Letter of Claim for 2022 parking ticket

kenzie123

Hi 

Can I please get some advice on something that’s causing much anxiety and stress re: car parking fines.

I got a car parking ticket at a gym car park - it was actually free parking but you had to put your registration in and the machine was broken.

I’ve been getting letters about this fine for a couple of years and all the advice was to ignore and continue to ignore.

The latest letter is a Letter of Claim from 'DBS Legal' saying I have to pay it or go to court.

The charge is now £340.

I called to dispute this - the letter invites a call to dispute this - and basically the person I spoke to said I have two options - 

Pay this fine or go to court (fees for which I am liable for) and if I lose my case I get a CCJ and possible bailiffs at my address which they have. They also asked for my date of birth which I felt was unnecessary- they have all of my details. 

I am honestly so stressed by this - it’s £340 or a court date?

Can they really give me a CCJ when their machine was broken? I disputed at the time but this was rejected. 

Any help or advice here much appreciated - even if you think I should just pay it, I just want to know the best course of action here

Thanks

Brie

Short version is that it's not a fine but an invoice.  (others will add from scammer companies)

Also to make sure they have your correct address but don't replay until you get a letter for the court and then reply to that.  When they know you are playing hardball they'll call the court date off shortly ahead of time.  So no ££ to pay.

Others will be along with more details shortly no doubt.

Gr1pr

Definitely not DBS , it's from DCB Legal 

The options given were pay in full, or we will likely issue a court claim against you using MCOL  ( not a court date  ) on behalf of our client. ( which parking company is it  ?    )

Stop phoning people 

Read the second post in the newbies sticky thread in announcements near the top of the forum,  then email the template response to DCB Legal,  to their info@ address 

Coupon-mad

I am honestly so stressed by this - it’s £340 or a court date?
Can they really give me a CCJ when their machine was broken? 

No and no.

Stop phoning dodgy debt crawler 'legal' firms and await the court claim form.

It's what you want! We have a Template Defence and then they'll later discontinue before the hearing. This is exactly the stage you want! Relax; we do this every single day.

kenzie123

Thank you all.

Really appreciate your messages on the above

Brie says to reply to the letter for the court

Gr1pr says to email the template response to DCB legal. 

Which one is correct?

To note - it was Euro Parks originally.

coupon-mad - thank you and understand your point, now I have made the mistake of calling them - does this make things worse / impact on the process? 

Coupon-mad

We all said the same thing. See the second post of the NEWBIES thread.

But please don't - I beg you - don't post the LBC response here, asking if it's the right one. Yes it is.

Secondly, please don't post their template reply here either. You have no idea what it's like on this Groundhog Day forum! When you get the reply just search the forum for a short, unusual phrase. You'll see what I mean!

See you at Claim Form stage. 

kenzie123

Coupon-mad said:

I am honestly so stressed by this - it’s £340 or a court date?
Can they really give me a CCJ when their machine was broken? 

No and no.

Stop phoning dodgy debt crawler 'legal' firms and await the court claim form.

It's what you want! We have a Template Defence and then they'll later discontinue before the hearing. This is exactly the stage you want! Relax; we do this every single day.

Hi, would you mind responding to the post above this? I wondered if you have thoughts on when to reply - now after the letter of claim, or later when a court letter arrives?

Does calling them (like I have done) make this worse?

Car1980

1. Contacting DCBL makes no difference to anything. Forget about it.
2. Responding to the DCB Legal Letter Before Claim by email using the template is optional. It just shows them you're getting advice from here.
3. You must respond to a letter from the court (the bulk processing unit in Northampton in reality) through the online/email process.