Notification of instruction (EXCEL Parking) from ELMS legal

Gregorio1974

I have received a letter from ELMS legal asking for £160 relating to a PCN from Excel Parking. As per the Newbie thread, I asked for a SAR following the letter before claim I received from Excel last week but clearly this has been ignored and passed on to ELMS. Should I ignore this and wait for a court claim or engage with ELMS?

B789

Are you saying that you requested a SAR from Excel but they have refused? Surely the Letter of Claim came from Elms on behalf of Excel?

You can and should always respond robustly to an LoC and demand that they provide you with what evidence they intend to rely on should they proceed with a claim. If you need more time to deal with this, then just send them an email requesting 30 days to seek debt advice although no debt is admitted. Send the as close as possible to the 30 day deadline in the LoC.

Have you read the second post in the Newbies/FAQ thread that tells you how to deal with this?

Gregorio1974

The letter b4 claim was sent by Excel Parking, not ELMS. I replied in writing asking for more information but they did not reply. The SAR was requested by email from their data protection team and I did receive an automated reply acknowledging my request. I assume ELMS has taken over and is either unaware of or ignoring the SAR.
I did see the thread relating to the debt advice but have not done so as yet.

B789

The SAR can only come from Excel and will only include any data about you or your car. They are obliged to provide you with that data within 30 days. The fact that Elms has "taken over" is irrelevant.

Gregorio1974

Thank you. I have informed ELMS of the SAR I submitted. Hopefully they will wait before starting court proceedings. Is there anything else I should be doing in the meantime?

B789

You could tell them you require 30 days to seek debt advice but no debt is admitted. You send that as close to their 30 day deadline as you want to extend by. The SAR is not particularly useful at this stage. It will become more useful later on when you come to do your WS.

If you get a claim, you only answer the PoC and don't expand on anything they have not alleged.

Coupon-mad

Gregorio1974 said:

Thank you. I have informed ELMS of the SAR I submitted. Hopefully they will wait before starting court proceedings. Is there anything else I should be doing in the meantime?

Yes.

Search the forum for Excel Elms Legal and change to NEWEST (not 'best match' results).

Read at least a dozen threads just like yours, but ahead of you.

You will learn that Elms file the claims then step down and leave the rest of the procedures to Excel, once you defend.  It's soooo much easier for us and you, if people read other exact same threads so you are prepared and don't ask us about every letter, like everything is new!  Nothing is new here.

Gregorio1974

I am preparing my defence and I am confused by the 14 day deadline with regards to issuing the PCN to hire vehicles. As they were over 14 days issuing the PCN, I initially appealed as per other forum threads and got this reply:

"In your appeal it is unclear who the driver was when your vehicle was seen to be parked in the car park.

You state that our Notice is not compliant with the Protection Of Freedoms Act (POFA) 2012 on the Notice issued to

you; however we have not cited POFA 2012 nor stated that you are liable for the Charge as the vehicle keeper".
The PCN is issued to the hirer, does this mean POFA does not apply and I cannot use this in my defence?

KeithP

Gregorio1974 said:

I am preparing my defence and I am confused by the 14 day deadline with regards to issuing the PCN to hire vehicles.

POFA allow the parking company fourteen days to get a Notice to Keeper to the vehicle's Registered Keeper.

When the Registered Keeper - the hire company - replies naming the person who had hired the vehicle at that time, POFA allows the parking company a further twenty-one days to get a Notice to Hirer to the hirer.

Gregorio1974

Thank you for your reply. The initial PCN was issued (posted to the hire company) 22 days after the contravention date. 

KeithP

Gregorio1974 said:

Thank you for your reply. The initial PCN was issued (posted to the hire company) 22 days after the contravention date. 

OK, but in your earlier post you told us that Excel stated...

You state that our Notice is not compliant with the Protection Of Freedoms Act (POFA) 2012 on the Notice issued to you; however we have not cited POFA 2012 nor stated that you are liable for the Charge as the vehicle keeper.

As they are not trying to transfer any driver's liability to the keeper, POFA becomes an irrelevance - which in turn means that as long as they asked the DVLA for the Registered Keeper's details within six months of the parking incident they are OK.
They are assuming that you are the driver. Be sure that you never give them any information to confirm that.
Just because you may have been the only person authorised by the hire company to drive the vehicle, that does not mean that anyone else (with or without appropriate insurance) could not have been the driver at the time in question.

If they do not know who was driving then they have nowhere to go with this.