PCN Zenith collections

siriyaala

Hello All,

I received a PCN from Smart Parking in 7/13 for breach of advertised T&C at Windmill Centre Smithwick in 7/13 for a contravention for Over Free Time. £70 and £40 if paid early. Real overtime was around 10 mins!

I don't normally shop there, but on that unfateful day, the car park was extremely busy and it took about 45 mins to find a space and about 20 mins to come out of the car park, not sure whether there was an event/festival nearby. Unfortunately I did not buy anything on that day as I was shopping for a few items that were over my budget / not available.

After this, received a reminder in 08/13.

Then in 09/13 and 10/13 received letters from Debt Recovery Plus that they are acting on behalf of their client Smart Parking. Amount was £140 then reduced to £112 in the reminder.

Around last week received letter from Zenith Collections dated for a reduced settlement of £80.

siriyaala

I searched on this forum and found a template based on which I sent the following letter:

Dear Sir / Madam,

I received your letter dated xx.

The debt is denied and I will not make any payment in the absence of a county court judgement. Please refer the matter back to your client.

Should you wish to escalate proceedings against me, I must inform you that I will consider this harassment to which I will seek remedy under Part V (40)Administration of Justice Act 1970. I will also be obliged to report your behaviour to the Office of Fair Trading.

I trust that this concludes our business and it is the end of the matter, for which I would like confirmation by reply.

sincerely,
M.E



Now have received the below letter from them:

Thank you for your email regarding the above Parking Charge Notice (PCN).

As per the British Parking Association’s (BPA) Code of Practice, Point 22.7, the driver/keeper/hirer was allowed 28 days from the date the PCN was issued to challenge the PCN. The time to challenge the charge has now expired.
However, in order to resolve this matter, I will offer the following comments as to why this PCN was correctly issued and is still payable in full.
My findings

The site in question is subject to terms and conditions, which are stated on signs throughout the area. As these terms were breached on the date in question, a PCN was correctly and legitimately issued.

The terms were breached because the vehicle was parked for longer than the free time allowed on the site.

Harassment
Within the correspondence harassment has also been referred to and therefore I feel obliged to point out that under S1(3)(c) of The Harassment Act 1997, a course of conduct that someone alleges to be harassment will not be deemed so if the person who pursued it shows that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.
Under the circumstances our course of action has been entirely reasonable. Our company has legitimately pursued recompense for a breach of the terms and conditions attached to our client’s site.
Court action
Within the correspondence, court action has been referred to. As such, I feel obligated to inform you that, under the Pre-Action Protocol of the Civil Procedural Rules, court action must only be viewed as a last resort. I am attempting to abide by this direction by trying to settle the matter amicably without court involvement.
Your actions may be viewed as obstructive to this aim and will be made clear to the court should the matter escalate to such a stage.
What you need to do now

Please pay £80.00 (reduced from £140.00) by December 2013. You can pay online or by phone. Go to zenithcollections dot com or phone 0844 556 0686. You can find full details of how to pay on the reverse of the letter(s) sent to you.

What will happen if you do not pay what you owe

If you do not pay the full amount by the date shown above, I will pass your case to our legal team, who will consider taking legal action to recover what is due.

What if you do not agree

Although any correspondence that does not provide further evidence will be noted and retained, I cannot guarantee that we will reply to it.


Regards
XYZ
Collections Manager
Zenith Collections

Kite2010

Poor Zenith not knowing the OFT debt collection rules

siriyaala

Can I ignore this and any future communication from them?

Siri

Coupon-mad

You need my 'newbies...read this now!' thread...it's right near the top as it's a sticky thread stuck there for newbies.

Any questions let us know of course, but it has links to debt collector letters, how to respond, how to report them and complain...whatever you need to know (hopefully).

Bigilote

Hello,

Back in June, I also had the same problem with Euro Car Park. I parked in a retail shopping centre in Norwich and they sent me a letter with my number plate saying I overstayed by 30mins. I appealed it but was refused as usual. I therefore found this forum and have followed the instructions ever since. I have received numerous letters from DRP and I have completely ignored them. I wrote a letter to them using a template on this forum, and they have now passed on the matter to Zenith collections. I have just been on their websites DRP and Zenith and noticed that they have put the names of people who owe money, have been taken to court and have CCj. Now looking at it I know it's not legal, and it's fraud. Does anyone on this forum have any success stories where they have won over these so called parking companies and debt collection companies?

Coupon-mad

Not sure what you mean seeing as no-one loses v a debt collector unless they are stupid enough to pay!

Anyway this thread is stupidly old, no idea why anyone stops to read any of a 2013 thread on a forum! Page one is the place to be - that's what the FORUM JUMP is for.