Letter Of Claim from DCBLegal

Alvin0903

A bit of backround - 
In October 2021 I stopped in a hotel carpark due to a panic attack to gather myself (I was parked for 12 minutes). I spoke to a receptionist at the time who advised me due to the circumstances I did not have to pay for parking and could be on my way. I received a letter from parking eye over the next month or so to which I appealed and thought the PCN had been cancelled as I did not receive any other letters following.
I have recently (in the last week) received a letter of claim dated 14th of February 2025. 
I have followed the advice from the Newbies Thread and emailed DCBLegal the template email suited to myself. 
I have also contacted the hotel (Mecure Hotel Bridgwater) to complain and request help from them regarding the PCN who have emailed me saying 

I have been able to now look at the case.

The reason he got the PCN was because he was on site for 12 minutes. There is a 10 minute grace period. So therefore should of paid for parking.

He did make an Appeal and it was rejected that paid parking was not purchased. A letter was sent to him on 9.2.22 confirming that the appeal had been rejected NOT cancelled as he says.  As he didn’t pay the charge after a reasonable amount of time it got sent to DCBL.

They have sent him many letters which were ignored until he got the one about a summons and going legal.

It has now gone to far now for you or me to be able to cancel   he owes £170. I will try and get the charge reduced to £70 sometimes DCBL will agree to this sometimes they won’t.

He will have 14 days to pay this if he doesn’t it will go to court and he will end up with a higher cost.

Hope this helps to understand the situation more. 

I had not received any more letters until the letter of claim came through from DCBLegal. 

I emailed the template to DCBLegal (info@dcblegal.co.uk) on the 24/02/2025 and received a automatic reply email saying - 
Please note that we will aim to respond to your correspondence where required as soon as possible. In the meantime, should you be contacting in relation to a Parking Charge, you can find some Frequently asked Questions (FAQs) on our website

Should you wish to make a payment, you can do this by calling 0330 1744 172, visiting DCB's website  or by bank transfer to the below bank details. Please ensure your DCB legal reference number is quoted with any payments made.

Account number: 60964441
Sort Code: 20-24-09

Should you be in receipt of a letter of claim, please visit DCBLegal website  where you will find further information and be able to reply to the form accordingly.

Am I correct in assuming I know wait until I receive a reply regarding my email to them and wait until a court date is set? 

This is the first time I've ever had anything like this and as you can imagine am quite stressed out by it but have read a few threads on MSE regarding DCBLegal which are setting my mind at ease a bit. 

I have had to edit out links due to only making an account in the past few days.

Thanks for any and every reply. 

Gr1pr

Looks like an illiterate uninformed moron wrote that summary,  possibly DCB Legal   ?

I really hope that the hotel employee didn't write that rubbish   ?

Grace periods occur at the end of an authorised parking period 

The beginning of a parking event is a consideration period,  so if a grace period occurred then the parking period was authorised , of 2 minutes,  except Parking Eye seem to believe it wasnt authorised,  so no grace period 

Should of paid  ?  Illiterate,  typical reply error by dcb legal 

I don't believe that a summons was ever mentioned,  because its a civil dispute,  not a criminal matter 

No summons will be issued  ( total lies   )

You dont owe a penny unless a judge says so,  in court   ( it's an alleged debt,  not an actual debt  )

You wait for the dcb legal reply to your LoC response 

No court date will be set, but a court claim may arrive from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL 

Alvin0903

Gr1pr said:

Looks like an illiterate uninformed moron wrote that summary,  possibly DCB Legal   ?

I really hope that the hotel employee didn't write that rubbish   ?

Grace periods occur at the end of an authorised parking period 

The beginning of a parking event is a consideration period,  so if a grace period occurred then the parking period was authorised , of 2 minutes,  except Parking Eye seem to believe it wasnt authorised,  so no grace period 

Should of paid  ?  Illiterate,  typical reply error by dcb legal 

I don't believe that a summons was ever mentioned,  because its a civil dispute,  not a criminal matter 

No summons will be issued  ( total lies   )

You dont owe a penny unless a judge says so,  in court   ( it's an alleged debt,  not an actual debt  )

You wait for the dcb legal reply to your LoC response 

No court date will be set, but a court claim may arrive from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL 

The response in the post was from the accounts manager at the hotel sent to the general manager who I have been in contact with. 

Thanks for the response and advice! 

I have also received another email since posting this originally from the general manager telling me to ‘be grateful that DCBLegal may reduce the ‘fine’ and to pay it, as if it goes to court I will most definitely incur more costs and charges down the line’

Quite humorous. 

Gr1pr

The accounts manager needs to stick to his day job, clearly not well educated or informed,  probably received the details above from dcb legal 

Its definitely not a fine either,  just an invoice from a private parking company for the alleged breach of the parking contract on that private property 

Clearly the driver was led to believe it would be OK by an employee, promissory stopped

Any loss in court would typically be around £212, although I doubt that this case will ever see a courtroom in the future 

If Parking Eye had a strong case it would be their in house litigation team chasing this up 

But

They farm out the iffy cases to dcb legal,  hoping to get payment through coercion,  bully boy tactics 

Wait for the rubbish response by dcb legal,  looking for wording such as would of, or should of, or had of 

Then wait for the possible court claim pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL,  by DCB Legal on behalf of Parking Eye 

Coupon-mad

Alvin0903 said:

Gr1pr said:

Looks like an illiterate uninformed moron wrote that summary,  possibly DCB Legal   ?

I really hope that the hotel employee didn't write that rubbish   ?

Grace periods occur at the end of an authorised parking period 

The beginning of a parking event is a consideration period,  so if a grace period occurred then the parking period was authorised , of 2 minutes,  except Parking Eye seem to believe it wasnt authorised,  so no grace period 

Should of paid  ?  Illiterate,  typical reply error by dcb legal 

I don't believe that a summons was ever mentioned,  because its a civil dispute,  not a criminal matter 

No summons will be issued  ( total lies   )

You dont owe a penny unless a judge says so,  in court   ( it's an alleged debt,  not an actual debt  )

You wait for the dcb legal reply to your LoC response 

No court date will be set, but a court claim may arrive from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL 

The response in the post was from the accounts manager at the hotel sent to the general manager who I have been in contact with. 

Thanks for the response and advice! 

I have also received another email since posting this originally from the general manager telling me to ‘be grateful that DCBLegal may reduce the ‘fine’ and to pay it, as if it goes to court I will most definitely incur more costs and charges down the line’

Quite humorous. 

Tell them they have the wrong priority, wrong mindset and are wrong to say that it's a fine, and totally wrong to mislead people by assuming "letting it go to court will most definitely incur more costs". Tell them: no it doesn't, because DCB Legal will discontinue the claim before the hearing and the Hotel should stop frightening patrons.

Which PPC is it?