VCS 2*windscreen PCN's Claimform - Monty Hind Car Park Nottingham NG7 2LX, Leengate Staff and Visitor Car Park Nottingham NG72LX

[FTMDave]

I've converted the image to PDF so only registered Caggers can view it - best to keep the fleecers guessing.

 

The letters are a load of hot air from paper tiger debt collectors who have no power as they are not their debts.  Something to laugh at, ignore, and file away.

 

I see from the reference that VCS are the parking company.

 

You can only get a CCJ if you are taken to court, lose the court case, and then still refuse to pay.  Relax about CCJs.

 

How important is it to you that your parents aren't hassled with these letters?  You can just leave things as they are or send a short letter to VCS giving your new address.

 

People who get CCJs on the forum are invariably people who have moved, never got the court papers which turned up at their old address, and knew nothing about the court case - so consider this when documentation is arriving at an address which isn't yours.

 

I think it would be a good idea to SAR VCS to find out what they are pursuing you for.

 

 

[FTMDave]

Understood.  So the important thing is to learn from this past negative experience, get genned up a bit about the law, and see the logic of what you should ignore and what you shouldn't.

 

Generic "threatening" letters about what might/could/may happen to you if you don't answer are toilet paper.  This rubbish from DCBL is the even worse, your debt, if it exists, is with the VCS parking company, DCBL are an uninterested third party who have as much power as the dead rat in the middle of the road that i saw a bird feeding off on my drive home this evening (really!)

 

You should never ignore a Letter Before Action/Letter Before Claim though, which is formal notice of intention to start legal proceedings.

 

And it is madness to ignore documents form the court, since if you do you will lose by default.  I suspect you did this when you were at Uni.

 

First question to sort out a way forward.  Are you happy that these letters continue to arrive at your parents' address or do you prefer to use your own address?

[FTMDave]

Sometimes you refer to one letter/PCN, sometimes to two.  Which is it?

 

For the third time, do you want to fight this from your parents' address or your own?

[FTMDave]

OK, thanks for clarifying things.

 

The time to take PPCs seriously is when they send out a Letter Before Claim.  Anything before is hot air.  So you can safely ignore the DCBL letter.

 

However, to fight VCS it'll be essential to find out what they are claiming you did wrong.  Therefore I suggest you SAR them straight away.  It's free.

 

Bear in mind that VCS are conmen trying to scare you into paying up.  Let's imagine for a minute that they are right and you are wrong and you really did do something you shouldn't have with your car, twice.  In that case you owe them 2 x £100.  You do not owe 2 x £160.  The extra 2 x £60 has no basis in law and has been simply made up by VCS.

[FTMDave]

I note you send a SAR to VCS - and they send you a PCN issued by Excel! 

 

Simon does have problems working out who he is.

 

Still, better to know the invoice was issued than to be in the dark.

 

As dx says, ignore Simon unless you get a letter before claim, but also as dx says it would be useful if you could post up which car parks correspond to which PCNs, as all this mixing up VCS with Excel could well work in your favour further down the line.

[FTMDave]

Did you receive a Letter Before Claim?

[FTMDave]

Yes, I remember you posted it up in your first post.

 

But before starting actual court action they are supposed to send you a letter headed Letter Before Claim or Letter Before Action.  Did one of these turn up?

[FTMDave]

At the moment court hearings are virtual, so if the matter gets to court during COVID the hearing will be done by phone, Zoom, etc., with no physical travelling involved.

[FTMDave]

I've been joining the dots, and see these two invoices are the ones that DCBL wrote to you about.  It's of secondary importance at the moment, but what about the other two?  Is one of the others the one you paid?  And the fourth one?

 

Anyway, you talk about if you should pay or not.  As a campaigning consumer website we'd prefer it if you fought it!  In any case, when someone prefers to give in it makes sense to give in when the PPC want 2 x £60, not when they want 2 x £100 or even worse when they make up fictitious fees and demand 2 x £160.  The difference in monies between paying now, and paying after losing in court, is very small, so it makes sense to fight it.

 

VCS are eminently beatable, if you look at threads near yours you'll see that Slaughter64 yesterday gave Simon a hammering in court.  I hope Slaughter64 doesn't mind me mentioning that he/she was initially very reluctant to deal with court, but later built up a cracking case to thrash VCS.

 

As dx says, get the AOS and CPR request done.

 

So we can build up an idea of how to fight VCS, can you give us two brief descriptions of what went on in the two car parks and what VCS are claiming you did wrong.

[FTMDave]

The fleecers have quoted two different car parks, but with the same post code, and from a web search there are articles in the local rag about building a new car park near "Monty Hide" and "Leengate".  So is it the same car park twice?

[FTMDave]

So - are these two different car parks, or the same one?

[FTMDave]

On 07/01/2021 at 22:21, ats101 said:

Doing some forward thinking

In this vein, we need to start picking holes in VCS's claim.

 

Normally we would say to return to the car park and take photos of the signs.  Yesterday I saw one of Simple Simon's signs where the £100 charge was written in electron-microscope readable writing right at the bottom of a huge list of information.  We had a case during the week where Simon had put up signs from two different companies of his.

 

But you can't take photos in Nottingham if you're in the IOM!

 

Do you know anyone in the area who could take photos of the signage in the car park(s)?

 

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by FTMDave
Usual typo!

[FTMDave]

I'm pretty sure it's one car park, not two.  From the local rag

 

A potential site has been identified off Leen Gate, next to the River Leen, Lenton, on the opposite side of the road to the Monty Hind Boys' Club.

 

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/potential-site-identified-multi-storey-4462706