Letter Before Claim Advice Please

AJBarlow

Hi

I have a 1st for me!

Normally, with the sound advice from this forum any invoices I recieve are cancelled long before we get here!

I have drafted a response to the LBC editing Coupn Mads template from the newbies thread. Can the experts in Bere please give it the once over for me to make sure it's good to go?

Dear Sirs,

Your ref: xxxxxxx

I am the registered keeper but I wasn't driving the car. Kindly revert to Horizon with the following:

I have researched the PoFA 2012 and Horizon have not met the conditions which allow them to invoke keeper liability or compel me to name the driver. They must cancel and erase my data, as I am not the liable party and I decline their belated request to name the driver.

I have contacted Horizon on more than one occasion to inform them of this, yet they persist in threatening and intimidating me and wasting my time.

If you persist in processing my data and in the event of filing a court claim, take note that I will file a Part 20 counterclaim for not less than £500. This will be claimed as damages for distress arising as a result of clear breaches of the DPA 2018 and/or the Protection From Harassment Act 1997.

I will rely upon the case of Simon Clay v Civil Enforcement Ltd and similar cases that have succeeded. Cancel the PCN and crawl back under your respective stones forthwith

Preferably tell your client from me to crack on with cleaning up their act to comply with the incoming statutory Code of Practice. Groundbreaking improvements would include issuing future Notices of Parking Charge properly and engaging fairly, avoiding involving bulk litigators like you lot in this 'extorting money from motorists' model outed by the DLUHC as a market failure.

yours faithfully,

Thanks

AJBarlow

Hi, is somebody able to give me some advice please?

KeithP

What's wrong with the response to a Letter of Claim that can be seen in the opening paragraphs of the second post of the NEWBIES thread?

You say that you have based your response on that template, but I can see nothing about 
a) confirming your address,
b) asking for a 30 day delay, or
c) asking awkward questions about VAT.

AJBarlow

Sorry, I should have said Horizon haven't met the conditions to invoke POPFA. So, I have read the thread and used the suggestion in the link below. It's at the top of that post, above the generic response because it seemed more appropriate to my case.

Here's a robust example, for a case where you weren't driving and it's 'non-POFA':
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80421536/#Comment_80421536

KeithP

AJBarlow said:

Sorry, I should have said Horizon haven't met the conditions to invoke POPFA. So, I have read the thread and used the suggestion in the link below. It's at the top of that post, above the generic response because it seemed more appropriate to my case.

Here's a robust example, for a case where you weren't driving and it's 'non-POFA':
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80421536/#Comment_80421536

Was that in response to a Letter of Claim?

AJBarlow

Yes I believe so, it's on the post relating to LBC's, directly above the letter you reference in your 1st reply.

I'm fairly sure of where I got it from, I read and understood the thread. I'm just asking if someone can check that the changes I've made are OK before I send. It's the 1st time I've had an LBC, so I don't want to do anything wrong. 

Coupon-mad

Yep it'll do but it would be good to add the extra things from the usual template reply.

AJBarlow

Thanks Coupon Mad. I have used the usual template instead and added the bits about keeper liability.

To whom it may concern

Proposed Legal Proceedings

Claimant: Horizon Parking Ltd

I refer to your your letter of claim.

I confirm that my address for service for the time being - assuming you don't faff about and delay any claim - is as follows, and any older address must be erased from your records:

The alleged debt is disputed and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

I am the registered keeper of the vehicle. I am not obliged to identify the driver and I decline to do so. As there is no legal presumption that the keeper of a vehicle was its driver on any particular occasion, your client cannot pursue me as driver (see VCS v Edward, 2023). 

As your client cannot pursue me as driver or keeper, it would be an abuse of the court’s process for your client to issue a claim against me and I will defend any such claim vigorously. 

Furthermore, I will file a Part 20 counterclaim for not less than £500. This will be claimed as damages for distress arising as a result of clear breaches of the DPA 2018 and/or the Protection From Harassment Act 1997.

I also note that the amount being claimed has increased by a hugely exaggerated amount which the Government called "extorting money from motorists".

Don't send me your usual blather about that. I have two questions, and under the PAP I am entitled to specific answers:

1. Am I to understand that the additional £70 represents what you lot dress up as a 'Debt Recovery' fee, and if so, is this nett or inclusive of VAT? If the latter, would you kindly explain why I am being asked to pay the operator’s VAT?

2. With regard to the principal alleged PCN sum: Is this damages, or will it be pleaded as consideration for parking?

yours faithfully

Coupon-mad

Yes send that. We already know what their template reply looks like so don't show us!

AJBarlow

Brilliant, thanks so much for your help