NCP Parking fine

dburke3

Hi,

I'm hoping you can help me.

On the 12th of July 2018 I parked in a car park in Manchester city centre (Store Street) I had used the pay by phone application and entered the code online to pay there, is it a 5 digit code, and then used it to pay online for £4.20.

On the 25th of July I had a letter from NCP in the post stating that I didn't pay for a ticket that day, which I did. I appealed the ticket on their website, with the email receipt of my parking ticket stating that I had paid for the allocated hours on their paybyphone system with the instructions in the car park. After some time, they sent another response saying that it was a mistake and that I can pay a £10 administration fee due to the mistake.

After reading this I then appealed again and said this isn't fair, as I had already paid for parking in this car parking and that I have the evidence to prove it, which they had seen.

Again, after about a month the appeal they had sent a letter to me from a Debt Colection Company (Trade Debit Ltd) asking for a payment of £160 due to no payments in the car park.

And now I have been in correspondents with them arguing my case that this isn't in any way fair I do not believe there is any debt to be paid:

Dear Sir / Madam

You have written to me again regarding a parking fine which is completely unjust due to evidence rejecting all allegations.

I am in receipt of your letter and respond as the Registered Keeper.

I deny any debt to National Car Parks Ltd

Also, I am perturbed that I have received multiple letters from both you and National Car Parks limited, regarding a complain which is completely false due to hard evidence of a ticket being purchased by the driver.

As I’m sure you are aware, it is wholly unreasonable to expect a registered keeper of a vehicle to pay a fine, for a ticket which was already purchased with a receipt, matching the date and hours specified in the correspondents. I suggest you take the matter up with the driver if you have evidence as to the identity of that party. I consider these letters to be constitute a Malicious communication and they have caused me distress,

Yours faithfully

Daniel Burke


This is the letter to the them - having been in multiple correspondents with the debt company, they had stated this:

Good morning,



Thank you for your email the contents of which have been noted.



The location code you should have entered was 59612 but you entered 59621 and so NCP have rejected your appeal as parking was not purchased for the correct car park.



Whilst they rejected your appeal, they did agree that you could pay an admin fee of £10.00 in order to correct this.



As this was not paid the PCN amount had risen back up to the £100.00 as stated in their letter.



We cannot overturn their decision and now the balance of £160.00 is due.



If you were not the driver at the time of the contravention you may provide the details of the driver in response to this email.



Failure to provide details of the driver will mean that you as the registered keeper will remain liable.



If you wish to avoid court action commencing please either send the above requested information or call us on 01604 968123 to set an arrangement on the case.



To which I responded saying that the incorrect code was never once mentioned in the original letters from NCP, and that if this is the case then why wasn't it, rather than asking me to pay a £10 administration fee, saying that I hadn't paid for Manchester store street, never mentioning an incorrect code.

Disputing this with them, their final email to me today states:

Good Afternoon,



Thank you for your recent correspondence,



Please be advised that the hold has been removed, as previously advised ‘We cannot overturn their decision and now the balance of £160.00 is due’. Your next opportunity to appeal is the county court.



You now have 7 days to make payment for the outstanding balance of £160.00. You can pay online at



I have not responded to this email yet and I'm unsure what to do in this instance. Please can you advise me.

Umkomaas

Too late now, but the £10 Charge was pretty reasonable, given they would have had expenditure to access your data and write back and to to you as a result of your (albeit inadvertent) error. It would have killed it for you.

Now, I'm afraid you're saddled with up to 6 years of potential crap coming your way, including the (increasing) possibility that you will have to go through all the legal work to defend this at court to avoid a default CCJ, which may have serious consequences in relation to your creditworthiness.

But, you are where you are. At this stage you not only don't pay anything to DRP, you make absolutely no contact whatsoever with them. The are of no standing in this.

You only now respond to anything which emanates directly from NCP or their newly acquired solicitors - BW Legal - who are shovelling NCP cases through the county courts up and down the country, or real court papers from the Northampton CCBC. Come back on this thread if you get any of the above.

The_Deep

I too think that the offer of £10 was reasonable, and would expect that a judge would think so too. Why not offer them £50?

Also, they have added an unlawful £60 to their claim. They know it is unlawful, but, because they are solicitors, many people think it is kosher and pay up..

Make a complaint to their regulatory body, the SRA, that they are double charging.

http://www.sra.org.uk/home/home.page

and complain to your MP.

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers be put out of business. Hopefully that will take place in the near future. The Bill has passed through the HOC without hitch, and goes to the Lords soon. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers. Read this one which I wrote earlier

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.

Guys_Dad

Isn't it fortuitous that another post today has highlighted the 2018 POPLA report.

In that, you will read a section on simple keying mistakes and how POPLA expect PPCs to cancel on something such as yours.

I would contact them again - I know you have lost the POPLA opportunity - but quote them from page 7, first new paragraph beginning "The British Parking Association" and asking why they ignored the October 2017 instructions. Also email the BPA with details and remind them of the Oct 17 letter.

As said, £10 was a decent offer but that bird has flown.

Please keep us updated on the BPA reaction.


https://popla.co.uk/docs/default-source/default-document-library/popla-annual-report-2018.pdf?sfvrsn=0