Please help with UKCPS and Court Proceedings LTD

treblec

Hello all.

Great site and i've been looking about it a fair it.

Snippets i can find and i am fully expecting you to tell me "IGNORE!!!" but i'd like your opinions anyway if thats OK.


My car was parked at a retail park in Aintree a few months back. It was given a PCN for apparently being slightly in another bay. THe fine was issued by UKCPS and was for £60 with an increase to £100 if not paid in 14 days or so.

Any appeal had to be made AFTER paying the company. Naturally i just ignored all correspondence. As far as i am concerned i wasn't driving anyways.

Yesterday i recieved a letter from Court Proceedings LTD ( a bit cheeky with the complany name methinks) which i assume is their collection agency/partner.

Now it has the usual guff about 7 days to pay or we will lead to immediate court action blah blah, but i was wondering 2 things:

First off, anyone had any experience with these companies?

Secondly, if and i mean IF lets say it went to court and i have just ignored all correspondance from both of them, how does one go about defending themselves, or am i way too far ahead in my thinking???

Thanks very Much

Bashy

Look here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2214803

Here you can see what letters to exspect.

Still dont pay and dont contact them

bromsgrovebarry

Court Proceedings Ltd? What an amateurish attempt to sound official and intimidate people into paying bogus 'fines'. Many posters have received tickets from private parking contractors and I am certain that nobody has been taken to court. Ignore the scum, you have better things for your money.

Driver8

Court proceedings Ltd??? What a bunch of amateurs. Even Googling them comes back with nothing, precisely what they are going to get for their tickets. Nothing.

I despair i really do, i mean really, is that the best they can do?

Amateurs.

sarahg1969

They were only incorporated in May this year. They have just one director.

peter_the_piper

I bet that does just what its intended to do, frighten less enlightened people.

molerat

To show what would happen if it went to court https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/35909203#Comment_35909203

The Judge threw out the claim for a number of reasons, but most importantly because the £50 charge they were claiming wasn't a genuine pre-estimate of losses, but an unlawful penalty in a contract.

cillasmum

I also received a letter yesterday from Court Proceedings Ltd for an unpaid parking ticket issued by UKCPS at Aintree! I must admit the letter does seem very official but not scary enough for me to pay the reduced amount of £95 from £325.00 I wait in anticipation for the next letter!

treblec

Thanks for that. My wondering on the IF was more along the lines if you turned up at a court what is your defence? I mean, can you just say in retrospect that you weren't the driver and hence you didn't respond because you didn't have to legally etc etc?

I have ignored (and will continue to) all correspondence from the thieves, but more of a hypothetical "you find yourself at court having made no contact with the PPC company" what do you do?

I know it s 99.9% chance it never ends up there anyways, but lets say it did, are you frowned upon for making no contact. Would you be expected to have allsorts of staements etc ready or is it a case of saying i wasn't driving and obviously you have no evidence to suggest otherwise so jog on??

Its the one thing i cannot find in any posts (probably funnily enough as it never ends like this!)

Again. Many thanks everyone. Wise words that make me feel all the more better. Appreciated

AlexisV

They have to prove a contractual arrangement existed between you that entitles them to the money.

A process of forming a contract is offer, consideration, acceptance. What is their contractual offer? That you don't park outside a bay? How does that constitute an offer? If they want to reword it by saying "if you park outside a bay you agree to pay £60", they must be saying that breaching the contract of offering parking within bays will result in having to pay £60. After all, they want you to park within a bay, which is why they exist. Yet, this is a clear contractual penalty, whereas they can only claim actual damages from alleged breach of contract. What damages have they incurred on a free car park? If it was a pound a space and you took 2, their losses would be a pound.

Plus, being slightly over a bay would probably be regarded as so triflingly insignificant (known as de minimis) that the court would strike it out straight away.

There has never been a court claim made for being over a bay line as far as I'm aware.

SarahLea

cillasmum wrote: »

I also received a letter yesterday from Court Proceedings Ltd for an unpaid parking ticket issued by UKCPS at Aintree! I must admit the letter does seem very official but not scary enough for me to pay the reduced amount of £95 from £325.00 I wait in anticipation for the next letter!

Same here, received a letter from them this morning. I'm naturally quite defiant but right now I feel a little nervous i.e. say this actually ends up in court.

I'm the registered keeper and 'someone' stupidly parked in a disabled bay in a private gym, hence the parking fine. I actually wasn't even in the country when it happened and therefore really wasn't the driver at the time. If I'd got the initial fine I would have paid but the driver (there's more than one person insured to drive my car) let it get this far and are refusing to pay. I can't force them and I have no intention of paying the £95 requested by UKCPS but then say I end up in court?