ZZPS and GCTT advice re parking in London over 2 years ago - DCBL letter now received

Dashworth87

Good Morning All. 

Firstly, I hope this Isn't too dramatic for a first post. I am hoping that I am not getting flustered for no reason.

This saga began back in around 2016 when I was moved from one office to another. I work in the public sector and as a result most of our buildings are fairly old and have limited parking.

Upon being told I was transferring, my immediate concern was parking. So after work one day, I went to scout around my new place of work and found a retail park close by with ample parking.
I went in and spoke to one of the managers of the stores at the retail park and stated I would be working at the building over the road and If I would be able to park in the retail park. 

The manager stated it wouldn't be an issue, and as the retail park was monitored by Euro Carparks, he would take my registration numbers down and add it to the system. Subsequently my brief 6 months stint at the new office went without issue and I remained ticket free.

Moving forward to around 2018, my company restructured and the building I had previously guested at would become our new HQ... Joy.

I approached the same store again and was told that my details were still on the system and that I could park at the site without issue. Additionally due to my company moving buildings, there was a substantial need for more parking and a 'locally agreed' system was introduced where staff could use the retail park but would only be able to park in a certain area of the carpark. Again No problem. 

Since all of the above, I have not been based in West London for a number of years now and have not used the retail car park since around late 2020/ very early 2021 and I've just kind of got on with my life without thinking too much about it.

UNTIL RECENTLY 'DUH DUH DUH' *dramatic music'.

I came home from work one afternoon about 4 months ago and was greeted with a stack approx. 50 odd letters all from GCTT telling me I owed them vast sums of money and that they would be sending bailiffs around within 7 days if I didn't pay all of the tickets.
probably about a week later, The same thing. I came home and found a stack of around 50 letters all the ZZPS all stating the same thing.
Both stacks of letters demanding money and threatening with bailiff action were in relation to alleged parking violations that occurred between 2018 - 2020/Jan 2021.

Initially I thought about ignoring them but having historically had trouble with a previous parking firm that attempted to take me to court, I thought I would supply evidence of the locally agreed system in place.

So I did a little bit of digging, discovered that ZZPS and GCTT were the same company and so submitted evidence via email to ZZPS of the locally agreed parking policy drawn up between euro carparks and my office building. I provided the registration of the vehicle but did not state I was driving the vehicle. This was sent in around October of 2023.

Sadly, I was unable to get any supporting evidence from the retail store head office as they have since closed down and no longer operate on the site. I believed that there was sufficient submitted however and did not hear back....

I recently received an email back from them stating that they have noted I have refused to supply evidence and that DVLA checks show that the vehicle in question is not a public service vehicle or registered to my place of work (why would it be) 

I have again replied back asking them to reread the email chain I have submitted as evidence and actually read my email but I know this is probably a bit beyond the 'customer services' team they have at the other end of the computer. 

Lastly, I know you diligent and crafty lot will say 'dont reply etc' 'they're all the same etc, ignore them etc etc'.

My main reason for replying was that I HAVE GENUINELY DONE NOTHING WRONG'! How on earth can they try and chase me for parking fines that happened over 2 years ago? that I knew nothing about whatsoever!

Thank you in advance for any clarity you can shed on the matter. Its starting to really annoy me. 

JerryJ64

STOP!!! Do not engage with any debt collector. You have already made a blunder so stop now before you make it any worse. Get your head around the fact that the debt collector is an unconnected third party to any alleged breach of contract between you and the PPC.

The debt collector has only one goal and that is to scam you out of your money. They care not one iota about fairness or anything else. Understand that they operate on a no-win, no-fee basis for the PPC in the hope that you are gullible and will pay up with their useless threats. Just stop interacting with the debt collectors from now on.

Which PPC? What is the total they are trying to claim that you owe them. Are all the PCNs for the same location? Have they added the illegal "debt recovery/damages £60-£70" to each PCN?

Why do you think the original NtKs didn't arrive? Is the V5C logbook for your car up to date with your current address? If not, get that sorted immediately as you could face a fine of up to £1,000 from the DVLA. Updating your drivers licence does not automatically update your V5C.

If the V5C is not up to date and the NtKs were sent to an old address you must instruct the DPO of the PPC to rectify their files with your current address for service and they must delete your old address and to infor all their agents to do likewise.

Fruitcake

JerryJ64 said:

If the V5C is not up to date and the NtKs were sent to an old address you must instruct the DPO of the PPC to rectify their files with your current address for service and they must delete your old address and to infor all their agents to do likewise.

All good advice from @JerryJ64, except that the instruction to the DPO of the PPC should be for them to erase your personal data and replace it with your current address for service. The word erase has a specific meaning where data handling is concerned. You will need to include non-photo proof of ID with the request.

Debt collectors are powerless and can do absolutely nothing except send you poor quality bog-paper, or if shredded, reasonable quality hamster bedding. Stop contacting them and block their number if they try to 'phone.

If you never received the PCNs in the first place, then you could send an SAR as per the NEWBIES advice to the PPC to flush them out. If it's ECP, their NTKs are not generally PoFA compliant so are incapable of holding the keeper liable. It is important therefore not to reveal the driver's identity at any point.

Plan A should still be initiated. Complaints to your employer if they have arranged a parking agreement with the retail site owner/manager, complaints to the landowner, and complaints to your MP, all from the registered keeper.

Coupon-mad

As above.  Don't leave any parking firm or their useless agents with a choice of two addresses.

Dashworth87

Thanks for the above advice.

I will cease any further contact with them unless Ive made a mistake by contacting them already? I have not admitted ownership of the car and continued to refer to the registered keeper rather than 'my vehicle' etc.

The only reason I can think that I never received the original fines/letters was that I was in the process of separating with my then partner at the time and was spending a lot of the nights at my parents address. The vehicle would have remained registered to where my ex was living but has since been updated.

as for the rest of the tips mentioned and questions asked:

- Euro Carparks were contacted and said they were no longer interested in the fines and that it had been passed to a 3rd party.

- The business owners no longer operate at the site. I have contacted their head office who have stated they are unable to help as they were unaware of the local agreement of our building and any previous managers at the store.

- I have submitted evidence of the locally agreed policy in the form of email chains to which I received an email back from GCTT stating that 'we note you have refused to supply evidence' which is a crock of sh*t.



My main worry is I had similar happen to me years ago and ended up receiving a CCJ against me as I was unaware I had been taken to court.

Le_Kirk

Dashworth87 said:

My main worry is I had similar happen to me years ago and ended up receiving a CCJ against me as I was unaware I had been taken to court.

Then in this instance you need to make sure that the PPC has your correct and up-to-date address by submitting a Data Rectification Notice to the DPO of the PPC.  DPO address should be found on the privacy policy page of the web site of the PPC.  Of course the DVLA also need your correct and up-to-date address for your V5C and driving licence - separately.

Coupon-mad

Dashworth87 said:

Thanks for the above advice.

I will cease any further contact with them unless Ive made a mistake by contacting them already? I have not admitted ownership of the car and continued to refer to the registered keeper rather than 'my vehicle' etc.

The only reason I can think that I never received the original fines/letters was that I was in the process of separating with my then partner at the time and was spending a lot of the nights at my parents address. The vehicle would have remained registered to where my ex was living but has since been updated.

as for the rest of the tips mentioned and questions asked:

- Euro Carparks were contacted and said they were no longer interested in the fines and that it had been passed to a 3rd party.

- The business owners no longer operate at the site. I have contacted their head office who have stated they are unable to help as they were unaware of the local agreement of our building and any previous managers at the store.

- I have submitted evidence of the locally agreed policy in the form of email chains to which I received an email back from GCTT stating that 'we note you have refused to supply evidence' which is a crock of sh*t.


My main worry is I had similar happen to me years ago and ended up receiving a CCJ against me as I was unaware I had been taken to court.

You make no mention of the only thing we told you that you MUST do.

And you've been stung that way before, so surely you see why we said what we said to do?

Dashworth87

Right, Well I thought this was done and dealt with. 

I incorrectly contacted ZZPS/CCGT regarding the letters I received however I thought that it had all been resolved given the evidence I had provided re the parking agreement between the retail park and my place of business.

Sadly, after around 6 months of not hearing anything about it, approx. 30 odd days ago, I received a letter from DCBL with the usual 'we may have bailiffs attend your address' and 'this might happen' but from looking on here, there didn't seem to be anything to worry about.

Ive just got home this afternoon from work and found another letter from DCBL entitled 'Final reminder'. Its worded slightly differently from the last letter, but I assume this is the last letter I am going to receive before I get something that I need to take action on? it's effectively a carbon copy of the previous letter, just slightly more threatening.

am I likely to get a 'we're taking you to court' one through the door shortly? I have written to and complained about Euro carparks and ZZPS to the BSA and have written to my MP and the MP where my previous employer was based but with the elections around the corner, I doubt I will hear much back from them until after July. 

Additionally and more importantly for me, The correspondence I had with ZZPS was sent from my work laptop. I no longer work for the company and so don't have access to any of the correspondence any more. More importantly I have lost the proof of the local agreement between the business park (which is going to be flattened imminently to be turned into houses I assume) and my previous place of work.

What are my options going forward? I almost contacted DCBL this afternoon but have resisted and will continue to do so. my concern is increasing however as the parking charges are significant due to parking there almost every day during the working week whilst I was working there.

LDast

Stop worrying about ZZPS/CCGT or DCBL. Let them spam an old email address. You already know that they are powerless and a waste of time and space. Just ignore them.

If/when you receive an LoC/LBC, then go back and re-read the second post of the Newbies/FAQ thread and respond as suggested there.

Coupon-mad

Those are normal threatograms to ignore unless you didn't already get old addresses erased.  Don't leave any parking firm or their useless agents with a choice of two addresses.

Dashworth87

Stop worrying about ZZPS/CCGT or DCBL. Let them spam an old email address. You already know that they are powerless and a waste of time and space. Just ignore them.

If/when you receive an LoC/LBC, then go back and re-read the second post of the Newbies/FAQ thread and respond as suggested there.

Well, they are letters I have received to my home address and they are claiming they are still chasing these alleged offences behalf of Euro Carparks.

I will wait and see if I get any further correspondence though and take it from there. Just worried that my entire 'defence' so to speak was all done via my work laptop/email and I no longer have access to it.