Parking Eye final Debt Recovery letter

android26

Hello. Initially I have followed advice of ignoring all PE letters. At first I didn't even know I had them as they looked like junk mail and got filed as such. I am trying not to give anything away that might identify me, so please ask if more detail are required.

I am the RK of the car in question. The car overstayed in a retail park with free parking for 2 hours, by no more than half an hour. I a receipt, from the first shop. I have the final shop receipt timed minutes before finally leaving, having spent about 50 mins to an hour in there. We were genuine shoppers.

I have tried to find out the landowner details. I've got as far the estate agents but no further. Stores head offices are reluctant to give me email addresses of customer services managers let alone names and all have said they aren't interested in helping getting the charge quashed as they only rent the properties.

Now I am at the stage of Debt Recovery Plus, Notice of intended court action. The final payment date is very soon. I have called PE four times over the months asking to speak to someone, find out the land owner and asked for confirmation that they have permission to issue charges. Each time the call was ended by them. I spoke again today and as I couldn't give my ref no. they would only suggest trying an appeal even at this very late stage, although they wouldn't say if it would be considered.

I am now concerned as I have been reading that PE have become litigious and suspect that I will now receive a Letter before court action any day.

Any advice on my next move?
I am thinking;
Try an appeal today, if only to get a POPLA code
POPLA appeal if I get a code
Lose appeal? Then pay up or let it go to court and show that I was a genuine shopper and argue the charge.

All advice appreciated. Thanks.

(I will copy and paste on pepipoo as as well as time really is of the essence!)

Letters received;
PCN
PCN reminder
Letter saying requirements of schedule 4 now met
Letter Before Action
Debt Recovery Plus Demand for payment
Debt Recovery Plus Notice of intended court action-unpaid parking charge

Umkomaas

PE are known to cancel PCNs if receipts can be produced for the day in question. I believe there must be something in their contract with the retailers that provides for this. After all, which retailer in their right mind would want to have some outsider persecuting their customers who surely wouldn't go back anywhere near them ever again. Oh dear, I'd forgotten about Aldi.

So I think it well worth your while sending PE a letter with copies of your receipts and/or redacted bank/cc statements. If you've got a number of receipts I'd do a itemised list like:

1. ABC shop - receipt for £x - timed at....
2. DEF shop - receipt for £y - timed at....

and so on. Make it look nice and professional and see how that goes. Let us know how it plays out.

android26

Thanks. Much appreciated.
I am just waiting to hear from the estate agents of the site. No one will tell me who the land owner is or get involved.
I have had some help and sympathy from an area manager of one store.
Nothing that would help in getting the charge quashed though.

The_Slithy_Tove

android26 wrote: »

Stores head offices are reluctant to give me email addresses of customer services managers let alone names

What kind of Customer Services Manager hides away from their Customers and won't allow themselves to be identified by name or contacted in any way? One wonders how they came by that job title, as clearly they have no interest in servicing their customers.

Coupon-mad

android26 wrote: »

Thanks. Much appreciated.
I am just waiting to hear from the estate agents of the site. No one will tell me who the land owner is or get involved.
I have had some help and sympathy from an area manager of one store.
Nothing that would help in getting the charge quashed though.

The managing agent of the site should be able to overturn it if you make yourself something of a thorn in their side. Don't give up.

android26

Right, I have been doing the research on here and the pepipoo site.
A number of interesting points that could help me, should the estate agents not come through for me.

I've clicked on so many links that lead to another and so on, I must have twenty tabs open and I'm lost!

A couple of things I need clarification on is the letter referred to as "Letter Before Action". I have a letter that says "Letter Before Action". It was letter 3 from PE. Number 1 being NTK, 2 being a reminder. Letter 4 was from Debt Recovery Plus, 5 also from them giving me until date xyz to pay up, before they recommend to creditors solicitors to start court action.

My question is this; is it the same as the letter currently being referred to as "Letter Before Action" which has to mention Practice Direction?
To me, the action that came from mine was to pass the charge on to Debt RP to send me more letters. It would seem to me that there is another "Letter Before Action" that occurs after Debt RC have passed t back to PE, as a warning that court action will be taken.
Have I got that right?
If anyone wants me to pm them a copy of the letter to have a look then I will.

Another point about NTK's having to show the creditor. Mine is pre May, and apparently doesn't. However it shows me who to pay the money to with a PO box number. There is an address in small print on the bottom of the back page. Are they meant to say "we PE, are the creditors"?

Thanks in advance.

zzzLazyDaisy

You should NEVER ignore a Letter Before Action as it is the first step in the court process.

Please post up the wording of the Letter Before Action and the date, so we can check what it says and whether it really is a Letter Before Action, since you seem to be confused about this.

D

android26

I missed out the letter before this in my initial post.
It was a letter saying requirements of schedule 4 now met and had a leaflet with points of PoFA 2012, on it.
Then some six weeks later, I got this one.
I ignored it and the next two letters were from Debt Recovery Plus.

Coupon-mad

android26 wrote: »

I missed out the letter before this in my initial post.
It was a letter saying requirements of schedule 4 now met and had a leaflet with points of PoFA 2012, on it.
Then some six weeks later, I got this one.
I ignored it and the next two letters were from Debt Recovery Plus.

No image as I can't link as a new user :mad:

Yes you can if you break the link by removing the http://

android26

Let's see if that's any good :beer:

img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/vaiolator/parking%20eye/reduced-size-IMG_0005-1.jpg

zzzLazyDaisy

Okay, that is a letter before action. You must have received that some time ago as they changed the format of that letter several weeks ago.

What is the date on it?

This means you really do need to act quickly because once 14 days have passed from service of the LBA they can start court proceedings without further notice, unless you acknowledge the letter before they do so.

Go to this thread and read post 1 and then go to post 45 and follow the instructions

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4705657

Note: If you don't follow this advice there is a high risk that you WILL eventually end up with court papers dropping through your door because PE are targeting ignorers. Trust me, the Practice Direction process is much less time consuming and stressful than defending court proceedings.

D