Premier Parking Solutions BW Legal and County Court hearing

glanadda

Hi everyone. Very much hoping for your advice about our old friends BW Legal / Premier Parking Solutions

I received a 'PCN' from Premier Parking Solutions in summer 2016. I had paid for a day's parking on the RingGo app. I wrote to BW Legal/Premier Parking saying that I paid, but got a reply from them to say that I had not paid and that I had reached the end of their 'appeals' process, and demanding a large amount in order for them to not take me to court

I then received a number of letters demanding ever increasing amounts. I ignored these, as I wished to take the matter to court, being aware of these firms' appalling reputation on this forum and Trustpilot amongst other places.

In summer 2021 I received a Judgment for Claimant (in Default)” saying that I now needed to pay BW Legal the huge amount that they were claiming.The judgment for claimant said that I, as the defendant, had not replied to the claim form, something I had not seen. At no point had I been given the opportunity to state my case or provide the evidence that I had paid the parking fee. In no case have Premier Parking Solutions, or their solicitors or debt agents provided me with a breakdown of their claim of nearly £300.

Following a discussion with the County Court Business Centre I was told that if I wished to dispute this Judgment and apply to the County court for my case to be heard I needed to pay £255 to the Court. I paid this (as others on this forum have been forced to do) and have a County Court hearing in March 2022.

In preparing for the hearing I have been able to access my credit card payment for the date of the supposed infringement and there is a clear payment of £7.70 to Premier Parking Solutions (I am assuming this is £7.50 plus 20p convenience charge), but it is paid to Premier and not RingGo as I had thought. I cannot get any information from RingGo as they do not keep records beyond 3 years (and it has (coincidental, I am sure...) taken over 5 years for this case to come to court). I have sent a copy of my credit card statement to the court, along with copies of the letter that I sent to the company saying that I had actually paid. 

The paperwork that BW Legal have sent me of the evidence that they propose putting before the court provides numerous photographs of the parking information boards that I have not seen before. The only one that I have previously received had a date stamp of a month before the date of the supposed infringement.

They are now claiming costs (at a rate for a paralegal of £126 per hour!) of nearly £700. If I have to pay this, and the fee to the County Court, I will end up having to pay nearly a thousand pounds for a parking fee that I actually paid. I am both furious and worried about this.  

I think what has happened is extortion in its literal sense. I have written to my MP and the County Court Business Centre about both the parking companies and the County Court Business Centre's practices. My MP wrote back that the parking companies were under review (now brought in I believe). The County Court Business Centre wrote back to say that they were following their procedures correctly. 

Does anyone have any advice for me before the case, and what can i do about BW Legal / Premier Parking  AND the County Court's practices. I am pretty unhappy at all of this. 

Also, should I be asking for costs?  It would be in respect of the opportunity costs of my time (if I was charging a commercial rate it would be c£3,000 pd) .Apart from printing and postage I don't really have any direct costs.     

Any advice very gratefully received.  It is entirely possible that I have done something wrong along the way, despite all the brilliant advice on this forum and I am pretty stressed by all this.

Trainerman

Just for clarity, are you saying you did not receive both the Letter before Claim AND not the official papers from MCOL or are you saying you ignored them ?

Coupon-mad

I needed to pay £255 to the Court. I paid this (as others on this forum have been forced to do) and have a County Court hearing in March 2022.

Right, so it is a set aside hearing, NOT a hearing about the merits of the PCN.  Don't muddle this up by submitting evidence about the PCN!

Did your N244 application include a witness statement? What did it say?

Were you arguing that they sent the claim to an old address (did you check the address when you contacted the CCBC?).  If not the wrong address are you seriously saying to the court, that other letters arrived/were ignored but no LBC nor Claim was served?

In preparing for the hearing I have been able to access my credit card payment for the date of the supposed infringement and there is a clear payment of £7.70 to Premier Parking Solutions (I am assuming this is £7.50 plus 20p convenience charge), but it is paid to Premier and not RingGo as I had thought.

None of that is relevant to a set aside hearing really, except as an aside to show that you have good prospects of defending the claim.  Few Judges would use a set aside hearing to try to also decide about the PCN but the Judge will need to consider whether you acted promptly and that you have a case to defend, such that there is a discretionary 'good reason' to set aside the CCJ.

As per CPR 13 that you must rely on and be familiar with, to make sure your application meets the rule.

Your WS needs to identify why you didn't receive the claim form and if it went to an old address, you need to show evidence that you no longer lived there.  It also needs to cite CPR 13 and why it applies.

Are you still outside 14 days before the hearing?

glanadda

Trainerman said:

Just for clarity, are you saying you did not receive both the Letter before Claim AND not the official papers from MCOL or are you saying you ignored them ?

I did not receive the Letter before Claim - if I understand that to be the Claim Form that the Judgment for Claimant refers to ('to the defendant. you have not replied to the claim form. It is therefore ordered that you pay ...')
I received a letter from HM Courts and Tribunals Service telling me that I needed to pay the application fee of £255 for my request for the Judgment for Claimant in default to be set aside. I paid this over the phone. 

glanadda

Coupon-mad said:

I needed to pay £255 to the Court. I paid this (as others on this forum have been forced to do) and have a County Court hearing in March 2022.

Right, so it is a set aside hearing, NOT a hearing about the merits of the PCN.  Don't muddle this up by submitting evidence about the PCN!

THANK YOU FOR CLARIFYING - I HAVE DEFINITELY MUDDLED THE TWO. I HAVE SUBMITTED EVIDENCE TO THE COURT OF THE PAYMENT I MADE FOR THE PARKING CHARGE. BUT SO HAVE BW LEGAL. I  HAVE RECEIVED AN 84 PAGE DOSSIER DETAILING THEIR EVIDENCE FOR MY SUPPOSED WRONGDOING!  

Did your N244 application include a witness statement? What did it say?
NO - I DON'T HAVE ANY WITNESSES. ONLY MY EVIDENCE AND STATEMENT THAT I DID NOT RECEIVE A CLAIM FORM

Were you arguing that they sent the claim to an old address (did you check the address when you contacted the CCBC?).  If not the wrong address are you seriously saying to the court, that other letters arrived/were ignored but no LBC nor Claim was served?

I HAVE NOT CHANGED ADDRESS RECENTLY. I AM SAYING ONLY THAT THE CLAIM WAS NOT RECEIVED.  OTHER LETTERS WERE RECEIVED AND I DID IGNORE THEM - THOSE WERE THE LETTERS SAYING HOW MUCH I NEEDED TO PAY TO BW LEGAL. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THE LETTER DID NOT COME, EXCEPT THAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SOMETIME IN LOCKDOWN AND OUR POST WAS VERY IRREGULAR FOR MUCH OF LAST YEAR

In preparing for the hearing I have been able to access my credit card payment for the date of the supposed infringement and there is a clear payment of £7.70 to Premier Parking Solutions (I am assuming this is £7.50 plus 20p convenience charge), but it is paid to Premier and not RingGo as I had thought.

None of that is relevant to a set aside hearing really, except as an aside to show that you have good prospects of defending the claim.  Few Judges would use a set aside hearing to try to also decide about the PCN but the Judge will need to consider whether you acted promptly and that you have a case to defend, such that there is a discretionary 'good reason' to set aside the CCJ.

As per CPR 13 that you must rely on and be familiar with, to make sure your application meets the rule.  I WILL TRY

Your WS needs to identify why you didn't receive the claim form and if it went to an old address, you need to show evidence that you no longer lived there.  It also needs to cite CPR 13 and why it applies.

Are you still outside 14 days before the hearing?
THE HEARING IS ON THE 8TH MARCH. 

Coupon-mad said:

I needed to pay £255 to the Court. I paid this (as others on this forum have been forced to do) and have a County Court hearing in March 2022.

Right, so it is a set aside hearing, NOT a hearing about the merits of the PCN.  Don't muddle this up by submitting evidence about the PCN!

Did your N244 application include a witness statement? What did it say?

Were you arguing that they sent the claim to an old address (did you check the address when you contacted the CCBC?).  If not the wrong address are you seriously saying to the court, that other letters arrived/were ignored but no LBC nor Claim was served?

In preparing for the hearing I have been able to access my credit card payment for the date of the supposed infringement and there is a clear payment of £7.70 to Premier Parking Solutions (I am assuming this is £7.50 plus 20p convenience charge), but it is paid to Premier and not RingGo as I had thought.

None of that is relevant to a set aside hearing really, except as an aside to show that you have good prospects of defending the claim.  Few Judges would use a set aside hearing to try to also decide about the PCN but the Judge will need to consider whether you acted promptly and that you have a case to defend, such that there is a discretionary 'good reason' to set aside the CCJ.

As per CPR 13 that you must rely on and be familiar with, to make sure your application meets the rule.

Your WS needs to identify why you didn't receive the claim form and if it went to an old address, you need to show evidence that you no longer lived there.  It also needs to cite CPR 13 and why it applies.

Are you still outside 14 days before the hearing?

Coupon-mad said:

I needed to pay £255 to the Court. I paid this (as others on this forum have been forced to do) and have a County Court hearing in March 2022.

Right, so it is a set aside hearing, NOT a hearing about the merits of the PCN.  Don't muddle this up by submitting evidence about the PCN!

THANK YOU FOR CLARIFYING - I HAVE DEFINITELY MUDDLED THE TWO. I HAVE SUBMITTED EVIDENCE TO THE COURT OF THE PAYMENT I MADE FOR THE PARKING CHARGE. BUT SO HAVE BW LEGAL. I  HAVE RECEIVED AN 84 PAGE DOSSIER DETAILING THEIR EVIDENCE FOR MY SUPPOSED WRONGDOING!  

Did your N244 application include a witness statement? What did it say?
NO - I DON'T HAVE ANY WITNESSES. ONLY MY EVIDENCE AND STATEMENT THAT I DID NOT RECEIVE A CLAIM FORM

Were you arguing that they sent the claim to an old address (did you check the address when you contacted the CCBC?).  If not the wrong address are you seriously saying to the court, that other letters arrived/were ignored but no LBC nor Claim was served?

I HAVE NOT CHANGED ADDRESS RECENTLY. I AM SAYING ONLY THAT THE CLAIM WAS NOT RECEIVED.  OTHER LETTERS WERE RECEIVED AND I DID IGNORE THEM - THOSE WERE THE LETTERS SAYING HOW MUCH I NEEDED TO PAY TO BW LEGAL. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THE LETTER DID NOT COME, EXCEPT THAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SOMETIME IN LOCKDOWN AND OUR POST WAS VERY IRREGULAR FOR MUCH OF LAST YEAR

In preparing for the hearing I have been able to access my credit card payment for the date of the supposed infringement and there is a clear payment of £7.70 to Premier Parking Solutions (I am assuming this is £7.50 plus 20p convenience charge), but it is paid to Premier and not RingGo as I had thought.

None of that is relevant to a set aside hearing really, except as an aside to show that you have good prospects of defending the claim.  Few Judges would use a set aside hearing to try to also decide about the PCN but the Judge will need to consider whether you acted promptly and that you have a case to defend, such that there is a discretionary 'good reason' to set aside the CCJ.

As per CPR 13 that you must rely on and be familiar with, to make sure your application meets the rule.  I WILL TRY

Your WS needs to identify why you didn't receive the claim form and if it went to an old address, you need to show evidence that you no longer lived there.  It also needs to cite CPR 13 and why it applies.

Are you still outside 14 days before the hearing?
THE HEARING IS ON THE 8TH MARCH. 

Trainerman

glanadda said:

Trainerman said:

Just for clarity, are you saying you did not receive both the Letter before Claim AND not the official papers from MCOL or are you saying you ignored them ?

I did not receive the Letter before Claim - if I understand that to be the Claim Form that the Judgment for Claimant refers to ('to the defendant. you have not replied to the claim form. It is therefore ordered that you pay ...')
I received a letter from HM Courts and Tribunals Service telling me that I needed to pay the application fee of £255 for my request for the Judgment for Claimant in default to be set aside. I paid this over the phone. 

You would normally get a letter before claim, giving 30 days to respond. Following THAT at some point would be the actual claim, and you cannot ignore that. A judgment by default would follow. IF you did not receive that claim.... why would that be? Have you changed addresses?

glanadda

Trainerman said:

glanadda said:

Trainerman said:

Just for clarity, are you saying you did not receive both the Letter before Claim AND not the official papers from MCOL or are you saying you ignored them ?

I did not receive the Letter before Claim - if I understand that to be the Claim Form that the Judgment for Claimant refers to ('to the defendant. you have not replied to the claim form. It is therefore ordered that you pay ...')
I received a letter from HM Courts and Tribunals Service telling me that I needed to pay the application fee of £255 for my request for the Judgment for Claimant in default to be set aside. I paid this over the phone. 

You would normally get a letter before claim, giving 30 days to respond. Following THAT at some point would be the actual claim, and you cannot ignore that. A judgment by default would follow. IF you did not receive that claim.... why would that be? Have you changed addresses?

Dear Trainerman - thanks for your help.

I didn't receive the claim form - I haven't changed address, but post goes missing. And during the lockdown we sometimes didn't get post at all for days (maybe even weeks, I can't remember exactly). But I have not got a claim form and I have kept everything related to this case. I don't know what a letter before claim is. I only have letters from BW Legal, Premier Parking Solutions and Debt Recovery Plus claiming increasing amounts (from a starting point of £100 to the final (pre-court) claim of nearly £300). Two of these letters were headed "notice before action", another two were headed "Letter of Claim", and then I got one labelled "Final Notice" in 2018. The next letter came in summer 2021 headed "Notice of County Court Judgment Arrears", by which time I had had the notification from the court and appplied for the judgment to be set aside. I don't think any of those letters are 'a letter before claim'. Please tell me if I am wrong.

And apologies if I am being really stupid over all of this - it's the first time I have been in this situation, and I am not a lawyer.  

Trainerman

Ok. You say you got a "Letter of Claim". That would probably be it, and probably from DCB Legal, given that they are in your list.. However, that does not help now. You are in a set aside situation, and you need to explain clearly that you received no claim form, and probably try to explain why you did not.

You need to read the post from Coupon-Mad above as well as other threads to see about getting your ducks in row for that. You do not have long so don't hang about.

Coupon-mad

Did your N244 application include a witness statement? What did it say?

NO - I DON'T HAVE ANY WITNESSES. ONLY MY EVIDENCE AND STATEMENT THAT I DID NOT RECEIVE A CLAIM FORM.

Oh no, you must put this right urgently!

You are the witness and you must urgently email the local court and solicitors, a signed and dated (under a statement of truth) witness statement, offering to confirm under oath if necessary, that the claim form did not arrive.

And attaching this because you are not allowed to ambush the Claimant with stuff at the hearing and you don't have much else to show the Judge:

In preparing for the hearing I have been able to access my credit card payment for the date of the supposed infringement and there is a clear payment of £7.70 to Premier Parking Solutions (I am assuming this is £7.50 plus 20p convenience charge), but it is paid to Premier and not RingGo as I had thought.

And cite in your WS, Civil Procedure Rule 13.3* and state that your 'good reasons' for the CCJ to be set aside are:

(a) the claim was not received, probably due to post that went missing over COVID lockdown, when post to your house often disappeared;

(b) you acted promptly as soon as you found out about the claim/CCJ and made this application and paid £255 for this hearing;

(c) you have good prospects of successfully defending the claim once the CCJ is set aside, not least because of the attached card statement proof of paying the Claimant the fee for parking on the material date;

(d) the CCJ is exaggerated by inclusion of a false, wholly disproportionate and unincurred 'damages' enhancement of £60 or £70 upon which the Claimant has also added interest at 8% from the date of parking.  Clearly an abuse of the court process, and this in itself is reason why the CCJ cannot fairly stand.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities ('DLUHC') has published, as of 7 February 2022, a statutory Code of Practice which all private parking operators are required to comply with, found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-parking-code-of-practice/private-parking-code-of-practice

The Government has clarified that adding 'debt recovery' fees/costs/damages on top of a parking charge is unjustified (indeed unconscionable and extortionate) and as such, is banned. In a very short section called 'Escalation of costs' the new Code says: "The parking operator must not levy additional costs over and above the level of a parking charge or parking tariff as originally issued."

The Ministerial Foreword is unequivocal and robust, saying this about existing cases such as the present claim:"Private firms issue roughly 22,000 parking tickets every day, often adopting a labyrinthine system of misleading and confusing signage, opaque appeals services, aggressive debt collection and unreasonable fees designed to extort money from motorists."

In the present case, the Claimant has added a sum that their notorious industry variously describes as damages for debt recovery.

These are now banned costs which they have neither paid nor incurred and were not quantified in prominent lettering on the sparse signage nor at the payment machine instructions where the fee payment was made in good faith.  Whilst the new Code is not retrospective, it was only brought in due to the failure of the previous two competing (and self-serving) BPA and IPC codes of practice and the Minister's Foreword is indisputably talking about existing cases and declares the add-on to be 'designed to extort money'. A clear steer for the Courts from now on.

.......................

Head your Witness Statement with the claim number and the parties' names (Claimant and Defendant.  NOT BW LEGAL), The county court location and the date and time of CCJ set aside hearing.

Is the hearing in person or by Video?

{End with:}

Statement of truth:

I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Your signature

Your name

Date

* CPR 13.3

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part13

"Cases where the court may set aside or vary judgment entered under Part 12

13.3

(1) In any other case, the court may set aside or vary a judgment entered under Part 12 if –

(a) the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; or

(b) it appears to the court that there is some other good reason why –

(i) the judgment should be set aside or varied; or

(ii) the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim.

(2) In considering whether to set aside or vary a judgment entered under Part 12, the matters to which the court must have regard include whether the person seeking to set aside the judgment made an application to do so promptly.

(Rule 3.1(3) provides that the court may attach conditions when it makes an order)"

glanadda

Success!!!!   The CCJ was set aside, Thank you so much to Couponmad. Your advice was spot on. Now on to the next stage - waiting to see if PPS/BW Legal et al actually bother to take it further. The judge did not appear over impressed with them.

Coupon-mad

Great news!  Were they ordered to serve the claim to you again so that you can then defend?

If they do, don't do it via MCOL by trying to use the old expired password.  This is already at your local court so will be email (or postal) submissions from now on.