BW Legal - National Car Parks - CCJ Threat

Sammyboden82

I received a letter for a £100.00 parking charge in Feb 2020 from National Car Parks (NCP), I was around 12 minutes late back to my car (Stoke on Trent Car Park).  I had put more money in the machine £3.00 for a 1 hour ticket (£2.40) charge as I didn't have change other than a £2.00 coin and £1.00 coin. I went to collect my sons school shoes and whilst in the shopping centre he started to feel nauseous after eating a bag of what I discovered were sugar free sweets, I had to take him to the public toilets (I don't think I need to give other details of what happened at this point). Any how I was captured on the parking camera arriving at 12:10 noon and leaving at 13:38, this is a pay and display car park, therefore its impossible to pay at a machine until a parking space is located. I paid for my ticket at 12:15. As outlined above I arrived back at 13:35. I wrote to NCP offering them 24pence (the change I should have got over the time I collected the ticket) I have since discovered that parking usually allow a 10 minute grace period.  I found the £100.00 very excessive for the few minutes late and the circumstances I found myself and my 8 year old in. I didn't respond again to any further invoices from NCP. This was then passed to BW Legal, who I didn't communicate with, until just before Xmas, whilst recovering from COVID-19, a letter from them and a claim form from the County Court Business Centre arrived on my door-step. Today, I have sent an Acknowledgement of Service to the CC Business Centre.

Please can you advise me of what to do next and if you have been in a situation like myself, and what the outcome was.  BW Legal are now seeking £249.12p for a parking charge and given the current climate, I find this absolutely disgusting!

Le_Kirk

First thing to do is to read the NEWBIE sticky (second post) where all the info that you require will be found.  When you say you "sent an Acknowledgement of Service to the CC Business Centre" did you mean you posted it by snail mail or (hopefully) you submitted it online via MCOL and your government gateway account?
If you state the date of issue of the claim form, @KeithP will be along to give you some deadlines and advice about constructing a defence using a standard template already written for you.

beamerguy

BWLegal are a disgusting company.    They are faking it as usual by adding an unlawful amount of £60 ...... this is the normal rubbish from BWLegal
Their fakery does not work, see what happens to fakers
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6103933/abuse-of-process-thread-part-2/p1?new=1

Please read the NEWBIES thread as that is important

Sammyboden82

@Le_Kirk thank you, I submitted it via MCOL. Im new to all of this, never had anything like this happen before. @KeithP I'd appreciate your help. Thank you.

Le_Kirk

Sammyboden82 said:

@Le_Kirk thank you, I submitted it via MCOL. Im new to all of this, never had anything like this happen before. @KeithP I'd appreciate your help. Thank you.

Phew.                     

nosferatu1001

We still need the date of issue!
One thing you will need to get used to is completeness in answers
Thats to questions we ask you, and anything requried by courts. No "oops forgot" is allowed. 

KeithP

Yes, as others have said, what is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

1505grandad

Sammyboden82 said:

@Le_Kirk thank you, I submitted it via MCOL. Im new to all of this, never had anything like this happen

Phew. 

Hopefully nothing was entered into the MCOL defence box  -  can the OP confirm this please?

Sammyboden82

@KeithP the Issue Date was 15th December 2020, received in the post (which I'm getting a delivery around every 7-10 days) on 23rd December.  The Acknowledgement of Service was today 04.01.2021. Please do bear with me as even looking at the threads is confusing to me, all this is completely new to me.

Ralph-y

some reading for you ...

link to court section in newbies thread
.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64350585/#Comment_64350585
and
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/suggested-template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-charge-cases-where-they-add-false-admin-costs#latest

Ralph

KeithP

Sammyboden82 said:

@KeithP the Issue Date was 15th December 2020... 
The Acknowledgement of Service was today 04.01.2021.

Phew... you just managed to file an Acknowledgment of Service in time. Today was the last day the Claimant could seek a Default Judgment against you.

With a Claim Issue Date of 15th December, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 18th January 2021 to file your Defence.

That's two weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.