PCN Parking Awareness/Vanquish/ DebtLogic/ BW legal

[Giselle]

long boring story, will summarise in bullet points
1- Early August 2016 parked and paid for weekend parking in a car park in Blackpool (near to my band b)- no notices on car.
2- received Parking Charge notice (unfortunately did not keep envelope with post mark on) but dated 10th August. Supposedly for "not parked fully within the confines of a marked bay"
3- early September 2016 replied requesting evidence of alleged infringement sent signed for 1st class
4- letter in September from Parking Awareness directing me to a link to "review the evidence" which when followed did no such thing but took me to a payment page.
5-letter early October 2016 "Final Demand" letter big red writing from parking awareness "court proceedings may begin" etc
6- mid October replied using first class signed for requesting evidence as unable to view on line.
7-letters early November and late October 2016 Vanquish debt recovery second one stating "final demand prior to legal action" -replied to this one requesting for the third time photographic evidence sent to both vanquish and parking awareness.(signed for)
8 Late February 2017 received grainy photo from parking awareness showing car parked barely touching the inside of the white line but also showing large car parked in adjacent bay. (there were cars parked either side of me as I made a trip to my car to pay for more parking as I could not secure a free spot outside the hotel).
9- have various other letters including "letter before court claim" from debt logic but on researching they do not fulfill the criteria being only another demand for payment and a recommendation that their client proceed with county court claim. Ignored.
10- 18th April 2018 letter from Parking Awreness "Your account has been passed to our legal team"with letter from BW legal " blah blah blah we will seek our client's instructions to commence legal proceedings against you"
11- 28th April 2018 phone call from someone with Leeds number wanting to ask me "security questions" took it as a spam call and hung up. Put two and two together and realised it was BW legal. Wouldn't have even picked up normally but I have connections with Leeds so thought it might be someone I know.

I am waiting to receive the correct legal notice before court action documents which should contain some kind of indication of the date of the hearing and forms to fill in and return- thus far only a nice helpful little direct debit form and plenty of instructions on how to pay and lots of capital letters.
once received I will of course contact the court to check they are genuine.

Once it gets to that point I need to to write my defence. (Already jotted a few points down)
Mentioned here and on money saving expert are witness statements etc and that is where it gets a bit soupy and I will need some guidance.
quite happy to go to court but need to do it properly should it come to it.


Will update when/if I get what I think is the proper paperwork.

I do worry that through ignorance I may have done the incorrect thing in contacting them to try to get "proof" but here we are.

[ostell]

Touching the line is not outside the bay, over the line is.

It sounds like they have sent a Letter before Claim, is it entitled that or similar? They have to give you 30 days to respond. You can now ask them again to provide you with the documents they will be using in court in support of their claim in order to narrow the arguments, as they are supposed to do to save wasting the courts time.

The process is that you will receive a form from Northampton Court giving details of the claim. You immediately acknowledge receipt of the claim by using the details and password on the form, but don't put anything in the defence. This gives you 33 days from the date of issue of the form to prepare your defence and submit it to the court. Once that is received you will then get another form from the court, the directions Questionnaire. This allows you to select the court of your choice. You return this to the court and BW Legal (if they have issued the claim). Then you will get a date for the hearing and instructions to provide a witness statement to the court a few days before the hearing date, usually 14 but can be different. It is important to keep to the timings.

Defence is why you are not liable for the debt, Witness statement is the story of what happened, much like your first post.

[Giselle]

Touching the line is not outside the bay, over the line is.

It sounds like they have sent a Letter before Claim, is it entitled that or similar? They have to give you 30 days to respond. You can now ask them again to provide you with the documents they will be using in court in support of their claim in order to narrow the arguments, as they are supposed to do to save wasting the courts time.

The process is that you will receive a form from Northampton Court giving details of the claim. You immediately acknowledge receipt of the claim by using the details and password on the form, but don't put anything in the defence. This gives you 33 days from the date of issue of the form to prepare your defence and submit it to the court. Once that is received you will then get another form from the court, the directions Questionnaire. This allows you to select the court of your choice. You return this to the court and BW Legal (if they have issued the claim). Then you will get a date for the hearing and instructions to provide a witness statement to the court a few days before the hearing date, usually 14 but can be different. It is important to keep to the timings.

Defence is why you are not liable for the debt, Witness statement is the story of what happened, much like your first post.

Thankyou Ostell,
It is not yet a "letter before claim" but appears to be letter before letter before claim ! - still full of ifs and buts. Also keeping a log of the regular calls with messages helpfully directing me to my "account" and how to pay from BW legal- which are getting tiresome and wonder if they could be deemed harassment.
Just waiting for them to get on with it and issue the proper documentation or cease and desist. Not bothered which. Will keep you posted.

[NIGELP]

Yes, Ostell's outline of events is smack on. I'm way ahead of you with a court hearing scheduled for early July. Just finished by Witness statement and got all relevant docs photocopied.....phew.
If you take it one step at a time then it all makes sense. Don't panic!
No real need to do anything until you receive the details of Claim Court Papers....then you can do most of this form filling of your defense on line.
They usually sign them as BWLegal and not as they are legally supposed to do as an individual representing BWLegal. It is one of several lines of defense I'm using.

Their latest trick is wait until a month before the hearing then write 2 letters to you...one tellign you how unlikely you are to win in court and another offering you a discount if you pay within 14 days. They are cynical shysters and I wish I was knowledgeable enough to sue their ass for 6 years of harassment..