DCB Legal - LoC - waiting game now?

Mizzer99

Morning all,

I have read the newbies forum and am fairly certain I am at the stage now where i sit tight and wait to receive court documents. 

I am posting for further confirmation this will go away and be defended as I am actually doing it on behalf of my wife, who the claim is against. She wants to pay it as it is causing her stress. 
I was the driver at the time in October 2020 and can remember arguing the claim from Smart parking. It got passed to Debt Recovery Plus and is now with DCB legal. 

The signage wasn't clear and fortunately i took photos around that time of the entrance and how you cannot see the sign in English from the turn I took out of a MacDonalds. Sign said 'Whitelisted vehicles only.' which I don't even know what that means. I was there for 11 minutes and the fine is now £170. 

I responded to the LoC with the stipulated template telling them to 'not so politely' go away as this will be defended. 

They have responded saying we are still liable and to pay within 30 days. I believe I am to now wait to receive court claim documents or is it worth trying to arguing with them at this stage?

Thanks in advance, and apologies if this isn't a post worthy thread and I should've stuck to reading others. Just looking for more confidence really!





 

1505grandad

" responded to the LoC with the stipulated template telling them to 'not so politely' go away as this will be defended."

Just checking  -  responded as your wife?  -  has driver been outed in any correspondence?

Nellymoser

No point arguing further if you've responded to their LoC.
As above and for clarity did you do this in your wife's name or yours?

This thread should give you more confidence.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations#latest

When you have the claim form post pic of it here redacting these 4 details - name address, car reg, ref no and password. You can prepare for this stage by reading newbies post 2 small claim.

Mizzer99

1505grandad said:

" responded to the LoC with the stipulated template telling them to 'not so politely' go away as this will be defended."

Just checking  -  responded as your wife?  -  has driver been outed in any correspondence?

Hi, yes as far as i am aware i have always responded as my wife. I say that because this is 5 years old and i may have at some point slipped up 5 years ago. But so far all correspondence has been sent addressing my wife.

Mizzer99

Nellymoser said:

No point arguing further if you've responded to their LoC.
As above and for clarity did you do this in your wife's name or yours?

This thread should give you more confidence.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations#latest

When you have the claim form post pic of it here redacting these 4 details - name address, car reg, ref no and password. You can prepare for this stage by reading newbies post 2 small claim.

Yes, written as my wife. Thanks for the link and will load the claim form when received! Hardest part will be convincing my wife the claim form doesn't mean she will get a CCJ, as she's paranoid about that the most. 

Coupon-mad

But if you were driving, why hasn't she transferred liability to you? Or have I misunderstood and you weren't driving?

Nellymoser

Use this post to convince your paranoid wife there's no CCJ risk if you follow advice here and adhere to court timescales.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81382407/#Comment_81382407

Car1980

IF YOU WERE THE DRIVER TRANSFER LIABILITY TO YOU NOW.

Email DCB Legal and copy in the parking company. You can transfer liability at any time up until proceedings. They will lie about a "28 day deadline", so pre-empt them by sending this:

Dear DCB Legal / Parking Nobs Ltd.

Your Ref. 12345

PCN Number: 67890

Reg: AB1 CD2

This email is to inform you that the driver on the day and time alleged in your client's PCN is:

Mr Bloggs, 123 Sample Street, Sampleton XX1 ZZ2

Do not send me your usual drivel, ie. 

“Please note the timeframe in which to transfer liability has expired. You were given the opportunity to transfer liability to a named driver when the initial Parking Charge Notice was issued to you. You remain liable for the outstanding balance as the registered keeper of the vehicle”.

By saying so you clearly misunderstand / are purposefully misrepresenting what the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 states in Schedule 4. The 28 day time period is not a “transfer of liability window” for the keeper.  By naming the driver of the vehicle above any obligations as keeper have been discharged:

Right to claim unpaid parking charges from keeper of vehicle

4(1) The creditor has the right to recover any unpaid parking charges from the keeper of the vehicle.

(2) The right under this paragraph applies only if—

(a) the conditions specified in paragraphs 5 [are met]

Conditions that must be met for purposes of paragraph 4

5(1)The first condition is that the creditor—

(a) has the right to enforce against the driver of the vehicle the requirement to pay the unpaid parking charges; but

(b) is unable to take steps to enforce that requirement against the driver because the creditor does not know both the name of the driver and a current address for service for the driver.

(2) Sub-paragraph (1)(b) ceases to apply if (at any time after the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the day on which the notice to keeper is given) the creditor begins proceedings to recover the unpaid parking charges from the keeper.

Once the claimant has actual knowledge of the driver identity (name and address), the conditions in paragraph 5 are no longer met, so the right to pursue the keeper is now extinguished. 

Legal liability has now been successfully transferred away from the registered keeper to this person and now you are obliged under the GDPR to erase all the details you hold on file about me. 

Your client must now issue a fresh Notice to Driver to the person named.

This sends the parking company down a snake all the way to square 1 and removes your wife from the equation. Quite often they lose interest and throw in the PCN in the bin. Alternatively you might get over the 6 year and it becomes void.

And if they are stupid enough to ignore you and make a claim against your wife your defence would simply be that you weren't the driver and liability was transferred on 29th September 2025.

Mizzer99

Coupon-mad said:

But if you were driving, why hasn't she transferred liability to you? Or have I misunderstood and you weren't driving?

I have always just replied as if it was her replying. I never revealed who was driving as I thought one should never say who was driving to them. 

Car1980 said:

IF YOU WERE THE DRIVER TRANSFER LIABILITY TO YOU NOW.

Email DCB Legal and copy in the parking company. 

Thank you Car1980. I'll send this through right now. Appreciate this. 

Mizzer99

Afternoon all

I have received a response on the back of my 'transfer of liability' email.

They have said:

Dear Miss *****

We write to acknowledge safe receipt of your formal response to our Letter of Claim sent to you in respect of this matter.

Having considered your response, our position in respect of this matter remains as per our Letter of Claim. We note that despite your points of dispute, there is an absence of any evidence in support of the same so that we may consider this with our Client. If you do have evidence which you believe supports your dispute, please furnish us with the same within the 30 days afforded to you.

As it stands, the initial 30 day timeframe under the Pre-Action Protocol remains, and County Court proceedings will be issued following expiry of this 30 day period, without any further reference to you.

We strongly recommend that you contact a member of our dispute resolution team on 0203 838 7038, as a matter of urgency so we may discuss this matter with you and avoid a Claim being issued against you.

If you are at all unsure of your legal position, you may wish to seek independent legal advice

 

Kind Regards,

Litigation Support Team

DCB Legal Ltd

The reply is from someone different than the person i had replied to. They also don't acknowledge the fact a transfer of liability has been requested. They have referenced 'points of dispute' and 'lack of evidence provided.' I haven't given any of these... So it seems like a bog standard template reply from them. 

Should I go back to them and tell them to read the email properly and to transfer liability otherwise they will be making a claim against the wrong person?

Coupon-mad

Yep - THE KEEPER DOES, NOT YOU - and tell them if they don't update the case file and pass it back to their client to reissue the PCN to the named driver, the keeper's data is thereafter being used illegally and the keeper will report DCB Legal to the ICO and the SRA. DCB Legal must treat this as a formal complaint about their unlawful data processing and clear breach of the DPA 2018.

Complaints will be escalated to the ICO and SRA in the first week of November. The firm's lead solicitor will be named as personally liable as he has conduct of the case and is responsible for data misuse.

Give them 14 days to reply.