Unfair Resident Parking Permit PCN Advice

FOBF_1

So I have now received a LBC from Gladstones. After reading the forum and the newbies thread I have put together the below. I would like some feedback on whether there is anything I should add/remove (e.g. information on my specific case). For context, I am a tenant who has a dedicated the parking space that it is protected by fob controlled gate. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Your Refxxxxxx

Dear Sirs,

I am in receipt of your Letter Before Claim of xxx.

Your letter contains insufficient detail of the claim and fails to provide copies of evidence your client places reliance upon.

Your client must know that on 01 October 2017 a new protocol is applicable to debt claims and must be complied with.

Your letter lacks specificity and breaches both the requirements of the previously applicable Practice Direction - Pre-Action Conduct (paragraphs 6(a) and 6(c)) and the new Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims (paragraphs 3.1(a)-(d), 5.1 and 5.2. Please treat this letter as a formal request for all of the documents / information that the protocol now requires your client to provide. Your client must not issue proceedings without complying with that protocol. I reserve the right to draw any failure of the Claimant to comply with the protocol to the attention of the court and to ask the court to stay the claim and order your client to comply with its pre-action obligations, and when costs come to be considered.

As solicitors you must surely be familiar with the requirements of both the Practice Direction applicable pre-1 October and the Protocol which applies thereafter (and your client, as a serial litigator of small claims, should lkewise be aware of them). As you (and your client) must know, the Practice Direction and Protocol bind all potential litigants, whatever the size or type of the claim. Its express purpose is to assist parties in understanding the claim and their respective positions in relation to it, to enable parties to take stock of their positions and to negotiate a settlement, or at least narrow the issues, without incurring the costs of court proceedings or using up valuable court time. It is astounding that a firm of Solicitors are sending a consumer a vague and unevidenced 'Letter before Claim' in complete ignorance of the pre-existing Practice Direction and the new Protocol.

Nobody, including your client, is immune from the requirements and obligations of the Practice Direction and now the Protocol.

I require your client to comply with its obligations by sending me the following information/documents:

1. an explanation of the cause of action
2. whether they are pursuing me as driver or keeper
3. whether they are relying on the provisions of Schedule 4 of POFA 2012
4. what the details of the claim are; where it is claimed the vehicle was parked, for how long, how the monies being claimed arose and have been calculated
5. Is the claim for a contractual breach? If so, what is the date of the agreement? The names of the parties to it and provide to me a copy of that contract.
6. Is the claim for trespass? If so, provide details.
7. Provide me a copy of the contract with the landowner under which they assert authority to bring the claim, as required by the IPC code of practice section B, clause 1.1 “establishing yourself as the creditor”
8. a plan showing where any signs were displayed
9. details of the signs displayed (size of sign, size of font, height at which displayed)
10. Provide details of the original charge, and detail any interest and administrative or other charges added
11. Provide a copy of the Information Sheet and the Reply Form
12. Provide me with evidence of which the claimant wishes to use to disprove the fact the car was parked legally, including photos showing the front, rear and side of the car in line with code of conduct.

If your client does not provide me with this information then I put you on notice that I will be relying on the cases of Webb Resolutions Ltd v Waller Needham & Green [2012] EWHC 3529 (Ch), Daejan Investments Limited v The Park West Club Limited (Part 20) – Buxton Associates [2003] EWHC 2872, Charles Church Developments Ltd v Stent Foundations Limited & Peter Dann Limited [2007] EWHC 855 in asking the court to impose sanctions on your client and to order a stay of the proceedings, pursuant to paragraphs 13 ,15(b) and (c) and 16 of the Practice Direction, as referred to in paragraph 7.2 of the Protocol.

Until your client has complied with its obligations and provided this information, I am unable to respond properly to the alleged claim and to consider my position in relation to it, and it is entirely premature (and a waste of costs and court time) for your client to issue proceedings. Should your client do so, then I will seek an immediate stay pursuant to paragraph 15(b) of the Practice Direction and an order that this information is provided.

Coupon-mad

Much, much too old. No idea where you found that but it isn't the LBC response in post 2 of the NEWBIES thread, nor is it the one recommended by the MSE Guide linked at the top of every page (Martin Lewis checked & personally approved the guide this Summer).

We don't need to check either of them... please spare us having to look at the recommended template replies on threads! You choose one.

FOBF_1

My apologies, I leaned heavily on past responses on the forum, but I'll refer to the template written in the MSE Guide. Is there anything that I shouldn't be writing when I am adding my evidence e.g. the driver of the car?

Coupon-mad

You aren't adding evidence.

Car1980

Missed some comments from a couple of months back.

The tenancy agreement will be irrelevant in that it will not have a single word of the flat's lease replicated within it. It will be an internet template, shared with hundreds of thousands of other renters across the country. Yes the renter is bound by the lease, even though he's never seen it, in terms of obligations, nuisance etc., but the contract between the tenant and the landlord won't have the information needed regarding parking rights that may be present in lease. 

So, what does the flat's lease say? Have you asked your landlord or another owner-occupier in the development to see their's? No WhatsApp group?