PCN

MistyZ

As Fruitcake says, you can find out who owns the land from the Land Registry for less than a fiver.  It can be a bit of a faff, well I think so.  I think it's worth it though, very much so.

There again, google often reveals the landowner.  Often it's actually a massive land-management company whose name is appended to sites advertising the area or commercial property for sale etc.  And I've found, as have others, that these giants can be surprisingly helpful.  

garygaryd

Unfortunately we revealed who the driver was. Thanks for the advice and I will do as you say. Thanks again. 

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 in some cases, cancellation.

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.

garygaryd

Hi is there a template letter to send to my MP.
I want to ensure that I'm not missing any relevant points.
Thanks

D_P_Dance

No template just tell it as it is. 

Coupon-mad

We don't provide a template for a complaint, for obvious reasons of:

(a) keeping the complaint real and personal to the circumstances
(b) not spoonfeeding the easy stuff on this forum, and
(c) avoiding duplication which would water down the complaint if we trotted out some pathetic template for people that MPs, retailers and landowners had seen before.

garygaryd

Hi, Please can anyone help, I previously requested advice on this site, after I had received a Parking Charge Notice. the brief circumstances are that I left the car park after being unable to pay £3.00 as I didn't have coins, the machine would not accept my card or notes, I left to attend a medical emergency. I later (within the hour) returned on foot and paid the £3.00 fee. I then to my dismay had a PCN which i appealed to the independent body (apparently)  outlining the above. They stated they were sympathetic to the circumstances but i was still liable. i believe this is totally unjust. I have written to my MP who has been very helpful. I have now received a Demand for Payment from a debt collection agency threatening legal action if £160.00 is not paid. Please can anyone offer advice as too how I proceed from here? 

Thanks Gary

Umkomaas

How did your appeal to the landowner go?

garygaryd

I have been unable to ascertain who owns the land, Covid and Lockdown hasn't helped.I have tried land registry to no avail (via computer). The council would not vtell me who pays the business rates.
I've looked on the newbie FAQ as you suggested re the Demand for Payment should i just ignore the letter at this stage? yes or no please.  

Umkomaas

should i just ignore the letter at this stage? yes or no please.  

You have to decide, but standard forum advice (NEWBIES FAQ sticky, fourth post) given for over a decade is to ignore the debt collector stage. There is no advantage in responding to a debt crawler. 

As I said in my first posting on your thread:

As with any IPC/IAS member, the chance of winning an appeal is just about zero. Unless you can get the landowner to intervene and have this cancelled, I'm afraid it's a wait and see if they issue court proceedings, which you can defend with help from the forum.  

They have 6 years in which to issue proceedings. 

Nothing has changed. 

The council cannot refuse to give you information on who business rate payers are, so fire off a Freedom of Information request to them if they are proving difficult on the phone - everything in writing to them now.