Euro Car Parks DCB Legal claim

part-pixie

Good Morning

I hope I am posting in the correct way, I have read a lot of the threads here and now a quite confused and overwhelmed by all the info and what to do! I now have received a claim form concerned about getting things wrong.

The story which you have probably heard before:

A PCN from Euro Car Parks £100 was received in May 2021 in my dad's name as I was using my parent's car on 29/04/21 in a carpark I regularly park in for work.

On the paybyphone app I selected the wrong registration, or the app switched to the wrong car in error. Both registrations start with the same letter, I was not aware till the PCN arrived of the error.

I put in a POPLA claim straight away in my name, which was rejected as there was a “major keying error” and offered a £20 admin fee to pay. 

I paid for to park (I have a screenshot of the transaction and other bookings with the correct car and a bank statement with the payment), it was clearly just an error, so I was not going to pay any fees to this company extorting money from people!

I followed the advice to ignore, the following years I received multiple threatening letters from different debt collection companies, with the fine going up to £170 most recently with DCB legal.

30th September I received the Letter of Claim for £170 from DCB Legal

Yesterday 7th November received the CNBC claim form dated 5th November now £305.28

I refuse to let companies take advantage of people and use these fear tactics like this. So I will go to court and do whatever necessary even though its really stressful.

I believe the next step is to acknowledge the claim online and then email a defence, not to fill any of the paper forms in. I have read not to do anything for 5 days? I would like to conclude this asap and get it off my mind so is there any reason I can't do this today having received the claim form yesterday? 

I appreciate your help with this if anyone can advise! Thank you 

Gr1pr

I would suggest that you do the AOS online on Sunday or early next week, to get past the 5 days, no rushing, it has to be done by day 19. ( 24th. ),  there is absolutely no reason to rush it, not at the moment 

Start drafting your paragraphs 2 & 3 of the defence template thread, I suggest that you read a dozen recent ECP DCB Legal cases and study what they wrote for paragraphs 2 & 3

Then lets see your altered paragraphs, ( do not post the rest of the template, that remains unchanged. )

Show us a redacted picture of the POC on the bottom left of the claim form, hiding the VRM details and hiding the rest of the claim form too

Whose name is on the claim form. ?  Yours. ?  Or your father's. ?

If its in his name, he must deal with it, not you. ( You can assist him, but you are a stranger to the case if its in his name. ). No starting anything until we know who the defendant actually is 

LDast

It's a DCB Legal issued claim. Just defend it with any old blather. It doesn't matter. They will, in due course discontinue and it will be all over. Don't overthink it.

1505grandad

"A PCN from Euro Car Parks £100 was received in May 2021 in my dad's name as I was using my parent's car on 29/04/21 in a carpark I regularly park in for work."

Is the claim in the name of your father?.  If so everything must be done in his name.

part-pixie

Thanks everyone. Its all been in my name since the POPLA appeal so all the letters have come to me (but we currently have the same address).

I have attached the redacted version of the claim form below.

The thing is I have time to start it today, I work on Sunday (and basically everyday because I'm self employed!) and don't really want it hanging over me. The question I have really is there any issue with getting on with the defence as soon as possible? Is the 5 days from issue /19 days total just to give as much time to complete it the defence?

Gr1pr

5 days from the issue date, the 5th, so the 10th, which is Sunday. ( But they don't work weekends so tomorrow should be ok, or any day next week, there is no rush to do it yet  )

You can start drafting your defence anytime you like, it wont be due until Monday December the 9th by 4pm

KeithP

You've left your MCOL password visible on that image.

With a Claim Issue Date of 5th November, you have until Monday 25th November to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 9th December 2024 to file a Defence.

That's over four 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 again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that 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'.

Coupon-mad

Here's a redacted copy.

Yes you can do the defence now.

Just copy/adapt any other DCB Legal ECP claim defence really, as long as it's from 2024.  Make sure what you say matches what you said at POPLA stage.  Mention in your paragraph 3 the fact the D tried to resolve it but the appeals service is not independent.

part-pixie

Thanks very much for the advice. Sorry I cant seem to work out how to remove the image with the password?! I didn't spot that!
So its not detrimental either way to do the two next steps asap, obviously without missing the final deadline.


I will start drafting the two sections 2 and 3 to my circumstances as soon as I can. I assume the info from second comment in the thread 'Template defence to adapt for all parking cases with added 'admin/DRA' costs - edited in 2024' is the current 2024 claim defence to copy/adapt?

Gr1pr

As a NEWBIE status member, you cannot edit or delete until the member status changes to Forumite , so use the report button on the post instead, the forum admins will do it for you 

Yes use the template defence by coupon mad dated this year 

part-pixie

Thank you, that's helpful, I've reported it as containing personal info. I am definitely feeling my newbie status!