguy

Adriaan wrote: »

Thanks folks. I’ll await the next letter, the claims court said they had to enter a full proper claim and pay their £25 by the 10th December.

YUP, it's VCS, timewasters, and if they added their fake £60, losers as well

Snakes_Belly

Both VCS and Excel (same owners) are very litigious and usually start court action within months of the parking incident. The fact that they have not started court action earlier suggests that do not rate their chances in court.

VCS have not been successful so far with these historic claims. There is a lot of information on this site regarding these historic claims and other VCS/Excel claims that have been challenged at court and won. The cases that they cite in their WS can be easily challenged as most are cited out of the full context of the case.