Advice needed for DCB Legal - Letter of Claim

Splendid_Lemon

Hi all. 

I received a letter of claim for a parking ticket I received almost a year ago. I have read through the newbies thread and am just getting my email from post 2 ready to send. In order to make sure I do everything at the most opportune moment in the process I would kindly ask for some advice. I appreciate you get questions about this stuff all the time but I couldn't find any previous threads with my exact circumstances.

So some context.

Firstly I AM the keeper of the vehicle but was NOT the driver.

I received a PCN from MET parking back in June/July last year. Which I paid immediately, definitely within the 14 days (I now realise I probably should have just fought it but you know 🤷)

Anyway a month or so later I received a letter from debt recovery plus about an unpaid PCN. I tried to contact them but nobody ever answered the phone. I tried to contact MET parking but they don't appear to have a contact number at all despite an extensive search for one. So I turned to Google which led me here to the MSE forum. I read enough times to simply ignore the letters and because I had already paid I did exactly that.

Annoyingly the letters kept coming and at some point switched from debt recovery plus to DCBL, I returned to the forum and again the advice was to ignore.

Fast forward to the beginning of the month and I received a letter of claim from DCB Legal. This time the advice was to engage which is what I intend to do but whilst I was gathering my evidence I realised the dates don't seem to match up.

Long story short I didn't keep the original PCN but the date I paid the fine was definitely with in the 14 days. However having now looked back at bank statements that date doesn't match the dates on the debt recovery and now the DCB Legal letters.

This leads me to believe the letters are in reference to a totally separate parking charge (at the same location) within a few weeks of each other. A charge for which I never received a PCN.

As such I'm unsure how to proceed.

I was originally thinking I would send evidence of the bank records showing the payment, but now I'm wondering if my defence is that I never received a PCN in the first place. Or do I explain that I thought it was in relation to a fine id payed but have just now realised must be for a charge I didn't receive?


Sorry for the rambling but I guess what I'd like to know is, what (if anything) should I explain to DCBL Legal? I could really do without the bother of having to defend this in person.

Thanks for your time everyone and I appreciate any advice.

Gr1pr

Explain nothing at this stage,  stick with the LoC response template 

Splendid_Lemon

Brilliant, thank you. 

Coupon-mad

Splendid_Lemon said:

Brilliant, thank you. 

Yep the reply you use makes no difference!

Now read this message and please prepare to join us to do the Public Consultation once we've discussed it in August. It's vital the Government hears from Defendants threatened by court:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81552148/#Comment_81552148

Please bookmark the main thread linked in that link. Come back in August to take part.

We need to drown out the twisted 'alternative facts' from the parking industry and their relatives posing as ordinary motorist consumers.

Splendid_Lemon

Thank you Coupon Mad, you are doing the Lords work.

Splendid_Lemon

Sorry for the double post.

I was just going over my email again before sending off to these clowns and I wanted to ask a quick question. I AM the keeper but was not the driver, as such I was hoping to include the bit from the linked post about there not being any keeper Liability, and not being able to pursue me as the keeper.

It seemed like this might be a pretty useful thing to add but I am unsure if it definitely applies to my case as the example is referring to Gatwick airport.

for context, my ticket was issues for overstaying at a virgin active gym car park in sheffield. is this considered 'relevant land' would it be accurate for me to include this statement in my email?

Thanks in advance for your time everyone.

Gr1pr

It is most likely to be relevant land and subject to POFA2012 if the parking company are invoking POFA2012 

If they have complied with POFA then as keeper you may be liable 

Splendid_Lemon

Roger that.
I'll leave that whole bit out then. Thanks for your reply.

Splendid_Lemon

Following on from this.

I sent the template email requesting a 30 day extension to the email address supplied on their letter of claim (info@dcblegal) and received no response or confirmation of my email. Then this morning I received a claim form.

So for what ever reason they decided not to afford me the extension (i understood it to be my right) but so be it. I guess I now need to defend this claim so any advice on how to proceed would be great. 

The cost is now £184.96 (up from 170) and including court fees and legal representatives costs totals £269.96

According to the letter, i have until 23rd Aug to respond. As I intend to defend this claim i'll fill out the defence form but this is where i'm unsure what to say. 

There is a box to state i dispute the claim because i already paid which ,if you refer back to my first post, was my original case. However after looking at the dates of the payment i made and the dates of this claim it seems this relates to a separate incident (weeks apart). 

As mentioned before I only ever received 1 PCN which I paid and the dates being so close it wasnt until I went back and looked at evidence of the payment my suspicions of a separate charge were raised.

So do i say i paid, or do i explain that i'm now suspecting this relates to a separate charge for which i never received a PCN?

EDIT- further info.
The charge they are claiming was made on the 28th JUNE 2024
The Payment I made was on the 26th of JULY 2024
I made the payment via the MET parking website and well within the time for a reduced charge. It was seeing the 2 dates nearly a month apart that alerted me to this being 2 charges as I certainly didnt take that long to pay ( i stupidly did it the following day if i recall)

Thanks in advance.

Gr1pr

Follow the advice in the second post in the newbies sticky thread in announcements near the top of the forum by coupon mad,  plus use and adapt the defence template in announcements too

Post the Issue date from the top right of the claim form below,  plus post a redacted picture of the POC from the lower left of the claim form below after hiding the VRM details first 

Do not fill in any paperwork,  but answer the question above and post the picture too

Splendid_Lemon

Sorry, I should have gone back to the Newbies thread before posting here.

Have had a good read through and will follow the advice there.

To answer your question the issue date was the 5th Aug so I will submit the AOS on MCOL on the 10th.

Here is the picture of the POC



Additionally I have written up a draft para3 for the defence template for when i get to that stage am I giving too much info here? feedback and advice appreciated as always. 

3. The defendant disputes the claimant’s assertion of an unpaid parking charge. A Parking Charge Notice (PCN) was issued for the location in question and promptly paid by the defendant on 25 July 2024, in accordance with the reduced rate offered for early settlement. Despite this, the defendant began receiving correspondence from Debt Recovery Plus regarding an alleged unpaid charge. Multiple attempts were made to contact both the claimant and Debt Recovery Plus to clarify the situation; however, no accessible communication channels were available via the claimant’s website, and efforts to reach Debt Recovery Plus were unsuccessful.

Due to the lack of response and the widespread reports of questionable practices associated with Debt Recovery Plus, the defendant reasonably concluded that the correspondence was likely fraudulent and took no further action at that time. Subsequent letters from DCBL were similarly disregarded based on publicly available information suggesting similar concerns.

Upon receipt of a formal Letter of Claim, the defendant investigated further and discovered that the payment made on 25 July 2024 did not correspond with the date of the alleged contravention, which was listed as 28 June 2024. The defendant therefore believes one of two scenarios is likely: either the claimant failed to update its records following the payment of the original PCN, or the current claim pertains to a second PCN that was never received by the defendant. In either case, the defendant maintains that no outstanding debt is owed and that the claim is unfounded.