Moorside Legal LOC yesterday, Claim Form received today.

PampleMoose2015

I have tried searching the forum but couldn't find anything similar. 

I received a LOC from Moorside Legal yesterday (dated 7th May 2025) relating to an overstay  (expired ticket) from 5th June 2019, from Alliance Parking UK Ltd. 

I was about to e-mail them with the reply from the newbies thread asking for the 30 day period for debt advice (which would take it past the 6 years and therefore statute barred). 

However, the post arrived today and contained claim forms (issued 16th May 2025).

They do not have appeared to have followed their own LOC to give 30 days for the 'debt' to be paid (not that I would)/response to be received. 

Any advice on what I should do now?

Do I still respond to the LOC by e-mail or focus on the AOS to the Claim forms?

I assume they were trying to get in before the 6 year expiry . . .can this be used against them? 

I have appealed to the landowner (twice) and had no luck there. 

Thanks

Car1980

Google the CPRs. You have 14 days to at least acknowledge a LoC, so no way they should be making a claim before 22nd May.

You still need to defend using the template, but you need to formulate a new paragraph 1 asking for the claim to be struck out due to failure to adhere to CPRs. By all means state the claim is 2 weeks from being statute barred and it's a blatant attempt to avoid that by ignoring the pre-action protocols. Say you received the LoC just one day before the claim form.

Ignore the LoC now it's a live claim.

Johnersh

The pre-action protocols have no teeth. The court will never strike out a claim for not following a protocol, nor is it wrong to take steps to issue within statutory limitation without waiting to the last minute.

Ignore the letter. Defend the claim. Feel free to criticise C for a failure to deal with the dispute timeously.

KeithP

PampleMoose2015 said:

...the post arrived today and contained claim forms (issued 16th May 2025).

With a Claim Issue Date of 16th May, you have until Wednesday 4th June 2025 to file an Acknowledgment of Service('AOS'), but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

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

Having filed an AOS in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 18th June 2025 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 AOS guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an AOS, nor that for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an AOS has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Le_Kirk

Johnersh said:

The pre-action protocols have no teeth. The court will never strike out a claim for not following a protocol, nor is it wrong to take steps to issue within statutory limitation without waiting to the last minute.

Wow, did not know that; why, then, are they there?