'Letter before claim'

joebloggs123456

Umkomaas said:

Are you based in Scotland by any chance?  CST have recently been chasing Smart Parking tickets there. This is an important question for you to answer please. 

No not in Scotland, too cold for me lol!

Ralph-y

three threads you need to work through ...

direct 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

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6130456/telephone-hearings-re-parking-firm-claims-can-we-all-discuss-strategy-and-outcomes-here/p1

Ralph

Johnersh

As @Ralph-y says, the o/p needs to read and research.  What to expect? 

The o/p may wish to be appraised of costs exposure.  Obviously if the claim were not defended at all, a single claim plus costs comes in close to £300.

BUT even if the case were lost:

1. The bolt on costs (usually 60ish of a 100+60 claim) can usually be excluded as not part of the contract, not permitted by pofa and impermissible unspecified liquidated damages.

2. Interest is invariably incorrectly calculated and claimed from the date of the event but inclusive of the bolt ons (which by definition did not occur at the same point) so those should fall away or the entire calculation revisited. It's peanuts, so it should go.

3. Attendance fees for advocates should rarely be allowed - and not at all on a summary assessment (ie when the judges rules on those in the hearing) if the ppc has not presented an itemised schedule 24 hrs in advance. All advocates should be made to justify their brief fee. (No harm in beginning by asking when they were called to the bar/admitted to the roll, since it may be harder to recover a brief if they are not fully qualified staff)

4. The court fees to issue the claim and for the hearing are payable after a loss. Those are modest.

Total damage would therefore be close to £150 all in, if those points were well run in a defence. Since this is similar to the starting point ppcs begin by claiming, it stands to reason why advice is to defend once you decide not to pay in the initial discount period.

Finally, hearings will happen by MS Teams or (worse, inmho) by telephone in times of C19 and possibly with increased frequency in future. Its no biggy. A formal discussion around the dining room table. A video example is kicking around somewhere. 

joebloggs123456

Thank you, will fight it all the way now

joebloggs123456

Apologies to revive an old thread.

Since my letter to the company I have heard nothing since?

Is there a rough time scale on how long a response takes? It has been 7 months now so I am thinking is this something that is not going to be taken any further?

Thanks.

Castle

joebloggs123456 said:

Apologies to revive an old thread.

Since my letter to the company I have heard nothing since?

Is there a rough time scale on how long a response takes? It has been 7 months now so I am thinking is this something that is not going to be taken any further?

Thanks.

They have 6 years to issue a court claim.

Jenni_D

And for the avoidance of doubt ... that's 6 years from the date of the PCN, not from the date of the LBC.

joebloggs123456

Thank you, in cases like these what would be a usual timeframe to hear a response?

Coupon-mad

Within six years of the parking event.  These cases often go cold for months and PPCs chop and change to a new roboclaim form or debt collector to try to get you to pay due to being scared of different threats and headed notepaper.

joebloggs123456

Coupon-mad said:

Within six years of the parking event.  These cases often go cold for months and PPCs chop and change to a new roboclaim form or debt collector to try to get you to pay due to being scared of different threats and headed notepaper.

Thank you, since the original fine I had numerous different letters from 'different' companies. I then had the letter before claim to which I responded. But then since February of this year I haven't had anything back.