G24 Parking Charge Notice - 20 December 2021

Ibsen3

Hello,
I have been receiving messages from G24 Limited for a number of years now for an alleged car parking fee that goes back to the date in the title.  I was hoping you might be able to give some advice on the matter as it appears to have been escalated.
The matter concerns an overstay in the car park at my local Doctors' surgery where we were recently hit with another notice for overstaying (my wife had an appointment and simply took a long time to receive medication but was on site the whole time).  In the recent case, we notified the surgery and it seems to have been dealt with.
In the case in question (December 2021), I believe the same thing happened.  I responding by asking on these forums about the matter (can't find the post) and it was suggested that I ignore them.  Today, I received the attached letter which looks very suspicious to me as it's 'in the COUNTRY COURT BUSINESS CENTRE'.  A quick Google suggests it's another scam.  I just wanted to check here to confirm my suspicions that it is indeed just another way of trying to con money out of us.  I wonder if it's at too advanced a stage to get our surgery involved.  Of course, they threaten that there is a 'limited time in which to reply to this claim form' as a way creating panic.  At the very least, this may prove as evidence of what their current strategy is even if you were to agree that it is indeed NOT in any way a legal document.  What do you think?

Coupon-mad

This isn't a scam.  That's a genuine Claim Form.  It is the final, serious stage and if you ignore that, you get a CCJ.  BUT DO NOT PAY.

The 2nd post of the NEWBIES thread explains exactly how to do the online acknowledgement (next week - not now) to buy more time to defend by the first week in August.

Ibsen3

Thank you for the response.  There is a problem with that though.  We are on holiday during the early weeks of August.  I will read the post though.

Coupon-mad

Well you can just do it in July.  Easily handled.

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 6th July, you have until Tuesday 25th July to file an Acknowledgment of Service.  Do not file an Acknowledgment of Service before 11th July, but otherwise there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

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

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 8th August 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence.

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 guidance.

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'.

Ibsen3

Okay, I think I've read this correctly.  I need to copy the letter on the legalbeagles website and adjust it to reflect the relevant details.  I have the email address for G24 Limited's Data Protection officer (dataprotection@G24.co.uk).  However, you mentioned next week and not now (around 13th July, exactly one week after the issue?).  Do you think I can push this deeper into August (due to impending holiday)?
I recall not having been given any photo evidence of this event, unlike the more recent request.

KeithP

The mention of 'next week' was to do with your filing of an Acknowledgment of Service.

Surely you advised HMCTS of your holiday dates when you filed a Directions Questionnaire.

B789

KeithP said:

The mention of 'next week' was to do with your filing of an Acknowledgment of Service.

Surely you advised HMCTS of your holiday dates when you filed a Directions Questionnaire.

I don't think they are at DQ stage yet. 

@Ibsen3, you can do everything online so even if you are out of the country, as long as you have access to the interweb it won't be a problem.

However, DO NOT miss the deadlines as advised by KeithP. Go back and re-read the Newbies/FAQ thread to understand where you are in the process.

Ibsen3

Sorry.  I'm baffled.  Is an 'Acknowledgement of Service' something I should already have done?  I have found the acronym descriptor in the newbies thread but can't make much sense of it.
However, I can't find anything about HMCTS (and don't know what that is, nor the directions questionnaire).
I'm honestly not sure where to start with this.

B789

Read the "Important Note" on your claim form. It advises you to read the guidance notes on the back. It also tells you how you can respond to the claim using the MCOL website. KeithP has advised you on certain deadlines you must keep to. The first is to "acknowledge service" of the claim. (AoS)

Before you do that, go and carefully read and digest the second post in the Newbies/FAQ thread which explains in great detail what you need to do once you have received a county court claim. You will need to keep referring back to the Newbies/FAQ thread every time you have a question as it is most likely answered in there.

Coupon-mad

Please just re-read the 2nd post of the Newbies thread but not the opening bit about LBC stage (copying a SAR from Legal Beagles? NO.).

LBC stage is not your stage.  

That stands for Letter Before Claim. That's the letter from BW Legal that you wrongly ignored in May or June so I'm not sure why you read that (irrelevant to you now) bit at the start.  I wrote that for people at LBC stage only, to show them how to try to stop court claims arriving.

You are obviously not at a 'BEFORE' claim stage, you have a Court Claim Form.  A real one.  This is no biggie and we deal with dozens here every month - several per day.

You CANNOT ignore it but it's easy to defend.

So just read on after that bit, about court claim forms and how to do the AOS first, then defend the claim before you go away.

People do this every day here  (takes minutes to do the AOS) but as I said already - and KeithP repeated - you aren't doing anything until next week.

DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO JUST PAY IT.

Absolutely nothing to be gained and you won't get a CCJ as long as you follow & use our template resources.