Please help! Private residents' parking £300 fine!

HO87

mark_dumpleton wrote: »

I'm rather confused with their address situation - the registered address for their company is 19a Broadland Court, Norwich yet they request appeals are sent to an address in Elmstree, Hertfordshire. I'm going to send a letter to both when I send one as I know all legal correspondence has to be issued to the registered address.

Its not at all unusual for companies - especially private parking companies - to be formally registered at one address but to actually operate from another which is often many miles away. In some cases PPC's use a third address which is their "processing" centre which may be what is happening here.

However, what we have also seen occasionally is for apparently entirely separate and unconnected companies with differing directors and registered addresses actually sharing many aspects of the business with the same ultimate owners well hidden away in the shadows. In this regard the Elstree area of Hertfordshire has figured on more than one occasion in the past. A Hertfordshire address I can associate with NTC (assuming that the one you have is the same) is The Studio, St Nicholas Close, Elstree, [FONT=arial, helvetica]WD6 3EW[/FONT] which throws up a number of potentially interesting connections even though I can't yet see what it is they are using that address for.

As best I can tell NTC is in effect an offshoot of a now defunct Norwich security company with two relatively local directors Messrs Lecaille and Wicks but given the above who knows....?

give_them_FA wrote: »

what I was angling towards, HO, was that whether or not this firm of cowboys is in the BPA, if their notices don't meet the stated standards, then it will be possible to argue in court that signing was inadequate and get backed up in that argument by the BPA literature........

Thank God for that! I was beginning to think you might have gone soft and thought about complaining to the BPA about no-compliant signage.

give_them_FA

Mark have you tried for a charge-back on your card on grounds of duress and threats? You could rightly contend the charge was unlawful?

mark_dumpleton

give_them_FA wrote: »

Mark have you tried for a charge-back on your card on grounds of duress and threats? You could rightly contend the charge was unlawful?

I haven't, but only because I don't know what to do or how I can do it - they haven't threatened me?

I'm getting more unhappy with the situation though as i've realised there's not much I can do but just accept they've got my money and i'll not get it back!

I've written a letter to send to them but I doubt it'll do anything. Does anybody have any advice or ideas of what I can do?

give_them_FA

What did you pay with, credit card or debit card? And I am sure they did threaten you Mark, these people always do, no-one would pay them voluntarily.

You can write to them, but if they treated you like that they will take no notice of any entreaties. I wouldn't bother.

mark_dumpleton

give_them_FA wrote: »

What did you pay with, credit card or debit card? And I am sure they did threaten you Mark, these people always do, no-one would pay them voluntarily.

Well other than being told my car would be taken away and crushed if I didn't pay, lol.
I paid with debit card (i'm guessing that makes it more difficult)

patman99

If you end-up taking the PPC + landowner to court, don't forget to add-on Court fees and £500 to cover research and lost time.

give_them_FA

mark_dumpleton wrote: »

Well other than being told my car would be taken away and crushed if I didn't pay, lol.
I paid with debit card (i'm guessing that makes it more difficult)

That's an illegal threat, because they could not lawfully do that. You now need to contact your card issuer and demand that they recall the payment because it was obtained by threats and duress and fraud. Any problems try telling the bank you will be taking your account elsewhere if they aid and abet the commission of scams.

It may just be easier than suing if you get round it that way.

Meantime find out who employed the parasitic scum, they will be far easier targets for action than dodgy fly-by-nights.

Coupon-mad

Well if you are the sort of person who gives up easily then the action required won't be for you, because - in the absence of a successful chargeback (rare) - you will need to sue (or maybe just threaten to sue) all parties. It takes months but people DO get their money back, either by putting the right sort of assertive pressure on the managing agent or by actually winning in Court.

Here's your thread on pepipoo where they have been very encouraging and will help you through this if you have to stomach to get your money back:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=68787

and here are just a couple of other threads that are further along in the process of suing, in similar circs:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=68505

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=68450

On pepipoo there are several members who have seen this though regarding suing a clamper. Rustledust got his money back, Wageslave has just posted a success in getting money back by drafting a basic claim form (but not actually lodging it at Court) and makara has a long thread over 18 months in his journey to get his money back (he won in Court).

I would keep going and stay on pepipoo, issue Letters Before Action to all parties and see where that takes you.

But you will need to be a lot more assertive and angry about this whole thing and not just accept it when someone tells you that you were parked in the wrong space when you are almost 100% sure you were NOT. And even if you were wrong about the space, what on earth makes you accept that this extortionate amount is a fair and lawful, proportionate remedy? And you also believed that a private company can remove your car and crush it for this (even though the signs talk about a clamp release fee, not towing and certainly NOT crushing!). Sorry but please stop being such a pushover for them and start 'pushing' the managing agent and clamper!

Stop believing everything 'they' are telling you and take proper advice and press forward with suing for your money back - a small claim is just £60 or so I think so why not?

give_them_FA

"They" make their living telling lies, Mark. If you want this money back then you need to work for it. The feeling when you succeed (and you will if you see it through) will be FANTASTIC.

mark_dumpleton

I will work for it then - I just don't want to go through all this to not get any of my money back.
Thing is, i've literally just moved into this development so didn't want to annoy the managing agents as they could make life very difficult for me!

So this letter of action - is this the letter template from here that says why I am claiming the refund and that they have 14 days to reply or it'll go to court?