BW Legal "Notice Of Intention To Proceed"

h_a112

Hi everyone. 1st post here so forgive me if I have done something wrong while posting this.

Backstory - October 2022 I parked my car at a hotel nearby my gym in Luton. I always pay for my parking via PayByPhone, even if its private car park, and parking charges start after 8am. I had always got to gym at 7am so only paid for 1 hour as I usually finish my session by 9am.

On the 7th October IIRC the date, on one of the machines I was using, the cable snapped. End of the session I went to the gym manager and had to fill in a few forms, which ticked me over 9am. Got to my car slightly late, by 9:10 and so went inside to explain to the hotel manager why I was late, who assured me its no problem and I wont need to pay extra, nor receive a ticket. The sign board says 15m grace period so I thought I should be in the clear.

Fast forward 1 week later, getting letters from Britannia Parking claiming I overstayed 3 times in that week all with the exact same picture of my car entering and exiting the car park. I appealed via their own website and attached proof of me paying and defending myself. They rejected all of the appeals and put it through to BW Legal.

10 months on, I have been consistently harassed by these bums at BW Legal, bullying me with requests ranging from £60 to £120 to £170. On the 6th July, a County Court Claim was filed against me. As soon as I received the "documents", I did the AOS explaining my defence. I did some research on this now infamous building in northampton, absolute scam artists and chum buckets.

19th July, received a letter of Notice Of Intention to Proceed from BW Legal, making a final plea giving me until 2nd August to contact them to arrange a £15 a month installment program. Gave them one final appeal via their website to stuff themselves or agree on a court date.

Its now 17th August and I have not received a single letter from them regarding anything further.

Can anyone advise on what to do? What usually happens? Shall I chase them up and force them to set a court date? For the record I would love to take them to court for the harassment I have received over the last 10 months.

Grizebeck

You did research on the county court business and you came up with that
Oh dear what was your defence
You won't be taking anyone to court old fruit 

h_a112

Well Grizeback you young fruit, I followed the templates on this page -  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6103933/abuse-of-process-thread-part-2 - and changed the template around to match my scenario

B789

h_a112 said:

I did some research on this now infamous building in northampton, absolute scam artists and chum buckets.

Oh dear... exactly what research did you do on the "infamous building in Northampton"? Are you referring to the CCBC? I'm really not sure why you refer to the County Court Business Centre as "absolute scam artists and chum buckets". They are just the agency. The PPC is the one you should be venting your spleen at.

You say you received a county court claim on the 6th July and a letter from them on the 19th of July, which sounds suspiciously like their acknowledgement that they had received your defence and intended to proceed. "Appealing" to them at this stage is an exercise in futility as you are way past any appeal stage.

The Claimant doesn't set the court date, no matter how much you plead with them to do so. If you read through the Newbies/FAQ thread, you would know that the next step is DQ followed by allocation to your local court and they will assign a hearing date. You are months away from that.

How did you file your defence? Did you do it using the MCOL? Did you do the claimant's job for them or did you just defend against the PoC?

What about Plan A? Did you go back to the hotel manager and tell them to cancel the PCN? Have you written to to your MP complaining about this?

h_a112

Yepp was referring to the CCBC. Venting my spleen is one way to put it. And also, I wasnt planning to appeal, nor did I mention I was going to. As you said, we are well past that stage. They never even bothered to listen to anything I said anyway.

How did you file your defence? - MCOL. Within an hour of postman delivering the letter, sent the AOS off online.

Did you do the claimant's job for them or did you just defend against the PoC? - Defended the PoC

What about Plan A? - Whats plan A?

Did you go back to the hotel manager and tell them to cancel the PCN? - Nope. He is the one who initially told me not to worry, but then pressed ahead with 3 random charges.

Have you written to to your MP complaining about this? - Why would I do this?

Le_Kirk

Looks like you haven't read (or properly) all of the NEWBIE sticky, else you wouldn't need to ask what Plan A is.  Looks like you submitted your defence by filling in some words in the defence box on MCOL.  What EXACTLY did you write.  This might help us to help you to write a good witness statement when the time comes, which you will know by reading and understanding the NEWBIE sticky.

B789

Whilst we can appreciate the need to "vent your spleen", it hasn't exactly helped you at all. Please answer @Le_Kirk's questions above.

Once you've had a read of the Newbies/FAQ thread, you will have more cause to "vent your spleen". However, we will try our best to assist you with some damage limitation, if at all possible.

h_a112

I completely understand. As I said, never used a forum before, new to this sort of stuff so apologies if I havent fully explained everything.

I mentioned before the link above, which I used the template provided on the Fight unfair private parking tickets page, approach number 3:

Yes, I removed certain bits to suit my scenario. I used this template and sent it to BW Legal via their portal.

I did read through the newbies FAQ thread but it was when I did the AOS, a month and a half ago. As for Plan A, I wasnt able to complain directly to the hotel as it wasn't until a few weeks when Britannia Parking sent. I did, however, complain to them and appeal on their site and even attached proof of the signage and proof of parking payment but still nothing.

h_a112

Just to clear up any confusion, I have appealed to both Britannia Parking and BW Legal. Britannia Parking was the screenshots proving payment and BW Legal was the document letter linked above

B789

Sorry, but your explanation is not very clear. What is the "Fight unfair private parking tickets page, approach number 3"? Is that something from this forum? Can you paste here, exactly what you put in your defence?

What did you mean when you say you "sent it to BW Legal via their portal"? Do you mean you sent your defence? If you used the MCOL portal to submit your defence, was it exactly the same as what you sent to BWL?

Why have you not gone back to the hotel and complained to them? It doesn't matter how long after the fact. You should complain in no uncertain terms because their manager gave you false information. Make sure you complain as high up the management food chain as possible.

Le_Kirk

h_a112 said:

I followed the templates on this page -  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6103933/abuse-of-process-thread-part-2 - and changed the template around to match my scenario

Don't know where you found that thread, it is quite old and we don't use abuse of process any more, if anything it is called double recovery.  There is/are standard appeals in the NEWBIE sticky for initial appeals and for defences you could have used the Standard defence template on page 1 of this forum.  Now you need to let us know what you actually typed in the defence box when you submitted AoS on MCOL.