UKPC Parking Ticket, are the rumours true?

D_Man7

Got a ticket for parking badly, outside of white lines, back on 15th May 2021, I have had a couple of reminder letters from UKPC and now yesterday I got a letter from ZZPS debt collections with an increased charge due to handling charges stating that if I do not pay then legal action will be taken and case will be sent to court. I have read many things now that say that this situation will happen exactly as it has panned out but to keep ignoring the letters as they are a private company and it will not reach court. Is this the case or am I better off biting the bullet and just paying?

Umkomaas

On the assumption that you have been given 14 days to respond (rather than 30 days) you can ignore ZZPS letters as they are acting as debt collectors, but with no standing in regard to owning any alleged debt. But this won't go away until:

1. You get a landowner cancellation;

2. You pay it (this forum does not suggest that route);
3. You are taken to court by UKPC and a Judge decides whether you owe them or not;
4. Six years elapse at which point no further legal action can be taken against you. 

Don't ignore a formal Letter Of/Before Claim from solicitors representing UKPC or an actual county court claim from the Northampton CCBC. 

Please read the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, fourth post, which tells you all about debt collectors. The entire thread gives you guidance to handle any private parking ticket and its various stages right through to defending a court claim. 

D_Man7

So I have not had any solicitors letters yet just the ZZPS one as the contravention date was 15/05/21 which was 2 and half months ago. So I am going to ignore this ZZPS letter as although i parked slightly over the white line I feel I have a good enough reason as to why, should the take it to court. Which i doubt they will as I have read that very rarely happens.

Umkomaas

D_Man7 said:

So I have not had any solicitors letters yet just the ZZPS one as the contravention date was 15/05/21 which was 2 and half months ago. So I am going to ignore this ZZPS letter as although i parked slightly over the white line I feel I have a good enough reason as to why, should the take it to court. Which i doubt they will as I have read that very rarely happens.

There is a much higher prevalence than you seem to estimate. In the last full year over 100,000 small claims court cases were raised by the private parking sector.

patient_dream

D_Man7 said:

Got a ticket for parking badly, outside of white lines, back on 15th May 2021, I have had a couple of reminder letters from UKPC and now yesterday I got a letter from ZZPS debt collections with an increased charge due to handling charges stating that if I do not pay then legal action will be taken and case will be sent to court. I have read many things now that say that this situation will happen exactly as it has panned out but to keep ignoring the letters as they are a private company and it will not reach court. Is this the case or am I better off biting the bullet and just paying?

And that sums up the joke of ZZPS.  

Handling charge ???  Just let ZZPS go back to UKPC and tell them they cannot HANDLE it anymore and it's NO cost to UKPC.

DON'T PAY ZZPS

Coupon-mad

You really have been reading the wrong forums.  This would have been simple to get cancelled with one appeal on day 25 then a POPLA appeal as keeper. 

No-one is telling you to pay but for goodness sake stop reading Facebook rubbish opinion.

D_P_Dance

Have you complained to your MP?

Fruitcake

The advice to ignore a PCN has not been given here since the law changed in 2012.

UKPC regularly take people to court.

ZZPS are powerless debt collectors and can be ignored, but don't ignore real court papers.

Coupon-mad

D_Man7 said:

So I am going to ignore this ZZPS letter as although i parked slightly over the white line I feel I have a good enough reason as to why, should the take it to court. Which i doubt they will as I have read that very rarely happens.

Happens literally all the time, hundreds of thousands of people get a PPC court claim every year.

Please comment on the government consultation concerning parking charges and complain to your MP about the proposal to allow fake add on debt recovery costs.

Government Consultation re private parking charge levels, August 2021: PLEASE BOOKMARK THIS THREAD — MoneySavingExpert Forum

We are calling for everyone to do a full and robust response by email to the MHCLG, attaching evidence of what happened to you and what you think is wrong about £100 charges and fake debt recovery ‘fees’ that no PPC actually incurs or pays. 

We also need people to contact their MP to ask questions about why the MHCLG appear to have performed a U-turn on their March promise to cap parking charges, and why instead they propose to fund the race to court at £70 a time from victims

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78517562/#Comment_78517562

To anyone reading this: PLEASE DO THIS IF YOU WANT CONSUMER VOICES TO OUTWEIGH THE PARKING INDUSTRY’S GREED. WHICH SEES THEM TRY TO CLAIM MORE THAN THE LAW ALLOWS, FROM A REGISTERED KEEPER,

I just looked at the POFA Explanatory Notes (part of the legislation):

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/notes/division/5/1/3/3

221.Paragraph 4 provides that the creditor has a right to recover unpaid parking charges from the keeper of the relevant vehicle if the conditions set out in paragraphs 5, 6, 11 and 12 are satisfied. The creditor is not obliged to pursue unpaid parking charges through this scheme and may seek to do so through other means but they may not use the scheme provided for here to secure double recovery of unpaid parking charges (paragraph 4(6)), nor will they have the right to pursue the keeper, as opposed to the driver, of the vehicle where they have sufficient details of the driver’s identity. The right to reclaim unpaid parking charges from the vehicle keeper does not apply in cases where the vehicle has been stolen before it was parked, (paragraphs 4(2) to (3)), or in certain circumstances where the vehicle in question was a hire vehicle (paragraph 4(7)). The creditor may not make a claim against the keeper of a vehicle for more than the amount of the unpaid parking related charges as they stood when the notice to the driver was issued (paragraph 4(5)).