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    • Not at all.  The onus is on them to ensure that their invoice respects the provisions of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 to establish keeper liability.  Which it can't as the area is covered by bye-laws. Spot on. Irrelevant as to whether you entered into a contract with VCS to pay them £100 if you didn't obey what was written on their silly signs. Who cares?  What about their ridiculous generic Particulars of Claim where they deliberately mix up driver and keeper. And where do they mention this?  You haven't shown us anything. Of course you have to prepare a Witness Statement and you'd better get on with it. This is the problem here - you've disappeared for months & months, haven't kept us updated and presumably haven't read other VCS threads.  That needs to change - now. Otherwise you will lose - simple as that. For a start - please upload the court order which fixes the hearing date plus plus where "VCS mentioned my initial defence was generic and clearly copied from the internet".  We're not mind readers.
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    • Hi,  It has been a long time but I have had confirmation claim will proceed to hearing in roughly 1 months time.  I was wondering if anyone could advise on defence please.  A few questions I have are: 1) I didn't notify VCS that I was not the driver of the vehicle and the judge may look negatively on this point.  I did not receive any direction in correspondence from VCS  that I should inform them if I was not the driver and that was going to be the foundation for may argument on this point. 2) The vehicle is stopped at a zebra crossing.  Based on the images from VCS for around 10 seconds.  At that time there is someone standing near the zebra crossing and someone else enters my vehicle.  I was going to raise the point that stopping at a zebra crossing when someone is standing near it is to be expected.  I was also going to ask the question how you can have a no stopping zone when there are zebra crossings where the driver is required to stop. 3) The no stopping zone is clearly signposted, however, no drop off or pickup is not clearly signposted with one small sign at the zebra crossing, parallel to the road and on the passengers side.  I was going to challenge that no-drop off or pickup is clearly signposted.  4) VCS mentioned my initial defence was generic and clearly copied from the internet.  It covered 1) Claimant not being in a position to state if the Defendant was the driver at the time.  2) No evidence that claimant's contract with landowner supersedes byelaws & signage isn't legally binding contract. 3) No contractual costs and interest cannot be accrued on speculative charge. I am interested to know if anyone has had success or been unsuccessful with this 'generic' defence. 5) If I should submit an updated defence to the court based on questions 1, 2 & 3.  Or if it is better to only raise these points in court? Thanks.  Any guidance would be appreciated  
    • I honestly don't know, Baz. In addition what I don't  understand (from that pamphlet) is this: The s88 criteria are quite clear and don't need a medical professional to interpret them . The one most relevant to his topic says that an application is not a "qualifying application" if a relevant disability has been declared. The problem with the word "may" is how does the applicant establish whether me "may" driver under s88 when he has not complied with its conditions? I don't know the answer to that either. But to further muddy the waters, the pamphlet says this (about : But the s88 statute says absolutely nothing like that at all. It simply says that if you have declared a relevant disability s88 does not apply. The DVLA pamphlet is simply confusing as far as I can see. That's actually my opinion and that's what I would stick to if it was me making the application. But I'll seek a few opinions from others over the next couple of days.
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Utility Investigation by LCS? What is this?


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Now as shown in a previous post here there has been a debt issue with some previous tenants but I have not heard about anything else until now.

 

I have had a letter through addressed as "FAO Occupier/Landlord" at my address from LCS Civil Enforcement/1st Locate. This letter basically goes on to explain that they have undertaken an investigation into Utility supply at my address. They DO NOT mention any client's name or any amount of money that is possibly owed. The letter goes on to request a bunch of details about the current occupier, the date of occupancy, the previous tenant and the Landlord's details in order to apparently "conclude" their findings and "eradicate" myself from the investigation.

 

Now, I'm unsure what to do with this. Do I ignore it as they seem to be fishing for details and any debt at the address certainly isn't mine? Do I give it to the Lettings Agency whom are the property managers for the property I am in? If I ignore it will there be further reprocussions? If I give it to the Lettings Agency I run the risk of them passing all the details across which I'd be unhappy about as I have said any debt isn't mine and I have all bills, agreements and paperwork associated with my tenancy to prove it (I got nothin' to hide!). I'd be grateful for any insight or advice you guys have!

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Now as shown in a previous post here there has been a debt issue with some previous tenants but I have not heard about anything else until now.

 

I have had a letter through addressed as "FAO Occupier/Landlord" at my address from LCS Civil Enforcement/1st Locate. This letter basically goes on to explain that they have undertaken an investigation into Utility supply at my address. They DO NOT mention any client's name or any amount of money that is possibly owed. The letter goes on to request a bunch of details about the current occupier, the date of occupancy, the previous tenant and the Landlord's details in order to apparently "conclude" their findings and "eradicate" myself from the investigation.

 

Now, I'm unsure what to do with this. Do I ignore it as they seem to be fishing for details and any debt at the address certainly isn't mine? Do I give it to the Lettings Agency whom are the property managers for the property I am in? If I ignore it will there be further reprocussions? If I give it to the Lettings Agency I run the risk of them passing all the details across which I'd be unhappy about as I have said any debt isn't mine and I have all bills, agreements and paperwork associated with my tenancy to prove it (I got nothin' to hide!). I'd be grateful for any insight or advice you guys have!

 

 

Your best bet is to pass this onto your Letting Agents, it certainly sounds like they are fishing around for some information now but if you leave it they may assume that its you that is responsible and there may be follow ups.

 

Ask the Letting Agents to contact the letter writers or supplier and provide your tenancy agreement and also to provide details of said people who are responsible The Agents should have this on file and help you out.

 

Alternatively, you could ask for an address or email/fax to issue your own copy of t/a and paid bills and this will highlight that the people responsible are no longer there and then they will follow their own tracing procedures.

 

Please dont ignore this.

ARGH COMPLAINTS!!!

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  • 5 months later...

Just received one of the letters from LCS--sounds like the same thing. Doesn't sound Kosher to me--too many spelling errors and typos. Their web page is just a single page too. No name on it, just owner /occupier. I have nothing to hide but neither do I have time to waste on what appears to be a [problem]! It will go straight in the bin!

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  • 4 weeks later...

In response to the above questions-LCS is a real company and work for various Utility Companies. The information is given by the Utility Company and sometimes is incomplete; ie Occupier-therefore it's a balancing act between giving information away (Data Protection) and asking for information. Q1-Ask the Letting Agents to contact LCS (it's their job!)Hope this helps

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  • 4 months later...

I believe recently there was abit of a scandal where these companie were cold calling customers out of the phone books to estalish who they were before pursuing their "investigations"

 

My name is a fairly common name and i was cold called and the person asked if they could speak to a Mr xxxx xxxxx . I refused and instead asked who they were what the nature of their query was and where they had got the details of the person they were seeking from and where they had got my details

 

The caller made some excuses and hung off

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  • 1 month later...

These people are just fishing for information, I just had a descent call with a guy who ummed and arred a bit when I told him I didnt have to give him my details but was very polite when I told him that the debt had nothing to do with me as the person they were looking for had moved out well over a year before I had moved in, thats all he needed to know and that was all I was going to tell him, Im a bit cross with British Gas though (their debt) as they know full well when I moved in as I was their customer when I did moved in here so they should have passed those details on to this debt company in the first case. However they did ask for my landlords number so that they could contact them but I declined knowing full well my landlord would not give out this info... Strange that BG are chasing a debt for no one being here for the times that they have stated.. maybe there was a ghost here that was cold and used the gas or electric to keep warm..

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Q1-Ask the Letting Agents to contact LCS (it's their job!)Hope this helps

What makes you think' its there job' to contact LCS?? Letting agents are NOT obliged to give out this information unless a court has made an order for them to do so.

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It looks as if LCS's fishing expedition will catch nobody !!

 

Dizziewizzle

 

My advice to you is to ignore LCS. If I owed nothing and could prove it I would not want to give out my details or anybody's to anyone least of all a DCA.

 

Utilities have from the start made a mess of 'deemed' contracts and it is not up to you to help them out. I find it curious that a utility does not do its own dirty work - perhaps they are relying on the fearsome (not) reputation of DCA's to buy an answer

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I have just got my flat back having let it and have one of these leters, I contacted LSC and asked for info, they were incredibly cagey stated it was utility debt for a month in 2008, I was not in the property at the time it was managed by an agency. LSC could not give name of the customer on utility bill which sounded rubbish, they seem to be fishing for a mug, I gave the letting agency tel number but LSC are adamant that I am liable as the landlord, they said £140 if property was empty, they sugested it was a void period who was brurning the lecky, letting agency leaving fridge on would not run up £140

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Sorry to bump this, but does anyone have thoughts or advice? Anything? :)

 

Hello

 

Sounds like its this PEOPLE SEARCH,using the electoral roll and voters roll or let one of our Trace Investigators find them for you

 

they work for solicitors/utility companies,All are just debt collects trying to find out where people live,moved to and so on.

 

they seam to go under a lot of different names to trick innocent people into giving out details/names and so on :mad:

 

We had a load's of letters from this lot a few years ago looking for a tennant who left with large debts.

 

If you get letters with the last part of the return address is

 

Leeds LS11

 

It's them

 

If you get a letter like that addressed to the Occupier/Landlord or someone you never heard of don't open it,just mark the letters return to send/not know or left this address,then pop them in post box next time you go out.

 

They also use a firm based in Redditch/Evesham,but i cant remember the address for that one.

Edited by 45002

Please use the quote system, So everyone will know what your referring too, thank you ...

 

 

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If someone owes money and have just buggered off telling no-one where they went, I would want to help the company find them. At least then, they would have to face up to their responsibilities and deal with the matter - not just run away.

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Hi,

Thanks for the information in the last but one thread, as I have received a text and 2 letters from these people addressed to Owner/Occupier.

 

I have a debt with my utility supplier and am paying them as per our agreement. However, since this agreement was put in place, I still get letters from debt collection agencies (7 different companies so far). I write to them and explain the situation. I get no reply from them, but then another company writes to me roughly 4-6 months later! So it looks as though each company knowing that the debt has been managed, just sells it on to another agency trying to recoup some money. Honour amongst thieves? More like poetic justice!

 

In reply to the very last post, may I just point out that no-one knows if anyone else has left behind a debt, ..... ever. Or whether someone has come up with a new [problem]. And I would not trust a debt collection agency or a company that cannot even be bothered to search the electoral roll for the name of the occupier. And I certainly would not do their job for them.

 

Also I find it very difficult to believe they cannot get this information quite easily.LCS got hold of my mobile number, and asked me to 'phone them on a premium rate number. I certainly didn't give it to them and had never heard of them until today. Which means they did do some research and so must have my name somewhere.

 

I lived in a property for 10 years and was on the electoral roll there for all of that time. Out of the blue and after 8 years I received a letter from a similar company, addressed to another person. This person - they said - was supposed to have lived at my address, ordered something and collected it from my address and hadn't paid for it whilst I was living there! I made the mistake of phoning that company to inform them that they had made a mistake and was treated to the most awful phone calls saying that I had to prove to them that I was not the person in the letter!!

 

All I would say is tread cautiously and check facts before judging.

Edited by Eaglewoman
Grammar
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  • 1 year later...

In my case, when I got the LCS letter I knew a relative of mine who lived before at my current address had a utility debt, so I contacted him and we made the arrangements to pay, so far so good, BUT one day after being paying for a while we wanted to check how much more was left of the debt and to our surprise my relative had overpaid around 50 pounds and we got no letter advising him of the overpayment. We contacted LCS by email explaining, but no answer, not only that but what we got was a letter when the next payment would have been due, an instalment default notice and this time the total balance was even MORE than the original debt, hahahahaha. We contacted them again and can you all believe that until now, and it has been 2 months since we first contacted them, nothing has been done!!!:x

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