Parking Ticket

Coupon-mad

smitisace87 wrote: »

Had a snotty email from a collections agency in response to the letter I sent.

Any suggestions of my next move?


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 and/or 28 days from the date the Notice to Keeper was sent to challenge the PCN. The time to challenge the charge has now expired and therefore access to the Independent Appeals Service (POPLA) is no longer available.
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.
My findings
The site in question is subject to terms and conditions, which are stated on signs throughout the area. Those signs state that drivers must clearly display a valid ticket for the site. They also warn that failure to do so may result in the issue of a PCN.
On xxxxxx the vehicle was parked on the site but no valid ticket was clearly displayed. This means that the terms and conditions were breached and a PCN was correctly and legitimately issued and placed on the vehicle for notification purposes.
Landowner’s Authority
We act upon the behalf of our client, who in turn acts upon the behalf of the landowner as their authorised agent. At this stage, we are not obligated to provide you with either the landowner’s contact details or with a copy of the agreement made between our client and the landowner and therefore will not be doing so.
Amount charged
Regarding the amount charged, if you refer to the British Parking Association’s code of practice, you will discover that the sum in question is within what this body deems reasonable.
The outstanding Parking Charge amount has been calculated as a genuine pre-estimate of loss as our client incurs significant costs in managing this car park to ensure motorists comply with the stated terms and conditions and to follow up any breaches of these. These costs are made up of;
· DVLA and associated fees for obtaining keeper details.
Clerical costs there arising, including stationery and postage.
Legal and other professional advice; wages and salaries of staff involved in that, together with National Insurance and other similar related sums.
Loss of potential parking fee (where one is payable).
Loss of revenue (if it is a retail outlet).
This is not a detailed estimate for this particular case but rather an estimate of the potential loss.
This sum, and the calculations which have been made in setting it, has been approved and agreed by the landowner (or the landowner’s agent). The amount charged was also clearly laid out on the signage at the site, and by remaining on site, we contend that the motorist has accepted all of the prevailing terms and conditions of that contract, including the charges for breach of contract.
The amount charged is in line with the parking charges accepted by the courts as being legally permissible to claim. See Parking Eye Ltd v Somerfield Stores [2011], Combined Parking Solutions Ltd v Dorrington [2012], Napier Parking Ltd v Mr Darren Yau [2012] and Parking Eye Ltd v Kevin Shelley [2013].
Furthermore, as the charge was not settled with the parking company and the case was consequently passed to a debt recovery company for collection, further costs were incurred on a similar basis.
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 and in no way reaches the high threshold of harassment. Our company has legitimately pursued recompense for a breach of the terms and conditions attached to our client’s site.
Your invoice claim
I write to confirm this firm does not accept or wish to enter into any form of contract nor do we accept your charges of £18.00 per hour.
I would also draw your attention to the following case where such a claim was rejected.
Internet templates
I must also stress that simply sending in standard template responses, most likely obtained from the internet, will not resolve the matter. In addition, I would recommend that professional legal advice be sought on this matter as an alternative.
What you need to do now
Please pay £80.00 (reduced from £149.00) by . You can pay online or by phone. Go to 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 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.

And you copied that template out again for us why?!!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/65473766#Comment_65473766

LOL! Please...search the forum first, next time you get a silly letter or email from this predictable letter chain. We don't need to see them again and again! Please do post any extra queries if unsure once you have searched and read other threads all about each letter - but please spare us the Groundhog Day moment again! And bear in mind EVERYONE used to ignore these letters before POPLA existed as an option, and the sky didn't fall in. Didn't the headings give you a clue it's a standard letter - search the forum for 'my findings Recovery' and next time do the same for any silly unusual keyword in the letter. Or just search one keyword 'Recovery' and bore yourself silly with all the zillions of threads about this daft letter chain of pointless threats.

In the NEWBIES thread I ask/beg for no new threads about two things (Peel Centre, and Debt Recovery plus). The search of the word 'Recovery' will tell you why. So will this, try this as a Google search (it will do the search itself):

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Debt+Recovery+Plus+too+late+for+POPLA+site%3Aforums.moneysavingexpert.com

smitisace87

I am a bit wary of what specifics to put in here but...
Date of 'incident'- oct 7th.
My initial appeal as because I got a ntk- nov 8th and told that the appeals period is now over.
Rejected on - nov 23rd.

Coupon-mad

Did you appeal to the NTK or appeal to a document called a 'reminder'? What date was on the first letter you got and what heading?

smitisace87

Just looked back through my paperwork and The first I heard about this ticket was on 5th November when they sent me a 'charge notice' further entitled 'reminder'. I don't actually have anything labelled notice to keeper. :-/

Coupon-mad

OK just keep all the letters in a file then in case TPS ever decide to chase it up themselves (debt collector letters are drivel but you'll have seen that from the search results I gave you above). There isn't really anything else to say, we ignored these letters chains for YEARS before POPLA ever existed - this is nothing.

smitisace87

So I have another letter from debt collectors. This one entitled 'notice of intention to commence legal proceedings' and mentions the possibility of a ccj and the additional charges that come with that.

Coupon-mad

Lovely. What fun eh?!

bod1467

The key word being "intention" - where in reality they have NO intention of doing any such thing.

smitisace87

With each threat I am getting more worried but I assume that is a ploy to make me pay? Do they really have no intention of court proceedings?

ColliesCarer

Debt collectors can't and TPS don't.

There is a FoI request listing all small claims issued by parking companies between 1/10/12 to 31/9/2013.

You can see it by searching on the whatdotheyknow web site but I can assure you TPS do not appear on it.

Of course no-one can guarantee they never will but you would be extremely unlucky to be the first