Breaking News: Government has announced the statutory Code of Practice, and Enforcement Framework

Trainerman

Just another thought. Scotland (crazily) is set to adopt some of the legislation that we have suffered from for years. In the light of the new legislation for England/Wales, will the Scots carry on regardless and leave us better off than them in this regard?. Any opinions?

Umkomaas

I think it was always the intention that Scotland would come into line, including fully adopting PoFA, once all the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 was in place. Looks like that could be in late 2023. 

kryten3000

I doubt much will change in Scotland for a while, companies won’t go to court over a single ticket as the Simple Procedure disallows costs for claims under £300. 

patient_dream

Umkomaas said:

All hail Sir Greg Knight MP for introducing this bill

I agree. He should be knighted.  

Oh, just wait a minute ...... double-knighted then. Arise Sir, Sir Greg Knight. 🤓

You got to admit Umk, Sir Greg has done an amazing job for the moptorist

Remember he said that Ministers were not so naive ?    

Fruitcake

kryten3000 said:

I doubt much will change in Scotland for a while, companies won’t go to court over a single ticket as the Simple Procedure disallows costs for claims under £300. 

Binning the fake add on debt collection charges is a major factor for Scottish motorists. At the moment a PPC would struggle to get a single PCN up to the £300 threshold, but could easily do it for two PCNs plus a fake £70 added to each one.
After the new CoP comes into force, they will need to issue four, or possibly five PCNs to a motorist to get to £300 once the allowable amounts for filing fee and solicitors costs are added on.

ihatetrump

After the new CoP comes into force, they will need to issue four, or possibly five PCNs to a motorist to get to £300 once the allowable amounts for filing fee and solicitors costs are added on.

Surely Solicitors Costs can no longer be added on? meaning they have to form part of the maximum £50 for a Lower Level Charge outside of London (also £50 for Scotland). I can't imagine there's many solicitors will get out of bed or leave the a bar they're in (excuse the pun  ) for a meagre share - even the cronies in Warrington will be hard pressed to make ends meet.

Can't imagine a Solicitor in Scotland accepting 4 or 5 PCN's, (of which there shouldn't be too many motorists collecting that many PCN's anyway), then putting together the Claimants' WS (even a template one) and going through all manner of hoops only to get a share of the booty. They'd need a 100% success rate just to make it viable.

Hopefully this will spell the end of BWL, Gladstones et al. They reap what they sow.

bargepole

Surely Solicitors Costs can no longer be added on?

They can, in England & Wales courts anyway (not sure about Scotland), it's a fixed cost which is allowable under the Civil Procedure Rules to be added on the Claim Form. It's a fixed sum, on a sliding scale according to claim value, and not intended to be a reflection of how much or how little work the solicitor actually has to do.

Jenni_D

I'm not 100% sure (I'll need to look it up) but I think the £300 level is for the amount claimed before any costs of bringing the claim are added. (e.g. if filing the claim was £19 - a number that rings a bell - then you can't file a claim for, say, £282 then add the £19 to bring it above the £300 threshold - the claimed amount itself must reach the threshold). I think this same approach applies for any legal (solicitor) costs.

ihatetrump

Thanks @bargepole - I will clearly bow to your vastly superior knowledge!

Doesn't this conflict with Para 9.of the new COP?

9. Escalation of costs

The parking operator must not levy additional costs over and above the level of a parking charge or parking tariff as originally issued.

On the basis of your response, what is the most a motorist can expect to pay for a lower level breach outside of London? 

Fruitcake

Court filing fee and solicitors costs, as well as a hearing fee (if applicable) are permitted where a court claim has been issued. This is not an additional levy added to the PCN itself, but recovery of (some of) what it costs to bring a claim to court.