Letting Agent Promised to Cancel Parking Tickets, then REFUSED - No Permit - DCB Legal

TheSpectre

Hello Everyone,

I have stumbled across this forum as I am currently embroiled in a legal dispute regarding 11 parking tickets which were given to me completely erroneously.

I will try to keep the context as brief as possible, but basically the car park at my old flat operated on a permit system. When I moved in, I did not receive the permit initially. I received tickets and raised this with the letting agent, who assured me over email (I have at least 2 stating this explicitly) that the tickets would be cancelled and I could park in my space. This did not happen, and unfortunately as my car was still registered at a previous address at the time, I was not aware the tickets had not been cancelled. Luckily, I was actually issued a CCJ by the same company (Vehicle Control Services) earlier for another car park which I paid (foolishly, I could have contested that too with your guys' help) which led me to become aware of the other tickets as they then emailed me with them. When I contacted my letting agent, they point blank refused to cancel the tickets, blaming me for not updating my VO5.

Having reviewed the newbies thread, I can see I am currently at the witness statement stage of the process. I will need to draft both my witness statement and evidence bundle, but I am unsure where to start. I have looked for similar cases, but most of the cases relate to different circumstances as opposed to residential permits.

I’ve summarized a few points below which I think are important:

1.      The claim is being pursued by DCB Legal acting on behalf of Vehicle Control Services Ltd (VCS have since been removed as the parking enforcement for where I used to live, which I have email evidence to confirm).

2.      The tickets stopped being issued BEFORE I actually displayed my parking permit once it arrived, proving the letting agent did have the authority to stop the tickets being issued at all.

3.      There was a group email sent round the building to confirm that tickets were being cancelled

4.      Unfortunately, DCB/VCS are aware that my VO5 was not updated – although not sure this should affect my defense as ultimately, I have it in writing that the tickets were going to be cancelled.

To me, it seems pretty cut and dried given I have the evidence of my letting agent stating they would cancel the tickets (one of the emails literally states “don’t worry about the tickets”) as they did for other residents, and that they were able to stop VCS issuing further tickets before I had even displayed my parking permit. However, given the number of tickets and the fact this totals nearly £2,000 which I absolutely cannot afford, I am very worried that DCB won’t simply discontinue and I will need to actually defend at my hearing. Any advice regarding my witness statement and evidence bundle would be greatly appreciated, can see how much you have helped others and think what you do on this forum is absolutely fantastic helping people defend themselves from these absolute parasites. Thank you very much in advance.

Gr1pr

DCB legal will follow their clients instructions,  especially with such a large amount of pcns by VCS

So either the claimant VCS will continue,  or not,  not really up to DCB Legal,  especially as VCS have their own internal litigation department and well known lawyer, J.B.

Perhaps you should seek helpful from J.Y at contestor legal or possibly Bargepole or similar  ?  ( just a thought  )

Meanwhile,  post a redacted picture of the claim form,  with 4 important redactions done, plus post a redacted copy of your defence statement too

Ensure that no personal information,  or claim reference number,  or VRM details are visible 

When is the WS + Exhibits bundle due  ?

When is the pencilled in hearing date and which civil court   ?

Car1980

You need to get hold of the flat's lease. Either ask your landlord or find another owner-occupier in the same block.

And what did you submit as your defence?

Coupon-mad

For £2000 at stake it may well be worth asking David at Small Claims Advisor (he posts as bargepole here but runs that company separately) and/or Jackson at Contestor Legal (specialist parking law barrister/legals) if they can do your WS bundle and can they appear at the hearing to speak.

Both are totally trusted by this forum's regulars.

They will need to see the Claim form and the defence you put in - so do we, if we are to assist.

I suspect that if you use David or Jackson, they'll also want to see a copy of your tenancy agreement so I hope you still have that.

This will proceed to a hearing. Be ready for shenanigans. VCS reps always tell the judge that they "didn't get the defendant's WS" so if you email it yourself, cc the local court and YOURSELF into the same email.

TheSpectre

Thank you all for your comments and assistance so far. I will post the particulars you have requested this evening when I am back home. I'm not sure how involved VCS are at this stage, I had reached out to VCS at an earlier stage to ask them to cancel and they said it was with DCB Legal and to not bother them anymore. DCB Legal have been ringing me (I've ignored their calls) and offered to settle early on, down from £1870 to £1300, which I rejected. I'm hoping such a big drop is a sign that they don't have much faith in their case.   

ChirpyChicken

Which is your local county court.....

TheSpectre

Hi Everyone,

Please see below my allocation of small claims track:

TheSpectre

Here is my copy of my defense, have redacted the name of the contact at X1:

The alleged PCNs are issued in the location of the car park of the
block of flats in which I am a tenant. I had moved in on
29/04/2024 and agreed a parking permit with the letting agent X1
in order to park in the Basement at The Exchange. I was allocated
space 21, payments are due on the 30th of each month backdated to
cover the previous month at £75 – an amount I pay in full and on
time each month, including on 30/05/2024 to cover the time period
the tickets were issued which my bank records corroborate. I have
correspondence from X1 to confirm that for myself and other
residents, the permits had not arrived when we moved in. However,
I also have further correspondence from [redacted] at X1 who
confirms that I could continue to park in my space whilst waiting
for the permits to arrive, as they had quote “requested all
tickets to be cancelled so don;t [sic] worry about these PCNs.”
There is other correspondence sent to all residents from [redacted]
 which states quote: “When we ordered the permit we
requested VCS to cancel all outstanding tickets for your bay so
please don't worry about these.” The PCNs should have been
cancelled and either X1 did not perform their due diligence in
cancelling them, or the claimant VCS ignored the communication and
frivolously pursued the PCNs anyway.
The tickets were issued between 30/04/2024 and 16/05/2024 with the
justification that I did not have a valid permit displayed. X1
acknowledge that the permits had not been sent out until
28/05/2024 confirmed by email which I can provide. However, as per
correspondence with X1 dated 13/06/2024 I had still not collected
my permit on 13/06/2024 and only did so on 14/06/2024 – yet during
the period 16/05/2024 to 14/06/2024 I did not receive a single PCN
despite still not having my permit displayed. Clearly, some kind
of correspondence was sent between X1 and the claimant VCS to
confirm that tickets should no longer be issued even without a
permit being displayed, demonstrating X1’s ability to override the
ability of VCN to issue PCNs when they are not valid. The
previously issued PCNs are similarly invalid on this basis, and
again either X1 failed to cancel them or VCS have ignored this
direction from X1.
I have reached out to other residents of The Exchange, and they
have shared with me similar assurances in correspondences from X1
that their tickets were to be cancelled, which I should be able to
share if required.
Therefore to summarise against each particular of the case. In
regards to point 1, I am not indebted to the claimant VCS as X1
had indicated on multiple occasions that they were going to be
cancelling the PCNs and therefore any amounts accrued are either
the result of negligence from X1 in not cancelling the PCNs, or
VCS ignoring instruction from X1 and pursuing the frivolous
tickets illegally. With regards to point 2, correspondence from
[redacted] at X1 dated 13/06/2024 regarding picking up my permit
states the following “Please be aware that any parking fines given
out after 18th June will not be cancelled as you have had ample
time to collect your permits.” All of the tickets listed in
particular 2 are from before 18/06/2024 and therefore are within
the cut off period to have been cancelled with no room for X1 to
abdicate responsibility from this. Regarding point 3 of the
particulars, I can once again draw your attention back to 3
pertinent facts. A) I have been paying for my parking permit
covering the dates in which the PCNs were issued X1 have
provided me written confirmation that the PCNs were to be
cancelled as they had not provided the permits in time for my
moving in date amongst other residents C) VCS stopped issuing PCNs
after 16/05/2024 yet I only collected my permit on 14/06/2024
clearly indicating some kind of intervention took place which
overrode the specified Reason:94) and making it null and void. For
particular 4, this is superseded by the written confirmation from
X1 that the PCNs were to be cancelled and therefore absolves me of
any and all liability.

ChirpyChicken

I cant see the attachment 

TheSpectre

ChirpyChicken said:

I cant see the attachment 

I have tried this again, ket me know if this works. Thanks. 

Coupon-mad

Not another wrongly allocated St Helens case!

Don't tell us... your local court ISN'T St Helens? I truly hate the CNBC for allowing some badly-trained staff member to make this this constant mistake.