DCB LEGAL, SMART PARKING Court Claim

Harlie21

Hi,

I recently received this letter of claim from DCB legal.

I have read the newbies thread and have found this template to send:

“Dear Sirs,

Your ref: [insert reference number]

Proposed legal proceedings

Claimant: [insert name of parking company]

I refer to your letter of claim.

I confirm that my address for service for the time being is as follows, and any older address must be erased from your records:

[Insert correct address here]

You should revert to your client because the 'propensity to pay' score in my case is zero, so any claim is hopeless and a waste of the court fee (whether 'fronted' by your firm or not). Move on to weaker victims.

The alleged 'debt' is disputed and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

Yours faithfully,

---“

It says on the thread not to send this by post, so do I send via the email address supplied on the email?

Additionally, should I be requesting proof of the alleged offence and original PCN? As I don’t recall receiving one and additionally, I don’t even recognise the registration of the car - albeit it may have been a courtesy car I was using at the time, however I am sure I have never owned a vehicle with that registration.

I have also sent an email to the landowner to request them to get the charge cancelled.

Can anyone reassure me that I’m going all the right things? And is there anything else I should be doing? I really don’t want this to escalate to court.

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Gr1pr

Yes email the response to their info@ email address

You can demand those other things and state that you do not recognise any of these allegations or the VRM details

Yes you are doing the correct things

You do want a court claim

You should not care if it goes to your local civil court because they will discontinue before the hearing fee is due to be paid to your local civil court

It won't get to a hearing, because they always discontinue especially with Smart Parking claims

You have come to the correct place for assistance

Harlie21

Thanks for your reply and reassurance.

I have sent the following via email and will update the thread when I get a response!

Dear Sirs,

Your ref: —

Proposed legal proceedings

Claimant: Smart Parking Limited

I refer to your letter of claim.

I confirm that my address for service for the time being is as follows, and any old addresses must be erased from your records:

—

I do not recognise the vehicle registration referenced within your correspondence. Given that the alleged incident dates back to August 2021, I require further information in accordance with the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims, please provide:

• A copy of the original Parking Charge Notice;
• Copies of all photographs relied upon;
• Evidence of the alleged contravention;
• Copies of the signage terms in place at the material time;
• Evidence of your client’s authority to operate and litigate on the land;
• Evidence linking me to the vehicle in question.

You should revert to your client because the 'propensity to pay' score in my case is zero, so any claim is hopeless and a waste of the court fee (whether 'fronted' by your firm or not). Move on to weaker victims.

The alleged 'debt' is disputed and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

Yours faithfully,

—-

Coupon-mad

Good!

Now promise us NOT to post their template response to that here. Please never again!

🙂

Harlie21

So I’ve received their reply via email.

They haven’t included the initial PCN but have included pictures of the vehicle entering/leaving the carpark. This is definitely not one of my cars, however it could be a courtesy car that I was using at the time.

The time stamps show the car entered at 11.08 and left at 12.17 - I assume that only an hour of parking was paid for but do you not legally get a 10minute grace period?

My question is - what do I do next? Is it just a case of waiting to see if they issue a court case against me?

I have read the newbies thread but I’m mostly concerned that due to the time passed, I don’t even recall this incident and therefore have no defence as such.

Harlie21

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Gr1pr

Its Smart Parking, everyone has a defence, most of it is written for you in the defence template thread in announcements near the top of the forum, but you will probably use the template by member meltof posted on 12th April in the group thread by member sluzz

The BPA Code of Practice in force on the incident date mentions the minimum 10 minutes grace period to leave at the end of an authorised parking session, please read it. ( there are no regulations, its not statutory. )

Wait For the court claim pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL to arrive in the post in due course

Harlie21

Hi!

So I received the court pack on Saturday and I was leaving it 5 days after the issue date to acknowledge it, as advised on here.

I took it to work with me to start yesterday and it’s gone walkies - do you have any idea who do I contact? As I have no court reference number or anything and am obviously quite stressed about the 14 day time limit.

Thanks in advance!

Gr1pr

Have you lost the whole pack. ? Or just the actual claim form. ?

Do you have the claim reference number. ?

You could try phoning the CNBC in Northampton helpline to get the claim reference number and a copy of the POC from the lower left of the claim form

But

If it were me, and if the reference number was known, I would do the following 3 actions

1. Download the AOS pdf document, fill it in and email it to the AOS email address shown in the first post in the defence template thread in announcements, in the picture, at the top, checking for the auto response email back in your inbox and spam folders a proof of receipt
2. I would then copy and paste the template defence by member meltof dated 12th April into a word document , add a header with the Claim Reference Number, and the 2 parties, Smart Parking vs yourself, so your name and address below theirs, add the current defence statement of truth at the bottom, e sign it and add the date too, save it as a docx document, then SAVE AS and choose pdf and save it

3. Once 2 is completed , I would add the pdf as an attachment to an email addressed to the claim responses email address in that earlier picture ( below the AOS address ) , send it to the CNBC in Northampton and check for the email auto response proving receipt in your inbox or spam folder, so all old school due to losing the claim pack

And

Please edit your thread title to something more suitable like

DCB LEGAL, SMART PARKING Court Claim

Harlie21

I’ve lost the whole pack, it was in an envelope as I was intending to go through it during my break but work was crazy and I never got chance. So I don’t even have the reference number which is why I’m very very stressed. Currently on hold to CNBC, 11 in the queue - hoping they can help!

Harlie21

Thank you for your advice!! I have edited the thread title - really appreciate it!