Excel Parking - Demand for Payment

TheQAGuy

Hi there,
Firstly please accept my apologies if my case has been covered many times before. I have had a look through the forums and although there are similar cases, there is not an exact "match" to mine. If there is, could you point me to it and close this thread.

To give a bit of background on my complicated case. I left the family home at the end of November and although I have been going back to the house (to pick up the children) regularly, I found out my soon to be ex-wife had been sending all of my mail to "return to sender".

Last week, she had accidentally opened up a letter from Excel Parking entitled "demand for payment". In the letter, the first line reads "Your account has now been passed to our Debt Management Team for recovery of the outstanding charge amount. Any option to pay a reduced amount has now elapsed". They say my deadline for appeal has lapsed and I owe £160. The letter refers to the 14th December, when I apparently parked without paying for an hour. Luckily, I keep my parking tickets and found the one in question for the same date and time I am being charged for. I sent an email to Excel Parking explaining the situation with the letters being returned to sender and I attached a photo of the paid for parking ticket. This is their response:

"Good Morning,

As you can see on the ticket your full registration number CY***** was not entered when purchasing the ticket. Only the letters CY was entered.

The signs around the site clearly state that the full and accurate registration number must be entered when purchasing a ticket. Therefore, the PCN was issued correctly and you remain liable for the outstanding debt.

Please provide us with your updated address."

I queried this response by stating how was the machine allowed to give me a ticket if I did not fully enter my reg and the fact that I have paid for a ticket is clear. I received a blanket response of:

"Good Morning, 

We cannot take disputes at this stage as the time period for appeals has lapsed. 

If you do not wish settle the matter, we will continue to pursue the matter which may result in court action. 

Kind regards,"

I have contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau and they, in a roundabout way, said to pay the fine to avoid the charges of going to court. It was only as I went to pay on myparkingcharge.co.uk that I stumbled upon this forum.

I don't know how far down the line this has got with me receiving the "Demand for payment" letter and the deadline of the charge is due on Wednesday (26/02/2020). Could I please have some advice? I don't really want this to go to court (I already have enough on my plate with a divorce ongoing) and I was about to pay as I can't be bothered with the hassle, but reading some of the stories on here has made me want to find out what I should do.

Again, if this case has been reported and resolved, apologies.

nosferatu1001

CAB are useless.
Ignore them. 
Ignore demand for payment. Letter befor eclaim OR court claim form - then you pay attention. 
Instruct them of your new ADDRESS FOR SERVICE and require they ERASE your old address, to ensure they dont use your old one. 

Fruitcake

As above. Send a data correction notice to the parking company's DPO and include a copy of the vehicle V5C, as long as it has the correct address for service of the keeper.

Have you updated your address for both the V5C and driving licence with the DVLA? If not you could be hit with a genuine penalty for £1000.

TheQAGuy

nosferatu1001 said:

CAB are useless.
Ignore them. 
Ignore demand for payment. Letter befor eclaim OR court claim form - then you pay attention. 
Instruct them of your new ADDRESS FOR SERVICE and require they ERASE your old address, to ensure they dont use your old one. 

Thank you for your response.
I'll instruct them of the new address. I then wait for the "letter before claim" or "court claim form"... What do I do then?
In your opinion, with my evidence of paying for a ticket, do you think they will drop the claim?

TheQAGuy

Fruitcake said:

As above. Send a data correction notice to the parking company's DPO and include a copy of the vehicle V5C, as long as it has the correct address for service of the keeper.

Have you updated your address for both the V5C and driving licence with the DVLA? If not you could be hit with a genuine penalty for £1000.

Thank you.
As I've recently moved into a new house I have only sent off for a new driving license a couple of days ago. I have to send off for a new V5 form, as my original has "disappeared" from the family home.

Fruitcake

If you can't use the V5C as proof of ID then use two redacted utility bills/bank/card statements as proof, plus of course the VRM, and PCN number. 

If/when you know where the alleged event occurred, complain to the landowner.

Also complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.

D_P_Dance

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP, it can cause the scammer extra costs and work, and has been known to get the charge cancelled.

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.

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.

nosferatu1001

OP - go to the newbies thread. Amazingly enough, you are NOT the first person to wonder about, or have to go through, a court claim. So you read up the posts there on LETTER BEFORE CLAIM and CLAIM FORM. 
They may drop it. But if they do, they DEFINITELY dont make money. So you can probably guess that what they do instead is see just how far they can push it. 

TheQAGuy

I sent an email to Excel Parking regarding my new address yesterday and they have replied with the following:
"In order to to identify and locate the data we hold please could you provide your Vehicle Registration Mark or Parking Charge Notice Reference Number? 

Please could you also provide your previous address or any other comparable data to confirm your identity?

Kind Regards"
I will send the PCN and vehicle reg... I've already sent them proof of identity via a bank statement with my new address, should I be sending more information? (passport etc.)

Thank you for all those that have replied. I'm taking all your advice on board, I'm reading the newbies thread and will email both landowner and local MP.

Le_Kirk

NO to passport - do they have a photograph of you to which to compare it?

TheQAGuy

Le_Kirk said:

NO to passport - do they have a photograph of you to which to compare it?

I doubt they have a photograph of me. All I have given is my bank statement showing only my name and (new) address.