Past the warning letters stage... help!

stb1977

In November I received two fines. One from Aldi and one from McDonalds.

On both occasions I had broken down. On the first occasion my father in law recovered the car and on the second occasion the AA recovered it. They were both in the same week. I've never had a fine in my life and I'm clearly not a regular parking offender!

After doing research, sadly not on this great site which I am new to, I spoke to people via social media and I read that it was just an invoice, the companies were cowboys and to simply just ignore it.

I have had a series of letters which I ignored on advice which have now been passed over to a collection agency which I'm told is usually a sub division of the parking fine company.

I'm being threatened with court action now on two counts.

What can I do at this late stage to appeal? Or do I take my chances that they will not take me to county court.

Thanks

HO87

First things first, go and put the kettle on/take a bottle out of the fridge or pour yourself a nice glass of fresh water (whatever is you preference). Then sit down and concentrate on this short sentence:

"These are NOT fines".

Right. Is you blood pressure falling? Good.

I'm guessing that the PCN you received from the Aldi came from ParkingEye and the second, from McDonalds was from MET Parking?

Debt collectors - in these cases can and do threaten everything under the sun but the truth is that all that they can do is stamp their feet at worst. They only ever get paid if you pay them so they'll go to whatever legal extreme they can. Legally, all they can do is to ask you to pay - in exactly the same way that you and I can ask for things/money we are owed to be repaid/returned. They have no more powers than that.

If you could let us have some more details such as what letters you've had from the parking companies that would help us understand where things are.

By the way, the advice we have been giving here hasn't changed in a year. I'd be very interested to know where it is that the advice to "ignore" is being perpetuated. A lot of people are falling victim to it and it is very poor advice.

Coupon-mad

I've never had a fine in my life

You still haven't. But the ParkingEye one in particular needs addressing quickly as they take ignorers to court you know. You can pull this back if you are proactive, and you could appeal anyway to both invoices with proof that the car was broken down (letter from FIL and letter from AA). Even better, as it's a postal PCN, name the driver but you need to read the sticky thread first, please.

Please...why do newbies miss the stickies?

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

I wrote the NEWBIES one begging people to 'read these FAQs first'! Which covers what you need to do even at this stage. Several options, one of which rewinds he clock back to appeal stage when it's a postal PCN like these ones.

I'm guessing that the PCN you received from the Aldi came from ParkingEye and the second, from McDonalds was from MET Parking? If you could let us have some more details such as what letters you've had from the parking companies that would help us understand where things are.

As above, please tell us about the letters you have had now and tell us you've now read the NEWBIES thread and understand your options now? There's a whole section on 'too late to appeal' and another post added on 'debt collectors'.

And this thread is so similar to yours I thought this was you - same advice to you both:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4906576

So read about your options and have a good think about who was driving that day. The driver can still appeal & win if you get a PCN sent to them by naming them.