NCP, BW LEGAL, Parking fine and CCJ

Pedroso74

Hi Everyone,

I really need some advice on whether to fight a parking ticket in court and if so how is the best way to go about this. I think we have a strong case but I am no legal expert.

This is the situation:

I am disputing a parking ticket that NCP issued after we used The Spires Car Park in Barnet back in February of 2020. I have contacted NCP a number of times regarding this and have received no reply.

So just to clarify the situation. I received some emails from the hire car company GREEN MOTION that we rented the car from back in February 2020, but they went into my spam folder, so I was unaware of this parking fine. I was looking for their contact details to pass to a friend on 2nd August which is when i discovered one of their emails in my spam.

I then contacted NCP immediately by chat and they said that it has now been passed to TRACE dept recovery. They advised me to contact TRACE through their online form. I did this 3 times, the last time being 19th September 2020, when I said if I don't receive a reply I will consider that the matter has been dropped and I need to take no further action. I didn't receive a reply from ANY of these emails!

After that a letter was sent by TRACE to my mum's address by in the UK dated 18th November 2020 saying I need to pay within 7 days £160 or it will go to the solicitors. 

So I then called TRACE and they confirmed that they had received all my emails but had no explanation as to why they had failed to reply to ANY of them. So I then sent a long email dated 3rd December 2020 to a guy called Josh at TRACE explaining the situation in full and why I shouldn't have to pay this fine. He sent a reply which ended with "We will not enter into any further correspondence regarding this matter." Which at best shows no understanding or empathy towards people, but to be honest is just completely unconstructive and rude!

Josh attached to this email a letter which was allegedly posted to my mother’s address in May and June of last year from you (NCP) in regards to the parking violation. This letter was never received. I have lived in Cyprus for the past 20 years so any mail that goes to my mother’s address in the UK she opens for me and sends me photos. She 100% DID NOT receive any notifications from NCP in regards to this and the first letter she did receive was much later from TRACE.

Why would I just ignore these letters and not dispute it at the time? I have put so much time and effort into disputing this ticket with all parties and I have tried to contact NCP on a number of occasions with no response. I have spent hours writing emails to TRACE and now BW LEGAL trying to resolve this matter. So why wouldn't I have just contacted NCP to dispute the ticket at the beginning when I had the chance to do so?  Maybe because I DIDN'T receive the letters. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that I would ignore the initial letter. I am an educated 46 year old man who is quite aware that just ignoring something like this will not make it go away. I am not an 18 year kid that doesn't want his mum to find out he got a fine. IF I had received these letters I would have replied the very same day..... fact. 

I am not happy about paying this fine as I know we always get a ticket when we use this carpark. It is around the corner from my mother-in-laws house and we park there probably 20 times every time we come back to the UK for a couple of weeks' holiday. WE ALWAYS buy a parking ticket. I have lived in Cyprus for 20 years and we always use this carpark and we ALWAYS get a parking ticket. We have never received one singles fine!

When we were back in February they had just installed a new ANPR system. There was a lot of confusion over how it worked and there were even parking attendants showing people what to do, but then doing it for them. I know 100% for a fact that we purchased a ticket on each of our visits there. I don't know why it flagged that we didn't but WE DID. Maybe there was a problem with the new system or something. Maybe the attendant entered the information incorrectly (which BW Legal say would be our fault and not the attendants). All I know is that it makes no sense why we wouldn't buy a ticket one time when we always do. I have used that car park literally hundreds of times over the past 20 years.

There were loads of parking attendants in the car park because they had literally just put the new parking ticket machines in and there was a lot of confusion about how things worked. We remember very clearly what happened this day as we were just leaving Barnet to head to Leamington for the night. We parked downstairs but had to go upstairs to use the machine so my mother-in-law went into the shopping centre and my wife & I went to pay for the ticket. This car park has a lot of elderly people using it because of the area it is in and the shops that are in the centre. There were queues at the machine because people were confused as to what to do, so the attendant was putting in the information for everyone to keep things moving. We were in the car park for a grand total of 18 minutes.

So we did get purchase a ticket and it is not our fault if the attendant made a mistake with the registration number or there was a problem with the new system. So because of this we are now expected to pay an extortionate fine???!!

After looking into things I have come across an article in a local paper which has highlighted the issues at this car park and an NCP spokesperson admitted in a statement:

“Since the introduction of our new payment machines at this car park there have been a couple of technical issues following the installation.

I had hoped that common sense would prevail and this fine would have finally be dropped. However, having read reviews and researched both NCP and BW Legal it seems that neither have a very good reputation for even listening let alone doing the right thing! This whole situation has caused myself and my family a lot of unnecessary worry at a time when we are struggling financially due to the Pandemic. We have earnt no money for over a year and we really could do without all the stress and financial worry this is causing.

So my questions really are:

1) Do we have a good chance to win this if it goes to court.

2)  I read somewhere that if you lose then it shouldn't be more than about £100 on top of the original amount owed to cover court expenses and legal fees?

3) If we call their bluff and just wait, presuming they then start court proceedings, could we then decide to pay the fine before it goes to court or it will then have to go to court?

Thank you so much in advance for any help and advice anyone can give.

P

 

Redx

If you have a CCJ as mentioned in the title then it's already been to court , which I doubt , so I do not believe that you have a CCJ

If you have a court claim pack from the CCBC in Northampton , post the issue date below

1) impossible to give an answer , it's judge bingo and depends on numerous facts

2) correct , about £200 or less , for one PCN

3) it can be settled at any time up until the hearing but at a figure they claimed in the MCOL claim , or a negotiated settlement figure

There was no fine , it's an invoice 

Pedroso74

At the moment I don't have a CCJ but BW Legal are saying that the next step if I don't pay the £160 is that they will take me to court.

I have heard that somewhere before that "There is no fine, it is an invoice" - what relevance does this have?

Thank you so much for responding Redx

Le_Kirk

The difference is that no parking company can issue a "fine" as  they do don't have authority so they send you a speculative invoice hoping you will think it is a fine such as you might receive from the council or police.  It only becomes a debt when a judge says so after a court hearing.

Redx

Totally different meanings , ask Google for those definitions

It wasn't a fine , it isn't a fine , it will never be a fine !!

To be clear , you are using a legal word that none of your adversaries are using , because it's unlawful for them to call it a fine , yet you are using the word even though it's not in any paperwork , so why use that f word ?  !!

You don't call lager the word tipple , or cider , even though it's all alcoholic drinks !!

When you want a pint of beer , you specify the type , you would not say liquid or beverage

B w legal will do what their client tells them to do

At the moment you are at debt collector stage , so read the fourth post in the newbies FAQ sticky thread which covers it

LBC and MCOL claim are in post 2 which you are not at that stage yet , nor a CCJ either !

The claimant NCP have 6 years to issue a court claim

Ideally you want to follow plan A , a landowner cancellation

Pedroso74

Ok thank you for your help. I will read up on them now

D_P_Dance

I am not happy about paying this fine ...

It is not a fine.

Pedroso74

Redx said:

Totally different meanings , ask Google for those definitions

It wasn't a fine , it isn't a fine , it will never be a fine !!

To be clear , you are using a legal word that none of your adversaries are using , because it's unlawful for them to call it a fine , yet you are using the word even though it's not in any paperwork , so why use that f word ?  !!

You don't call lager the word tipple , or cider , even though it's all alcoholic drinks !!

When you want a pint of beer , you specify the type , you would not say liquid or beverage

B w legal will do what their client tells them to do

At the moment you are at debt collector stage , so read the fourth post in the newbies FAQ sticky thread which covers it

LBC and MCOL claim are in post 2 which you are not at that stage yet , nor a CCJ either !

The claimant NCP have 6 years to issue a court claim

Ideally you want to follow plan A , a landowner cancellation

Sorry I am new here and can't seem to find the sticky thread for "Newbies FAQ" - do you have a direct link for this please?

Many thanks, P

Pedroso74

Don't worry I have found it