Received letter from QDR solicitors

ChrisBristol88

Hi, I have received a letter out of the blue from QDR solicitors on behalf of ZZPS claiming that I owe £170 (originally £100) for insufficient paid time in a car park nearly 2 years ago. I have not had any previous correspondence about this and I have no idea how long I paid for and how long I apparently overstayed. I'm not in the habit of overstaying in car parks, but it's not out the question that we were late back to the car by minutes rather than hours. When I google that car park it says that they use Ringgo, but I can only find my sessions going back about 6 months on the app. The letter looks very formal and is headed "formal letter of claim". I don't want to engage with them in case that just encourages them, but I don't want to ignore it in case they issue court proceedings. 

On page two it states "if we do not hear within 30 days... we anticipate being instructed to issue court proceedings" Is this genuine? Would they not have to send a letter saying they definitely will be issuing proceedings? 

Also, given that this is the first I have heard about this it all seems rather unreasonable! 

Any advice would be gratefully received. I could pay the £170 to make it go away but I feel pretty angry at this dropping out of nowhere.

Thanks 

ChirpyChicken

I would do nothing.  If you get a court claim via QDR then deal with it, using the help from here.  Engaging with them will neither discourage or encourage them

DE_612183

yes, it's genuine - read the newbies thread.

if you've not had any other letters - check your v5 is up to date.

under no circumstances contact them

Brie

If your V5 has not been up to date or you discover they have been writing to another address you should tell them to erase that address from their database.  Last thing you want is for a court claim to be sent to the wrong address.

ChrisBristol88

ChirpyChicken said:

I would do nothing.  If you get a court claim via QDR then deal with it, using the help from here.  Engaging with them will neither discourage or encourage them

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I get a court claim won't that inevitably mean it will cost me more? 

ChrisBristol88

DE_612183 said:

yes, it's genuine - read the newbies thread.

if you've not had any other letters - check your v5 is up to date.

under no circumstances contact them

Thanks for the quick reply.

The V5 is up to date; I owned the car at the time and I did park in that car park - I've looked it up and I can recognise it from photos. 

ChirpyChicken

ChrisBristol88 said:

ChirpyChicken said:

I would do nothing.  If you get a court claim via QDR then deal with it, using the help from here.  Engaging with them will neither discourage or encourage them

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I get a court claim won't that inevitably mean it will cost me more? 

definitely not
Your reply is assuming you would lose
The aim is to win and pay Zero

DE_612183

ChrisBristol88 said:

ChirpyChicken said:

I would do nothing.  If you get a court claim via QDR then deal with it, using the help from here.  Engaging with them will neither discourage or encourage them

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I get a court claim won't that inevitably mean it will cost me more? 

only if it gets that far and you lose...which is probably not the case

DE_612183

The letter talks about an "attached statement" - is there a copy of the PCN attached?

ChrisBristol88

ChirpyChicken said:

ChrisBristol88 said:

ChirpyChicken said:

I would do nothing.  If you get a court claim via QDR then deal with it, using the help from here.  Engaging with them will neither discourage or encourage them

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I get a court claim won't that inevitably mean it will cost me more? 

definitely not
Your reply is assuming you would lose
The aim is to win and pay Zero

But why would I expect to win? Assuming I did overstay, which is presumably likely if they have gone to this much trouble - and I have no evidence to the contrary - then surely I may well lose? What's my defence other than 'this is the first I have heard of this'? 

ChrisBristol88

DE_612183 said:

The letter talks about an "attached statement" - is there a copy of the PCN attached?

Not as such, just a table that shows the pcn number, date, contravention, original amount and balance including charges.