private car park mess and confusion

clue2

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me. Sorry to make a new thread, but I've had a look and I couldn't see one that directly relates to this matter.

I incurred a parking ticket in a private company's car parck back in Feburary this year on my Dad's car where I am a names driver. My reason for parking there was just to pop into work quickly to get something and as it was a saturday evening aproximately 7pm I beleived that the company next door was closed (as there were not many cars parked there)

It was my full intention to pay however I accidentially missed the deadline which caused the price of the ticket to shoot up to 70 pounds. From here on I decded to appeal as I really cannot afford to pay 70 pounds on a silly ticket and reading some info led me to beleive that if I would ignore the ticket it would eventually go away. Upon receipt of letters from debt collectors DRP saying that they intended court action got me worried so I looked back on the info I initially read and realised to my horror that that the thread was outdated and that the current info was that you should never ignore a fine!

I then started trawling the internet and found a couple of letters that I used as templates because now I wanted to appeal! but I was left feeling like I couldn't. The first one I wrote read;

"I have no intention of paying the money demanded by your client, and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

Second, should it be your client's intention to start court proceedings, they must provide a Letter Before Claim which complies with the requirements of Annex A Para 2 of the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct:

Please also note that a failure and/or refusal to comply with the Practice Direction will result in a complaint being made to the court and an application for a stay of the action and costs pursuant to the provisions of paragraph 4 of the Practice Direction on non-compliance and sanctions.

In the meantime, you should note that this charge is disputed, and you must now refer this matter back to your client and cease and desist all further contact with me. Failure to do so will result in a complaint to the Credit Services Association.

I trust that I have made myself clear." - this is pretty much word for word I read someone

And the second was directed to the parking company UKPC

"I wish to challenge this notice and refer you to the consequences of Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust if you refuse to consider an application outside your normal deadline.

1 There are no signs in the car park stating that a permit is needed on a Saturday when the company is closed. Signs are not well distributed and and are not plainly visable.

2 The amount you claim does not represent a genuine pre-estimate of any loss

If you do not accept this challenge, I require the validation code to refer the matter to POPLA
I will require you to produce the contract that you claim has resulted in a payment of £130 by you to the land-owner."

Anyway their reply was to tell me that

"As per the BPA Code of Practive Point 22.7, the time to challenge the appeal has expired, therefore access to the independant appeals service is no longer avalible"

Furthermore they state in regard to court proceedings

"your actions may be viewed as obstructive to this aimand will be made clear to the court should the matter be escalated to such a stage"

The writer also states

"simply sending in standard template resoponses obtained from the internet will not resolve the matter" - the cheek!



Anyway most recently they've sent a letter saying they can reduce the fine to 100 ish pounds. So my question is to you does that dound like a good deal, should I pay it?

If you think I shouldn't I need to explain a little more, my dad recently signed the car over to me, but the car was under my dad's name when the charge was incurred so he is receiving all this correspondance.

I can deal with all the spam from DRP, but my dad understandably can't since this fine has nothing to do with him, if I admit that I was driving at the time will they forward the charge onto me? This is what I want to be honest as that means I can deal with this in my own way and then I don't have him getting stressed out too much.

Also since the car has now been signed over to me does that affect the fine in anyway, does the fine get carried over to me the new keeper? or is he still liable?

anyway if you could give any advice or help that would be amazing as I am very lost at this point now! deadline for the new lower payment is Friday so any help before then would be awesome!

Thanks for sticking with me if you did read this all!

Umkomaas

First, get this absolutely clear in your head - this is NOT a 'fine'. It is a speculative invoice, no more valid than me asking you for £100 for this advice. Actually, I've probably got more claim on you than them - you came asking for advice, so you need to pay for it. Let me have your address so I can send you my invoice.

I expect you're saying, you can FRO, pal - so why are you giving this parking invoice more credibility?

Was this parking charge notice (PCN) as a result of a windscreen ticket, or one issued by post some days later where the car was captured by an ANPR camera?

Answer to the above will determine next steps advice.

clue2

Hi, It was a windshield fine. I walked in on the guy sticking it onto my car.

In all honesty the reduction to 100 pounds is more like a threat, The headline of the new letter says "reduced payment offer of 100 to avoid court proceedings'
"As we did not receive payment from you we referred your matter to the creditor with the recommendation that they appoint you their solicitor to commence court proceedings against you"
"in order to comply with with "pre action protocol" and to demonstrate to the court their attempts to settle this matter before the need for court proceedings, our client is prepared to accept a reduced payment"

Umkomaas

I'll get back tomorrow on this!

Half_way

It was a Windshield fine

no it wasn't please read the newbies thread

bazster

Standard debt collector bullcrap. Why on earth would a debt collector recommend court action? If UKPC sued you the debt collector wouldn't see a penny!

If your main aim is to get the letters coming to you instead of your father then by all means write in your father's name and identify yourself as the driver. They must then stop pursuing him and pursue you instead.

It weakens your position slightly once they know you were the driver but it's not the end of the world.

And then just ignore everything except in the highly unlikely event of receiving a real letter before claim (from UKPC or their solicitors, not some poxy debt collector) or real court papers (almost unheard of with UKPC).

The subsequent transfer of the car is irrelevant.

Umkomaas

^^@OP, bazster has summed things up nicely^^