Bank Park, DCB LEGAL court claim

WhelkBabboon

I have received the various bits of correspondence over the last few months from, DCB and now DCB legal regarding 2 parking fines from over 2 years ago, which I never received from the original parking firm because they went to my old address after I had moved.

I have refused to pay the fines because I totally dispute their claim that I didn’t pay for parking on the dates suggested. I always pay wherever I park and, as a law-abiding citizen, it would never occur to me not to pay. On the dates they claim I parked without payment I can find no record of me paying any money to the firm concerned, so I simply refuse to believe I parked there on the dates they have suggested.

Having read some of the correspondence on this site regarding DCB/DCB Legal, I waited for the letter of claim to arrive, and, in response I sent the template reply beginning: “I refer to your letter of claim”… and ending “With regard to the principal alleged PCN sum: Is this damages, or will it be pleaded as consideration for parking?” 

They have now replied to me with this:

 “We write in response to your recent correspondence in response to our Letter of Claim (LOC) and will now respond as follows.

It is our position that the Letter of Claim (“LOC”) is compliant with the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims (“the Protocol”). The LOC provides adequate information for you to identify the debt that our Client is seeking to recover. We would respectfully draw your attention to paragraph 2.1(c) of the Protocol and remind you that both parties are expected to act reasonably and proportionately.

For the avoidance of doubt, please note that the timeframe in which to appeal the Parking Charge has expired. You were given the opportunity to lodge an appeal when the initial Notice was issued to you. Given that the case has been escalated to this firm for recovery action, the time to appeal has now elapsed and payment of the Parking Charge(s) is now required.

The amount owed is a genuine pre-estimate of the losses incurred in managing the parking location to ensure compliance with the clearly displayed terms and conditions. Further, in accordance with the British Parking Association (BPA)/International Parking Community (IPC) Code of Practice, where the Parking Charge becomes overdue and before Court proceedings have commenced, a reasonable sum may be added for the debt recovery fees. The correct recovery fees have been added and will not be removed, for completeness we would advise that the fee is not inclusive of any VAT, as it does not pertain to a supply of goods/services between you and our Client.

To clarify, when parking on private land, the contractual terms of the site are set out on the signs. You are thus entering into a contract (by way of conduct) and agreeing to the terms by parking and staying on the site. Parking in breach of the terms as stipulated on the signage means that you are then breaking the terms of the contract.

Attached are copies of evidence pertaining to the matter, however, if there are any documents that you have requested, but that are not attached, it is because we have deemed the request to be disproportionate and/or not relevant to the substantive issues in dispute. We respectfully draw your attention to paragraph 2.1(c) of the Protocol and remind you that both parties are expected to act reasonably and proportionately.

You now have 30 days from the date of this email/letter to make payment of the amount as per our Letter of Claim. Failure to make payment will result in a Claim being issued against you without any further reference.

Payment can be made via bank transfer to our designated client account: -

You must quote the correct case reference (************) when making payment. If you do not, we may be unable to correctly allocate the payment. If further action is taken by us as a result of an incorrect reference being quoted, you will be liable for any further fees or costs incurred.

We would ask that you kindly furnish us with your most up to date telephone number and email address, this can be emailed to us at ****.

Alternatively, you can contact DCB Legal Ltd on ********* to make payment over the telephone or online at *******

Please note that in the absence of payment in the next 30 days, our position remains as previously advised. As such, should our client instruct us to proceed with further legal action, we reserve the right to do so without any further reference to you.

If you are at all unsure of your legal position, we recommend that you seek your own independent legal advice

 Kind Regards, Litigation Support Team DCB Legal Ltd”

I hope you don’t mind me posting this here, but I just need clarification as to what my next step should be.

How should I respond to them in the next 30 days? And are there any other steps I need to take to ensure I don’t get a county court judgement against me?

I know that I am in the right here, and your site has been very helpful so far, but if someone on here could put my mind at rest regarding possible future actions, I should be most grateful

Regards

Car1980

Usual DCB Legal template of rubbish.

I do recommend you just email them with your current address for service and keep a copy of your sent email safe.

Who is the parking company?

WhelkBabboon

Hi - The parking company is Bank Park Management Ltd. If you've any suggestions for next steps I'd be very grateful

ChirpyChicken

WhelkBabboon said:

Hi - The parking company is Bank Park Management Ltd. If you've any suggestions for next steps I'd be very grateful

Yes it will be a court claim so you just defend as per the newbies thread.

Nellymoser

And if you want to ensure the court claim doesn't go to your old address do as Car1980 advised 

I do recommend you just email them with your current address for service and keep a copy of your sent email safe.

Post 4 NEWBIES - Changed address? section

Coupon-mad

WhelkBabboon said:

Hi - The parking company is Bank Park Management Ltd. If you've any suggestions for next steps I'd be very grateful

The reply above already told you what to do.

Obviously (you'll know from reading the forum)  you actually want the Claim Form, because that's the end game ('scam over' next year) but it MUST come to your correct address.

WhelkBabboon

Hi there, thanks for all your advice so far

So, I have waited as you all suggested and now the letter from HM Courts and Tribunal Service has arrived, saying "We are contacting you because someone claims you owe them money", and saying I must respond before the response date or the claimant could request a County Court Judgement against me.

I want to be completely sure what to do next, so I hope you don't mind me asking a few more questions. I have been sent a Response Pack including an Admission Form N9A , a Defence & Counterclaim Form N9B and an Acknowledgement of Service.  

I wish to defend the claim, but have no evidence to back it up. All I know is that I paid via a ticket machine every time I used the car park, but have no evidence of payment for the days they say I parked there. However, I just KNOW that I always paid for my parking there, so if I did park on those days the ticket machine must have been faulty in some way. This is not a case of me forgetting - I just never forgot to pay as I wouldn't be so stupid as to risk a large fine. The incidents happened a few years ago now, so I can't be sure where I was on both days, but I am 100% sure that if I was in the car park I would have paid. 

What should I do now? I know that I have to respond by disputing the claim, but what can I put as my defence with no real evidence other than my certain knowledge that I paid every time I used that car park. Should I send back the acknowledgement of service form to give myself 28 days to contest the claim as a first step? 

If you could please post some advice for me, I should be most grateful.

Nellymoser

Helpful for others to advise you if you give issue date on the Claim form and post photo of Particulars of Claim (redact car reg, any other personal details).

Go back to Newbies POST 2 Small Claim scroll down to So, where to start dealing with a claim? 

Gr1pr

As above,  and follow the 8 steps in the first post in the defence template thread in announcements near the top of the forum. Nobody is going tell you what to do because the 8 steps are there for that reason 

Slow down,  post the issue date from the top right of the claim form below and also post a redacted picture of the POC from the lower left of the claim form below after hiding the VRM details first 

Take this step by step 

WhelkBabboon

Hi
The issue dates of both claims against me are 12th December. Bellow are the 2 POCs with my reg nos redacted. I have received an enrolment confirmation from MCOL. I am on the verge of paying one of the claims though, as it is in my partner's name and am not sure if I am able to fight it on her behalf without it being in my name as I was the driver. Any advice would be most helpful

Coupon-mad

I am on the verge of paying one of the claims though, as it is in my partner's name and am not sure if I am able to fight it on her behalf without it being in my name as I was the driver

Absolutely NO PAYING A PARKING CLAIM!

There's nothing to be gained by that.

Paying a DCB Legal claim makes no sense at all in any circumstances because they'll discontinue these before any hearing and both of you will pay nothing at all.

You just use the template defence for both but of course, hers is done on her Govt Gateway account and in her name, NOT YOURS.

Both of you can give the same email account (yours, for contact) if you are going to be the one tracking progress and following the easy 8 steps in the Template Defence thread.