civil enforcement, zzps parking charge - please help

jo3star

Hi, I've been reading through the newbies thread to see which steps to take for the best but to be honest it's blowing my mind. I don't know if it's the stress of the threats from zzps but I can't get my brain in gear with regards the process.
I received a letter dated 2/5/17 from civil enforcement stating that "despite various communication" the debt of £110 remains outstanding.
The letter stated that it related to an incident on 21/2/17 on a hospital car park and a pcn number was given. There was no explanation of why the charge had been applied.
I'm not sure when the letter actually arrived at my home but on 6/6/17 whilst I was on holiday in Scotland I emailed civil enforcement on their appeals page asking them to explain:
1. what they meant by various communication
2. the reason for the parking charge
I received an automated response from them saying that I would receive a reply by post within 2 weeks, however the next letter that I received was from ZZPS informing me that they had been passed the PCN and I now owed £170! This was dated 6/6/17 but I didn't receive it until I returned from my holiday on 18/6/17.
This was swiftly followed by another ZZPS letter dated 20/6/17 threatening to pass the account to Wright Hassall.
I contacted PALS at the hospital a couple of weeks ago to see if they could offer any guidance but this is the reply I have just received:
In the case of the parking charge notice you refer to, this was issued on 21/02/2017 for parking in a location which was for staff permit and voucher holders only and Civil Enforcement have subsequently followed this with a notice to keeper letter and recovery process relating to this charge notice as per the correct procedure and acted fully in line with the set process. !The first recorded contact you made with Civil Enforcement was an email on 06/06/2017 which was reviewed by them, but was beyond the appeal periods and did not constitute an appeal.! Their previous correspondence with you had also provided all of the information you were requesting in your email at this point.!We therefore strongly advise you to contact Civil Enforcement or their debt recovery agents to seek to agree an appropriate repayment plan to resolve the situation or request a consideration of any particular extenuating circumstances.

Bearing in mind, the 1st letter that I received was a demand letter with no explanation of the reason for the charge, where do I stand if this does actually go to court?
All advice will be gratefully received, thanks in advance. Jo

Fruitcake

Treat the first correspondence you received as the NTK and send the BPA template in blue to CEL, stating exactly that. It's the first you have heard.

No doubt it will be rejected but you will have started the process should this get to court at a later stage.

Complain to the BPA that the Keeper never received an NTK from the scammers and they have gone straight to debt crawlers which is a breach of the BPA CoP.

Also complain to your MP, Mrs May, and Andrew Jones MP, plus a robust complaint to PALS that the scammers have breached the BPA CoP and demand this PCN is cancelled.

Of course you know what to do about the debt collectors as this is explained in the NEWBIES.

Quentin

Read up the newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum to learn about the process you are involved in

You will see you are now in the debt collectors stage.

You should ignore debt collectors

If you get court correspondence come back to get advice on how to deal with this

Coupon-mad

We therefore strongly advise you to contact Civil Enforcement or their debt recovery agents to seek to agree an appropriate repayment plan to resolve the situation or request a consideration of any particular extenuating circumstances.

Dear PALS,

Please tell me on what basis you are enabled to suggest payment plans to scammers? Are you regulated by the Credit Services Association? Why do you think a 3 figure charge is payable, because a notoriously nasty firm said so?

Civil Enforcement are not a company who care about 'extenuating circumstances', indeed their claim to fame is as ex-clampers, who more recently (as proud BPA members) sued hundreds of Co-op employees and customers when the Co-op realised who they had let into their car parks and ended the contract. That sort of 'revenge claim frenzy' will also happen at this location when the NHS Trust finally remove the company, so I sincerely hope the staff are ready to be sued.

I'd like you to do your job and represent me as an aggrieved patient. I reasonably request that PALS act on my behalf against this harassment, please. Why not look into/ask the NHS Trust to explain their excuses for why this scam regime is even in place. What I mean is, why is the NHS Trust breaching the Government policy on parking enforcement on such land?

The NHS Trust are acting outwith the will of Parliament by operating a 'PCN income only' (very obviously incentivised) parking regime at an NHS location, where the victims of this 'protection racket' are are likely to be vulnerable. NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles here, make it clear that this sort of regime where a private firm makes all of its money from 'fines' is specifically disallowed, and has been since 2014:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

With respect, stop telling me to pay and please support a patient in distress. Any contravention is denied, but no-one deliberately parks in a wrong bay for £100, and it can only have been due to the woeful lack of clear signage and bad marking of bays that this could have occurred, not through any fault of the stressed driver when visiting Hospital. Not only that, I was not even aware of this matter for six months and I have been shown no evidence, which is wholly unacceptable in itself.

Kindly escalate this complaint to the NHS Trust themselves. I require a more thorough response and assistance, and not a reply dictated by the notoriously rogue ex-clamper firm, who have been let loose at this location with no due diligence.

Redx

as above

send that killer letter to PALS and/or the trust CEO

make them squirm and answer for their actions/words

they should follow those government guidelines laid down a few years ago by Jeremy Hunt

ps:- I have no idea why you are getting stressed over useless ZZPS letters

ZZPS are powerless , all they can do is send out letters with veiled threats , nothing more

easiest answer ? DO NOT OPEN A DCA LETTER , DO NOT READ IT

put it UNOPENED into a folder and keep for 6 years

DO NOT IGNORE any letters from CEL or from a solicitors office

jo3star

This is exactly how I wanted to reply when I read their email, thank you for this! I'll send it and let you know if I get a response. I'm sure they'll take a few days to get their reply together, haha

jo3star

easiest answer ? DO NOT OPEN A DCA LETTER , DO NOT READ IT

put it UNOPENED into a folder and keep for 6 years

DO NOT IGNORE any letters from CEL or from a solicitors office

Thanks - who are DCA that I should ignore and who is CEL that I should not ignore? I'm feeling better about zzps now, thanks.

Redx

CEL is your parking company , Civil Enforcement Limited (or similar)

by DCA = Debt Collection Agency , so IGNORE ANY debt collector , including ZZPS

do not ignore an LBC from either CEL or from a proper solicitor

do not ignore an MCOL from the CCBC at Northampton

read about acronyms in the NEWBIES sticky thread, and/or GOOGLE them