16 Parking Charge Notices Received

Dpowell

Hi Can anyone help me please!
My son has a parking permit allowing him to park during certain hours near his uni halls. Back at the end of June i received 16 Parking charge notices through the door addressed to my son for events which took place between January 17 and May 17.

There had been some confusion with his uni which I will not go into, my son thought that uni had sorted the problem out and it turned out they hadn't. He chose not to tell me about this problem as he knew we had some challenges at home and didn't want to bother us further - although I wish he had!

So, I got my son to write to the company to ask why we had only received notifications through the post at the end of June. We had no response. Today he has received 16 payment demands from a debt collection agency. The fee has now gone from £60 per ticket to £160 per ticket!!!

The first question I have is, is the company within their rights to only send a postal notification some five months after the ticket was issued? If I had got them through the door, I would have sorted the issue after the first one to prevent the other 15. Secondly, I have gone back and explained this is the debt collection company and offered that I will today pay the tickets at the £60 charge if they will accept that. I have explained that if they decide to pursue the tickets at £160 each then they will have to take legal proceedings against my son. I also explained that any proceedings they take is likely to result in him offering to pay in instalments as he is a student living away from home with very little income.

If they do come back and say they will pursue for the full amount, do you think I should take legal advice? £100 per ticket for debt collection seems a bit crazy!

Any advice is greatly welcome.

Thanks

Donna

pappa_golf

please read the thread marked as "NEWBIES PLEASE READ FIRST" and STOP ringing and writing to those scum!

your actions so far have probably caused more damage than maggie did!

who is the PARKING company involved , NOT the debt collectors , the PARKING Co?

Coupon-mad

Which parking firm?

We have loads of Uni threads here - search this parking board (not the whole of MSE forums!) for 'University' to read some, you will learn more from other threads then just waiting for odd replies on your own thread alone.

It is very important you arm yourself with info, because some firms sue - but we win over 99% of defended cases at small claims (and yes, it IS worth defending or some firms would try to extort about £160 per PCN - an extortionate sum that would NOT be granted in court even if the defendant lost).

And we so rarely lose, another one won today - the person claimed over £200 in her costs, on her Birthday, and off she went to celebrate!

Dpowell

Hi The Parking company are First Parking.

The reason I replied was to prevent a CCJ as they are threatening!

pappa_golf

a debt collector cannot take you to court , only the parking Co , and a CCJ is only issued if they do start court action , win and you do not pay within 28 days

however in court 16 x £160 would be shot down as 16 x £60 are imagionarry dept collection fees (no win no fee - debt collectors failed = no 16 x £60)

and this is first parkings record so far , http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/First_Parking_LLP.html

Dpowell

Thank you. So what should I do now then? Get legal advice? Not pay? I guess I just panicked when I received the debt collection notices.

pappa_golf

Dpowell wrote: »

Thank you. So what should I do now then? Get legal advice? Not pay? I guess I just panicked when I received the debt collection notices.

I have added to my post above , So what should I do now then?


you study the newbies thread , then search THIS forum for First parking /universities , and you also throw your phone away and hide all biro,s !!!

Dpowell

haha thank you. So sit tight and see if they pursue in anyway. I will read the forums.

Thanks

Coupon-mad

F1rst Parking are not usually known to be litigious - we have just ONE case at the moment where they are trying a claim (and of COURSE the keeper must defend).

You can read that case and bookmark it - search this board for 'F1rst defence' and you will find it. F1rst are not the most difficult to dedend against. As we have over 99% success rate here, and we only do this sort of case, IMHO you do NOT need legal advice (and you can't reclaim the cost) unless your home or car insurance has free legal advice tacked on?

I don't suppose the issue your son had related to a disability or medical condition need he may have had, to park there due to his needs? How come he has a permit, not all students do I assume?).

Can we argue 'reasonable adjustment' under the Equality Act due to a longterm medical condition and write to the University facilities team to make them realise this is harassment and discrimination? I wrote a letter for someone last week like that.

Who is the registered keeper, him? Who is getting these threatograms, him or you?

Dpowell

HI,

So my son is the registered keeper, the reason he has a permit is because the course he is studying requires him to have alot of equipment for his course. As he lives 200 miles away the uni deemed it unfair for him to use public transport to ferry his kit around so therefore awarded him a permit on the grounds of living so far away and needing kit which cannot be easily carried. (Its a fishing and aqua science degree).

So, the ticket allows him to park between the hours of 5pm and 8am as the halls are actually in hospital grounds, the parking space belongs to the hospital I believe.

Two of the sixteen tickets have been issued incorrectly as they were issued before 8am.

The PCN came in my sons name, all sixteen came through the post on 25th June with the date of events recorded on the letters being from January onwards.

The debt collector letters have also come in my sons name.

I would have expected to receive a postal notification within a month of the penalty being issued not five months later. This is really my query because as much as my son said he was dealing with it with Uni, they clearly were not doing anything - I would have had the sense to know that where my son has been much more naïve.

He has recently been diagnosed with depression, this issue is adding to that. I just want to get it sorted hence the reason for contacting them today. I thought If I negotiated a fee, it would take the hassle away for me son who is not in a good place to deal with this right now.

Thanks

pappa_golf

ok looks like the info from the DVLA could have been illegally released , there is a 6 mth limit in which the Parking Co have to ask for data , please dig out your biro and write a letter

fill in the dates , the car VRN and other info

Example Letter

[Your Address]

DVLA Vehicle Record Enquiries section

Longview Road

Morriston

Swansea

SA99 1AJ

Dear Sirs

Re: VRM AB12 XYZ

As the Registered Keeper of the above VRM could you advise who has accessed my personal details with regards to this marque, how often and when did the DVLA send the keeper details out. Please advise the information with regards to events between xx/xx/xx/ and xx/xx/xx.

I understand there is no charge for this information and look forward to your speedy reply.

Yours faithfully