Horizon and Debt Recovery Plus, Pre Legal Action

kaylouem

Good afternoon, I am after some advice please. I am trying to help my daughter who is in panic mode at present and is worried so much she just wants to pay up and get it all off her back!  I have reassured her not to worry as I am sure this is not enforceable. Here is a summary:

We moved house last year and my daughter stupidly forgot to change her address on her V5. with DVLA.  At the end of January 2024 she received a demand from DRP advising that they had found her address through a tracing service due to no response and demanded £160 for an unpaid parking charge from Horizon dating back to October 2023. (she was unaware of the charge)


I have been researching on here and took heed the advice to ignore anything from debt collectors until a LBC but she has now received a Terminal Notice Pre Legal Action Letter advising her to instruct a solicitor to share DRP's details with! She then received a further letter from DRP telling her to create a payment plan. That shows how serious they were with their Terminal Notice Pre Legal Action Letter! She has made no contact with DRP.
In the meantime I did draft some emails for her to send to Horizon. One was a complaint as I suspected they might not have even issued a NTK and or reminders at all as they have form! She instructed them to Re-issue a NTK in line with the BPA Feb amendment. She sent it via their online complaint form as I could not find an email address for Horizon. They responded and said that a Parking Charge Notice and reminders were issued and that it is the responsibility of the motorist to update their details with DVLA and now the appeals timeframe has passed payment must be made to their debt recovery agent bla bla bla. 
With the help of advice I had read on this forum in other posts I constructed this email for her to send.

Parking Charge Notice No: XXXX

Parking Charge Date: 24/09/2023

Vehicle Registration No: XXXX

 Dear Sirs

 I wish to make a complaint.

As the registered keeper of the above numbered vehicle, I have just received a demand for payment of £160 from Debt Recovery Plus for a parking charge I had absolutely no knowledge of.

They claim I have not responded to previous notices.

 I have received no previous correspondence from Horizon as I suspect you have been sending the original parking charge notices to my old address, if at all, thus the reason I have not responded earlier!

 DRP have contacted myself by letter at my current address which they have obtained through a tracing service, therefore they should have relayed my correct address back to you in order for you to issue a new Notice to Keeper.

 Please be advised that as per the updated version of the BPA Code of Practice February 2024 amendment, section 23.8 now states:

 "23.8  You must respond to appeals within 28 days or, where a decision on the appeal is not concluded within 28 days, you must acknowledge the appeal and confirm the timeframe for concluding it, including the supply of additional information.

You must have a process for considering appeals received outside of the normal 28-day period allowed for lodging an appeal where the appellant provides evidence of exceptional circumstances for the appeal not being lodged within the normal timeframes - where the addressee only discovers and can show that a parking charge notice has been issued in their name after the 28- day period the period must restart and any enforcement, excluding court action, must be paused."

 I therefore instruct you to re-issue the Notice to Keeper.

And for you to erase my old address from your records:

 XXXXX

XXXXX

 and update it with my current address :

 XXXX

XXXX

 Please also instruct DRP to refrain from contacting me any further in regards to this matter and instruct any other third parties to erase my old address from their records and update such records with my new address.

 I await the reissue of the NTK.

 Yours Faithfully

Cont...........

kaylouem

They came back with the following email and copies of the Original Parking charge, reminder and final reminder.
We have noticed that the original parking charge notice is Non compliant as it was sent 23 days after the parking session and does not contain the POFA 2012 paragraph. Am i correct in thinking that this is non compliant?
To be honest she cannot even remember the parking session in question as she is not the only one who drives the vehicle, so they cannot hold her liable or pass the liability over to the driver.

This is Horizon's reply to her earlier email:

Thank you for filling in the Complaint Form on our website.

Your correspondence does not fall within the definition of a complaint within our complaint’s procedure.  Please note that the complaints form is not for use when wishing to appeal against a Parking Charge that you have received.  We refer you to our complaints policy for our definition of a complaint https://horizonparking.co.uk/complaints-procedure/.

Please be advised as a general rule the information that we receive regarding the Registered Keeper of a vehicle is obtained directly from DVLA. They provide the address information which they hold from the V5 form provided to them. It is the responsibility of the motorist to update their V5.

 

We can advise the above Parking Charge was issued to the driver/registered keeper. We also issued a subsequent reminder letter/s.

Please find attached all the letters issued regarding this Parking Charge Notice.

As the time period for appealing and/or making payment directly to us has now passed, all matters concerning your Parking Charge have been transferred to our debt recovery agent, Debt Recovery Plus for collection of any outstanding payments. This is in accordance with the rules set out by the British Parking Association’s (BPA) Code of Practice, at paragraph 23.7.

If you would like to pay the Parking Charge, you can make payment directly to Debt Recovery Plus using any of the following methods:

To Pay by Bank Transfer:

Please quote the reference number provided to you by Debt Recovery Plus as stated on their letter to you, so that when making the transaction, they can correctly allocate your payment.

The bank details are as follows:

[Removed by Forum Team]

To Pay by Post:

Please make cheques or postal orders payable to Debt Recovery Plus. Again, please quote the reference number provided by Debt Recovery Plus as stated on their letter to you, by writing this on the reverse of the cheque or postal order, and send to: -

Debt Recovery Plus Limited,
PO Box 219,
Manchester,
M34 0DG

Should you have any further questions concerning any of the above payment methods or your Parking Charge generally, please contact Debt Recovery Plus on 0208 234 6775 and they will be able to assist you.

Thank you,
Horizon Parking Limited

My daughter replied referring them again to the amendment and told them to re issue a NTK. But they have now replied saying if she can prove she advised DVLA of her change of address before the issue of the original Parking charge notice they will be prepared to consider the appeal out of time as an exceptional circumstance. But obviously she did not inform DVLA before the charge was issued otherwise she would have received it!

Not sure how she should reply to that or what she should do next. Any advice please as the Pre Legal Action Letter is worrying her.

I'll post copies of Horizon Parking Charge letters they sent her and also DRP letters she received........

 

troublemaker22

Try this to Horizon and DRP

“Dear Sirs

Re [                 ]

Thank you for sending me a copy of the purported NTK sent to my old address. 

As the purported NTK does not comply with the requirements for a notice to keeper in the law known as POFA, Horizon cannot hold me liable as keeper. 

I am not obliged to identify the driver and I decline to do so. I will provide no further information than is contained in this message. 

As there is no presumption in law that the registered keeper of a vehicle drove it on any particular occasion Horizon cannot pursue me for the parking charge as driver. 

As Horizon has no legal entitlement to pursue me for this parking charge I appeal to Horizon to cancel the NTK or to issue a POPLA code so POPLA can order Horizon to cancel it. 

Alternatively, if Horizon refuses to deal with this appeal and as Horizon has no realistic prospect of enforcing this parking charge against me, I require both your organisations to erase my personal information from their records. 

Failure to act in accordance with my erasure request may open your organisations to a claim for compensation under data privacy law. Continuing to press me to pay this parking charge may open your organisations to a claim for compensation under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. 

I will vigorously defend any claim brought against me in pursuit of this parking charge and will seek costs and counterclaim for compensation if such a claim is brought. 

Yours faithfully,”

kaylouem

troublemaker22 said:

Try this to Horizon and DRP

“Dear Sirs

Re [                 ]

Thank you for sending me a copy of the purported NTK sent to my old address. 

As the purported NTK does not comply with the requirements for a notice to keeper in the law known as POFA, Horizon cannot hold me liable as keeper. 

I am not obliged to identify the driver and I decline to do so. I will provide no further information than is contained in this message. 

As there is no presumption in law that the registered keeper of a vehicle drove it on any particular occasion Horizon cannot pursue me for the parking charge as driver. 

As Horizon has no legal entitlement to pursue me for this parking charge I appeal to Horizon to cancel the NTK or to issue a POPLA code so POPLA can order Horizon to cancel it. 

Alternatively, if Horizon refuses to deal with this appeal and as Horizon has no realistic prospect of enforcing this parking charge against me, I require both your organisations to erase my personal information from their records. 

Failure to act in accordance with my erasure request may open your organisations to a claim for compensation under data privacy law. Continuing to press me to pay this parking charge may open your organisations to a claim for compensation under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. 

I will vigorously defend any claim brought against me in pursuit of this parking charge and will seek costs and counterclaim for compensation if such a claim is brought. 

Yours faithfully,”

Thank you, I will do

kaylouem

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/po0v6afwww8y6eztfuevh/h?rlkey=12et688so81zlsmzadoavm2q2&dl=0

kaylouem

I’ve deleted the previous links to the copies of parking charge notices and DRP letters as the link was broken. New link just above this comment. 

KeithP

Not quite sure what you are trying to show us @kaylouem, but throughout that Dropbox file I can see the full name of the dropbox subscriber.
Are your initials AM?

kaylouem

KeithP said:

Not quite sure what you are trying to show us @kaylouem, but throughout that Dropbox file I can see the full name of the dropbox subscriber.
Are your initials AM?

Yes, I’m trying to link the photos of the parking charge notices and debt collection letters. I think I’m doing something wrong!

kaylouem

KeithP said:

Not quite sure what you are trying to show us @kaylouem, but throughout that Dropbox file I can see the full name of the dropbox subscriber.
Are your initials AM?

I don’t know how to post photos! I thought it had to be done through Dropbox? It won’t let me add photos from the image upload tab on here. Any advice please 🙏🏼 

kaylouem

I’ve sussed it!…….Once you click the link it takes you to the Dropbox page, click the little X on top right and you’ll see the photos. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 

kaylouem

I’ll pop on here again in the morning for any further advice before I advise my daughter on next step. Thank you all in advance