Legit parking but missed registering the car resulting in PCN that was sent to old address

kaboo

Hi everyone,
We are in a pickle! 
Last year (2022) in Aug my missus went to shop at an independent grocery store around our city centre. She parked her car at the shop's parking - it is their private parking. That parking is meant for the sole use the customers and it is free. At some point in the last year they hired a private company (Euro Parking Services) to catch the people who illegally park there and installed an electronic device in the shop where customers are supposed to punch in their car registration. We have shopped at this shop for years, they specialise in asian groceries, and we did not notice this new system. My wife completed the shopping and came home. 

In 2021 we had moved to a new address. We changed addresses everywhere but forgot with DVLA for my wife's car because during the move her old V5C had got buried in a box, without it the address changing process was a lot more complex. Then we also became pregnant with our second child who was born in Aug of 2022. Basically life was way to hectic for that one year and it was quite easy to loose track of things. I did find the old V5C eventually and changed the address in Sep 2022. Basically a month after the parking infringement.

Last week we got a letter from some solicitors who were hired by the Euro Parking. They are saying that we have to pay £100 fine for the parking, plus £60 for hiring the solicitors who had to trigger a national trace to find our new address. 

I want to dispute both of these because (1) we were the customers of that shop when we parked the car - my credit card statement can show that. For (2) I am not sure how I can contest it? The address was changed within a month of the parking infringement. I thought that PCN has to be followed by reminders, and how is it possible that all the reminders were sent to the old address. They should have checked between the original PCN and the reminders. Then surely before triggering a national trace they should have checked it again with DVLA?

Any suggestions on how we can get some or all of the fine written off?
Thank you in advance,

Coupon-mad

plus £60 for hiring the solicitors who had to trigger a national trace to find our new address. 

The solicitors were not hired.  They act on a 'no win no fee' basis and a bulk 'soft trace' costs them from 28 pence.  Yep. They've spent 28p and added £60.

It's not a 'fine'.

You aren't trying to get it written off!

It's an "outrageous scam" of an industry according to MPs and right-thinking people.  Stop taking it so seriously.  There is no appeal.

Are they chasing you or your wife?

Which solicitors?

Have you sent the parking firm a SAR and told them to erase the old address to stop your inevitable court claim going to the wrong address (deliberately or negligently)?

This is all explained in the 2nd post of the NEWBIES thread. No risk, no worries, no CCJ.

A Court claim is what you want because it's the only fair dispute resolution available, if the landowner refuses to cancel the stupid charge.

B789

Plan A, plan A, plan A!!! Have you complained to the store where you regularly shop to ask them to get the PCN cancelled. If they are the ones who invited EPS to manage their car park, then they are the ones who should be able to get them to cancel it. Is it worth them losing regular custom over this issue with a regular customer?

Please read the Newbies thread near the top of this forum... then re-read it and make sure you understand what it is explaining. It gives you all the steps to take in this process. It soon becomes obvious to us if someone is on here requesting assistance with their parking scammer problems but haven't bothered to at least try and educate themselves on the process and are just relaying on the goodwill and time the regulars on here without putting in much effort of their own.

kaboo

B789 said:

Plan A, plan A, plan A!!! Have you complained to the store where you regularly shop to ask them to get the PCN cancelled. If they are the ones who invited EPS to manage their car park, then they are the ones who should be able to get them to cancel it. Is it worth them losing regular custom over this issue with a regular customer?

Please read the Newbies thread near the top of this forum... then re-read it and make sure you understand what it is explaining. It gives you all the steps to take in this process. It soon becomes obvious to us if someone is on here requesting assistance with their parking scammer problems but haven't bothered to at least try and educate themselves on the process and are just relaying on the goodwill and time the regulars on here without putting in much effort of their own.

Thank you. And yes I had please see my update. 

B789

kaboo said:
Thank you. And yes I had please see my update. 

Where is your update?

kaboo

Hi again, and sorry for disappearing. A lot has been happening in the last 2 months or so, a tiny child, redundancy and starting a new job - its been hectic. 
We did reach out to the stores owner - the problem was that it was taking forever to get through to him. His workers were not passing on the message and the owner is at that store only for 2-3 hours every second day (he is lucky to have other businesses that he has to look after). So while we were trying to approach the owner we posted a message here - basically pursuing things in parallel.

Eventually we did manage to talk to the owner. I had dropped a letter describing the situation, copy of my credit card statement and the letter from the solicitors (Gladstone) of Euro Parking Services. He got the letter and understood our problem. In his words so many of his customers have been having this problem because it was only last year they handed the car park to Euro Parking and installed the check-in terminal in the shop - lots of customers are not familiar with and they forget. The owner has got the Euro Parking to cancel the PCN for all of his customers. 

However, when the owner talked with Euro Parking's manager - it seems the manager was very adamant this time that we have to pay the charges because we ignored the PCN for several months, they had to hire a lawyer and now the claim is for £160+. The manager is really pushing for it and sounds like he won't back down.

We have given the shop owner a more detailed reply on whatsapp, explaining the timelines and that it is not our fault that they have been sending the letters to a wrong address! We have asked the owner to ask exactly how many letters/PCNs/reminders did Euro Parkings sent to us and when? He will talk with the Euro Parking manager again in the next 1-2 days.

So far we have not talked with the Euro Car Parking or their Lawyers. Trying still to pursue the plan A -  trying to get the landowner to get this cancelled. However the situation is complicated by the fact that we did not receive any of the earlier letters, PCNs or their reminders. Only the letter from the solicitors which reads like the letter of claim. And getting the owner to cancel the charge has caused quite a bit of delay to miss the 30 day deadline on that letter 

What should we do at the moment - wait for plan A to work. Or Should we complain to Euro Car Park and ask for SAR? Or Write the lawyers?

kaboo

kaboo said:

Hi again, and sorry for disappearing. A lot has been happening in the last 2 months or so, a tiny child, redundancy and starting a new job - its been hectic. 
We did reach out to the stores owner - the problem was that it was taking forever to get through to him. His workers were not passing on the message and the owner is at that store only for 2-3 hours every second day (he is lucky to have other businesses that he has to look after). So while we were trying to approach the owner we posted a message here - basically pursuing things in parallel.

Eventually we did manage to talk to the owner. I had dropped a letter describing the situation, copy of my credit card statement and the letter from the solicitors (Gladstone) of Euro Parking Services. He got the letter and understood our problem. In his words so many of his customers have been having this problem because it was only last year they handed the car park to Euro Parking and installed the check-in terminal in the shop - lots of customers are not familiar with and they forget. The owner has got the Euro Parking to cancel the PCN for all of his customers. 

However, when the owner talked with Euro Parking's manager - it seems the manager was very adamant this time that we have to pay the charges because we ignored the PCN for several months, they had to hire a lawyer and now the claim is for £160+. The manager is really pushing for it and sounds like he won't back down.

We have given the shop owner a more detailed reply on whatsapp, explaining the timelines and that it is not our fault that they have been sending the letters to a wrong address! We have asked the owner to ask exactly how many letters/PCNs/reminders did Euro Parkings sent to us and when? He will talk with the Euro Parking manager again in the next 1-2 days.

So far we have not talked with the Euro Car Parking or their Lawyers. Trying still to pursue the plan A -  trying to get the landowner to get this cancelled. However the situation is complicated by the fact that we did not receive any of the earlier letters, PCNs or their reminders. Only the letter from the solicitors which reads like the letter of claim. And getting the owner to cancel the charge has caused quite a bit of delay to miss the 30 day deadline on that letter 

What should we do at the moment - wait for plan A to work. Or Should we complain to Euro Car Park and ask for SAR? Or Write the lawyers?

@B789 here it is.

Umkomaas

Can you please be clear as to the name of the parking company. Variously you have stated 'Euro Parking Services', 'Euro Parking', 'Euro Parkings', 'Euro Car Parking', 'Euro Car Park'. There are at least two separate parking firms mentioned in your 'list' as well as a number that simply don't exist. 

As you are now at the sharp end of this business (impending litigation), accuracy is absolutely essential. 

B789

kaboo said:

However, when the owner talked with Euro Parking's manager - it seems the manager was very adamant this time that we have to pay the charges because we ignored the PCN for several months, they had to hire a lawyer and now the claim is for £160+. The manager is really pushing for it and sounds like he won't back down.

You tell the "store owner" that the EPS "manager" is lying as they have not "hired a lawyer" and even if they had, they cannot claim for that in a small claim. You may want to mention to the "store owner" that thanks to their stupidity in contracting the ex-clamping scammers to run their car park, that they are likely to lose much more business as more and more of their customers fall victim to the scam.

You explain how much you usually spend there, multiply that by however many times a year you visit and also multiply that by the number of all your relatives, friends and acquaintances that will stop using their store if they are likely to get an invoice for £100+ from a bunch of scammers each time they visit.

If Plan A doesn't work or is taking too long, you revert to plan B as explained in the Newbies thread. Not much you can do until or if you receive a LBCCC or LoC. Just revise the Newbies thread to see what steps are involved and what you have to do and by when.

kaboo

Umkomaas said:

Can you please be clear as to the name of the parking company. Variously you have stated 'Euro Parking Services', 'Euro Parking', 'Euro Parkings', 'Euro Car Parking', 'Euro Car Park'. There are at least two separate parking firms mentioned in your 'list' as well as a number that simply don't exist. 

As you are now at the sharp end of this business (impending litigation), accuracy is absolutely essential. 

Euro Parking Services Ltd....

kaboo

B789 said:

kaboo said:

However, when the owner talked with Euro Parking's manager - it seems the manager was very adamant this time that we have to pay the charges because we ignored the PCN for several months, they had to hire a lawyer and now the claim is for £160+. The manager is really pushing for it and sounds like he won't back down.

You tell the "store owner" that the EPS "manager" is lying as they have not "hired a lawyer" and even if they had, they cannot claim for that in a small claim. You may want to mention to the "store owner" that thanks to their stupidity in contracting the ex-clamping scammers to run their car park, that they are likely to lose much more business as more and more of their customers fall victim to the scam.

You explain how much you usually spend there, multiply that by however many times a year you visit and also multiply that by the number of all your relatives, friends and acquaintances that will stop using their store if they are likely to get an invoice for £100+ from a bunch of scammers each time they visit.

If Plan A doesn't work or is taking too long, you revert to plan B as explained in the Newbies thread. Not much you can do until or if you receive a LBCCC or LoC. Just revise the Newbies thread to see what steps are involved and what you have to do and by when.

Could you please clarify... they have hired Gladstones Solicitors, that would be lawyers wouldn't it? And I have done all those talks with the store owner, he agrees with us (at least seems to) and does not want this to become worse. Because this is a niche grocery store of imported exotic vegetables, spices and things, so he relies on a small section of consumers and not a broader consumer base. But, what he says is this, Euro Parking Services are insisting that we have to pay the charges! 

If I go to plan B, it is still the preferred next step given that we haver received letter before claim?