Panicking about Excel Parking Services PCN

BenCr

Hi

I received a parking "ticket" on my windscreen in a car park just off Bury New Road on the 11th of July from Excel Parking services. I was 15 minutes late back to my car. The original charge was £100 or £60 if I paid early, if I recall correctly that would have paid for about a month of parking on that car park.

At the time I did some research and I found a page (not a forum post) on this website and one of the suggestions was to ignore any letters, which was also backed up by a friend who said they have ignored several parking "tickets" successfully.

So the first letter came through on the 5th of September and I ignored it but now I've got another letter through from Roxburghe Limited who have been instructed by their client, Excel, asking for a payment of £160.

What should I do? I'm panicking a bit because I'm going on holiday tomorrow and don't want this to sit for a week getting worse.

Thanks
Ben

BenCr

I guess it might be worth mentioning that at the time of the ticket being issued there was no indication that the issuer was BPA Approved so I went along with the militant route of just ignoring it.

[STRIKE]Even their first letter says they are not BPA approved but [/STRIKE]this one from Roxburghe is plastered with the BPA, CSA(which looks like some collection agency association), British Quality Foundation and Civil Court Users association logos. Only the BPA and CSA ones sound like they're really relevant to me but what do I know?

Edit:- Nuts, I've just spotted the BPA logo on the back of the initial letter from Excel.

Stroma

Excel are in the BPA AOS otherwise they couldn't get your registered keeper details from the dvla. It's not likely that they say that they are not an approved operator.

Still your course is set now, either pay or ignore! I suggest the latter as roxburghe will not be taking you to court, only Excel can do that, and that is highly unlikely, certainly it won't happen as quickly as a couple of weeks whilst you are on hols.

Just wait for a letter before claim, if it arrives come back here immediately, you will have time to respond to that.

BenCr

So is it not worth appealing to Excel?

While I've been waiting for a reply I've seen some of the letters on here with details of why it's too much to charge and how it's not representative of the loss incurred by the land owner and asking for a POPLA number

Stroma

It's not worth doing anything unless for example you are the registered keeper, but was not the driver on the day in question. But who is the retailer or retail park? You could make complaints in that direction as you were I presume a customer?

Umkomaas

You're well past Excel's own time limit for appeal, although that time limit is not one that is nationally prescribed. So you could try an appeal to Excel, but I wouldn't give it much more than a 1% chance of netting you a POPLA code.

If the driver of the vehicle on the day was someone other than the Registered Keeper, then that could be an avenue to pursue (with advice from here), but no one is suggesting here that you fabricate anything, but ONLY if the driver was not the RK.

The rest is as Stroma says, but don't worry about Roxburghe, as Debt Collectors they can't do anything, they can't sue you, they can't send the boys round to your front door, they're limited to sending out 'scary' letters sometimes even scarier because they have red writing on them.

Put this out of your mind for a couple of weeks and enjoy your holiday. Pick it up when you get back, nothing is likely to have changed in the meantime.

BenCr

I'm not sure who the owners of the land are, it seems like it's just a general use one for a whole precinct of shops in Prestwich. I wasn't shopping in any of the shops which directly back onto the land though.

Coupon-mad

BenCr wrote: »

So is it not worth appealing to Excel?

While I've been waiting for a reply I've seen some of the letters on here with details of why it's too much to charge and how it's not representative of the loss incurred by the land owner and asking for a POPLA number

You are too late to appeal. Should have looked on the live forum here, would have been a couple of clicks away from the OLD advice on the MSE article.

You could name the driver if it wasn't the same person as the registered keeper - which rewinds the clock to appeal stage.

If not you are too late to appeal, have no shops to complain to and can only ignore stupid old Roxburghe junk mail. Why not simply search the forum for the keyword Roxburghe or do a Google search to learn about their letters. All hot air. Ignore Steve Dargonne and his rubbish letters.

If Excel ever send you a Letter before Claim then you will get your chance to respond, and we will help you.

BenCr

I've just realised, I've moved house since I got the initial invoice. I only got the threatening debt collector letter because we've had our mail redirected for a few months.

Are the PPC obliged to make sure that their pre-court letter goes to the correct address? If they send it to the old address and it arrives after our redirect has ended will they be able to go to court without me having any chance to respond?

Thanks
Ben

Coupon-mad

Are the PPC obliged to make sure that their pre-court letter goes to the correct address?

Nope. So you could write to them now. Don't name nor imply who was driving.

BenCr

Don't name nor imply who was driving.

So simply something along the lines of "Dear Excel Parking Services, Mr Blahblah no longer resides at {{Old Address}}. Mr Blahblah now resides at {{NewAddress}}. Many thanks, Mr Blahblah"