Help! NCP Problems...

Kirsty321

Hi All,

Desperate for advice. Please see below my letter sent to NCP on 8th November regarding an appeal. I think the situation will be obvious if you have the time to read it (I did include reference numbers etc but have cut them out for the purpose of this post)

To whom it may concern;

You issued me with a parking ticket on 13th August 2019 but I believe it was unfairly issued. I will not be paying your demand for payment for the following reasons.


The alleged contravention did not occur
Quite simply, there was a technical or inputting error and the vehicle was not parked inappropriately at the time the ticket was issued. This is due to the fact that I did indeed pay to park my vehicle on that date. I registered on the app as per the signage in the car park. I sent a text message to pay for my parking. I received text message confirmation back and I ran to jump on the tube because I was running late for an appointment. In early September I received a PCN from you which I disputed online. When filing the dispute I realised that the text confirmation I received from ‘Dash” said “No vehicle details” so at this point it became clear to me I had made a mistake somewhere along the line when registering at the time of parking but nevertheless, no contravention occurred because I paid the required fee to park my car. I detailed all of this in my dispute. I received no response to the dispute. In early October I started to receive letters from ZZPS debt collectors. I advised them I was waiting to hear back from a dispute/appeal but they said they can’t help with that and can only take instruction from NCP so I needed to discuss with NCP further. I emailed NCP on 29th October 2019 again outlining my dispute which I didn’t receive a response to the first time around and this time attaching evidence; a screen shot of my text confirmations and screen shots of my online ‘Dash’ account that I had to set up on the day of parking confirming I had indeed paid the £7.70 to park my car. I also offered to provide bank statements showing the payment as going out if required. I received no reply. Today I receive another letter from ZZPS so this time I try and reach a human at NCP on the phone. I spoke with a lady named Hayley who advised me that when I originally registered on the app, on the day of parking, I had put my registration number in the description field on the registration form rather than in the VRM field. I was in a rush and I had my 3 year old Son with me who is autistic and was getting distressed waiting around for me to faff about with app’s and websites! I don’t think I would have even realised at that point what VRM stood for (if it is indeed worded like that on the website). The car park offers no facilities to pay cash for parking, only card. I didn’t have my card with me that day. I was in a tizzy trying to register on an app, filling in lengthy forms and all I wanted to do was pay the money owing so I could get on the tube! I thought I had done everything correctly when I got a text confirmation which actually reads (at the very top, the first line) “PARKING CONFIRMED”. Why would I think there had been any issues if my parking was confirmed as per the text message? Hayley advised the PCN was still owing because I didn’t correctly enter my vehicle details and the payment of £7.70 I made was allocated against “DAY” and not my registration number. Unacceptable. If my registration number was provided by me when I registered on the site – as CONFIRMED by Hayley today on the phone, then you still had both my details and my vehicle details and ultimately you still received the payment from me to park my car too! Human error happens and when using technology and apps, there should be provisions for this. Not simply “No sorry Miss......., you didn’t fill in the form correctly so even though you paid the parking cost for that day and you paid to park your vehicle as per our signage we are still going to try to charge you even more money because of your inability to complete the online form while you’re stood in the middle of a car park, trying to navigate an app on your phone with poor signal, with your autistic 3 year old child getting impatient and starting to cry and while you are in a rush to catch the tube to avoid being late for your appointment”. The bottom line is that I still provided my registration number when I registered and I also paid to park my car. NCP are not out of pocket as a result of my actions. I paid for parking at the rate advertised on your signage and irrespective of any inputting errors you still had my details and my vehicle details albeit the registration number of my car was in the wrong field and ultimately you had my money for parking too!

Please see attached evidence;

• 2 x Screen shots from Dash website
• 1 x Screen shot of text confirmation
• Copy of email sent to NCP 29/10/19
• Evidence of my child’s disability, who was with me on the day thus further supporting why it was so easy for me to not correctly complete a registration on an app/web page. If you need more proof that he was with me check your CCTV and you will see him having a meltdown and tantrum beside the pay station and trying to run out in front of cars.

If you choose to pursue me please be aware that I will not enter into any correspondence and this will be the only letter you will receive from me until you answer the specific points raised in my letter. I would appreciate if your response could be posted to me and proof of postage obtained for that as thus far, I have received no replies from you and it will avoid oversights if a response should go into a ‘spam’ or ‘junk’ folder on emails. Finally, in the event of this appeal being declined I will be further appealing to POPLA and would therefore appreciate if you could also provide me with the 10 digit reference number I will need in the event of this, to avoid any further delay to getting this resolved.

Yours faithfully,



I received no reply to this letter. Today I have received another text from ZZPS - I am concerned they will start sending bailiffs or impacting my credit score or something but ZZPS refuse to listen to anything I say. If I tell them I have disputed it, they don't care. They just tell me they only take instruction from NCP.

What can I do please?

Redx

Complain to the BPA that no reply or popla code was issued after the appeal was made, a breach of their Cop

Attach copies of all paperwork and add a timeline of incident date , appeal date etc

Ignore Zzps , they are powerless

No bailiffs will come knocking , because there is no CCJ as it hasn't been to court

What you have failed to notice is that bailiffs will need a court order , watch the TV programme s , there has always been a court case first , then a court order

Check facts , not fiction

Ignore the debt collectors , they cannot cancel it and you are wasting your breath putting your faith them , so ignore them

Kirsty321

Thank you very much for your reply! I will do that. I was just panicking :-)

Redx

Yes you were , as Jim Royle would say

Bailiffs !!! My a***

Le_Kirk

They cannot send bailiffs until you have been to court, lost your case and failed to pay the CCJ. Similarly it cannot affect your credit score or mark again unless and until it has been to court. Block numbers from debt collectors, just look out for a LBA/LBC or formal court papers. Do not ignore those. Was your parking ticket a Parking Charge Notice or a Penalty Charge Notice, i.e. did you park on railway land - you said you were off to catch a tube.

Kirsty321

It was an NCP car park situated next to Epping Tube Station in Essex. The only parking available at that particular station. I believe it was a parking charge notice but I can't be 100% sure as I've actually mislaid the original PCN they sent to me. I stupidly thought it wouldn't go anywhere because I had actually paid for my parking and I think it likely ended up in the bin.

Redx

Email a SAR to the DPO at NCP attaching a copy of the V5C log book and get all your data , including copies of the PCN NTK

Do the BPA complaint if you know the PCN reference , attach copies of what you have so far and say you will submit further paperwork if required after a SAR reply comes back

Complain about the lack of a Popla code etc

The fact that it's next to a station doesn't necessarily mean it's a station car park on railway land, it could be a private car park conveniently situated next to a station , so assume it was a parking charge notice band not a penalty notice for now

Kirsty321

I do have the PCN reference thankfully as ZZPS have been including it in all their letters, emails, text messages etc. I'll take your advice and thank you ever so much for taking the time to reply :-)

The_Deep

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]It is not a fine or a penalty, it is an invoice from an ex- clamper for damages for the harm they allege they suffered when you did what you did. We call it a scam. Pay them not one penny unless a judge so orders it. and, from what you have told us, that would be highly unlikely.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] [/FONT][/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP after the election, or to all likely candidates now, it can cause the scammer extra costs and work, and often, if they know an MP is in the loop, they will cancel the charge..

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, 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.

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]

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

Kirsty321

Me again, everyone. I need some further advice, I'm getting nowhere.

Since my last post I have written to NCP on 8th November 2019 (and kept proof of postage). They responded about 4 weeks later, still refusing my appeal. They provided a copy of a letter which they claimed to have sent me just after my original appeal but as God is my witness and on the life of my boy I swear I did not receive any such letter either by post or email. They claimed they emailed it and I have searched my email and junk and spam folders and I never got it. The copy of the original letter they claimed to have sent had a POPLA code on it so I figured I would just follow the POPLA appeals process.

I went onto the POPLA site but the code from the original letter was no longer valid because so much time has passed. I wrote the NCP on 5th December 2019 (and kept proof of postage) to advise them that the code was invalid and I needed them to supply me with a working code.

They had not called off ZZPS. They were still harrassing me. They seem to have now referred it to a company called Marston. Marston have today threatened to send an enforcement agent to my address in the next few days - is this even allowed if this matter hasn't been to court? I thought bailiff's and enforcement agents could only attend once a matter has been to court? Am I wrong?

In the meantime I took the advice given by RedX above. I complained to the BPA about lack of response to my original appeal to NCP and lack of POPLA code. Because NCP replied to me and provided a copy of a letter they claim to have sent about 2 weeks after my original appeal BPA say they can't help. The email from BPA is as follows:

Thank you for contacting us. I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties you have experienced.

I appreciate that you may not have received some correspondence. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to ascertain whether correspondence has, or has not, been sent or received by either party, so we can’t become involved in a dispute about this.

In this instance, we would request a copy of the outcome from NCP; we would have to accept this as proof that the document was issued for the reasons explained above. It seems that this has already been provided to you.

I’m afraid we don’t have the authority to instruct NCP to generate another POPLA code.


What on earth do I do now? I definitely do not want bailiff's at my door. Why should I pay a Parking Charge Notice when I had actually paid to park my vehicle that day? BPA won't help me, Marston are chasing me, NCP don't reply to me and therefore I don't have a valid POPLA code because the original one they claim to have issued has essentially expired. I just want to cry!

Fruitcake

Enforecement agents cannot come a knocking unless they are court appointed and have a court order to do so.

In the unlikely event that someone turns up without a court order then you should call the police.

Complain to the BPA and your MP that you are being harassed, threatened, and lied to by NCP's agents.

If you are really worried about bailiffs then contact Sheila at Bailiff Advice Online and show her the letter from Marstons.

https://bailiffadviceonline.co.uk/

She posts here as Herbie21 and has a good reputation on MSE.