DCB Legal - 4 years later.

DL58

Hi All, thanks to advice on this forum a few years ago I successfully defended an earlier claim.

I now have two further claims from DCB legal, on 9f which has reached the Court Claim stage and I would appreciate some advice.

The original claim was for an overstay at a car park in July 2022. Using advice from this forum, I appealed and the charge was quashed. I kept a copy of the letter in case I received further claims but none came so after about 12 months I disposed of the letter and thought no more about it. To my surprise late in 2025 I received a letter from DCB legal threatening action. Rightly or wrongly I thought this must be an admin error and ignored it. Yesterday I received the the letter from HMC& TS that I have to respond to.

What I am unsure about is do I just use the template defence that worked for me last time. Or do I defend from the point of view that I mention that the original change was quashed when I have no evidence of this?to take this approach would mean an admission that I was driving the car at the time and I had overstayed (very slightly)

The second case is a similar one of a charge that was cancelled when I was staying at a hotel in 2022 and was not aware they had changed the booking in procedure. This was cancelled by the hotel as I was a very regular customer and they knew I made a genuine mistake. Again this has resurfaced after more than 4 years but hasn't got to the court stage yet. So any advice on the first case would also help here.

An ideas why this has taken them so long?

Many Thanks

Gr1pr

Neither, you use the template defence by coupon mad in announcements at the top of the forum, if you have a Money claim n1sdt pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL. ?

Posr the name of the claimant parking company, plus presumably its via DCB LEGAL ?

Post the Issue date from the top right of the claim form below

Post a redacted picture of the POC from the lower left of the claim form below after hiding the VRM details first

The claimant has 6 years to issue a court claim, so these bottom feeding lawyers are hoovering up tens of thousands of these outstanding invoices, standard stuff, nothing to see there, irrelevant really

Use the LoC response template to the second one, but ideally start a new thread about that case when the Money Claim arrives in the post in due course

Umkomaas

Make sure you acknowledge service (AOS) of the claim, within 19 days of its issue date. That gives you a further 14 days (33 in total from the claim issue date) to get your Defence submitted.

It is important that you follow to the letter, the 8 Steps in post #1 of the Template Defence Announcement, one of the pinned threads near the top of the forum thread index.

DL58

Thanks both

The claimant is

Smart Parking Limited

5 South Inch Business Centre

Shore Road

Perth

PH2 8BW

Yes it's via DCB legal based in Runcorn

Issue Date 24th July 2026.

An image of the POC is attached

Car1980

Use the latest template defence.

Although to honest, you could put a Shakespeare sonnet on your form because it will discontinued at Christmas / new year.

Gr1pr

Use the latest Smart Parking template defence in the thread by sluzz, 11 paragraphs, after completing the AOS stage online first

Coupon-mad

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82088577#Comment_82088577

Yep use that one, posted in that thread by Meltof. You can add near the start that this parking charge was cancelled years ago.

There is a current tsunami of Smart Parking claims. So much so, that I now have copy & paste advice ready:

Just click on the username @Meltof

Copy their version of a Smart Parking final defence posted on April 12th. Obviously, as they didn't use the POFA until 2025, theres no 'keeper liability' possible with Smart's claims for old PCNs.


These claims are all the same (none go to hearings) and the sheer numbers of Smart Parking claim threads - about half a dozen new ones EVERY DAY here - have driven us regulars a bit mad recently, with this batch!

Literally read any Smart thread…

Follow the 8 steps in the Template Defence thread which also covers Mediation.

It'll be discontinued just before the hearing fee falls due in the Winter.

Read @Umkomaas' thread of over 900 examples & counting! Yours will be on that list.

patient_dream

100% AS ABOVE

SMART have been going through their rubbish bin again

Standard claim from DCBL with a BIG BUZZ word and that is DAMAGES ?

There are no damages, IT IS A FAKE CLAIM ?

DCBL are MISLEADING YOU AND THE COURT

The fake add-on is a form of DOUBLE RECOVERY which the courts do not allow. Doubtful it will ever reach court as DCBL will discontinue

Play the game with DCBL, Ignore any feeble attempt from them offering discounts

Le_Kirk

With an issue date of 24/07/26 and providing you complete(d) the AoS before or on 12/08/26 your defence deadline date is 4.00 p.m. on 26/08/26