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Is this letter a Letter Before Claim ?

silverchoice
silverchoice Posts: 221 Forumite
First Anniversary First Post
in Parking tickets, fines & parking
I parked for too long in a NCP car park in April then got letters from NCP and Trace Debt Recovery all of which I ignored but yesterday I got two letters one from NCP and the other from BW Legal.



Is the letter from BW legal a Letter Before Claim ?

And how should I respond to these letters ?



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Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 178,093 Community Admin
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    Treat it as a Letter before Claim for the simple reason they have mentioned court.

    Send a SAR to NCP and ZZPS. Get proof of posting for all three letters. Come back when you have replies

    With regards to the SAR, follow up after 30 days and if they don't reply complain to the ICO

    See an example here

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5876564#5
  • silverchoice
    silverchoice Posts: 221 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    What is SAR and ZZPS ?
  • Umkomaas
    Umkomaas Posts: 41,336 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post Photogenic
    edited 2 August 2018 at 10:35AM
    SAR = Subject Access Request

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5849784

    ZZPS = debt collector company vulturing around the private parking sector, but I think in your case it's Trace Debt Recovery (same type of vulture!).
    Please note, we are not a legal advice forum. I personally don't get involved in critiquing court case Defences/Witness Statements, so unable to help on that front. Please don't ask. .

    I provide only my personal opinion, it is not a legal opinion, it is simply a personal one. I am not a lawyer.

    Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

    Private Parking Firms - Killing the High Street
  • silverchoice
    silverchoice Posts: 221 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    IamEmanresu wrote: »
    Treat it as a Letter before Claim for the simple reason they have mentioned court.

    Send a SAR to NCP and ZZPS. Get proof of posting for all three letters. Come back when you have replies

    With regards to the SAR, follow up after 30 days and if they don't reply complain to the ICO

    See an example here

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5876564#5


    So I need to send letters to NCP, BW Legal and Trace Debt Recovery ?
  • The_Deep
    The_Deep Posts: 16,830 Forumite
    This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

    Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

    Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

    The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the House of Commons recently

    http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41 recently.

    and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.
    You never know how far you can go until you go too far.
  • The_Slithy_Tove
    The_Slithy_Tove Posts: 4,024 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    I'd say it is not an LBC.

    They are saying that if you don't pay, they'll go back to their client to recommend making a claim - not the same thing. And they even say "upon being served with a Letter of Claim."
  • silverchoice
    silverchoice Posts: 221 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    The_Slithy_Tove wrote: »
    I'd say it is not an LBC.

    They are saying that if you don't pay, they'll go back to their client to recommend making a claim - not the same thing. And they even say "upon being served with a Letter of Claim."

    Should I reply to this letter or wait to see if I receive a Letter if Claim ?
  • KeithP
    KeithP Posts: 37,584 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    silverchoice wrote: »
    Should I reply to this letter or wait to see if I receive a Letter if Claim ?
    I would say ignore it, but clearly there are other opinions out there.
  • silverchoice
    silverchoice Posts: 221 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    I've just received the letter of claim today so do I need to send letters to NCP, BW Legal and Trace Debt Recovery ?
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    If this is a proper lbcca then respond to whoever sent it


    (Never contact a debt collector)


    How to respond to a lbcca is covered in the newbies faq #2
This discussion has been closed.
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