Strategy for dealing with Parking Charge Notification in a slightly unusual scenario

TheEpon

Hi all,

Note: I orignally posted this here but realised it was in the wrong forum.

I've been reading through the Newbies thread which is ultra useful.

Situation:

We had a car through a work lease scheme and hence had no V5C as the scheme took care of all taxing, registering etc..

The address associated with the scheme was our old address it seems. We've moved house since we took out the car lease; I probbaly should've checked the address was updated with the lease company but since we had no V5C it didn't occur to me. Also, as it was through work, I'd rightly (or wrongly assumed that my work would pass on this change of address to them when I informed my employer that we'd moved.

Today I received the first DRP drivel - with this I'll be following Post #4 in the NEWBIES section and using it as toilet paper.

The claim is for alledged parking in a private street / cul-de-sac back in January 2020 (yes - almost two years ago) where the Creditor is Horizon Parking. They're now looking for £155. I've tried finding out who the landowner is but to no avail.

I can't be sure but I suspect Horizon may have been sending PCNs to the old address which obviously we didn't get as we haven't lived there for a good few years. We also don't have access to the vehicle in question anymore - this was returned to the lease company shortly after this alledged incident. They've probably then contacted the DRP monkeys to find our current address which they now have.

However, what should be my next steps? I've tried a best guess based on other posts I've read in this forum:

Should I contact Horizon to update my address details in case they pursue the matter further (via e-mail using a throwaway address)? I don't want to have court orders going to the wrong address - however DRP now have my current address so can I rely on them to pass it back to Horizon (creditor)?

Should I also contact Horizon to do a SAR for all the information pertaining to the alledged incidient?

Anything else?

I'd appreciate any help.

Redx

Yes , email a data rectification notice to the DPO at Horizon

Yes attach a SAR request to the data rectification notice too

Plan A , complain about the PCN s to the landowner , Umkomaas regularly posts information about finding out landowner details , all can be found and contacted , ALL !

TheEpon

>> Plan A , complain about the PCN s to the landowner

I did want to do that but I can't actually find who the landowner is. Are Horizon obligated to share that information with me as part of the SAR?

Redx

TheEpon said:

>> Plan A , complain about the PCN s to the landowner

I did want to do that but I can't actually find who the landowner is. Are Horizon obligated to share that information with me as part of the SAR?

No , but they are at the witness statement plus exhibits stage just before a court claim hearing !
Umkomaas regularly posts good advice on finding landowner details , please read that advice , he posts it every week

Umkomaas

Umkomaas regularly posts good advice on finding landowner details , please read that advice , he posts it every week

Here you go - some might not apply, but explore all the others

SOME IDEAS ON DETERMINING WHO OWNS THE LAND 

1. Google searches

2. If a retail park, check on any signage which lists the on-site outlets

3. Ask retailers on the site if there is a managing agent

4. Ask retailers on the site to whom do they pay rent

5. Contact the local authority and ask who pays the non-domestic/business rate for the car park (some councils have a spreadsheet on their website)

6. Contact the local Valuation Office and ask if they know. They often have a website which might provide the information 

7. Contact The Land Registry and for around £3 they should be able to provide definitive detail

8. If you haven't already done so, give us the name of the car park, we may have seen other cases there. 

TheEpon

Thanks for the responses. I did try a few of the suggestions but this one is a bit tricky as it's not retail - it's  a collection of flats some owned and some rented.

Cedar Court, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 0QJ, UK

TheEpon

I think with the land registry it will surely just bring up the owner of the specific flat you enter the detail for right?

TheEpon

I think I managed to find out who owns the flats by calling first the letting agent and then second the block manager. The block manager seems to be acting on behalf of some other company who actually owns the flats. I'm expecting a call back for more information on if they actually own the car park land as well.

The ticket reason is stated as: "Not displaying a valid permit".

I've submitted the DRN and SAR now to Horizon. If they can't clearly show that a permit wasn't displayed is that enough to get this quashed?

TheEpon

So I just received this back in response to the SAR. I used a throwaway email address.:

Good Afternoon

 

We acknowledge receipt of your email from an unnamed sender.

 

Please confirm that you have authorisation from the registered keeper or driver of the vehicle to request their data.  In order to provide this we will require an image of a signed authorisation from the keeper/driver of the vehicle stating that they specifically authorise us to release this data to this email address and that this request has been sent on their behalf with their knowledge and consent.

 

The authorisation can be sent to us as an image or a PDF but must contain a signature from the person whose details we hold on our system with current liability for the Parking Charge notice.

 

Yours sincerely

How do I respond to this? We weren't the registered keeper of the car as it was a lease car.

Redx

You respond as keeper , day to day keeper ( do not say anything about the driver , ignore the driver aspect , you are the keeper )

TheEpon

Thanks.

So if in terms of the next step: a complaint: what is the angle to use?

With retail it's easier as you can say "well I'm not going to shop here again". But with residential parking what grounds do you have to complain?