BW Legal letter - no other correspondence Options

[Wane]

Hi, new user here... I've tried to go through all the FAQs and advice threads but posting here because I still have questions. I hope I don't transgress too many of the rules and thanks in advance for any advice.

I received this letter about an unpaid parking ticket (date on letter was towards the end of 2017 but I've been moving house and it was sent to my mother's address so I only just received it). The letter says that this is their second letter but this is the first correspondence of any kind that I have received from either company. I have redacted the deadline for payment, however lets just say that it is imminent.

The letter is addressed to me as the registered keeper and while a google search for the "contravention location" seems to point to a different carpark, the driver was in that town on the date provided. The driver remembers parking and checking to see if there was an available parking meter (there wasn't) and then went to have a chat with a mortgage advisor before browsing through a couple of the shops that open directly onto the carpark. The driver doesn't recall any signs that stipulated a maximum parking duration and frankly has no idea how long they stayed but wouldn't describe it as excessive. The driver would also have happily have paid if there was an opportunity. It is entirely plausible that there were signs and the driver did accidentally exceed whatever the maximum duration was - the infringement is dated to almost half a year ago and it's hard to recall the specifics.

So far as I can tell from this forum the general advice is that the fine shouldn't be paid, however is this true even if there is a genuine possibility that the driver overstayed the limit in the carpark?

In many ways my inclination is to simply pay the fine to make it just go away. I'm still hunting for a mortgage and although the £124 is a massive PITA, ending up with a County Court case would be far worse for my credit rating. That said, it seems like this is exactly how these companies build their business model... if you act all scary then people will just pay you to go away, and that seems really unfair. Plus the charge of £124 is ridiculous compared to the standard £50 charged by my local council (reduced to £25 for prompt payment).

Does anyone have experience of these, are they in any way enforceable and if I don't pay are they really going to pursue it? If push comes to shove I value my credit rating more than the money.



This post has been edited by Wane: Wed, 17 Jan 2018 - 22:32

[ostell]

First thing to do is to acknowledge the claim using the details given on the form. Do not put anything in the defence. Acknowledging gives you 33 days from the date of issue to get your defence to the court

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[nosferatu1001]

CLaimant ignoring the D isnt unusual. You just add a line to the defence that the C failed in their obligations to attempt to resolve this matter before proceeding to court, as they ignored your detaied correspondence of X, Y, Z.

AS noted above, ONLINE acknowledgement.
You will need to compose a defence in Word, and best is to scan a signature and then convert it to PDF.