Trace Debt Recovery letter received. Need Help Please!

Khas

Dear All
I was reading through some of the posts about PCNs and Debt recovery letters and was wondering if someone can give me advice on how to handle them.
I received a PCN from CPM car park management company for parking my car in a private residential car park without displaying a valid permit. Actually, I went to drop off my kids to school in the morning. I normally walk them to school but that day I had a bad asthma attack, so I took them on car. I was parked there for less than 10 minutes and then after a couple of weeks I received a PCN asking me to pay £60 which I ignored. But after some weeks another letter followed, and charge increased to £100. At that point I raised an internal appeal and I received an email after a month with a letter attached saying that it was rejected and now I should appeal to IAS if I needed to.
I did not appeal and just ignored the email as there was no letter through the post. I did not receive any letters for about 3 months and thought that they may have cancelled the PCN but today I received a letter from Trace debt recovery asking me to pay £160 and that my case is now being assessed and is under review by their client and they may take my case to the County Court if I don’t pay them by 09/03/20.

Can I get some valuable advice on my situation please.
Thanks in advance for all your help.

Kindest Regards
Khas

Coupon-mad

Is this UKCPM or CPM?  What is the full name including any 'UK'?

When you dropped your kids to school, why did you seek out a private car park?  That is NEVER the place to stop.    You were trespassing, which is selfish parking (sorry but it's true) but we will assist you in defending the court claim that will arrive!

Did you know you are allowed to and exempted from PCNs if you use a single or double yellow line on street, to take children into school for a few minutes?  That's what double yellows are in fact for!   Assisted boarding and alighting of children to adjacent premises is exempt from Council PCNs as long as there is not a 'loading ban' sign and kerb blips as well as the yellow lines on the road. 

Please, please use the street to park and take the kids in, next time (only for a few minutes not to stop & chat, that isn't allowed).

Anyway, have TRACE written to you at a different address, or have UKCPM (or CPM?) only got one address for you?  If there is an old address they used as well you need to send a 'data rectification notice' confirming your current address for service of the court documents, and that they MUST erase the old address.

Apart from that, go and get some pics on foot of the car park and signs, and show us.

Also ask UKCPM by email (see their DATA PRIVACY page for the email address) for a SAR if you threw some letters away.  The SAR is explained with a linked example template in the NEWBIES thread.  A SAR gets all the letters and photos and helps when it comes to defending the meritless claim they will get Gladstones to throw at you.   No panic - we WIN THEM.  This is where you win, and IAS was not, it;s biased, so you missed nothing and could not have cancelled this earlier as there was no real appeal.

Khas

Thanks for your reply Coupon-mad.
I have checked and the letter was from UKCPM.
I normally walk my kids to school but on that day due to my condition I took them to school by car. I admit it's not good to park in private car park but as many people were parking there so I thought it should be fine plus it was just going to be for 5 minutes.
I was not aware that you could park on street to drop off the kids. Thank you for the information it's very helpful.
I am still living at the same address so they have my correct address.
I have attached the pictures of the car park as advised.
Once again Thank you for all the support.

Fruitcake

The signage is awful with the £100 charge in tiny font, and may even be forbidding therefore incapable of forming a contract.

Never the less, parking on someone else's land without permission was a bad idea. I expect if someone parked on your driveway to take their kids to school you would complain, even if they said, well other people were parked there so I thought it would be ok for a few minutes.
One of the reasons these parking companies exist is because of people doing what you did.

It's a shame that you revealed the driver's identity but that cannot now be helped. Having appealed as driver and being rejected by email, there was no requirement for the PPC to contact the keeper by post.
Not appealing to the IAS kangaroo court was however the right thing to do.

Debt collectors have no powers to do anything other than send you poor quality bog paper so they can be ignored. All you can do now is wait to see if they take you to court in the next six years. If you move in the meantime, give the PPC your new address for service.

Khas

Thank you for your response Fruitcake.
I do agree that I should not have parked in someone's parking space.
Also I would not have revealed my identity if I was aware of this forum.
So do I need to contact these debt collectors to stop contacting me or should I just ignore these letters and wait for the letter from the court please.
Thanks for all your support.
Kind Regards

1505grandad

Please see post by Fruitcake above yours:-

"Debt collectors have no powers to do anything other than send you poor quality bog paper so they can be ignored. All you can do now is wait to see if they take you to court in the next six years. If you move in the meantime, give the PPC your new address for service."

Khas

Thanks guys for all your responses and valuable advice. Much appreciated.
kindest Regards