A swift kick in the nethers for UKPC/DCB Legal in County Court approaches

porridgestation

County Court Claim arrived today from UKPC courtesy of the dribbling knuckle-draggers at DCB Legal. I was expecting it and now looking forward to giving them a good spanking and finally putting this sorry saga to bed given the incredible advice and wealth of knowledge on this forum; you guys are genuinely the best, I've read the forum end to end. I am also looking forward to participating in future.

Quick History

August 2019 - Received parking charge notice for £100 on my courtesy car, parked in the leaseholder assigned parking space of an apartment I was living in, in a security fob protected underground carpark below my block of apartments. The permit, a shabby piece of laminated paper, had fallen off the dashboard during the night and into the passenger footwell as I couldn't affix it to the windscreen. Usual car was in for a passenger door lock repair.

UKPC photos were, of course, taken at angles that didn't show the permit visible in the car.

I had to identify myself as the driver, given I was the resident of the property at the time, parked in my space, and the car was a courtesy car.

Appeal was predictably refused by UKPC but with a convenience charge / bribe to pay £15.00 in 14 days to make it go away. Appealed through POPLA who also predictably refused the appeal, although it was a strained refusal with caveats. Complained to the property agent (Hazelvine) who attempted to cancel the parking charge, but again UKPC refused and the £15.00 bribe to pay within 14 days was offered again. Refused that, ignored the Debt Recovery Plus robo-beggers for a couple of months and everything went silent for four years.

Funnily enough I have the email conversation between UKPC and Hazelvine during correspondance to try and have it cancelled, as the property agent clumsily forwarded it to me. I'd love to share their reasoning for others to use (if this is okay to share)

June 2023 - DCB Legal thought they'd try it on after four years and send a Letter of Claim. Completed SAR to UKPC who appear to have lost all the original photos, the POPLA claim and have only some grainy thumbnails, none of which have readable signs and a system regenerated UKPC parking charge notice. Luckily I still have all of the originals, just in case. I denied all debt.

July 2023 - County Court Claim for £216.88, Court Fee of £35.00, Legal Rep costs of £50.00 arrived. Double recovery spotted.

MCOL registered, acknowledgement complete four days ago.

I'll be using the Resident Defence with Security Fob template with adjustments for my situation. I have the lease in my possession, it is unvaried and has no provisions for parking space adjustment. You can enjoy full, unfettered access to park in the property assigned space, ergo, I assume, no right to UKPC to offer me any form of contract to park there.

 I just need some expert advice at how to word the following:

• My family owned the property. We owned it outright and have done for eight years prior. UKPC started managing the car park three years after purchase. I was living there for a year after returning from working abroad for a decade. So whilst I was not the leaseholder, I was not a therefore a tenant, no tenancy agreement and no rental payments. How best to word this?
  
  
• UKPC have lost all the original photos from the SAR. They have grainy thumbnails of unreadable signs. They also appear to have lost their POPLA evidence. Can this be used in the defence?
  
  
• They have the postcode of my car space incorrect as over 200 metres away in a car park with different conditions for parking. Is this usable in the defence?

Like many others I'm filing the defence and expecting DCB Legal to come begging as the hearing draws next with an offer before running away and discontinuing, but equally I'd love a day in court with a mountain of forum collected casework, including UKPC emails not meant for me, to slap DCB Legal in the face.

Complaint filed as per MSE process with my local MP, Dominic Raab, on Friday. Not expecting much but he got more than enough to go on.

Thank you!
Porridge Station.

KeithP

Hello and welcome.
You seem to have a good understanding of the process.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

porridgestation

Hi Keith,

Issue date on the delivered county claim form is 25 July 2023.

MCOL Records:

• A claim was issued against you on 25/07/2023
• Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 30/07/2023 at 10:31:19
• Your acknowledgment of service was received on 31/07/2023 at 01:05:17

Claimant is UKPC, Union House, Coventry; address for sending documents and forms is DCB Legal, Direct House, Nuneaton.

Coupon-mad

Your post made me chuckle!  A real breath of fresh air from the scared posters who give these firms too much respect.

You have a great grip on the situation and we'd love you to join the fight here long term, against this legalised 'extortion' (DLUHC's word) and help us assist them to un-legalise it!

Put everything into the defence, worded as you see fit and say the Defendant's family owned the flat and the space and right to park pre-dated the ex-wheelclampers' unsolicited arrival (imposed without consultation nor consensus from leaseholders) and this space was demised with no caveats, fees or 'permit' obligations.

Funnily enough I have the email conversation between UKPC and Hazelvine during correspondence to try and have it cancelled, as the property agent clumsily forwarded it to me. I'd love to share their reasoning for others to use (if this is okay to share)

Yes please - as long as you redact names & email addresses.

KeithP

porridgestation said:

Hi Keith,

Issue date on the delivered county claim form is 25 July 2023.

MCOL Records:

• A claim was issued against you on 25/07/2023
• Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 30/07/2023 at 10:31:19
• Your acknowledgment of service was received on 31/07/2023 at 01:05:17

With a Claim Issue Date of 25th July, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 29th August 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over three weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline 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'.

Harvez63

porridgestation said:

Like many others I'm filing the defence and expecting DCB Legal to come begging as the hearing draws next with an offer before running away and discontinuing, but equally I'd love a day in court with a mountain of forum collected casework, including UKPC emails not meant for me, to slap DCB Legal in the face.

I got as far as planning which colour tie I was going to use, thought I'd call the courts before I bother going to buy a memorable tie for the occasion, only to be let down by discontinuation (still havent received confirmation from BWL)

porridgestation

KeithP said:

porridgestation said:

Hi Keith,

Issue date on the delivered county claim form is 25 July 2023.

MCOL Records:

• A claim was issued against you on 25/07/2023
• Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 30/07/2023 at 10:31:19
• Your acknowledgment of service was received on 31/07/2023 at 01:05:17

With a Claim Issue Date of 25th July, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 29th August 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over three weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline 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'.

Got it. Registered post with printed letter. Defence is basically done, just a couple of things to answer involving the family ownership of the apartment  (it's a flat, but using apartment adds a few thousand quid in value) as its different to the template defence.

patient_dream

Great post porridgestation

You clearly know how to deal with these clowns

porridgestation

Coupon-mad said:

Your post made me chuckle!  A real breath of fresh air from the scared posters who give these firms too much respect.

You have a great grip on the situation and we'd love you to join the fight here long term, against this legalised 'extortion' (DLUHC's word) and help us assist them to un-legalise it!

Put everything into the defence, worded as you see fit and say the Defendant's family owned the flat and the space and right to park pre-dated the ex-wheelclampers' unsolicited arrival (imposed without consultation nor consensus from leaseholders) and this space was demised with no caveats, fees or 'permit' obligations.

Funnily enough I have the email conversation between UKPC and Hazelvine during correspondence to try and have it cancelled, as the property agent clumsily forwarded it to me. I'd love to share their reasoning for others to use (if this is okay to share)

Yes please - as long as you redact names & email addresses.

Your posts in this forum have given me the confidence to go ahead and do battle with them. I'll use your wording regarding ownership. It was my worry given the slightly different situation of family ownership.

UKPC Transcripts below. I've removed the Hazelvine property agent (X) and my own name (Y), along with the identity of the UKPC Customer Services Agent (Z). If UKPC do read these forums, you'll know from my complaint to Hazevine exactly who I am; the ball is in your court (pun intended) to run away and think about how hideously dishonest you are, instead of pursuing this in County Court.


Original request to have the Parking Charge cancelled
(after £15.00 appeal bribe and POPLA refusal):
======================================

From: X <x@hazelvine.com>
Sent: 16 October 2019 1:58 PM
To: Y <y@y.com>
Subject: Re: Parking Charge <number removed>

Hi Y,

Please see the response from UKPC below. 

Sorry I know this is not the response you were looking for, however, unfortunately as explained yesterday we do not have any control over which tickets UKPC will cancel.

X.

--------

12:36 (1 hour ago)

Good morning X,

Thank you for your email and for the opportunity to look into your enquiry.

I appreciate the inconvenience that this has caused and this is not our intention when enforcing the terms and condition of parking. We are merely trying to act as a deterrent for unauthorised parking.  However, the only way that our warden can determine if motorist have authorisation to park on site is by displaying a permit. It is clear from our parking charge photos that are taken to support the contravention that a permit is not displayed.  However, we appreciate that upon appeal a copy of the valid permit was provided.  For this reason and as a gesture of goodwill we made the decision to offer the parking charge at the reduced rate of £15.00.

The appellant then chose to appeal further to the independent adjudicator POPLA (Parking on private land appeals). We felt that the parking charge was correctly issued and to confirm this, POPLA also believed that the parking charge was correctly issued and that we had shown flexibility within our appeals process.

Within our rejection letter to the appellant when offering the reduce rate of £15.00 we make it clear that if POPLA rule in our favour then the higher rate is then payable.

We appreciate that this is not the outcome that you would have wanted but hope it goes some way to understand our position.  

Kind Regards,

Z
Customer Services Manager
UKPC

--------


Second request to have the Parking Charge cancelled
(after Hazevine gets slammed by residents worried this could also happen to them):
=========================================

From: X <X@hazelvine.com>
Sent: 10 December 2019 12:48 PM
To: Y <y@y.com>
Subject: Re: Parking Charge <number removed>

Hi Y,

 Further to our conversation this morning, I have now spoken to UKPC and have copied their response below. UKPC have agreed to remove all debt recovery fees and reduced the charge back to £15 for a period of 14 days. 

I am sorry this is the best I can do, as they will under no circumstances cancel the charge completely.

X.

--------

Good Afternoon X,

Thank you for your phone call & your time on the phone this afternoon.

 As discussed during the phone call the driver has chosen to appeal this charge to POPLA who do advise that if the appeal is lost the charge will re-escalate to the higher rate which in this instance it has. Due to no payment being made the charge has since escalated to debt recovery where further costs have been incurred. Due to the level of this charge, as we have discussed over the phone cannot be cancelled however, as a gesture of goodwill I am able to reduce the charge back to £15 for a period of 14 days.

If the charge is not paid within this time, it will re-escalate and will be at a point whereby we won’t be able to offer any further assistance.

The driver will be required to contact debt recovery to make the reduced payment, the number for them is – 020 8234 6775

If the above isn’t clear please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards,

Z,
Customer Services Manager
UKPC

--------

porridgestation

Harvez63 said:

porridgestation said:

Like many others I'm filing the defence and expecting DCB Legal to come begging as the hearing draws next with an offer before running away and discontinuing, but equally I'd love a day in court with a mountain of forum collected casework, including UKPC emails not meant for me, to slap DCB Legal in the face.

I got as far as planning which colour tie I was going to use, thought I'd call the courts before I bother going to buy a memorable tie for the occasion, only to be let down by discontinuation (still havent received confirmation from BWL)

I am preparing myself for the disappointment of discontinuation, but for £12.00 I can get a custom tie printed from Zazzle that says 'UKPC are thoroughly dishonest' over and over on it to wear in court.

YankeeBrit

porridgestation said:

Got it. Registered post with printed letter. Defence is basically done, just a couple of things to answer involving the family ownership of the apartment  (it's a flat, but using apartment adds a few thousand quid in value) as its different to the template defence.

Why would you send your AoS by registered post? It is specifically advised in the Newbies/FAQ thread not to use registered post. You could have just used the MCOL to do the AoS.

If you're going to use post for anything, it is advised that you use the free "proof of posting" receipt from any post office. Better still, just send everything else, including your defence as a PDF attachment by email, CCing yourself. That way you have irrefutable proof of having sent it.

Perhaps a reply to X asking them who is the Monkey and who is the Organ Grinder in their contractual relationship.