Harrassed by parking company though I did pay to park & proved it, please help

crimineaux

Hi all, long time lurker and rare poster here. I'm hoping someone can help as I'm getting some scary nasty letters from a parking company.

I paid via text to park in their car park, unfortunately I gave the reg number of my old car in a daft moment. I didn't realise until I got a letter from them. I replied explaining that I had paid, I had parked one vehicle in one space on the day and time I had paid for but had made an error entering my reg. I sent them evidence including text confirmation and phone records to prove they weren't at all out of pocket.

They have decided to come after me for a lot of money, and have gotten to the point of sending a solicitor's letter. This is horrible and unfair and scary.

I recently read Megan French's article on MSE about keeping old tickets to prove things in these situations - however I DID have the evidence, used it to prove my case and they're still harassing me. Please can someone help me, I've never broken the law in my life and this is a horrible situation. The parking was done via Starpark. Thank you to anyone who reads this.

Quentin

You still haven't broken any laws.

Give up on the mse "official" advice and spend time reading this up in the newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum.

All you need to know about the process is there.

Establish where you are in the process (appeal/debt collectors etc) and follow the advice

Umkomaas

Which parking company, otherwise you're expecting us to advise with blinkers on. There are different tactics to employ depending on which PPC, which ATA they belong to and how litigious (or not) they are.

They have decided to come after me for a lot of money, and have gotten to the point of sending a solicitor's letter. This is horrible and unfair and scary.

How 'scary' are these letters? Kidnapping your children? Murdering a relative? Blowing up your house? Hit man coming for you?

How much is this 'lot of money'?

Coupon-mad

Welcome to the forum! We know how to beat such scammers.

Please read 'NEWBIES PLEASE READ THESE FAQS FIRST'. It's not that scary ignoring a PPC! And beating them in court is something reported here every week. If the 'solicitor' is Gladstones or Wright Hassall, have a laugh and search the forum for them, and for the parking firm. Read the NEWBIES thread first.

Geoff1963

I once drove into an NCP car park, which recognised my car reg, because I had paid on line ; stayed for few minutes, then drove out. All nice and easy.

Except I hadn't paid on line, and whoever had, probably got billed.
I sent NCP a cheque for £4, which they cashed, but they never explained what happened.

crimineaux

Hi again. I thought this had gone away as I had heard nothing for ages but have now received a new letter. I have read the stickied posts but still have a specific question which I tried asking in another thread but was told to take it back here. I have pasted it below, please could someone help me.

I have received a claim form from CCBC, however I didn't see the letter in my mail box (had slipped inside some local gazette thing) and now I am just over a week beyond the 14 days they say I have to appeal. Can anyone tell me what to do in this situation please?

EDIT: Having done more reading, I keep seeing PoCs mentioned, I am yet to receive any such thing so I guess I have 14 days after I get that to respond? Is that correct? If I never get a PoC is that this thing done?

Coupon-mad

What makes you think a court claim tells you that you can 'appeal'? You can't appeal now. You must acknowledge the POC on MCOL if they've arrived. Then - separately - you must defend the claim, but again, only if POC have arrived.

You need to read the NEWBIES thread post #2.

The ONLY time not to do that yet is if it's Civil Enforcement Ltd (CEL) and it says 'particulars of claim to follow' on the left of the front page of the claim. But you will see that when you read the second post of the NEWBIES FAQs thread.

Then come back and tell us you've followed our guide, and (edited as you've just said it's CEL) are ready to make the complaints to CEL and the CCBC (keep the envelope the POC arrive in!).

KeithP

crimineaux wrote: »

Having done more reading, I keep seeing PoCs mentioned, I am yet to receive any such thing so I guess I have 14 days after I get that to respond? Is that correct? If I never get a PoC is that this thing done?

PoC = Particulars of Claim.

What exactly does it say in that box on the claim form?

P.s. don't bother answering that until you have acknowledged service as advised by Coupon Mad. That is your top priority.

Quentin

crimineaux wrote: »

I have received a claim form from CCBC, however I didn't see the letter in my mail box (had slipped inside some local gazette thing) and now I am just over a week beyond the 14 days they say I have to appeal....

Do you mean you are 7 days too late to reply to the claim?


In which case there may be consequences already!


Please confirm

crimineaux

Thank you for your reply Coupon-Mad. Sorry I used the word 'appeal', I wrote this in a bit of a panic and I guess I should have said 'respond'.

It is CEL but all it says in the bottom left front page is 'Particulars of Claim' and then in a box underneath a little description of what money they want. Is that is for the PoC? It sounds like they're not going to send anything else but I'm finding this all very tricky and confusing so sorry if this is a dumb question.

Also I think I'm reading the post you referred to but I don't know what AOS is and all I can see in that post is 'Don't do the AOS yet'... Sorry I'm really struggling to make sense of this. Thanks again for responding to me.

crimineaux

Quentin wrote: »

Do you mean you are 7 days too late to reply to the claim?


In which case there may be consequences already!


Please confirm

The issue date on the letter is 10th Oct 2017. So I worked it out as 5 days on from that, plus 14 days. But here I am on 9th Nov having not replied at all.