IMPORTANT: Please make sure your posts do not contain any personally identifiable information (both your own and that of others). When uploading images, please take care that you have redacted all personal information including QR codes, number plates and reference numbers.

Parking charge notice not received, and now debt collectors chasing me

Hi, 
Wondering if anyone can help? 
I’ve received a letter from a debt collector regarding an unpaid parking charge, however I have never received the parking charge. Nothing through the post and nothing left on my windscreen at the time of the offence. 
I’m not seeking to dispute the original fine, which I understand is £60 if paid within 14 days, however the debt collector is seeking £170 from me.
The company issuing the fine won’t talk to me, the debt collector has told me I need to pay and if not threatened me with a CCJ, and I just keep being told I’m too late to appeal. But I’m not appealing the fine, I just haven’t received it!
I’ve not moved house in the last 5 years, all my details are up to date with the DVLA, and the debt collector has had no issue contacting me, therefore I’m unsure why I haven’t received the fine. 
If received I would have paid the £60 and accepted it, but the fact I’m being requested to pay £170 when I’ve not even had the opportunity to pay the original is totally unreasonable.
I really don’t know where I stand on this! I don’t want a CCJ, but I also don’t want to pay nearly 3 times the amount of money for a parking fine, when I haven’t had the opportunity to pay at the reduced rate because I haven’t received the fine.

please help! I have a very limited window to pay before the debt collector issues legal proceedings! 


Comments

  • Umkomaas
    Umkomaas Forumite Posts: 40,308
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Forumite
    The debt collector cannot issue legal proceedings - period!  Please read the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, fourth post, all about silly and harmless debt collector letters.

    The reason you didn't receive the original invoice for the parking charge (it is most certainly not a 'fine') is quite possibly the V5C (logbook) for you car has a former address showing on it. Please check it - don't guess - because if it isn't correct, there's a real fine potentially waiting for you in the sum of £1,000 from the DVLA. If it's wrong, update it now, it can be done very quickly on line at the DVLA. 

    Now, please disengage panic mode - do not pay the debt collector, do not interact with them - and tell us which parking firm is involved, then we'll set you off in the right direction to getting rid of this. 
    Please note, we are not a legal advice forum. I personally don't get involved in critiquing court case Defences/Witness Statements, so unable to help on that front. Please don't ask. .
    I provide only my personal opinion, it is not a legal opinion, it is simply a personal one. I am not a lawyer.
    Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
  • Llama2607
    Llama2607 Forumite Posts: 2
    First Post
    Newbie
    Logbook is up to date, there is no reason I shouldn’t have received the fine. However, how do I prove it wasn’t received? I have written to both the parking company and the debt collector asking for copies of the PCN and proof of postage. 
    Parking company is CP Plus & debt collector is Debt Collections Baliffs Limited 
  • Umkomaas
    Umkomaas Forumite Posts: 40,308
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Forumite
    Llama2607 said:
    Logbook is up to date, there is no reason I shouldn’t have received the fine. However, how do I prove it wasn’t received? I have written to both the parking company and the debt collector asking for copies of the PCN and proof of postage. 
    Parking company is CP Plus & debt collector is Debt Collections Baliffs Limited 
    Please read the following thread, because it's at county court claim stage you will get this monkey off your back. There is no reason to consider paying it (even at the original charge level that will never be open to you now, so stop thinking it will), just ignore DCB Limited and come back when you receive correspondence from DCB Legal

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1

    Where did this parking event take place?  Have you contacted the landowner to ask them to intervene, because they have the capacity to have the PCN cancelled. 
    Please note, we are not a legal advice forum. I personally don't get involved in critiquing court case Defences/Witness Statements, so unable to help on that front. Please don't ask. .
    I provide only my personal opinion, it is not a legal opinion, it is simply a personal one. I am not a lawyer.
    Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
  • 1505grandad
    1505grandad Forumite Posts: 2,525
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Forumite
    Please do not give the unregulated scammer the status of an authority by continued use of the word "fine"  -  it is at best an invoice as already advised.
  • Coupon-mad
    Coupon-mad Forumite Posts: 122,853
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Forumite
    edited 24 July at 1:10PM
    Yep this isn't a 'fine'.

    Why not just do what the NEWBIES FAQS thread already tells everyone is PLAN A?
    PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
    CLICK at the top of this/any page where it says:
    Forum Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 338.9K Banking & Borrowing
  • 248.7K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 447.6K Spending & Discounts
  • 230.8K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 601K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 171.1K Life & Family
  • 244K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards