DCB Legal - Letter of claim and response

ak_lfc22

Hi,

I received a letter of claim from DCB Legal for a PCN that I didn't receive for my place of work in 2023. Jct 9 Retail Park, Warrington.

I sent the template from the newbie thread also explaining that I was on a whitelist for Smart Parking as I parked there every day for months. I haven't had a response from Smart Parking and my ex-employer has gone bust so I can't get any evidence from them.

This was the response from DCB;

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

Any suggestions on how next to proceed would be very much appreciated.

Gr1pr

Ignore them and wait for the inevitable N1SDT court claim pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL in s month or two 

Coupon-mad

Ignore that and let them send a claim form. It's what you want because all DCB / Smart claims are discontinued before hearings so it's just a matter of defending and playing the game.

ak_lfc22

Apologies for the delay.
Thank you both for your replies

ak_lfc22

Gr1pr said:

Ignore them and wait for the inevitable N1SDT court claim pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL in s month or two 

The inevitable claim has arrived from the CNBC.
I've had a look through the newbies thread for what to do next, but I'm a bit lost with it all.
Could you please point me in the right direction of the next steps?

Coupon-mad

Just copy from @Micky2022

No need to show us. No discussion needed with Smart Parking claims. All the same and we have hundreds here so I find it surprising on a daily basis, that people coming back with Smart Parking claims don't read a few like theirs, find the answers and copy a tried & tested defence as easily as Micky did. Literally:

1.  copy any other Smart defence.

2.  Bookmark and follow the 8 steps in the Template Defence sticky thread.

Job done. Discontinuance in 2026.

ak_lfc22

Coupon-mad said:

Just copy from @Micky2022

No need to show us. No discussion needed with Smart Parking claims. All the same and we have hundreds here so I find it surprising on a daily basis, that people coming back with Smart Parking claims don't read a few like theirs, find the answers and copy a tried & tested defence as easily as Micky did. Literally:

1.  copy any other Smart defence.

2.  Bookmark and follow the 8 steps in the Template Defence sticky thread.

Job done. Discontinuance in 2026.

Thank you for your reply.

The fact there are hundreds of examples was were the confusion arose. Particularly around the 3rd paragraph

Gr1pr

True,  but 90% of it is already written for you, making it easy for you to concentrate on paragraph 3, like micky2022 did

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6640055/claim-form-nov-2025-smart-parking-via-dcb-legal#latest

ak_lfc22

Gr1pr said:

True,  but 90% of it is already written for you, making it easy for you to concentrate on paragraph 3, like micky2022 did

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6640055/claim-form-nov-2025-smart-parking-via-dcb-legal#latest

Thank you again for your help.

I imagine for most of us that are reaching out for help it is a combination of concern around the threat of court action along with the sheer volume of information on this forum and not wanting to make a mistake.

The first posts on page one of "Newbies" thread are over 7500 words long, a search for DCB legal gives 7.5k results and the layout of the forum itself often doesn't help for the readability of big long posts with lots of links and bold sections. 

I know the likes of you and @C@Coupon-mad must get p***ed off with the amount of requests that come through, but it's not through a lack of trying initially (well not on my part anyway), it's just wanting to get it right.
 

Gr1pr

But you were given a prime example to use and you only have to consider alterations to paragraph 3 and possibly an ending for paragraph 2.  Micky2022 did all that work and saved you a lot of grief and stress already , it's 10 minutes work to adapt paragraph 3 to suit your own case. Everything else is standard stuff at this early stage 

The rest of the stuff isn't required at this point 

Think of it as going into Asda for bread,  eggs and milk, it doesn't matter what the other 20 thousand products are

But when getting to the 3 sections you need,  you have choices to make,  depending on what the chef ordered 

Skimmed milk, full cream milk or almond milk, brown , white or sourdough bread , free range white small or grass fed brown factory   ?

So when pointed at the correct sections, in the correct building, it's time to step up based on your own facts and circumstances.   If the information wasn't here,  you would have to do all of it 

An aircraft engine mechanic doesn't have to be a pilot,  or an avionics engineer, they concentrate on the problem and solution to a misfiring engine.  The hole in the wing isn't their problem 

Break it down, look at the relevant only, post 2 in the newbies sticky thread,  only the court claim section 

Sorry to be blunt 

ak_lfc22

Gr1pr said:

But you were given a prime example to use and you only have to consider alterations to paragraph 3 and possibly an ending for paragraph 2.  Micky2022 did all that work and saved you a lot of grief and stress already , it's 10 minutes work to adapt paragraph 3 to suit your own case. Everything else is standard stuff at this early stage 

The rest of the stuff isn't required at this point 

Think of it as going into Asda for bread,  eggs and milk, it doesn't matter what the other 20 thousand products are

But when getting to the 3 sections you need,  you have choices to make,  depending on what the chef ordered 

Skimmed milk, full cream milk or almond milk, brown , white or sourdough bread , free range white small or grass fed brown factory   ?

So when pointed at the correct sections, in the correct building, it's time to step up based on your own facts and circumstances.   If the information wasn't here,  you would have to do all of it 

An aircraft engine mechanic doesn't have to be a pilot,  or an avionics engineer, they concentrate on the problem and solution to a misfiring engine.  The hole in the wing isn't their problem 

Break it down, look at the relevant only, post 2 in the newbies sticky thread,  only the court claim section 

Sorry to be blunt 

No need to apologise, not blunt at all. Like I said, I understand your frustration at us dopes.

To clarify though, I was only given the Micky example after posting this;
I've had a look through the newbies thread for what to do next, but I'm a bit lost with it all.
Could you please point me in the right direction of the next steps?

Since then I haven't reached out for anything as it was a great example to use without the tonnes of unnecessary (at this stage) information in the thread. 

You're right I need to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). 

Once again, thank you for all of the work you guys put into this. I know it's not your job, so very much appreciated.