Time limits

GeoffEth

Hi I'm after some advice. In April 2015 my wife received a ticket from a private company for overstaying the maximum time. At that time, the advice still seemed to be along the lines of ignoring & not paying. Anyway, everything went quiet until this week when she received a letter saying she would be taken to court if she doesn't pay - some 18 months after the alleged offence! Is there a time limit on any action that these companies can take?
Any constructive advice welcome

Coupon-mad

Our advice and on pepipoo since early 2013 was NOT to ignore a private PCN in England/Wales. We've consistently said, appeal.

Six years is how long anyone can take anyone to court, in England/Wales.

You have not told us which PPC this was. You have not said whether this was a stupid debt collector threatogram like Debt Recovery Plus, or a solicitor's letter, or from the parking company. None are very scary and we've seen them all. Nothing is insurmountable.

Tell us more. Who, why, where, how much of an overstay?

Most cases never go near a court, you have a less than 1% chance with most parking firms. So who was it, we can help and NO-ONE should be panicking and paying, like it seems people are on this board tonight.

What happened when you complained to the landowner or retailer as the NEWBIES PLEASE READ THESE FAQS FIRST' sticky thread tells you to do first? (yes, even years later). Especially if it was a retail park and you can dig out a Bank Statement showing the transaction for the purchases (usually a couple of working days later). Do that first, urgently.

GeoffEth

Hi
Many thanks. The letter comes from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd and is titled 'Letter before referral for legal action'. They say they have been instructed by Euro Car Parks Ltd to obtain immediate settlement of the outstanding balance of £130. Unless they receive payment in the next 14 days, they say they will refer the case to their client's solicitor, to consider commencing court proceedings.
'Should Euro Car Parks Ltd issue proceedings against you and a judgment is awarded in their favour, it may affect you ability to obtain credit in the future'

The car park in question is near my wife's work and we're struggling to remember exact details but from memory they allege she overstayed by 30-45 minutes.

Hope that helps answer your questions to be able to help further

Half_way

Take a good read of the sticky thread, and dont panic.

A little more detail wold be useful in order to provide useful advice such as

whose car park was it? was it stand alone car park with only Euro car parks signage? or attached to a store/retail park/other?

Was this a free car park ( ie X hours free parking ) or a pay and display/pay on exit/other?

Umkomaas

Read this thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71533686#Comment_71533686

The advice I gave there is exactly as I would give to you here - go and look, it just saves me typing it all again.

Fruitcake

You shouldn't be saying who did what, other than to refer to the Keeper, and The Driver.

The keeper could be the person in charge of the car on the day in question, and may or may not be the registered keeper.

You can safely ignore debt collectors. They don't want it to go to court because they won't get any money if it does. In any case they can do nothing other than send bog paper through the post.

Just watch out for real court papers or LBA/LBCC.

Coupon-mad

DR PLus...LOL.

Euro Car Parks...LOL.

You have nothing to worrying about, try Googling them. Also read this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5035663

HTH, relax.