Private Parking Company/SCS LAW- £000's being demanded for Residential parking

francgatz

Good afternoon all;

A few days ago a letter was received from SCS Law on behalf of a Private Parking Company who regulate the parking on a housing estate. The letter is titled: 'Re: Debt owed to [NAME OF PARKING COMPANY]' and states within it that it is not a Letter of Claim as yet. It gives 14 days for a response before further action is considered. The letter details tens of alleged contraventions, requesting around £160 for each for parking fines issued due to 'failing to clearly display a ticket, permit or voucher as required'. The total value of the fines are numerous thousands of pounds.

In terms of the circumstances surrounding these alleged contraventions - The Parking Company offer free resident parking permits to all those on the estate. The PCNs in question were received during the awkward interim periods whereby the old permit on the vehicles in question had expired while a new one was being processed. On one occasion, the keeper of the vehicle spoke representative of the Housing Trust on the phone about the fact that tickets were being received while a new permit was being waited for, and was told not to worry about them and to simply ignore them. Unfortunately there's no evidence of such a conversation. This same principle of ignoring them was applied to all subsequent parking tickets. The gravity of these events did not occur to the keeper, it was imagined that being a legitimate resident and having had (parking permits for the most part) would mean that things would never have progressed to this stage.

There seems to be a few possible courses of action:

1. Speaking with The Housing Trust get them to instruct The Parking Company to cancel all charges. A phone call to The Housing Trust resulted in the keeper being redirected back to The Parking Company. But after some insistence from the keeper, the matter to has been escalated to relevant Trust Personnel who might be able to assist. I'm hoping that this will go well.

2. Speaking with The Parking via telephone and hoping someone who will use their discretion to waive fees - this doesn't seem likely.

3. Using the templates and advice on fora such as this to try and litigate and defend the case through letters. This is the keeper's least preferred option due to lack of confidence with the language required and terror the prospect of having to go court and the possibility of losing in these proceedings. The fear is that a credit damaging CCJ will be issued or that more money will be mandated from the court what with court fees and such.

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could advise.

Thanks in advance.

waamo

Do not under any circumstances ring a parking company. Never, ever even think of ringing them.

If it goes to court you will have absolutely no evidence of what was said.

fisherjim

Oh dear oh dear with a figure like that these scammers are bound to try a punt in court.


Phoning them will do nothing they will be agressive, hostile and demand payment along with predictions for Armageddon



Of course the estate management must intervene the supposed intention of these scammers is to protect your parking rights, the reality is their free service to the estate is a scam at your cost.



You can't get a CCJ unless you go to court, lose, then refuse to pay, if you win you will pay nothing and can claim against them.


The first stem is to look into your tenancy agreement on parking rights.


But why on earth has it got to this stage?

Half_way

Stop!

DO NOT CONTACT ANYONE UNTIL YOU KNOW WHERE YOU STAND
The key thing here is what she's your rental/tenancy/freehold day abbot parking ?
What gives you the right to allow a vehicle to park in your space? Hint, its usually got nothing to do with permits, or any associated signage.

Coupon-mad

I received a few days ago a letter from SCS Law on behalf of MET Parking Services who regulate the parking on my housing estate.

Really? Where?

Not only do MET never try claims, but I've never hear of them at housing estates.

Luckily that's just a debt collector letter from SCS law, not a LBC, so do not respond but concentrate on getting it all cancelled by complaining to the managing agents about their out of control contractors, whose employee told you to ignore the PCNs and whose own fault it was that there were delays between permits being issued.

There is no even a justification to have permits that expire! Ludicrous and sets people up to fail.

I've thought of a few possible courses of action:

1. Speaking with the landowners on my housing estate to get them to instruct MET to cancel all charges. I've called the estate this morning who after initially redirecting me back to MET and saying they could not help have escalated the matter to the Neighbourhood Area Manager who might be able to. I'm hoping that this will go well.

Yes. But don't approach this weakly.

Point out that YOU have primacy of contract and rights & easements as a resident and the system with expiring permits where the very company that issue new ones, also issue PCNs, is not fit for purpose in a residential estate and is designed to extract penalties unfairly, from the very people they purport to support (they lie).

2. Speaking with MET via telephone and hoping I across someone who will use their discretion to waive fees - I'm not so hopeful about this option and I am conscious not to implicate myself or accept liability on the phone, as this may be recorded.

Nonononono.

And more NO. NEVER EVER phone a PPC scammer.

3. Using the templates and advice on fora such as this to try and litigate and defend my case through letters. This is my least preferred option as I'm not confident with the language required and I'm terrified at the prospect of having to go court and the possibility of losing in these proceedings (my fears are a) that a CCJ will be issued, and I don't want such a blemish on my credit record and b) that the already astronomical cost of £7k will mount even further with court fees)

You are not at court claim stage.

There will be no CCJ even if you lost and then paid - can't see you losing.

You may get a real LBC to reply to, and you may get a claim (unheard of for MET) but this is fully defendable and the £60 per PCN added, is a lie.

At the moment you are panicking about a debt crawler letter.

Make yourself a pain with the Managing Agent/ Neighbourhood Area Manager, following up your complaint every three days...ad infinitum (I am not joking). Make yourself a real pain, with a push for cancellation at least twice every single week.

Make yourself his worst enemy but remain polite at all times. Drip, drip, drip, torture!

francgatz

Thank you all.

Thus far it's understood:

1. Do not call the parking company at any point.

2. Peruse the lease for info about parking rights.

3. Liaise with the Housing Trust to get them to instruct the Parking Company to cancel their penalties.

A question: is it required that a response is sent to SCS within the 14 days stipulated in their letter, is one not bound by any time constraints until I receive a letter of LBC or a claim itself?

Thanks so much for your assistance so far.

Umkomaas

francgatz wrote: »

A question: do I need to respond within the 14 days stipulated on the letter of SCS, or am I not bound to any time constraints until I receive a letter of LBC or a claim itself? Is it advisable I stick to their timescales from now to prevent/delay their issuing of an actual claim, or will that be succumbing and letting fear enable them to have their way with me?

This is what Coupon-mad advised you:

Luckily that's just a debt collector letter from SCS law, not a LBC, so do not respond but concentrate on getting it all cancelled by complaining to the managing agents about their out of control contractors

I bet that letter didn't even come from SCS. To whom does the letter instruct you to pay?

Coupon-mad

we're now private owners on the estate

Even better, you are owners! Better than tenants.

The_Deep

Firsty, never use the telephone in thes matters, everything on paper, judges love paper trails.

secondly, read this

https://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/11/residential-parking.html

Thirdly join and post here.

https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/

fourthly get your MP on board as nine times out of ten these tickets are scams.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

Finally, if the parking space is part of your demised property read this.

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/324523-ukpc-liable-for-trespass-success/

and read up on counter claiming for infringement of you right to quiet enjoyment, possibly a breach of The Landlord and Tenant Acts.

francgatz

The letter asks for payment to be directed to Debt Recovery Plus, which would confirm the suspicion that it's not necessarily SCS acting as of now.

Will follow all the above advice and update accordingly.

Thanks a lot for the help once again!

francgatz

Hi all;

The Housing Trust has not been helpful at all. Their position is essentially this: 'Our parking policy is that users who don't display a valid permit are liable to receive tickets from The Private Parking Company. The keeper no recourse to park on the estate without a permit, so must appeal directly with the Private Parking Company.'

The position was maintained despite the rebuttal that the Parking Company wouldn't be interested in any backstory or any of the nuances described in the original post - after backing and forthing on the phone for a while the advice was to log an official complaint to the Housing Trust who would review it in light of their policy and make a decision as to if they can intervene or not.

The keeper is reluctant to lodge a complaint in case this is shared with The Parking Company at any point and then used as evidence should it get to the stage of court proceedings. But resolution via The Housing Trust instructing the Parking Company to cancel all fines is preferable.

Any advice please?