Moorside Legal have filed a claim against me with the CNBC

Kasual

Hello,

I read the newbies thread some time ago and on the advice there I have ignored the debt collectors until I received the claim form.

I regularly park in an NCP that uses autopay and it appears their auto pay feature went down and I did not become aware of this until I received notice form a debt collector named Truce.  I moved in 2022 and I have now learned although I updated my driver licence I did not update my vehicles registered address (This has now been rectified).   As a result all the initial PCNs (and I guess a POPLA if relevant) likely went to that a previous address and I only realised I was parking without paying when the first Truce debt collector letter arrived.  By this point I believe I had parked 10 times without paying although the references on the Truce letters seem to jump around a lot.  I ignored these letters until Moorside Legal started issuing letters but posts on this forum led me to believe they were basically another collection firm and to ignore.

I have now received a notice of claim and a claim form from the CNBC although the dates do not seem to match.  The claim form only appears to be related to two days worth of charges. If auto pay had taken on those two days my fee would have been under £16, they are seeking £452.52 which included £50 court fee and £50 legal rep costs.

I have somewhere in the range of 50 debt collection letters between Truce and Moorside and if my estimate on how many times I may have parked without paying I expect further  claim forms.  I did actually receive two claim forms for the same dates but Moorside have since sent me a copy of a notice of discontinuance for one.

My defence at the moment is along the lines of I have a history of payment prior to and after I became aware of the auto pay being down, I had every intention to pay.  Additionally the NCP app which is supposed to sort the payments had my email, telephone number and address all linked to my number plate and there was no attempt to notify me of this issue.  By the time I became aware of the charge, my £7.45 parking fee was now £170.  Autopay still seems to be down but the sign at the NCP clearly advertises auto pay.

Any advice on how to properly construct a defence would be appreciated.

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Can you please show us a picture of the Particulars of Claim - with all personal detail hidden of course.

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do so?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

P.s. have you really received letters from a company called 'Truce'? Or were they perhaps from Trace Debt Recovery Ltd?  

Coupon-mad

Show us the POC. Bet they've failed to specify the alleged breach.

How come they discontinued one immediately? Were the dates wrong?

Kasual

Apologies for the late reply, got a newborn so time is blended together into a blur of sleeplessness and like a fool I left my submission to the last minute.  It was Trace, you are correct, I have since been back to check if the auto pay is still advertised but they have taped over that bit.

The Issue dated on the original claim form was the 26/09/2024. I submitted the acknowledged of service on the 15/10/2024.  By my calculation the deadline is today to submit my defence, I have tried to do this but the MCOL website is down and I have taken screenshots.

The second claim form was submitted 01/10/2024, the particulars of the claim are identical and so the dates match.  However, the amount claimed is different, seems an error was made and this second claim was retracted.  The second claim form had the original total amount plus the court and legal fees added on a second time to make £552.90.

Posted the particulars, is it relevant that they have not specified a location or how many instances of parking, realistically those dates could be one long 24 hour session spanning the two days?

Kasual

I have been browsing and found this template from @Coupon-mad, it seems to cover a large part of the extortionate fees, would I be save to submit the bulk of that letter as a copy paste job with the appropriate bits edited?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-cases-with-added-admin-dra-costs-edited-in-2024#latest 

KeithP

Kasual said:

The Issue dated on the original claim form was the 26/09/2024. I submitted the acknowledged of service on the 15/10/2024.  By my calculation the deadline is today to submit my defence, I have tried to do this but the MCOL website is down and I have taken screenshots.

It's over two weeks since questions were asked on this thread.

You were four days late filing an Acknowledgment of Service. Surprised the Claimant didn't notice.

By my calculation, your deadline for filing a Defence was 4pm yesterday - Tuesday 29th October 2024.

Before spending time on your Defence, you might want to take a moment to check you MCOL Claim History to see if there is already a Judgment against you.

You need to be aware that those Particulars of Claim are totally inadequate.

There is no mention of where this alleged parking incident happened, and nowhere in those Particulars is there any explanation of what the driver is alleged to have done wrong.

This will be an easy win - provided you get a Defence filed before the Claimant seeks a Default Judgment against you.

Coupon-mad

Also you file your defence by email not in MCOL.  Do it first thing Weds!  By email, as the template defence thread explains clearly.

Obviously you will be using the alternative defence (linked in the template defence itself) - the one with the Chan images. 

You then just write something for paragraph 5 about the signage being ambiguous and whatever your facts are.  Do not delay.