DCB Legal Letter of Claim - overstay

MrsHG76

Today I have received a LoC from DCB Legal for an overstay in a large retail park from September 2021.

Parking is free for 2 hours (recently reduced from 3 hours), car park has ANPR. 

My daughter needed her wheelchair puncture fixing, so we visited the retail park, parked in the disabled bay, put up her blue badge, and went to Halfords to get the puncture fixed. It took them around an hour and a half to fix it (there was a queue, plus the new inner tube didn't like her tyre and kept bursting). 

Upon arriving back at the car to leave, but the battery was unexpectedly flat. Ironic really considering I parked right outside Halfords. I ummed and arred about asking the staff to help (it's a sod to work on, all tightly packed under the bonnet) and decided to call the AA instead. They arrived within a few minutes, we talked over the options, checked out Halford's stock of batteries vs an AA battery, and I went for the AA option. I paid the very nice man, he fitted it, the car started first time and I drove home.

I have recently changed the address on my V5C as we moved in Oct 2019 and I didn't know that changing licence address doesn't automatically change V5C - I now know. I presume I had PCNs sent to my old address, this is the first I have heard about this PCN.

Looking at my Google maps timeline for that day, I arrived in the car park at 15:48 and left at 19:13. I have the call records from that day showing the call I made to my husband to pick the kids up, and the call to the AA. I have the email breakdown report and receipt from AA for the battery. 

I have emailed DCB Legal for a SAR, I am awaiting the reply. I will also contact the landowner to complain.

Have I got a strong enough case to get the PCN cancelled, do you think?

Thank you in advance.

Coupon-mad

Parking is free for 2 hours (recently reduced from 3 hours), car park has ANPR. 

My daughter needed her wheelchair puncture fixing, so we visited the retail park, parked in the disabled bay, put up her blue badge, and went to Halfords to get the puncture fixed. It took them around an hour and a half to fix it (there was a queue, plus the new inner tube didn't like her tyre and kept bursting). 

Actually, what the parking firm have done is illegal (a disabled person cannot be accused of such an overstay) because that would be in breach of the Equality Act 2010.

This was known about retail parks, even BEFORE the DDA was replaced by the EA:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8488737.stm

Whoever the letter is addressed to must urgently send a robust EA discrimination complaint, with a link to that BBC article and your evidence (and a scan of the Blue Badge but with photo covered to protect privacy and prevent illegal copies!) by email to DCBLegal and to the retail park owners of the property agents named on the Trader list colourful 'welcome' entrance sign (or whoever the site contact is listed as, on the retail park's website if they have one).

Talk about a failure to make reasonable adjustments (a criminal offence under the EA) and a failure to take into account the specific likely nature of some visits to Halfords, which often involve a vehicle problem or breakdown, that the motorist is trying to resolve.

Copy in YOUR constituency MP and ask them to assist with your complaint.

Everyone wins v DCBLegal here, pretty much!  Mostly, they start claims then discontinue them before a hearing.

See the DCBLegal thread by @Umkomaas.

But better to get the landowner or the retail property agent (hopefully Savills or JLL) to step in and cancel it, than to have to defend a court claim!

Which PPC?

Which Halfords?

MrsHG76

Wow! Thank you Coupon Mad!! Is there a possibility of a counter-claim, as they have acted illegally?  

PPC is CP Plus Ltd t/a GroupNexus

Halfords is in Crawley, West Sussex. 

Landowner i believe is CSP Retail.

Coupon-mad

Counterclaim might be possible but only if it goes to court.

Better to lean on the retail park as if can be cancelled same day! And try Tweeting Halfords and shaming them for not exempting the car on the spot.  Halfords don't like bad social media publicity.

Never too late for landowner cancellation.

MrsHG76

Update: i complained to Halfords via facebook private message, they took the VRN and PCN number, and have put a request in to cancel it!

Will update further once i have news.  

MrsHG76

UPDATE: PCN has been cancelled. Thank you all!

Coupon-mad

MrsHG76 said:

UPDATE: PCN has been cancelled. Thank you all!

Fantastic!  Plan A strikes again!

Send that proof to DCBLegal and demand they erase your data and close the file.

MrsHG76

Coupon-mad said:

MrsHG76 said:

UPDATE: PCN has been cancelled. Thank you all!

Fantastic!  Plan A strikes again!

Send that proof to DCBLegal and demand they erase your data and close the file.

I have received a letter from DCB Legal confirming the cancellation.

patient_dream

MrsHG76 said:

Coupon-mad said:

MrsHG76 said:

UPDATE: PCN has been cancelled. Thank you all!

Fantastic!  Plan A strikes again!

Send that proof to DCBLegal and demand they erase your data and close the file.

I have received a letter from DCB Legal confirming the cancellation.

Well done, PLAN A REALLY DOES WORK and Halfords are now alerted to the scam of their nasty parking scammers.

What is of grave condern is that DCBL don't seem to have a clue and just accept the word of these parking scammers without further ado

There is no doubt that DCBL would have received a court spanking unless they woke up that the claim was rubbish and discontinued
Very difficult to understand why DCBL keep putting their head on the chopping block

Coupon-mad

MrsHG76 said:

Coupon-mad said:

MrsHG76 said:

UPDATE: PCN has been cancelled. Thank you all!

Fantastic!  Plan A strikes again!

Send that proof to DCBLegal and demand they erase your data and close the file.

I have received a letter from DCB Legal confirming the cancellation.

Great stuff!  Battle won.

Now please help us win the war for all motorists, against this 'extortion' (MP's word in the new statutory Code of Practice coming in).

We need you - as a genuine PPC victim of aggression, sharp practice and attempt to add a false £70 'fee' that no PPC pays - to respond robustly to the Public Consultation on the level of parking charges and banning of the false added DRA 'fee' that too many honest motorists currently fall victim to.

It will need consumer input (powerful voices) but change is afoot. It's taken about 5 years to get to this stage:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6333036/breaking-news-government-has-announced-the-statutory-code-of-practice-and-enforcement-framework/p1

And then the industry threw victims' money at it and blocked and delayed it - explained here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79310609/#Comment_79310609

Please now Bookmark BOTH threads and set up email alerts on your posting profile, so that you get an email alert when we post there, as we will, once the Public Consultation opens later this year, once the new Ministers are fully appraised.

We need people like you and your driving family & friends to respond in high numbers! You have a personal story to tell about the culture of DCBLegal vultures adding an unjustified £70 which a (now Circuit/High Court level) Judge in Bradford stated was purely for greedy profit and to sidestep the intentions of the legal fees cap in the small claims track. 

This incentivised race to court must end.