DRP notice of intended court proceedings

rade84a

Hello

I work at a hospital and had been paying for a monthly parking permit. There were two types of permit and the hospital payroll department put one on the wrong permit it transpired. I did not realise this for almost 6 months as I hadn’t had a ticket and was paying my monthly permit fee! however at the start of 2019 I started getting EMPARK parking fines. I spoke to empark over email, and they cleared a couple of the tickets and told me to go to the payroll department and switch my permit (from the one I pay £30 per month for to a £10 fee for 6 months). The form was duly completed, but like most hospital HR I heard nothing from them and continued to be billed monthly to this day.

I have a total of 11 tickets which have been referred to DRP. Every now and then I get a letter from them raising the price cause I haven’t paid. The other day I got letter saying the client would reduce the fee by 20% if I paid by such and such date, making the payment due just under £1500. If I didn’t pay this, the would recommend to my client that they should take legal action.

Two days later, I get a notice of intended court proceedings. The fee has increased to £2800 somehow. This is obviously much higher than the total amount due according to them in previous letters and they haven’t said how they have made up this amount. It just says for “various multiple parking tickets” with no breakdown. In the letter they state they will put the case on hold under the end of next month for me to contact them. If I don’t pay by then, the free will increase again. Then they will consider writing to their client to advise them to take court action apparent, which I thought they had already done due to getting a notice of intended court proceedings!

My issue is this - firstly I should have been on the parking permit I asked for from the start. The payroll department put me on the wrong one. Then I requested a change in permit, again this didn’t happen. I am paying £360 instead of the £20 a year to park, but have given up after trying multiple times to sort this out. The company is still getting my monthly permit charge. More so than the £10 to £20 they would have got.

What I would like to know is what I should do next and how likely this is to actually go to court.

Many thanks for your help.

Regards
Rade

beamerguy

Someone here will give you good advice regarding the HR dept

You need to understand about the money scammer DRP.
They are full of verbal diarrhoea, they lie and in general complete and utter idiots
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5859454/debt-collectors-drp-zzps-what-they-dont-want-you-to-know&highlight=debt+collectors+drp

notice of intended court proceedings!

Assume this was from the cloud dreaming DRP

Coupon-mad

EMPARK don't often feature here with any claims but if they did, this is defendable.

The other day I got letter saying the client would reduce the fee by 20% if I paid by such and such date, making the payment due just under £1500. If I didn’t pay this, the would recommend to my client that they should take legal action.

LOL, let them! This is where you will win.

Search the forum for DRP notice of intended court proceedings and ignore it.

In the meantime put in a formal grievance, please.

Do not 'give up' as you may well end up sued over this and the NHS Trust must sort it NOW. They are clearly in breach of the NHS Parking Principles (Government official policy).

Google it and read the policy.

No emailing EMPARK and no phoning ANYONE as phone calls leave no evidence trail. You want to start collecting an evidence trail of this issue and who is at fault, and that you tried to address it and can't be to blame.

rade84a

My issue is that I don’t have anything in writing from the HR department stating they have received the form for changing the parking permit, I simply handed it in to the admin person. I do have an email from empark initially cancelling a fine and sending me form to complete for the other permit, but that’s it.

Coupon-mad

I guessed as much.

You need to start gathering evidence in writing, so chase up that missing form in writing, or by email NOW and get a reply to start your evidence trail, should you need it.

As I said:

No emailing EMPARK and no phoning ANYONE as phone calls leave no evidence trail. You want to start collecting an evidence trail of this issue and who is at fault, and that you tried to address it and can't be to blame.

Do not give up. Your HR Dept is at fault and this is worthy of a formal grievance.

rade84a

Pretty much sure chasing up won’t come to anything. It’s one for I gave into the cashier in January this year. I will try however

Can this be defended against the fact that the company actually made a profit off me as I didn’t need to be on the more expensive permit? What seems to have happened is that they initially accepted both permits for parking on the site, then stopped accepting the more expensive one, and I remained on this one. The money still goes to the same company.

Coupon-mad

Pretty much sure chasing up won’t come to anything.

It doesn't matter.

I am talking about creating a 'paper trail' as evidence in case you get sued.

Yes you have what seems to me to be a very solid defence.

Have you read the NHS Parking Principles yet and realised the Hospital is in breach?

rade84a

Thank you. I will do that.

I have read it, I’m not sure which bit specifically you mean however? Would It matter that the site I was parking on was separate to the main hospital site as it was for staff accommodation?

Coupon-mad

No it makes no difference. The NHS Trust has a legal duty to its staff.

You need to raise a formal grievance. Third time I've said that. NO PHONE CALLS.

rade84a

Thank you, I read your comment on it previously as I will raise a grievance as you mention.
Also how likely are DRP to push this pall the way to court?

beamerguy

rade84a wrote: »

Thank you, I read your comment on it previously as I will raise a grievance as you mention.
Also how likely are DRP to push this pall the way to court?

You are not understanding .... DRP ARE TOTALLY POWERLESS and cannot take you to court, only the PPC can

IGNORE DRP