NCP - BW Legal - LoC

Fullmetal

Hi folks, 

Just progressing with emailing BW Legal about a Letter of Claim and I wanted to just check I was doing this right for my circumstances.

Earlier this year a ticket for parking in an NCP car park was purchased. The vehicle was then parked at the correct date and time in a different NCP operatated car park due to poor instructions and signage on how to enter the car park.

A PCN was then issued to a previous address. The appeals process lapsed. 

Trace debt collection then contacted me on my correct address with a letter demanding £170 (£70 recovery fee) with a discount of £70 if I pay £100 within time limits. 

I complained to the land owner (no response) and complained to Trace who responded to say that the charge was valid as my ticket was for a different (equally abandoned) car park on a rainy Monday night. 

BW Legal have since sent me a number of letters re-iterating the offer to drop the £70 charge. 

I then recieved a Letter of Claim. 

I have submitted a SAR to NCP, and I am preparing a response to BW Legal containing the particulars from Post #2 of the Newbie thread. My plannned response is below:

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(a) I am seeking debt advice but I deny any debt and the case must be put 'on hold' for not less than 30 days under the PAP for debt claims 2017.

(b) My correct 'address for service' is [REDACTED]. I demand that you remove any other address data regarding me from your systems as per my Article 17 of the UK GDPR right to be forgotten.  

(c) I refute the charge as I have previously advised your client National Car Parks Limited that the vehicle held a valid ticket for an NCP car park at the same date and time as the alleged contravention. I demand to see any evidence you plan to use in this matter.

(d) I have sent a subject access request to your client National Car Parks Limited for all information held in reference to this case. I request that you put this case ‘on hold’ until they have complied with my SAR.

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My questions are thus:

1) Am I right in thinking that the £70 added on as a "recovery charge" is a charge not dissimilar to BW Legal's charges outlined in this thread: BWLEGAL --- THE SCAM — MoneySavingExpert Forum

2) Is my defence of "I have paid for parking with the same company, why should it matter which sparsely populated city centre car park I use?" valid or should I stick to referencing the recovery charge scam?

3) When should I send my response to the Letter of Claim? Is it still advisable to wait a few weeks to get my NCP SAR back (or not)?

4) Should I include the letter in the thread linked above in my response to the Letter of Claim or pursue this separately? 

Thank you so much for your help and the good work you folks do in beating the scammers.  

1505grandad

"I have submitted a SAR to NCP, and I am preparing a response to BW Legal containing the particulars from Post #2 of the Newbie thread."

A heads-up  -  don't know when you last looked at the "NEWBIES" but the SAR submission has been recently removed (10/11/2023) for reasons which will become apparent when the Claim form containing POC is served by BWL.

Suggest therefore that hopefully the SAR is not responded to by NCP and certainly do not chase for them.
Also suggest that (d) is removed from response to BWL.
The experts will be along in due with any proper advice.

(As an aside if C-m thinks necessary to amend  -  the acronyms DPO contains SAR which may confuse Newbies?:-
""DPO = Data Protection Officer. Send a SAR to the 'DPO' for all data - check their Privacy page.")

Coupon-mad

We no longer say to send a SAR,

Good spot, I will amend this:

(As an aside if C-m thinks necessary to amend  -  the acronyms DPO contains SAR which may confuse Newbies?:-
""DPO = Data Protection Officer. Send a SAR to the 'DPO' for all data - check their Privacy page.")

Fullmetal

I've managed to get an update from my MP on this matter:

“Dear XXX,
 
CRM Reference XXXX
 
Good afternoon and I hope this email finds you well today. Thank you for reaching out to us regarding XXX’s PCN issuance and I have been able to review his case in more detail.
 
Indeed I can see that PCN ref XXX was issued for parking at XXX on XXX without payment for parking being made. The PCN was issued on XXX, with a Final Reminder Notice sent on XXX, and the case escalating to Trace Debt Recovery on XXX and then onto BW Legal on XXX.
 
From review of the actual issuance, indeed XXX parked in a completely different car park to that which he booked for, XXX. Furthermore, I am sorry to hear that the correspondence regarding the PCN was not received until the case escalated to Debt Recovery status, I understand that would be alarming. The information that NCP had is that obtained via the DVLA, so we would recommend that your constituent contacts them directly to ensure that they do indeed have his current address, as this is a legal requirement.
 
That said, we have withdrawn the notice from BW Legal and reset it to an administration cost of £20.00 as per the following timescales:-
 
£20 (if paid by 04-12-2023)
£100 (if paid by 18-12-2023)
 
This can be paid via the following link with the same PCN ref -> XXX
 
Any correspondence XXX might receive in the coming days via BW Legal will have been issued prior to the action taken today, so please do ask him to disregard the content.
 
I do hope this outcome is welcome and I trust you can pass this information onto XXX. If he needs any further assistance, I would be happy to help him directly if you would like to pass on my contact information?
 
Best regards,
 
XXX
 
XXX
Customer Relations Manager
National Car Parks Ltd”


I am actually tempted to just pay the £20 to be done with this matter now.

Le_Kirk

That's probably the best you are going to get without fighting it all the way to court.

UncleThomasCobley

Yuck... it is obvious they are using ChatGPT to compose their correspondence with "Good afternoon and I hope this email finds you well today." Since when is an "email" sentient?   

Coupon-mad

I agree - pay the £20.  Best you'll get.