Private Parking Fine in UK now living abroad

patrickq

Me and my wife went back to the UK in Apr. We parked a hire car in a private area outside my parents house where you need a big plastic residents parking ticket on display on the dashboard to park. We actually did have it in the car but it had fallen into the footwell where it wasn't clearly visible. we got a windscreen ticket. we emailed Armtrac with photos of the ticket and where it had fallen and told them we had done nothing wrong and we were not going to pay the ticket and we were leaving the country again anyway. We gave them our overseas address so there would be no correspondance going to my parents house dragging them into it.
Since then we have recieved two letters. The first we ignored and the second just turned up from TNC parking services on behalf of Armtrac. It says :

"... Parking notice has not been paid nor have you advised us that you were not the owner nor the driver of the vehicle...

...Your options are now to IMMEDIATELY advise us that you are not the correct person or to PAY THE PARKING NOTICE.

Failure to act today by contacting TNC Parking Services or paying will result in the immediate referral of the matter to our LITIGATION DEPARTMENT"

Me being in a different country, what can they actually do?
Is there a period of time after which this all becomes null and void?

the litigation bit on the back of the letter reckons they can demand you bankrupt, seize your house, deduct money from your wages or rob money from your bank account (Which I do still have one in the UK)

Can I just ignore this and in say 5 years it all goes away and if I wanted to I could live back in the UK without this hassle?

Any advice would be much appreciated - Thanks

Fruitcake

Make sure you tell the hire car company you are dealing with this, that they are therefore not liable and must name you as hirer if they receive anything from the parking company or their agents.
You did the right thing by appealing this yourself before the parking scammers sent anything to the hire company, but you must ensure the hire company do not do anything stupid like paying the invoice themselves. (It is not a fine, just a speculative invoice.)

You can safely ignore debt collectors.

You could write to Armtrac telling them that you have appealed and given them the driver's serviceable (overseas) address and therefore you are out of jurisdiction and must cease and desist all claims against you because they have no right to monies or issue court claims outside the UK. However, they are IPC members and there is no viable second stage appeal so you will be banging your head against a wall if you contact them again.

You then ignore everything you get unless you get a bill from the hire company, which shouldn't happen, but which you contest as it will be an unauthorised payment.

It's the hire company that will cause you problems if there are any at all, not the parking company.

Coupon-mad

Make sure your card provider does not have a continuing authority to allow the hire firm to debt your card even now. Tell them your business with the hire firm is done.

And I would email or write to Armtrac telling them once and for all again that you are out of jurisdiction, they are wasting their time. I know you already have but a further response would be just to ensure they do not revert to the hire firm. They can't but you can't trust them.