Civil Enforcement Final Reminder, but no Letter Before Action received and no clue as to the offence

HedgehogTheSecond

I just received a Final Reminder for £170 from Civil Enforcement, starting "We previously sent you a Letter Before Action..." I never received this Letter Before Action, so this is the first I know of the matter. There is no clue in the Final Reminder as to the nature or location of the alleged offence; all I have is a PCN. So I went to their website www.ce-service.co.uk, and it told me that the link to lodge an appeal is appeals.ce-service.co.uk. I entered my details, but all I got was "You have entered invalid details. Please try again." (I took a screenshot of this.) And their helpline is closed due to Covid-19.
So now I am in limbo -- I'm certainly not going to pay a fine when I don't even know what it's for, but I have no way of finding out! I think Kafka wrote a story about this. What can I do?

HedgehogTheSecond

Further info: I went to POPLA to see about lodging an appeal, but they say "The number you entered appears to be invalid or may have expired." So on top of everything else, they seem to have sent me an invalid PCN (which would explain the original failure at appeals.ce-service.co.uk).

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 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 later this year,

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

Scrapit

D_P_Dance said:

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP., it can cause the scammer extra costs, 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 later this year,

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

What ticket are you refering to?

HedgehogTheSecond

Ignore my second post about POPLA -- it seems they were asking for a POPLA verification code, not a PCN. So the problem remains: how can I lodge an appeal (or even a request for information) when the appeal-lodging process is borked?

Umkomaas

What is the date of the PCN?  But if they say they've sent you a LBA, then the appeal window is almost certainly shut - they only give 28 days to appeal. POPLA too will be out of the question. 

All you can do is sit back and see what comes next. Probably a court claim, which can be defended using the advice and guidance (written by legally qualified and court savvy regulars) that you can find in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, second post. 

Come back on this thread if you receive a court claim via the Northampton CCBC. 

HedgehogTheSecond

Umkomaas said:

What is the date of the PCN?

They give no date. (The date of the Final Reminder itself is 21/07/2020.)

nosferatu1001

The LBA must state the date of the parking charge. Add a max of 14 days to give an idea when the NtK should havebeen in your hands. 
The appeals process isnt borked. Youre jsut out of time, is all. 
The NtK eitehr was never sent, or went missing in the post. There is no way to prove either way 
Doesnt matter. CEL are useless. They may raise a court claim, that you will win because while we win around 99% of all claims, to my knowledge CEL are even worse in court than that. 

HedgehogTheSecond

nosferatu1001 said:

The LBA must state the date of the parking charge.

But I never received an LBA, just a Final Reminder with nothing but a PCN which doesn't work. I expect you're right about running out of time, but I currently have no way to know.

Redx

Email a SAR to the DPO at CEL attaching a copy of the V5C as proof of I D under the GDPR law

Coupon-mad

As explained in the NEWBIES thread 2nd post - template SAR is there.  

No link given to the sticky thread.