Court claim form - Help!!

lulu78_2

Hi everyone,

I am after advice on a ticket I received yesterday.

I was out in a fairly local woods and after a couple of hours, I went to the cafe section to buy a drink. It was only there that my son noticed that parking was now payable. I left the cafe and it was only here, that I noticed a sign saying that as of the 27th August 2011, it now cost £2 to park. Low and behold, I got to my car and slap, bang on the windscreen was a ticket. I was steaming!!

I have come here ever since I was a child and it has always been free, however, around 4 years ago, they placed meters there asking for voluntary contributions which I checked at the time. There were no notices near the parking bays and when I asked a warden about it, she said there was a big sign as you come in and around the woods which I obviously hadn't seen and which would have been too late any way as I received it pretty much as soon as I had got there.

The company is called District Enforcement Ltd and I think they are a private company after looking up their details online. (If different, could someone please advise). I am in two minds over what to do after reading other threads saying to ignore the private company tickets. I hate being put in this situation so any advice woulld be greatly received.

Thank you guys.:mad:

Coupon-mad

Sounds private. The easy way to tell unless the PPC are using terms they should not, is that a real Council PCN would have a Council logo, the money would have to be paid to the Council and it would be headed up 'Penalty Charge Notice'.

If you have a fake PCN it will not have Council info on it, will ask for the money to be sent to the private company (often to a PO Box) and would be called, typically, a Parking Charge Notice.

If it's the latter then it's a scam which is very safe and easy to ignore.

See the top sticky thread 'PPC letters, what to expect'. Although that company are not on there all the typical debt collector idle threats are. Some companies don't even send any letters at all but be ready for the rubbish just in case!

And see the Watchdog clip linked to 'welcome, please read before posting'. Sticky threads are always at the top, other threads are all worth a look as well except for 'Parkright' which is a random and fairly useless sticky IMHO:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

HTH, no worries, this will not affect your credit rating as it's a made up amount, not a debt, not a fine.

lulu78_2

Thank you so much for replying. This is the first post I have ever done on this sight so appreciate your response. This has put my mind at ease as I was intending to appeal but don't think they sound like they are worth wasting paper on!

robredz

lulu78 wrote: »

Thank you so much for replying. This is the first post I have ever done on this sight so appreciate your response. This has put my mind at ease as I was intending to appeal but don't think they sound like they are worth wasting paper on!

If it is a PPC there is no appeal, and their fishing invoice has done the trick if you contact them,

esmerobbo

I remember someone posting this company up a while ago, two ex BIB boasting they have a new ethical approach!

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/new-breed-law-warden/story-12563166-detail/story.html

Still just a plain old PPC though!

robredz

esmerobbo wrote: »

I remember someone posting this company up a while ago, two ex BIB boasting they have a new ethical approach!

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/new-breed-law-warden/story-12563166-detail/story.html

Still just a plain old PPC though!

What is ethical about demanding vast sums of money via threatening invoices, with no legal basis to the claim?

Kite2010

Ignore the PPC, if you feel guilty send the landowner a cheque to cover the actual loss suffered (i.e. the parking fee), do not appeal or make contact with the PPC.

To see which pretty invoices and letter you will be getting look here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2214803

Although at the moment it seems no scans from District Enforcement Ltd have been made, so can you scan the copies of the letters removing any personal details and post them on that thread as a warning to others.

BarryW

Yes they are a PPC so the standard rules apply.

Rule 1: Ignore.

err that's it for rules.

From their website (my italics):

Our parking services business model involves ticketing offending vehicles and pursuing outstanding charges (colloquially known as parking fines) through a range of specialised legal routes. This is a favourable alternative to the practice of wheel clamping as it minimises distress to the motorist by giving them a fair arbitration system, underpinned by the impartiality of the courts.

Hilarious! and this is how it works (my italics again)

How our Total Ticketing Solution works

Issue the ticket

We furnish your site with signage that meets the required legal specifications, and provide books of tickets together with training and support on the issuing process. Your employee then writes and affixes tickets to offending vehicles.
Give us the details

Upload the ticket details via our web portal. Where this is not possible due to a lack of internet access, the details can be phoned through to our administrators or the carbon copies of the tickets can simply be posted to us.
We enforce the ticket

Using specialised legal methods we will enforce the charge against the offender. Users of your car park will soon become aware of our efficacy in dealing with offenders – giving you the deterrent you need. We remunerate your administration fees for every ticket successfully enforced.
...and the entire process carries no cost to you!

(except for peeing off your customers - for which we cannot be held responsible)

Basically they are looking to farm non-existent parking problems. There is a kick-back for them for every punter that falls for the scam and the PPC does very little at all. If the apparent industry average of 60%+ paying up is the case here - a very nice little earner.

It sounds like the cafe has fallen for their sales pitch which in the long run will only damage their business which of course is of no concern to the PPC.

A letter to the cafe would not go amiss saying how you won't be going there again and point out the dreadful reputation PPCs have. Name and shame.


When this happened to my son with 2 PPC tickets (and his girlfriend with 3) I too felt awful about being put in this situation and it worried me a lot. I stupidly initially tried the appeal rouet and then realiised that ignore was best. It works.

Sites like this, CAG and Pepipoo are there to re-assure and help. Come back if further letters arrive.

TeaNinja

Hello all,

I'm posting on here for the first time, and given the name of the thread I think that I'm hopefully posting in the right place for advice!

To cut a long story short, I over-stayed in my local Morrisons ("policed" by Euro Car Parks) and decided, after reading up on the matter on this website, not to bother paying the charge that they sent to me. I've had 2 letters from them now and also 2 (so far) from Debt Recovery Plus. The most recent letter stating that litigation, CCJ's and additional costs etc await for non-payment of the charge. I have absolutely no intention of paying still, following advice gathered from here. I am just wondering however if there is anything else that I need to be doing, other than simply ignoring the letters which is what I have happily been doing thus far! What has been everyones experiences of non-payment? Is it really as easy as doing nothing? Just a little paranoid as it seems just too good to be true!

Cheers!

angel_islington

There are two very important things you need to do at this stage.

1. Make a cup of tea.
2. Put your feet up.

You must do these two things, in order, as soon as possible.

fb1969

TeaNinja wrote: »

I am just wondering however if there is anything else that I need to be doing, other than simply ignoring the letters which is what I have happily been doing thus far! What has been everyones experiences of non-payment? Is it really as easy as doing nothing? Just a little paranoid as it seems just too good to be true!

Cheers!

You have done the correct thing so far, and just need to do the folowing (to add to angel's list):

3. Tell friends and family to take the same action as you have if they ever get one.

4. Think twice before spending money at a shop that is happy to allow its customers to be harrassed and threatened.