Penalty Charge - Notice letter received too late

iboema1

Have had the enforcement officers turn up to my door this morning about a late parking penalty fee, demanding I pay £408 or they will take control of my car. Last night after returning home from a couple of days on business I had a letter waiting for me from the same debt collection agency (Bristow & Sutor), with the penalty charge of £173. They had given a payment deadline of 10/07/2019 before moving to enforcement stage. The letter was dated 02/07/2019.

Because I had only literally received this letter in the past couple of days, the payment deadline had naturally passed.

After informing them of this, they told me that 'it wasn't anything to do with them', and to take this up with Royal Mail. After speaking with Royal Mail, they told me that unless this was a recorded delivery letter, there would be absolutely no way they could identify or prove when they received this letter and when it was sent out for delivery.

I called the debt collection agency, who told me they had a record of this being sent out from their office on the 3rd July, but that was all they told me. It didn't sound like they had this as recorded delivery. Simply a case of 'their word'.

Ultimately, my penalty (which I was forced to pay on the spot by the debt collectors this morning), is more than double of what it should have been. Simply because I actually didn't receive this letter in time.

What can people advise me to do here to support claiming back the difference?

The_Deep

Please take this to Legal Beagle or Peppipoo, we deal with charges in private car parks.

Quentin

This doesn't look to be related to a private parking invoice??

This forum majors on private parking invoices rather than debt collector/bailiffs etc

Try the debt free wannabe forum for advice

Redx

Try Sheila at bailiff advice online for this, especially as it sounds like a council penalty which has escalated, Sheila is herbie21 on here I think

Plus try pepipoo fightback forum as well