Urgent help required! 2019 ticket resurfaced

95816

The below was posted on a similar forum recently but got no replies, please advise if you can, even if vague/generic, anything is better than nothing at this point!!

Good Evening

A parking fine was received in October 2019 when the driver of a vehicle registered to myself parked in what Parking Solutions 24 believed to be improper

For context, the parking spot in question was in a car park of a university, which the driver had paid to park in, but was full. The driver contacted the company in question previously by telephone to ask whether a space which was suitable to park in, but not marked as a spot, could be parked in. No sufficient answer was ever given to the driver, so at a later date they parked in said spot

A PCN was issued. Advice was sought from another forum which appears not to exist anymore and an appeal was subsequently filed. From memory, efforts were made to appeal to POPLA(?) but were unsuccessful.

The 'debt' was passed to no less than 6 different debt collection companies and a large amount of threatening letters were received, but stopped around the time of Covid and nothing was heard since

6 days ago a letter was received by the keeper from Gladstones Solicitors and states are follows:
(Note: It is dated 27th April, nearly 2 weeks before it arrived.)

"Client: Parking Solutions 24 Ltd
Amount due: £130

We act on behalf of the above Client and are instructed to commence legal proceedings against you to recover unpaid parking charge notice(s) as detailed in the attached schedule (full details of them having been sent to you by our Client already), if the Amount Due/Debt remains unpaid or a valid reason for non-payment is not provided.

The amount Due/Debt includes £70.00 claimed by our Client for the time/resources spent facilitating the recovery of the unpaid parking charge notice(s) pursant to its ATA's Code of Practice and the Terms and Conditions of the Contract, which was entered into upon the driver of the vehicle entering the Relevant Land. The amount is a pre-determined and nominal contribution to our Client's losses as a direct result of your non-payment.

We refer you to the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims (paragraph 7) (the 'PAP) and the Practice Direction for Pre-Action Conduct (paragraphs 13-16) contained in the Civil Procedure Rules ('CPR'); regarding the Court's powers to impose sanctions for any failure to comply with the Practice Direction or the Protocol.

You should do one of the following within 30 days of the date on this letter:

1. Pay the debt - to make payment see details overleaf
2. Dispute the debt - If you dispure the Amount Due/Debt you should respond via the Reply Form. In according with the PAP, which obliges the parties to act reasonably and proportionately, this can be completed on our website xxx.xxx.x Alternatively, you can request a paper version (see overleaf)

Before completing the online Reply Form you will be required to create a login, you will need your reference (xxxxx.xx) to do this

Warning regarding the issue of Court Proceedings
If you fail to pay the Amount Due/Debt or provide reasons as to why you dispute the debt within 30 days, our Client reserves all its rights, including the right to commence Court proceedings (without further reference to you should that prove necessary and appropriate), which will incur further costs and interest (as detailed overlead), which will be added to the value of the Amount Due/Debt.

Our Client is satisfied it has sufficient evidence to support any Court proceedings brought against you.

Should you fail to make payment of the Amount Due/Debt and fail to respond to any subsequent Court proceedings, a County Court Judgement ('CCJ') may be entered against you

County Court Judgement
If a CCJ is obtained in default, this will show on your credit record immediately and if payment of the CCJ is not made within 1 calendar month of the date of entry of the Judgement, the CCJ will not be removed and will be applied to your credit record for a period of 6 years.

This may affect your ability to obtain credit in the future, or result in higher rates of interest being applied to any credit you are to obtain.

Please Contact Us
Please note any reply received after 27 May 2022 legal proceedings may have already been issued; however, we will still consider your response in due course.

Our team is ready to try to work with you to resolve this matter without the need for Court proceedings and it is important you contact us upon receipt of this letter.

Sincerely

Gladstones

Bit of info on how to request a paper version of the information sheet and reply form
A separate piece of paper shows 'Schedule of unpaid PCN(s):
Current charge: 130
Estimated Claim Value:
"If our Client issues Court proceedings, this may result in you being liable for the Court Issue Fee, Fixed Solicitors' costs and statutory interest, which are estimated below:
Debt: 130
Interest: 0
Court Fee: 35
Solicitors Costs: 80
Total: 245

Note: Interest is calculated daily and will be added to the Amount Due/Debt if Court proceedings are issued"

Any advice would be very well received!

KeithP

That is a valid Letter of Claim and you should respond/react as described in the first few paragraphs of the second post of the NEWBIES thread.

Coupon-mad

Same advice as in the thread right next to yours by a user called the_hundreds.

95816

Hi guys

Tomorrow is day 29, so an e-mail will be sent to Gladstones tomorrow requesting 

(a) I am seeking debt advice but I deny any debt and the case must be put 'on hold' for not less than 30 days under the PAP for debt claims 2017.

However, I believe I have already requested an SAR a good while ago, I don't remember the outcome - is there any way I can do this again? It was 3 years ago so I might struggle finding relevant information

@KeithP

Please advise asap

Coupon-mad

I advised you to read other Gladstones threads, not simply to reply with the very basic '30 days' stuff in the NEWBIES thread.  Please read recent Gladstones LBC responses, they have much more than that.

95816

@Coupon-mad

Hi Coupon

I will be spending the evening doing as much reading as I possibly can - I have been unable to recently due to other unavoidable commitments

In the meantime, is it worth me sending the e-mail today? Or read everything tonight and send the e-mail tomorrow along with the other instructions? 

Tomorrow is day 30 so I'm just thinking of the timing

Thanks in advance

Coupon-mad

Yes send the weak reply now to buy time.

95816

Evening

I have read the entirety of the topics mentioned. 3 hours of good reading

I can't find any record of an SAR so I have requested this. I have also stated that I am seeking debt advice on it should be put on hold

After reading the topics I'm not entirely sure on the following:

• Can you confirm I should complain to the land owner?
• Should I complain to the local MP and if so is this the MP of the locality of the 'offence' or my home address?
• I have an option to appeal to Gladstones, should I?

Or should I just sit back and wait for them to take me to court 
P.s., already complained to the BPA, they are clearly on PS24s side and came up with a flagrant and unjust ruling against me

95816

Note, I will to complain to the SRA about the added '£80 estimated fixed solicitors fees'

Coupon-mad

You do not have any option to 'appeal' to Gladstones.  They aren't there to help you.

Just copy the robust response about reporting them to the SRA as seen in loads of Gladstones LBC threads since April.

Sorry I've no idea which threads, none of us have bookmarked any, but you only need to read Gladstones threads so can skip and skim-read down the thread list going back weeks, reasonably easily, only clicking on Gladstones LBC threads.

We read every single new post and thread every day, hours of reading and replies!

95816

Update:

I have found the details of the landowner, it's actually the university, and I have the person who deals with the parking company's contact details - so I will complain

Any advice on this? Or should I just go ahead and explain what I've explained here?

Cheers

Quick advice required and appreciated, as my additional 30 days is up very soon