HELP! Unfair PCM ticket / Appeal Ignored / Debt recovery letter sent!

AddictedMoneysaver

Firstly apologies for leaving it until now to mention this ticket on here until now... I've been following the advice on this board and have resisted posting due to the volume of posts already on this board, but they've finally got to me enough for me to beg for help!! eHre's the story so far...

In June this year I parked in a visitor bay outside my ex-partner's flat, went up to the 3rd floor to get the permit from her, and when I came back down a parking attendant had just ticketed my car (I can only assume she saw me leave the car and pounced as soon as I was out of sight as I can't have been gone longer than 5 minutes!) and told me I had to pay a £60 fine. I showed her the permit nut she said it was too late as she had already issued the ticket, and I'd need to contact the company and appeal it once a letter came through from them.

A few weeks later the notice to keeper came through telling me the fine had now gone up to £100 and I came onto this site for advice and saw your suggestions regarding the format of an appeal letter and I sent this through just over 3 weeks later (pretty late I know, but life got a bit busy!!). The letter used the standard template mentioned on this forum for IPC appeals, and in it I mentioned mitigating circumstances (In this instance I was dropping my daughter to her Mother’s apartment and the ticket was issued in the very small amount of time taken to park my car and travel up to my former partner’s flat on the 3rd floor. On returning to my car with a valid visitors permit I was told it was too late as the notice had been issued and if I wanted to have the charge cancelled I would need to wait for the letter to arrive and then place an appeal.) and Dis-proportionate and not genuine estimate of loss (The amount you have charged is not based upon any genuine pre-estimate of loss to your company or the landowner. According to the Unfair Consumer Contract Regulations, parking charges on private land must not exceed the cost to the landowner during the period the motorist is parked there. In my case, the £100 charge you are asking for far exceeds the cost to the landowner of £0 due to the fact I was parked temporarily in a visitor parking space which is not reserved for a particular apartment, and is therefore not rented on a regular basis at a fixed charge.)

A couple of days after I posted my appeal another chase letter came through saying I had to make payment of £100 within 14 days or they would pass this charge to a debt collection agency, but as I had already sent my appeal letter I ignored this letter, and now it appears PCM have ignored my appeal as I've just received another letter from DRP (Debt Recovery Plus Ltd) giving me 14 days to pay £160 'or they will recommend to the creditor's solicitor that court action should be taken to recover what I owe'

As you can imagine this has now made me start worrying, so please can anyone offer advice about what I should do next?! I didn't think to send my appeal letter by recorded delivery so it'll be their word against mine that I actually sent one, I don't still have the visitor's permit as it was back in June and for some reason I actually trusted the attendant that the ticket would be waived (Idiot!!), and I'm really worried now that the amount due will just spiral and spiral upwards as well as black marks on my credit history if they do take me to court!

Hope you can all help!!

Coupon-mad

You blew it - the point of appealing as keeper using the template in the Newbies thread is to do just that. Not to add silly stuff about mitigating circumstances and even worse, saying who was driving! Jeez. The driver was too late to appeal, that's the whole point of appealing ONLY as keeper using our wording. So you seem to have appealed as driver, OMG. Far too late for the driver to appeal.

As for DRP... I for one, don't want to read any more threads about them here ever. This is a parking ticket forum, to help people appeal properly and to win at POPLA or IAS, or win court cases.

You missed that chance of appeal. This isn't a forum for discussing ignoring tedious letter chains which haven't changed in a decade. Please read the seventeen zillion other threads about them, we seem to be getting 2 or 3 pointless threads every day about DRP right now - just search this forum about them.

Search the forum for 'Recovery' or 'DRP' and bore yourself silly. Don't post about the letters. Don't tell us when you get the next letter, no need, please. Just read the other threads first and don't ask, because the answer to EVERY question you may have about DRP is 'Ignore them, no they can't'.

Post back only if you get a Letter before Claim from PCM or Gladstones, or actual court papers so we could help with a defence. At the moment you are in 'junk mail ignoring mode'.

EnigmaPart1

What ever you do, dont ring Tina at DRP she is an evil cow.

Coupon-mad

Don't ring DRP, don't write to DRP, don't worry about DRP and don't tell us about the letters!

AddictedMoneysaver

Ok... so I can take it from your response that I've screwed myself over by posting 'mitigating circumstances' (the words 'you blew it' sum that up pretty well) so with regards to further damage limitation, is there anything I can now do or any advice you can offer me re: the charge which has now escalated from £60 to £160, or will I need to lump it and just pay the full amount to them?

Obviously I'm gutted if that is the case as £160 isn't exactly a small amount of money, but if you think I've screwed up my appeal, is there any way I can contact PCM and offer to pay the original fine? Is that the best course of action now? :huh:

Coupon-mad

Who told you to pay? Neither me nor EnigmaPart1. We thought 'ignore' was pretty clear. What do you think we all did just 2 years ago, before appeals existed?

AddictedMoneysaver

Sorry, I just noticed your last minute edit - so it's time to play the waiting game... Are the costs likely to escalate if they do issue court proceedings?

The stupid thing is, all of this is so stressful I'm wishing I'd just paid the initial £60 fine now, which is exactly what they want you to feel!! :mad:

Coupon-mad

Costs cannot escalate, no Solicitors fees or anything (typically around £160 is paid by people who manage to lose in court against an average PPC - but we help lots of people to win!). At least it's not ParkingEye who are mental litigators and have court cases all over the place every week, sending legal reps and winning quite a few. So why pay £160 now when you might never get a small claim, and if you do you may well win with our help, and if you lose you would be told to pay...around £160! No effect on credit rating, no CCJ at all, NOTHING on a credit file if a person loses in small claims then pays up straight away.

The good news is, this is PCM and their court cases are very rare and they aren't the sharpest tools in the box (ex clampers). Waiting game - search the forum to read the tedious, endless, pointless threads discussing the DRP/Zenith letter chain. If you want to (I wouldn't, there's no point).

You could just search Google for a phrase from each letter that arrives (an unusual phrase) every time, if you want to read pointless threads about each and every letter (I still wouldn't waste your time!). Just collect the letters from DRP and Zenith - same company - and ignore them till the cows come home.

Just be ready for a real LBC from Gladstones Solicitors. If so, don't panic, this is a template letter which costs a PPC £2.50 and is supplied by the IPC (the Trade Body) and does not mean that Gladstones are 'on the case' specially! And be ready of you did get court papers, post again and we can help. There are LOADS of cases won v PPCs, shown here:

List of PPC Court Cases won by defendants (non-exhaustive) (clicky link)

PCM are conspicuous by their absence as I haven't heard of any PCM court cases in years, they used to clamp people's cars and weren't up to speed with litigation. In fact people used to sue THEM to get their 'stolen' unjustified clamping money back! Keep ALL letters and get photos now of the signs, which could help you later on.

EnigmaPart1

AddictedMoneysaver wrote: »

Sorry, I just noticed your last minute edit - so it's time to play the waiting game... Are the costs likely to escalate if they do issue court proceedings?

The stupid thing is, all of this is so stressful I'm wishing I'd just paid the initial £60 fine now, which is exactly what they want you to feel!! :mad:

Why exactly is it stressful to receive template letters?

AddictedMoneysaver

Awesome thanks CM - that definitely sets my mind at ease a bit. I did just have a read-through of a few DRP threads and have taken note of your advice on them. Thanks again for all your help with this, and I'll keep all letters and post back when/if the LBC/court papers arrive...

Enigma - I think it's stressful for anyone to receive these sort of threatening letters when you feel like it's individual, but I see what you're saying

Coupon-mad

No it's really NOT stressful - I have a collection of them (from before POPLA existed as an option) and so do most regulars here. If you do the search I suggested you will find people 'in the know' just laughing at the letter chain. I still carry my debt collector letter chain in my handbag to show colleagues at school in the staff room if the subject of parking tickets crops up. This is just JUNK MAIL. We have a whale of a time in that staff room I can tell you (we do talk about other stuff!).