DCBLegal N180 Directions Questionnaire and Court Claims

lozli

Hi All,

The parking fine from DCBLegal all started near the beginning of the year for allegedly over-staying in the Meadowhall Retail Park on 28/10/2019. Other than that and a demand of payment, no other information is provided. I personally have not received any of the original parking fines from G24 Ltd. The first time I have known of this is beginning of this year, over 5yrs of the Date of contravention. 

I have moved around Nov 2019 so that can explain the reason I didn't receive their fine letters. 

They have clearly found where I am living now and started to send me letters. I have ignored their letters as its ludricious to even think about someone writing to me demanding for payment for something that happened before the pandemic. No evidence was given to me and any additional details other than:

Reason for Contravention: Exceding The Maximum Duration Of Stay Permitted At

I later received a letter from DCB Legal stating a letter of claim on the 20th March 2025 stating they will file a letter of claim within 30 days if its not paid. 

Received the Claims forms and thanks to your forum followed up with an AOS and later submitted my defense via the MCol website. 

On the 18th June 2025, I recevied an email from an Alison Hughes at DCBLegal which looks very generic. Attached to my email is the N180 Directions Questionnaire document

It says :

Good morning

Having reviewed the content of your defence, we write to inform you that our client intends to proceed with the claim.In due course, the Court will direct both parties to each file a directions questionnaire. In preparation for that, please find attached a copy of the Claimant's, which we confirm has been filed with the Court.Without Prejudice to the above, in order to assist the Court in achieving its overriding objective, our client may be prepared to settle this case - in the event you wish to discuss settlement, please call us on 0203 434 0433 within 7 days and make immediate reference to this correspondence.If you have provided an email address within your Defence, we intend to use it for service of documents (usually in PDF format) hereon in pursuant to PD 6A (4.1)(2)(c). Please advise whether there are any limitations to this (for example, the format in which documents are to be sent and the maximum size of attachments that may be received). Unless you advise otherwise, we will assume not.

Kind Regards,  

[Removed by Forum Team]

Litigation Support Associate 

DCB Legal Ltd 

NOW
So I am at the Directions Questionnaire phase, where they have submitted theirs and I guess I will have to submit mine when I get a letter through the door. At no point did they provide any evidence of it happening. I am thinking of emailing her back requesting for evidence or is it too late at this point? And the reason for contravention is not very detailed. It doesn't state how long the parking duration is. 

Question
Is the next step to file in my Directions Questionnaire and wait?
From the images of the parking site, it states the fine is £50 but 40% off if paid within 14days. Is it worth emailing them offering £30 which is the original fine if paid early as I didn;t get the original fine letters.

Just want to say a big thanks to this forum and everything here for the help. I found a lot of info here that helped me till now (e.g. the AOS and defence instructions etc). Also to know its not only me in this position and others are affected too. 

Thank you

lozli

Here are a few of the received letters from DCBLegal

Gr1pr

Keep following the 12 steps in the defence template thread 

Wait for the CNBC in Northampton to post your paper N180, checking MCOL and your letterbox too

Download the N180 form pdf document and fill it in,  ready to email to the CNBC DQ email address,  after they have posted yours, then keep checking your MCOL claim history,  ensuring that your N180 has been logged 

Keep following the 12 steps,  as I said above 

Ps, there never was any fine, just an invoice from G24 

Do not request anything at this stage 

Do not make any offers  ( mediation stage is where you could offer a tenner etc  )

Coupon-mad

Could you show us a photo of the sign showing £50 please?

lozli

@Coupon-mad


I found this image on another thread which was referring to the Meadowhall Retail Park. I haven't been back myself to confirm. Not sure how up to date this is
 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6597366/g24-dcb-legal-court-claim/p2

Coupon-mad

Ah thanks - yes that does look like the right one for your case too.

lozli

@Gr1pr @Coupon-mad
I have received Directions Questionnaire (N180) letter through the post today. Deadline to complete this is 17th July 2025. 

They instructed me to complete the form and post it back. Can this be done via the MCOL website or email back instead?

Gr1pr

lozli said:

@Gr1pr @Coupon-mad
I have received Directions Questionnaire (N180) letter through the post today. Deadline to complete this is 17th July 2025. 

They instructed me to complete the form and post it back. Can this be done via the MCOL website or email back instead?

You should be studying and following the 12 steps in the defence template thread,  which tells you what to do, and how, and when

You download the pdf, fill it in and email it,  it's that simple  ( no paperwork,  no posting anything,  no logging into MCOL either   )

lozli

Thank you for replying @Gr1pr

is this the correct link?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-cases-with-added-admin-dra-costs-edited-in-2024

just want to make sure I am getting the correct and most up to date info. TIA

Gr1pr

Yes it is,  and was when you did your defence too

We have zero idea why victims are not following the clear advice in that thread   ( if I had a court claim I would be studying that thread and the second post in the newbies sticky thread in announcements until I was sick of reading them both, then I would keep on reading them until the outcome of the case  )

Coupon-mad spent a lot of time honing the advice in those 2 information threads

I explained what to do in my post to you a fortnight ago, we should not have to repeat it 

LZH85

lozli said:

Hi All,

The parking fine from DCBLegal all started near the beginning of the year for allegedly over-staying in the Meadowhall Retail Park on 28/10/2019. Other than that and a demand of payment, no other information is provided. I personally have not received any of the original parking fines from G24 Ltd. The first time I have known of this is beginning of this year, over 5yrs of the Date of contravention. 

I have moved around Nov 2019 so that can explain the reason I didn't receive their fine letters. 

They have clearly found where I am living now and started to send me letters. I have ignored their letters as its ludricious to even think about someone writing to me demanding for payment for something that happened before the pandemic. No evidence was given to me and any additional details other than:

Reason for Contravention: Exceding The Maximum Duration Of Stay Permitted At

I later received a letter from DCB Legal stating a letter of claim on the 20th March 2025 stating they will file a letter of claim within 30 days if its not paid. 

Received the Claims forms and thanks to your forum followed up with an AOS and later submitted my defense via the MCol website. 

On the 18th June 2025, I recevied an email from an Alison Hughes at DCBLegal which looks very generic. Attached to my email is the N180 Directions Questionnaire document

It says :

Good morning

Having reviewed the content of your defence, we write to inform you that our client intends to proceed with the claim.

In due course, the Court will direct both parties to each file a directions questionnaire. In preparation for that, please find attached a copy of the Claimant's, which we confirm has been filed with the Court.

Without Prejudice to the above, in order to assist the Court in achieving its overriding objective, our client may be prepared to settle this case - in the event you wish to discuss settlement, please call us on 0203 434 0433 within 7 days and make immediate reference to this correspondence.

If you have provided an email address within your Defence, we intend to use it for service of documents (usually in PDF format) hereon in pursuant to PD 6A (4.1)(2)(c). Please advise whether there are any limitations to this (for example, the format in which documents are to be sent and the maximum size of attachments that may be received). Unless you advise otherwise, we will assume not.

Kind Regards,  

Alison Hughes

Litigation Support Associate 

DCB Legal Ltd 

NOW
So I am at the Directions Questionnaire phase, where they have submitted theirs and I guess I will have to submit mine when I get a letter through the door. At no point did they provide any evidence of it happening. I am thinking of emailing her back requesting for evidence or is it too late at this point? And the reason for contravention is not very detailed. It doesn't state how long the parking duration is. 

Question
Is the next step to file in my Directions Questionnaire and wait?
From the images of the parking site, it states the fine is £50 but 40% off if paid within 14days. Is it worth emailing them offering £30 which is the original fine if paid early as I didn;t get the original fine letters.

Just want to say a big thanks to this forum and everything here for the help. I found a lot of info here that helped me till now (e.g. the AOS and defence instructions etc). Also to know its not only me in this position and others are affected too. 

Thank you

I'm in exactly the same position as you - received a letter a couple months ago for the first time with a car parking charge from Dec 2019 Christmas day, no recollection of it at all and moved house since then. Just received my Directions Questionnaire so about to fill it in