I used this letter, no response, is it a success?

[moongarden3]

I would be interested to see what you guys think. First letter:

23rd June 2008

Dear Sirs,

Re: Parking charge notice number 12080523445

I received your letter issued 5th June and note that there has been some delay in your contacting me as I have been awaiting DVLA to change the vehicle into my ownership.

Your “Charge Certificate” states that the date of the charge is 23rd May 2008 however the very same document details that the vehicle entered the car park at 21:39 on that date. Therefore it is worth noting that the vehicle could only have been parked in the car park for some 2 hours and 21 minutes on 23rd May 2008.

I note the sum, in the amount of £95.00 reduced amount of £75.00 if paid within 14 days, appears to be a penalty rather than a true reflection of your costs in this matter. I therefore believe that this is in contravention of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 under which a party to the contract cannot claim a “penalty” charge, only recover reasonable losses created by a breach. As you may already be aware the sum is to be regarded as a penalty if it is greater than even the greatest loss which could be suffered from the breach. With regard to the costs I note that within 21 minutes of the vehicle having arrived all the retail premises on the park had closed, with the exception of McDonalds which has its own car park, and that both on arrival and departure the car park was mostly empty. It is therefore unlikely that the presence of my vehicle incurred any costs in lost retail revenue for the retailers on the park.

Please send me a calculation or explanation of your costs in this matter. If I have not heard from you within 14 days of the date of this letter I shall assume you have sent the “Charge Certificate” in error and I will consider the matter closed.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Response received 3 days later to say appeal unsuccessful.

Second letter:

 

30th June 2008

Dear Sirs,

Re: Parking charge notice number 12080523445

Regarding your letter dated 25th June I note that you have not responded with an outline of your costs in this matter, and that your decision is that my “appeal has been unsuccessful”.

As I stated in my letter of 23rd June I do not believe that this penalty charge is lawful with respect to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act 1999. Under the terms of the above Acts I therefore reiterate my request that you supply me with an explanation of your costs in this matter.

If you are unsure as to the nature of the legislation above please forward this letter to your legal representative.

I do not intend to pay this penalty as I believe it to be unlawful.

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

They were very quick to respond to the first letter so I'm now wondering if I can consider the matter closed? I'd love to hear your opinions!

 

Thanks

[Al27]

They'll either be rubbing their hands that you bothered getting in touch, since you could now be a candidate to pay up (if you're rattled enough to buy a stamp, you could eventually pay up if ground down) - or your correspondence will be ignored and have no bearing on how many letters they will send you.

 

Either way, I doubt they'll give up yet. Expect more letters.

 

Personally I'm in the never ever contact them camp and until we see someone standing in court being criticised for not getting in touch, I'm struggling to see any benefit in writing.

[Barnsley Boy]

I quite like using the templates myself, although, for the easiest least hassle solution which is what most people wish, I advocate Al27's route is just ignoring completely.

 

Both approaches have their strengths and drawbacks. What I do not see the point in doing is engaging with the [problematic]. If you wish to write letters they are wasted on the [problematic]. Just use the templates, collect the outrageous replies and save your letter writing energies for the complaints [OFT, Trading Standards, DVLA etc etc -]

[gwc1000]

I'm struggling to see any benefit in writing.

 

Well, it can be fun, just to wind them up. For instance after I received a LBA from one I replied: "I am pleased to note that you intend to issue proceedings in the County Court within the next seven days as I also would prefer this matter to be settled by the Court. I look forward to receiving the relevant Court papers." That was nine months ago, and never heard another thing.

[lamma]

Nice. A quick "see you in court". wonder why they didn't ? :)

[Al27]

Yep, if you're up for a bit of cheekiness and don't mind paying for a few stamps you'll be able to run rings round them with some well crafted letters.

 

For most newbies, I still think ignoring is best though.

[moongarden3]

I think its part of the fun Al27.

 

You are right about not responding unless you have a bit more experience dealing with these things. 4 years ago when I first started getting my finances sorted from being in a lot of debt (C£20k) I would have been terrified and trying to make arrangements to pay them in installments!

 

Now i'm debt free and they are only asking for £90 so I thought I'd have a bit of fun standing up to them.