Change of VRN - Britannia Parking & BW Legal LBC

Ness10 · 19 November 2019 at 11:13PM

Dear Forum Members,

Advice required on behalf of my son please following Letter of claim letter received from BW Legal with response required in 30 days and reply form to be submitted.

Alleged Contravention

My son parked his car in the normal car park he uses for work. He had a new car and completed the documentation for his personalised number plate from his previous car to applied to the new car and the new number plates with the personalised registration were applied to the new vehicle.

My son received 3 separate PCN's over 3 consecutive days back in August for failure to pay the car parking charges. However, he had actually made the full payment for the vehicle each day as normal via the PayByCar App but unfortunately had not changed the registration number within the App until the 4th day.

An appeal was made to Britannia (unfortunately prior to finding this forum) and an admission was made that he was the driver and the parking had actually been paid for. This was rejected by Britannia with the following response:

"The Parking Charge Notice was issued to your vehicle because you failed to purchase a valid ticket. Please be aware that for payment to be allocated to your vehicle, the FULL AND CORRECT registration must be entered on your PayByPhone account. Should you notice an error, parking can be amended by texting STOP to 65565 within 5 minutes of your transaction.

It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that they have read and understood the terms and conditions for using the car park, and paid for their parking correctly.

Taking into consideration that the full and correct registration number has not been entered, we consider this Parking Charge Notice to be valid and correctly issued.By leaving your vehicle in the car park without a valid ticket you have broken the Terms and Conditions of the Car Park"

We did not appeal to POPLA - again this decision was taken prior to reading this forum. Subsequently debt recovery letters have been received from BW Legal which we have ignored. However, yesterday he received a Letter of Claim letter stating a response is required within 30 days ( by 19th December 2019) otherwise they will issue a claim to the County Court without further notice.

Our question is in relation to the response, there are various options, one of which is " I dispute the debt". We do dispute it as the parking space had been paid for ( we have proof) and it does not matter if it was the old or the new number plate the make and model of the car is the same?

They are asking for separate letter to advise why this is disputed. Do we just put for the reasons above and thus no loss of revenue was encountered by Britannia? Or do we save this for the defence?

We are aware we need to respond now but how should this read? Additionally my son is not in regular paid employment and does not have the money to pay either. Should we also reply that debt advice is being sought and contact StepWise debt charity?

We have followed the Newbies thread and submitted a SARS to Britannia parking. We have requested VPN payment information regarding the old registration number. Do we need to submit a SARS to BW legal too or just notify them we have submitted this to Britannia?

I assume an Acknowledge Service is only completed once a court summons is received?

Many thanks for any supportive and constructive advice you can give. I will continue to read the thread on here with regards to BW Legal etc,

TIA

Redx · 19 November 2019 at 11:56PM

The latter , notify them the SAR went to Britannia and to place the matter on hold due to seeking debt management advice , do not fill in the financial forms

No summons will arrive , this is not a criminal matter

An MCOL will arrive as a civil court claim , Google it , the AOS is done after receipt

Read the newbies FAQ sticky thread post #2 thoroughly

Coupon-mad · 20 November 2019 at 3:18AM

Our question is in relation to the response, there are various options, one of which is " I dispute the debt". We do dispute it as the parking space had been paid for ( we have proof) and it does not matter if it was the old or the new number plate the make and model of the car is the same?

You are not filling in any pieces of paper or ticking boxes. We do not tell people to use the forms.

Do we need to submit a SARS to BW legal too or just notify them we have submitted this to Britannia?

It's a SAR (SARS is a nasty disease, I think!). Anyway SAR only to Britannia.

I assume an Acknowledge Service is only completed once a court summons is received?

Yes.

Now read CEC16's thread about the court hearing on 11th November about why BW Legal and Britannia can't recover £160 for £100 PCN...your son may want to reply to BW Legal just before Christmas (having checked CEC16's thread again mid-December, to make sure BW Legal haven't appealed the decision made at Soton). He can then reply to them asking why they've ignored the findings against them regarding the unrecoverable extra £60 and that he would like a breakdown of how the £160 in his case is supposedly justified, given their beating at Southampton?

That way, he will get into the New Year without a claim until after the holidays, and it will be interesting to see how BW Legal continue to try for £160 even though they know a Judge kicked out their application like a football going out of the stadium!

No link to CEC16's thread given - this is the start of learning how to use the forum well for your son's future research, and starting with looking at a named member's posts.

beamerguy · 20 November 2019 at 9:49AM

BWLegal were kicked out of court earlier this year for ABUSE OF PROCESS, they appealed and in November they lost the appeal and were told they cannot add the fake £60

But as suspected they have ignored the court and are now holding the county courts in contempt.

We would like to know what their explanation is and how they explain the fake £60 add-on.

You should complain to the SRA about the actions of BWLegal

Abuse of Process ... District Judge tells BWLegal
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=6014081

Ness10 · 20 November 2019 at 9:29PM

Thank you for your advice.

I have drafted the letter below following the findings from CEC16 case and following other examples found in the threads.

I intend to send this mid December to BW Legal, prior to the 30 day deadline.
Please could you kindly review and suggest any changes, if required.

TIA Ness10

Dear Sirs,

Your client: Britannia Parking / Reference No: XXXXXXXX/ VRN:XXXXXXX

I am in receipt of your letter of 14th November 2019. Any debt is denied but I am seeking debt advice from a reputable online source. As such, in accordance with the PAP for Debt Claims, you must now put the matter on hold for at least 30 days from receipt of this communication.

I have applied for a SAR to your client and this will give me the chance to also receive and review the data that your client deigns to produce, none of which accompanied your template 'Letter of Claim'.

I realise that personal data does not include a copy of the signage that your client purports bound me to a contract. I now request this and require that you supply all signage photographs and any other items that your client intends to rely upon, after the 30 day period and certainly before commencing court action.

Estimated Claim

This is a baseless claim and pure harassment. The estimated claim is alarmist, intimidating and contains a substantial charge additional to the parking charge, which was not £160 and is in any event, denied in its entirety.

An additional charge - variously described as 'initial legal costs' is not recoverable under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4.

As you are fully aware from findings found against you in the County Court of Southampton, June 2019, it is an abuse of process for a Claimant to issue a knowingly inflated claim for additional sums which it is not entitled to recover and the court will be invited to strike out the claim.

Therefore, can you give an explanation as to why you have ignored the court findings against BW Legal regarding the unrecoverable extra £60? Please can you provide a breakdown of how the £160 in his case is supposedly justified, given the strike out of the claim, made by you, by the judge at Southampton County Court?

Further, CPR 44.3 (2) states:
'' where the amount of costs is to be assessed on the standard basis, the court will –
(a) only allow costs, which are proportionate to the matters in issue. Costs which are disproportionate in amount may be disallowed or reduced even if they were reasonably or necessarily incurred; and

(b) resolve any doubt which it may have as to whether costs were reasonably and proportionately incurred or were reasonable and proportionate in amount in favour of the paying party.

In addition, whilst the CPRs allow interest to be claimed, it is unreasonable to attempt to claim interest where the time that has passed is wholly due to your client's own inaction and choice in failing to pursue this case in a timely fashion.

Further, you have included 'legal costs', despite no solicitor having been involved. Any purported 'legal costs' are made up. According to Ladak v DRC Locums UKEAT/0488/13/LA a Claimant can only recover the direct and provable costs of the time spent preparing the claim in a legal capacity, not any administration costs allegedly incurred by already remunerated administrative staff.

Enclosures

I will not be filling in financial forms. Your parking firm client is not entitled to such data and there is no debt to discuss.

What you need to do now

(a) Advise your client to cancel this meritless proposed claim to avoid wasted legal action; especially given this claim is an abuse of process.

(b) Given that I have duly informed you that the debt is disputed and I am seeking debt advice from a reputable online source, in accordance with the PAP for Debt Claims you must now put the matter on hold for at least 30 days from receipt of this communication.

(c) Once the 30 day period has passed you must comply with the PAP for debt claims and supply me with the requested information that does not fall under the SAR, namely all photographs taken on the material date, showing the signage terms. This must be supplied in advance of any claim in order to comply with the PAP.

How to get in touch
You may contact me by post or email after the 30 days has elapsed

My address for service is: XXXXXX

I trust this is satisfactory and clarifies my position. Should I be dissatisfied with your response and data processing I am within my right to make a complaint to SRA and Information Commissioner's Office.

Yours faithfully,

Coupon-mad · 21 November 2019 at 12:29AM

Very good!

As you are fully aware from findings found against you in the County Court of Southampton at the hearing on 11th November [STRIKE]June[/STRIKE] 2019,

Remove this bit below as we've stopped using it, I can't see a case for arguing about the legal costs and Ladak v Locums doesn't seem to assist:

Further, you have included 'legal costs', despite no solicitor having been involved. Any purported 'legal costs' are made up. According to Ladak v DRC Locums UKEAT/0488/13/LA a Claimant can only recover the direct and provable costs of the time spent preparing the claim in a legal capacity, not any administration costs allegedly incurred by already remunerated administrative staff.

Change of VRN - Britannia Parking & BW Legal LBC

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