Heathrow drop off PCN Debt Recovery Plus

spikyface

I parked at Heathrow two months ago and mistakenly paid the charge for the wrong car. Now after months the keeper of the car has received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus (this is the first letter received) stating they want £150 paid within 7 days or they will take legal action.

I have not shared who the driver was with APCOA or Debt Recovery Plus

I have read the newbies thread and sent a template email to the Heathrow drop off parking complaints address but they have stated that I need to use another website to appeal https://heathrowdropoffpcnpayments.apcoa.com/pcnonline/index.php

When I look here I can see the evidence they have but I the option to appeal is disabled as this charge been passed to their enforcement company. 

The debt recovery plus letter does not have any online way to contact them, the website only allows you to pay them.

Should I send a written letter to them via recorded delivery (or just first class with prof of postage) stating the below?

Dear Sirs,

I have just received your Parking Charge Notice xxxxx for vehicle xxxx

You have failed to comply with the requirements of Schedule 4 of The Protection Of Freedoms Act 2012 namely, but not limited to, to give the notice of keeper liability in the format prescribed by section 9 (2) (f) of the Act. You cannot, therefore, transfer liability for the alleged charge from the driver at the time to me, the keeper.

There is no legal requirement to name the driver at the time and I will not be doing so.

I do not expect to hear from you again, or your debt collectors, except to confirm that no further action will be taken on this matter and my personal details have been removed from your records.

Yours etc

Umkomaas

Too late to appeal, that should have been done at the time of the first notification from APCOA and was so easily winnable. 

Now it's at debt collector stage, please follow the advice in the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, fourth post, which tells you how to deal with debt collectors - but in a word, ignore.

Come back in the event of (the first ever from across the whole country - ever) an APCOA court claim. 

Coupon-mad

this charge been passed to their enforcement company. 

No it hasn't, it's just Debt Recovery Plus!   Ignore them entirely is the standard advice.

See post #4 of the NEWBIES thread for pictures (we know their letters have changed since our pics - they always do - and now feature a stock image of a fake person (like on TV's Catfish).   Laughable.

APCOA never sue anyone but if that ever changes you'd get a Letter of Claim (within 6 years, so you MUST update APCOA if you move house) and you could then respond and point out it's a keying error.

If you are uncomfortable doing nothing at this stage, and to set the scene (IMPORTANT - WITHOUT SAYING WHO WAS DRIVING) you could respond to DRP, telling them this was a keying error case and the numberplate input that matched the payment made by the driver was xxxx xxx.

As such, the offer to APCOA is £20 as full and final settlement and this is made by the registered keeper without prejudice, save as to costs, and without admission of any liability.  This is valid for 28 days to allow APCOA to review the facts, the payment records and identify that the other VRM was used.  This offer has value to APCOA because they cannot rely on the POFA schedule 4 and cannot hold the keeper liable but this would settle the driver's inadvertent admin error, in accordance with the BPA Code of Practice, re major keying errors.  The offer is over and above the new rules in the 2022 statutory Code of Practice, which requires all keying errors to be cancelled without charge to the consumer, because operators should be using the available technology to identify VRMs that are not in the managed area and reject and prompt drivers at the time of payment, if VRM keying errors are made on their system.

No additional 'costs' have been incurred or paid by APCOA and given DRPLUS act on a 'no-win-no-fee' basis and the Government has declared the fake added £70 as 'designed to extort money from motorists' the demand for £170 is false, by any reasonable interpretation.

This is now a disputed case, under CSA and FCA guidelines, supposed 'recovery' must cease and the whole file be passed back to APCOA to address the dispute and the keying error facts.


---------

DO NOT use recorded delivery.  Email DRPLUS if you want to do the above, quoting their long reference from their scummy letter:

info@drpl.co.uk

patient_dream

Debt Recovery Plus (this is the first letter received) stating they want £150 paid within 7 days or they will take legal action.

What FOOLS DRP are ..... they have added a FAKE amount and pretend they can take legal action ?

It would be good to see DRP return to play school where they can be tought the facts of life

been passed to their enforcement company. 
Assume APCOA have been lied to by DRP ? WHO CANNOT ENFORCE AMYTHING

All these lies and fabrication simply meant that government had to crack the whip and they banned the fake add-ons.  DRP will have no part to play in the new code of practice apart from sending out rubbish letters

spikyface

Coupon-mad said:

this charge been passed to their enforcement company. 

No it hasn't, it's just Debt Recovery Plus!   Ignore them entirely is the standard advice.

If you are uncomfortable doing nothing at this stage, and to set the scene (IMPORTANT - WITHOUT SAYING WHO WAS DRIVING) you could respond to DRP, telling them this was a keying error case and the numberplate input that matched the payment made by the driver was xxxx xxx.

Thanks for the supremely detailed answer, it's a huge help

The £20 offer seems reasonable and means the matter if dealt with if they accept

I thought if I give them the details of the payment that was made by the driver, I thought that also gives them my name too as part of the payment details, but I just checked and it looks like their payment form doesn't record the name, just card details, the confirmation email for the payment doesn't contain it either, so I'll definitely try this and see what happens.

Thanks again Coupon-mad, much appreciated

Thanks also to Umkommas and Patient_Dream for your responses too, although I haven't received anything from APCOA before this letter from DRP, which is a bit odd

KeithP

spikyface said:

Coupon-mad said:

this charge been passed to their enforcement company. 

No it hasn't, it's just Debt Recovery Plus!   Ignore them entirely is the standard advice.

If you are uncomfortable doing nothing at this stage, and to set the scene (IMPORTANT - WITHOUT SAYING WHO WAS DRIVING) you could respond to DRP, telling them this was a keying error case and the numberplate input that matched the payment made by the driver was xxxx xxx.

I thought if I give them the details of the payment that was made by the driver, I thought that also gives them my name too as part of the payment details, but I just checked and it looks like their payment form doesn't record the name, just card details, the confirmation email for the payment doesn't contain it either, so I'll definitely try this and see what happens.

Even if the name of the payer was available to them, how would that mean that the person who paid was the driver?

fisherjim

spikyface said:

Thanks for the supremely detailed answer, it's a huge help

The £20 offer seems reasonable and means the matter if dealt with if they accept

I thought if I give them the details of the payment that was made by the driver, I thought that also gives them my name too as part of the payment details, but I just checked and it looks like their payment form doesn't record the name, just card details, the confirmation email for the payment doesn't contain it either, so I'll definitely try this and see what happens.

I can't see debt recovery plus going with this they will have the files as is and won't give up the pressure until they fail and APCOA won't tread on their toes until they give up and hand it back.

millielotus

I should know better as in the past I’d ignored a parking charge anfter I was 12 mins late returning to the car and everything fizzled out after about 18 months, all the paperwork was great for lighting the wood burner!!
But this time I was so angry as after using Apcoa’s scan to pay system at a railway station car park I was sent the parking charge, the weeks went by and I thought they have clearly realised their mistake but then I get a letter from Debt Recovery Plus saying pay £170 now, honestly the cheek of it, I clearly have the payment shown on my bank statement of £3.80 for the whole day!
I was so wound up and thinking they clearly have no case against me what so ever I contacted DRP on their website as I could no longer contact APCOA regarding it .
I also emailed them to cover myself , they say they’ll respond to you within 14 days but they don’t ever respond.
Today I get another letter basically saying I’ve opted to ignore them!! 
So again I’m reeling with anger and call them, quite a nice lady answered and I said I’d received these letter and why hadn’t they responded to my 3 emails, apparently they didn’t receive them, yeah right! I said how this is all rather tiresome and it’s not my place to make your clients aware of the shortcomings in their parking machine technology!!
We parted ways with her saying we’ll continue with the payment charges, I said good luck with that!!

Coupon-mad

This isn't a suitable thread to resurrect.

You just ignore APCOA, as seen on all recent APCOA Railway threads.  This one isn't recent.

I have no idea why you phoned DR Plus.

millielotus

Lol, no nor do I really but thanks for your reply.

patient_dream

millielotus said:

Lol, no nor do I really but thanks for your reply.

You and everyone who reads your thread must understand that DRP are just powerless and a BPA money scammer

We parted ways with her saying we’ll continue with the payment charge, I said good luck with that!!

This little chick should really be looking for a new job right now

What would she put on her CV ..... "i scam people for a living"