National Car Parks Ltd County Court Claim - completely out of the blue

Notlam

Completely out of the blue, my wife recently received a Claim Form from Northampton County Court issued on 24 Nov 2021.

"Particulars of claim: The Claim is for the sum of £191.00 being due from the Defendant in respect of a parking Charge Notice (PCN) for a contractual breach which occurred on 11/10/2019 in the private car park/land at Crawley Boulevard West Crawley RH101XP in relation to a AUDI A1 S LINE 35 TFSI registration mark (withheld to protect her privacy). the PCN was issued as the driver failed to comply with the terms and conditions as displayed. Despite demands, the charge remains unpaid. The claim also includes Statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum (a daily rate of £0.04 from 11/10/2019 to 23/11/2021 being an amount of £31.00 The Claim also includes £60.00 recovery costs as set out in the Terms and Conditions and in the ATA AoS Code of Practice."   

My wife has no recollection of parking there 2 years ago and there has been no previous correspondence from NCP (or anyone else) relating to this matter. This is very distressing for her as she has no income currently following her redundancy. What should she do please? 

D_P_Dance

The Claim also includes £60.00 recovery costs as set out in the Terms and Conditions and in the ATA AoS Code of Practice."   

They have added what appears to be an extra unlawful amount of £60 for debt collection. This amounts to double recovery and some Judges have dismissed an entire claim because of this. Read this and complain to your MP.

Excel v Wilkinson

At the Bradford County Court, District Judge Claire Jackson (now HHJ Jackson, a Specialist Civil Circuit Judge) decided to hear a 'test case' a few months ago, where £60 had been added to a parking charge despite Judges up and down the country repeatedly disallowing that sum and warning parking firms not to waste court time with such spurious claims.   That case was Excel v Wilkinson: G4QZ465V, heard in July 2020 and leave to appeal was refused and that route was not pursued.  The Judge concluded that such claims are proceedings with 'an improper collateral purpose'.   This Judge - and others who have since copied her words and struck dozens of cases out in late 2020 and into 2021 - went into significant detail and concluded that parking operators (such as this Claimant) are seeking to circumvent CPR 27.14 as well as breaching the Consumer Rights Act 2015.   DJ Hickinbottom has recently struck more cases out in that court area, stating: ''I find that striking out this claim is the only appropriate manner in which the disapproval of the court can be shown''.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/16qovzulab1szem/G4QZ465V%20Excel%20v%20Wilkinson.pdf?dl=0

However, a VCS appealed this so it may not apply in all cases, read this

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntksx9g7177ahyg/VCS v Percy v1 Amendments (2).pdf?dl=0Also read this

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6279348/witness-statements-2-transcripts-re-parking-firms-false-costs-recorder-cohen-qc-judgment-2021/p1

Also consider complaining to The SRA about the solicitor. If one is involved They are fully aware of the unlawful nature of this addition yet persist in adding it.

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/

KeithP

Notlam said:

Completely out of the blue, my wife recently received a Claim Form from Northampton County Court issued on 24 Nov 2021.

What should she do please? 

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 24th November, you have until Monday 13th December to file an Acknowledgment of Service but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an AoS, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an AoS in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 29th December 2021 to file your Defence.

That's over three 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 again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service instructions.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Of course everywhere I have written 'you' or 'your' I mean the named Defendant.
Everything must be done in the name of the named Defendant.

Le_Kirk

What did it suggest when you/she read the NEWBIE sticky, the one marked "Please read these first"?

Coupon-mad

If you still own it, the car is registered to an old address, we assume. She must address that with the DVLA, as well as defending the claim.  Both a lot less hassle than you might imagine, see @KeithP's advice above and it's easy to adapt the template.

Notlam

Le_Kirk said:

What did it suggest when you/she read the NEWBIE sticky, the one marked "Please read these first"?

I landed on a different page of this website and didn't see that NEWBIE sticky until after my post - but thanks for your question. 

Notlam

Received this email from BW Legal with no attachments, no photos, attached. 

We write in response to your emails dated 07 December 2021 and 10 December 2021.

 

Please be advised that we have sent you security questions to answer in order to respond to your email directly. This is for Data Protection purposes, and we require these to be included within the chain of any future email correspondence to enable us to respond directly.

 

The purpose of this letter is to respond to your email and we have set out our Client’s position below.

 

Background

 

On 11 October 2019 (Contravention Date), we are instructed that you were the registered keeper and/or the driver of a vehicle bearing the registration mark xxx details redacted xxx (Vehicle), which was parked on private land (i.e. xxxxx details redacted xxxx ) managed by our Client (Car Park).

 

The Car Park is private land, operated and managed by our Client. Use of the Car Park, by any motorist, is on the basis of the displayed contract terms and conditions, with the motorist legally obliged to make themselves aware of the terms and conditions at the time of parking.

 

On the Contravention Date, you breached the terms and conditions which resulted in you receiving a PCN because you parked without payment of the parking charge. 

 

As a result of the breach, our Client is well within their contractual rights to issue the PCN and take all necessary steps (including bringing legal proceedings) to recover the outstanding charge.

 

Following this our Client contacted the DVLA who provided your name and serviceable address of xxxxx details redacted xxxxx, as the registered keeper of the Vehicle. The PCN Notice to Keeper was issued to this address, as well as a Final Reminder Notice.

 

As our Client received no response, we were instructed to recover the PCN. Upon instruction, we conducted a trace through Equifax on 26 February 2020 which confirmed you were still residing at xxxx details redacted xxxxx.

 

As no response to our correspondence was received, our Client instructed us to issue a County Court Claim through the County Court Business Centre (CCBC) on 24 November 2021, which was deemed served on 29 November 2021. We have not been notified of any issues with service of the Claim form by CCBC.

 

 

Our Response

 

We note the contents of your emails, and confirm receipt of your completed Acknowledgment of Service.

 

Please be advised your request for all data in relation to the case constitutes a Subject Access Request (SAR) and as such, we have forwarded your request to the relevant department who will be in touch with a response shortly.

 

We note your request for photographs of the signage in place, and photographs of the Vehicle on the Contravention Date. Please see enclosed a copy of the signage as well as time stamped images of your Vehicle in the Car Park on the Contravention Date.

 

As previously advised, a Claim was issued against you on 24 November 2021. Should you wish to dispute the matter at this point, we advise you to respond to the Claim form as you deem appropriate.

 

We are pleased to inform you that our Client has authorised us to make a final offer to you of a pre-approved repayment plan of £40.00 per month. If accepted, this would avoid a CCJ being entered against you. This offer is made on a without prejudice basis and will expire after 03 January 2022.

 

One of the quickest ways you can review your account is to register on our Customer Portal by visiting bw legal website. On here, you can make payment or, alternatively, propose a repayment plan in respect of the outstanding amount. Alternatively, please call us today on 0113 487 0430 if you would prefer to discuss your account with one of our helpful team. We also accept payment by a variety of methods which are specified overleaf.

 

If you have not taken any of the action above, we are instructed to continue with the legal recoveries process to recover the outstanding balance.

 

If you are in any doubt about the content of this letter and/or require guidance/assistance on clearing the balance due to financial difficulties, we would advise you to seek free advice, details of which can also be found on the reverse of this letter, alternatively you can obtain legal advice from a Solicitor.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

The Litigation Team

bwlegal®

Q: Should I reply and ask where are the attachments and, in particular, the photos that show clearly who was the driver?

Coupon-mad

You should ask for the missing attachments, yes.

However you were not meant to email the solicitor.  That's in the section about LBC stage, not claim stage.

No harm done but it's driving me doolally that people keep doing that bit when all we tell posters with a claim to do, is a SAR, AOS and defence.

KeithP

You haven't mentioned it but did the Defendant file an Acknowledgment of Service by Monday 13th December?  

Notlam

Yes. An acknowledgment of service was submitted on 07/12/2021 and was received on 08/12/2021. 

Notlam

BW Litigation also including a pack containing various images of signage at the car park.