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#Post#: 78060--------------------------------------------------
Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: helenwhite00 Date: June 24, 2025, 11:11 pm
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Hi All,
Posting for first time in this forum as I have got a letter
before claim from DCB legal.
Backstory is that I paid but overstayed in Birmingham car park
in Oct 2023 and initially ignored letters from the actual car
park company and then once one came from Debt Recovery Plus, I
paid the £100 in April of 2024 but refused to pay the additional
£70 for the automated letters as wanted to get the issue
resolved and hoped it would do that.
Didn’t hear anything for around 10 months so thought issue was
finished but then got a letter from DCBL (Debt Collection
Bailiffs Ltd demanding for full £170) in February 2024, I
emailed them explaining the situation and providing bank
statement of £100 paid along with the letter from Debt Recovery
Plus and had some back and forth but basically did not get
resolved and now have gotten a letter before claim from DCB
legal.
I have seen some similar threads, but are mainly when completely
refuting responsibility, not seen anything for this sort of
scenario. I believe I am best to respond via email attaching a
PDF letter and cc’ing myself so I have drafted a letter as below
and any feedback on this before I send would be much
appreciated.
DCB legal they ask in their letter that I complete a reply form
and financial statement but I do not want to provide them with
any financial information so am I OK not to do this and not to
respond to that request in my letter and also is it OK to
proceed in this way and not fill in a rely form as I want to
send via email with proof of delivery and I also don’t want to
add my phone number which is required in the reply form…?
I obviously don’t want to pay the £100 again and the £70 but I
am terrified of going to court as I get really nervous with any
sort of public speaking, even if I just have to do a
presentation in a virtual meeting so I am not sure if I am best
just to pay (as I have the available funds) if DBB Legal choose
to go to court and not drop the issues.
Hence can anyone advise what will happen next and if DBB Legal
usually drop these matter or if they will go through with an
actual court case (it sounds from forums though they do usually
proceed initially but may drop before it gets to actual court
appearance…?
I have also heard of the term right of audience which I think
means they have to send a solicitor which would be costly vs,
what they could likely claim and so is that correct and could
that be a motivation for them to drop it before the actual court
appearance if I don’t pay…?
Attached is letter I have drafted in response to DCB legal.
Thank you.
#Post#: 78093--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: b789 Date: June 25, 2025, 5:38 am
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No idea where you got any previous advice but whoever gave it to
you has SNAFU'd this for you. A classic example of the
low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree paying up out of
ignorance and fear. I just hope you haven't yet sent that
response to the Letter of Claim (LoC).
Besides showing incredible naivety by not redacting your
personal details and bank account details in the attached letter
you say you want to send to DCB Legal, you are at extremely high
risk of having your identity stolen. I have reported the post to
the moderator for them to remove your pdf attachment which is an
invitation for someone to steal your identity and empty your
bank account!!!!
Thankfully, if you follow the advice, you won't be paying
another penny to DCB Legal or their client as we are familiar
with the M.O. of DCB Legal.
Use the following as your response to the LoC and you EMAIL it
to info@dcblegal.co.uk and you also CC yourself. No attachments
or anything else, especially items that contain your personal
data and bank account numbers etc!!!!
[quote]Dear Sirs,
Your Letter Before Claim contains insufficient detail of the
claim and fails to provide copies of evidence your client places
reliance upon and thus is in complete contravention of the
Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims. I note your attempt to
pursue a sum which has already been part-paid and remains
disputed. Your LoC fails on multiple procedural counts, and
until you correct these failings, this matter is not ripe for
litigation. My formal position is set out below.
Because your letter lacks specificity and breaches the
requirements of the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims
(paragraphs 3.1(a)-(d), 5.1 and 5.2) as well as the Practice
Direction - Pre-Action Conduct (paragraphs 6(a) and 6(c)), you
must treat this letter as a formal request for all of the
documents/information that the protocol now requires your client
to provide. Your client must not issue proceedings without
complying with that protocol.
As solicitors you must surely be familiar with the requirements
of both the Practice Direction and the Pre-Action Protocol for
debt claims and your client, as a serial litigator of debt
claims, should likewise be aware of them. As you (and your
client) must know, the Practice Direction and Protocol bind all
potential litigants, whatever the size or type of the claim. Its
express purpose is to assist parties in understanding the claim
and their respective positions in relation to it, to enable
parties to take stock of their positions and to negotiate a
settlement, or at least narrow the issues, without incurring the
costs of court proceedings or using up valuable court time. It
is embarrassing that a firm of Solicitors are sending a consumer
a vague and un-evidenced 'Letter of Claim' in complete ignorance
of the pre-existing Practice Direction and the Pre-Action
Protocol.
I confirm that, once I am in receipt of a Letter Before Claim
that complies with the requirements of para 3.1 (a) of the
Pre-Action Protocol, I shall then seek advice and submit a
formal response within 30 days, as required by the Protocol.
Thus, I require your client to comply with its obligations by
sending me the following information/documents:
[indent]1. An explanation of the cause of action
2. whether they are pursuing me as driver or keeper
3. whether they are relying on the provisions of Schedule 4 of
POFA 2012
4. what the details of the claim are; for how long it is claimed
the vehicle was parked, how the monies being claimed arose and
have been calculated
5. Is the claim for a contractual breach? If so, what is the
date of the agreement? The names of the parties to it and
provide to me a copy of that contract.
6. If the claim is for a contractual breach, photographs showing
the vehicle was parked in contravention of said contract.
7. Is the claim for trespass? If so, provide details.
8. Provide me a copy of the contract with the landowner under
which they assert authority to bring the claim, as required by
the BPA/IPC Private Parking Single Code of Practice (PPSCoP).
9. a plan showing where any signs were displayed
10. Photographs of the signs displayed (size of sign, size of
font, height at which displayed) at the time of any alleged
contravention.
11. Provide details of the original charge, and detail any
interest and administrative or other charges added
12. Am I to understand that the additional £70 represents what
is dressed up as a 'Debt Recovery' fee, and if so, is this nett
or inclusive of VAT? If the latter, would you kindly explain why
I am being asked to pay the operator’s VAT?
13. With regard to the principal alleged PCN sum: Is this
damages, or will it be pleaded as consideration for
parking?[/indent]
I am clearly entitled to this information under paragraphs 6(a)
and 6(c) of the Practice Direction. I also need it in order to
comply with my own obligations under paragraph 6(b).
If your client does not provide me with this information then I
put you on notice that I will be relying on the cases of Webb
Resolutions Ltd v Waller Needham & Green [2012] EWHC 3529 (Ch),
Daejan Investments Limited v The Park West Club Limited (Part
20) Buxton Associates [2003] EWHC 2872, Charles Church
Developments Ltd v Stent Foundations Limited & Peter Dann
Limited [2007] EWHC 855 in asking the court to impose sanctions
on your client and to order a stay of the proceedings, pursuant
to paragraphs 13, 15(b) and (c) and 16 of the Practice
Direction, as referred to in paragraph 7.2 of the Protocol.
Until your client has complied with its obligations and provided
this information, I am unable to respond properly to the alleged
claim and to consider my position in relation to it, and it is
entirely premature (and a waste of costs and court time) for
your client to issue proceedings. Should your client do so, then
I will seek an immediate stay pursuant to paragraph 15(b) of the
Practice Direction and an order that this information is
provided.
Yours faithfully,
[Your name][/quote]
This will end up with a claim being issued but, as I said, if
you follow our advice, the claim will either be struck out or
discontinued in due course.
#Post#: 78146--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: helenwhite00 Date: June 25, 2025, 10:55 am
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Thank you so much for your response and the great information,
much appreciated 🤩.
I have not yet sent my response and so will use your letter and
email it to info@dcblegal.co.uk and will update once I hear back
from them.
Reading your response as well, you are so right and can’t
believe how idiotic I was not thinking about what I was posting
online 😳
#Post#: 84854--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: helenwhite00 Date: August 8, 2025, 6:42 pm
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Hi All,
Further to above I have now received the following response from
DCB Legal so please can anyone advise how I should respond to
this, is there a standard response….?
As previously noted I don’t want to go to court so again I
wonder if it is easier (as I have the funds) to pay this to
avoid going to court, which I know based off info in this forum
unlikely but always possible, however I have already paid £100
(which I note they have not commented on) and I would rather not
pay twice either.
Additionally I don’t want to provide my phone number as don’t
want them calling me and think everything should be in writing…
Hence any further advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Note: They also included pictures of the car / number plate and
the final letter from Euro Car Parks before they passed it onto
debt collection, however they did not provide any proof of
signage and although they provided my entry and exit time no
details of how long I actually overstayed.
Dear Helen Elizabeth White,
We write in response to your correspondence received in our
office dated 27th June 2025.
We have made a record of the contents of your correspondence and
noted this on your file accordingly. We now respond to the same
as follows.
Prior to the issue of the parking charge, our Client applied to
the DVLA for the details of the Registered Keeper of the
Vehicle. Your name and address (My address here) were provided.
Our Client therefore correctly issued correspondence to you at
that address. Having not received payment, address verification
was carried out prior to the Letter of Claim being sent. Your
address was located and as such the Letter of Claim was issued
to you at the traced address, which has remained unchanged.
The parking charge was not affixed to the vehicle because our
client utilises Automatic Number Plate Recognition (“ANPR”)
technology on the land where the parking charge was issued in
order to manage the parking. This means that cameras capable of
accurately recognising the vehicle registration number of a
vehicle are constantly monitoring the entrance and exit to the
land. A photograph is taken of each vehicle as it enters and
exits the land. Any vehicle found to have breached the terms of
parking will be issued with a parking charge via the post.
When parking on private land, the contractual terms of the site
are set out on the signs. You are entering a contract and
agreeing to the terms by parking and staying on the site.
Parking in breach of the terms as stipulated on the signage
means that you are then breaking the terms of the contract. The
breach in contract would make you liable for a parking charge.
The signage on site, is erected in line with our Clients
regulators (BPA) in order to allow a reasonable driver to be
notified of the terms and conditions operating on the site prior
to them parking their vehicle. As such the signage on site, is
sufficient given the size and capacity of the car park. Images
of the signs are enclosed.
The terms and conditions on the signs stated that parking was
permitted for vehicles clearly displaying a valid permit/ticket,
covering their full time on the site or otherwise a parking
charge notice would be issued. A valid permit/ticket was not on
display for your full duration on the car park site on the date
of contravention and as such the parking charge was issued
correctly.
You should always be vigilant when entering any land that you
are not familiar with or that you know is privately owned and
there are parking terms in place. As the driver of the vehicle
it is your responsibility at all material times to ensure you
understand the terms and conditions operating on the land prior
to exiting your vehicle. Furthermore, it is your responsibility
to ensure that you have read and understood the terms operating
prior to parking your vehicle.
The Notice to Keeper was issued to you on 24th October 2023. You
were afforded the opportunity to; appeal the parking charge,
transfer liability to the driver (if it was not you) or make
payment. Neither a successful appeal, nor an adequate nomination
were received, yet payment remains outstanding.
The Reminder Notice was issued to you on 23rd November 2023.
This notice reiterated that payment was outstanding and
confirmed that legal action may be taken and additional costs
incurred if the parking charge was not paid.
In regard to the debt recovery fee of £70.00 being claimed, you
would have been made aware of this through the signs available
on the car parks site as previously mentioned above. This does
not include any VAT. The HMRC ‘VAT Supply and Consideration
manual’ (VATSC06140), which was last updated on 02 September
2020, confirmed that parking charge notices falls out of the
scope of VAT. There is no requirement for a VAT invoice to be
issued to you.
Further to the above, in accordance with the appeal decision
made on 29th July 2020 in Britannia Parking Group Ltd v
Semark-Julien [2020] EW Mis 12 (CC), it is not correct to
propose this claim should be struck out as an ‘abuse of process’
due to the contractual costs claimed.
With reference to the above, this parking charge is being
pleaded as a breach of contract to which damages are payable in
light of the matters raised in this correspondence.
If there are any documents that you have requested, but that are
not enclosed with this letter, it is because we have deemed the
request to be disproportionate and/or not relevant to the
substantive issues in dispute. We respectfully draw your
attention to paragraph 2.1(c) of the Protocol and remind you
that both parties are expected to act reasonably and
proportionately.
You may wish to seek independent legal advice in this regard.
Our client pursuing this matter through the Small Claims Court
is the correct course of action.
DCB Legal have been instructed as all previous attempts to
resolve the matter have been unsuccessful.
You now have 30 days from the date of this email/letter to make
payment of £170.00. Failure to make payment will result in a
Claim being issued against you without any further reference.
Payment can be made via bank transfer to our designated client
account: -
Account Name: DCB Legal Ltd Client Account
Sort Code: 20-24-09
Account Number: 60964441
You must quote the correct case reference (711200094142ECPL)
when making payment. If you do not, we may be unable to
correctly allocate the payment. If further action is taken by us
as a result of an incorrect reference being quoted, you will be
liable for any further fees or costs incurred.
We would ask that you kindly furnish us with your most up to
date telephone number and email address, this can be emailed to
us at info@dcblegal.co.uk.
Alternatively, you can contact DCB Legal Ltd on 0203 838 7038 to
make payment over the telephone or online at
HTML https://dcblegal.co.uk/response/pay-online/.
Kind Regards,
<Name>
Administration Associate
DCB Legal Ltd
#Post#: 84863--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: jfollows Date: August 9, 2025, 1:52 am
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If you follow the advice you will get here, you will not go to
court.
You will receive court paperwork, attend a meaningless telephone
mediation session, submit a defence, and have the case allocated
to a court local to you.
On the day the court fee needs to be paid, DCB Legal will
discontinue.
You came here for advice, so either you can take it knowing that
we know what we’re talking about, or you can fall for the
threats from DCB Legal, cave in and pay up. Why do you think
they do what they do? But if you’re going to do this, then
please tell us and we won’t need to help you any more.
You’ve already fallen for debt collectors and paid them £100.
#Post#: 84872--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: b789 Date: August 9, 2025, 3:30 am
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No one who follows the advice goes to court over a claim issued
by DCB Legal. The whole process is designed to get the
low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree to pay up out of
ignorance and fear. You appear to be a classic example of this
by your insistence on paying further into the scam and therefore
becoming a part of the problem rather than just standing up for
your rights.
The odds of you actually going to court, which you appear to
imagine is something along the lines of wigs and robes and the
Old Bailey, is nothing to be feared. If you really want to see
what "court" in a. civil matter involves, even though you have a
less than 0.1% chance of even having to attend, have a look at
this short video:
HTML https://youtu.be/n93eoaxhzpU?feature=shared
This is not a criminal matter. It is a civil matter and the
whole process id different. However, all that is not even
relevant because the actual odds of ANY claim issued by DCB
Legal seeing the inside of a courtroom is less than 0.1%.
You can defend any claim issued by them with a nursery rhyme for
anyone cares and you can guarantee that they will discontinue
before they have to pay the £27 trial fee. I have a standing bet
for anyone here to take my offered odds of 100:1 that any single
PCN claim issued by the utter incompetents at DCB Legal, that is
defended using the advice given here will not continue beyond
the trial fee deadline that will be issued by the court later in
the process. No one has taken me up on the offer. If you do a
search of the forum, you may see why.
It is your money and I don't doubt that you have plenty to spare
in order to waste it by funding a scam that has been explained
to you, but please don't waste our time after we have advised
you on how this process works. We are not wet behind the ears
keyboard warriors. We have been providing advice that leads to a
success rate in defeating these unfair PCNs for many years.
As for your question about providing your phone number, of
course you do not have to provide it and you are actively
advised not to do so. Just make sure that all correspondence is
conducted by email, as it is instant and you have proof of
sending/delivery.
Their response to your response to the LoC is boilerplate and
means nothing. They ARE going to issue the N1SDT Claim Form.
When they do, just show it to us and we will advise on any
deadlines and provide you with instructions on how to
acknowledge it and also provide you with the defence. They will,
in due course see the claim struck out or they will discontinue.
#Post#: 84937--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: helenwhite00 Date: August 9, 2025, 6:20 pm
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Hi All,
Thanks again for the advice and hence I won’t be paying as I
definitely dont want to pay twice so my next question is do I
respond to their latest letter or just was for the court papers
and then come back here once they arrive to get advice on how to
proceed with them…?
Thanks,
Helen
#Post#: 84970--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: b789 Date: August 10, 2025, 6:24 am
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DCB Legal’s “reply” is just a padded-out template that skirts
around most of the requests in your Letter of Claim rebuttal.
Key points from what’s happened so far:
[indent]• They’ve ignored the partial payment issue — this is
important because they’ve not acknowledged the fact the balance
they are claiming is disputed and already reduced. That omission
can be used later to show unreasonable conduct.
• They’ve cherry-picked what to disclose — they admit refusing
some items on grounds of “disproportionate and/or not relevant”,
but that will play badly if they later try to rely on evidence
they’ve withheld.
• Their “Britannia v Semark-Julien” citation is misleading —
that County Court appeal only dealt with the £60–£70 add-on not
being automatically struck out, it didn’t give operators a blank
cheque to add it. It has no binding effect and is still contrary
to the MLCHG’s stance and the Private Parking (Code of Practice)
Act 2019.
• They’ve framed it as a breach-of-contract claim — that will be
used to pin them to later, especially with their usual defective
Particulars of Claim (PoC).
• They’ve conceded the £70 add-on is not VAT-inclusive — which
confirms it’s not a genuine service cost but an arbitrary sum
(another angle for abuse of process).
• No signage proof — they’ve admitted sending only “images of
the signs” without a site plan or contemporaneous photos from
the material date, which was one of your explicit requests under
the Protocol.[/indent]
Given your concern about avoiding court, paying now would mean
you lose the ability to challenge and you’d be rewarding them
for ignoring the Protocol. When the claim is issued and defended
properly using our template, the likelihood of it reaching a
hearing is vanishingly small — and even if it did, the risks are
limited to the claimed sum plus capped court costs, not scary
criminal penalties.
You don’t have to give them a phone number — keep everything in
writing, preferably email, for a clear paper trail.
Just file that response from the utter incompetents at DCB Legal
and you now wait for the N1SDT Claim Form to arrive in the post.
When you receive it, we only need to see the main claim form
page with the Particulars of Claim (PoC). Only redact your
personal info, the claim number and the MCOL password. Leave
everything else visible, especially ALL dates. We will provide
you with precise details and deadlines on how to respond.
I remind you that no one who follows this advice goes to court
or pays a penny to ECP.
#Post#: 85079--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: helenwhite00 Date: August 11, 2025, 4:08 am
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Ok thank you again, feeling better after reading all info posted
and I won’t do anything more now until I the N1SDT Claim form
or further correspondence.
#Post#: 91197--------------------------------------------------
Re: Letter of Claim - DCB Legal
By: helenwhite00 Date: September 23, 2025, 4:42 pm
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Further to above, I have now received the court documents and
have taken a photo of the main claim form page with the parts
noted in above response redacted.
However I can’t see any option to attach it as under attachments
and other options I only have notify me of replies, return to
his topic and dont use smilies no actual attachment option…?
So first thing is can someone advise how I can attach?
Thanks,
Helen.
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