PCM / Trace advice please

Yellow_Fellow

Hi there.

I would be most grateful for advice on the following:

Some months ago we received a ‘parking charge notice’ on our car windscreen.

There are no double or single yellow lines at the location, which is a residential development, but there are some signs stating it’s private land and setting out some ‘terms and conditions’.

The ‘parking charge notice’ was issued by PCM, and on the ticket it says they are an accredited IPC operator.

Being aware of this company’s reputation as cowboys, we decided to simply ignore this ‘parking charge notice’.

We have not received a Notice to Keeper. The first communication we received from PCM was a ‘Keeper Liability Notice’, which incorrectly stated that a Notice to Keeper had previously been served. The words: “pass the notice on to the driver’” do not appear on this ‘Keeper Liability Notice’. We received it more than 57 days after the windscreen ‘parking charge notice’ was issued.

We ignored it.

That is the only direct communication we have received from PCM, but we then started receiving letters from Trace Debt Recovery, who say they are acting on PCM’s behalf. The most recent has come from their ‘Escalations Department’ and says they are now considering passing our ‘case’ to their solicitors, who ‘may’ take legal action.

Obviously it’s slightly unnerving to receive threatening letters of this nature so I started looking into what we should do and came across this excellent forum.

Having spent some time reading it, I am now worried that we have done the wrong thing in ignoring everything that has come from PCM or Trace. Should we have written to the landowner? Should we have appealed to PCM? Is it too late to do either of these things now?

Or should we continue to sit tight and ignore things? If we do that, what happens if they initiate legal action against us?

I have read somewhere else that it might be worth contacting fightyourparkingticket.co.uk – does anyone have any experience of them?

I would be grateful for any advice.

Thank you!

Fruitcake

The advice to ignore a PCN has not been given on this forum since the law changed in 2012.

Plan A is always a complaint to the landowner.

The most common reason for not receiving the original NTK is not having correct information on the V5C. Don't guess, go and look at it to see if the details are correct. If not, update them with the DVLA and PCM.

If they are correct, then the NTK will probably have been "lost in the post." It happens a lot where unregulated PPCs are concerned. Imaging my surprise.

Debt collectors are powerless and can safely be ignored. Other than Plan A, there is nothing you can do unless you get a letter of/before claim or a court claim.

Coupon-mad

You DO NOT need to go to another website or Facebook group nos you are here.

It was fine to ignore PCM and Trace. 

Is this about your own home car park? Complain to your managing agents if so.

Or were you a visitor, or delivering? Why was the driver on this private land?

Yellow_Fellow

Fruitcake said:

The advice to ignore a PCN has not been given on this forum since the law changed in 2012.

Plan A is always a complaint to the landowner.

The most common reason for not receiving the original NTK is not having correct information on the V5C. Don't guess, go and look at it to see if the details are correct. If not, update them with the DVLA and PCM.

If they are correct, then the NTK will probably have been "lost in the post." It happens a lot where unregulated PPCs are concerned. Imaging my surprise.

Debt collectors are powerless and can safely be ignored. Other than Plan A, there is nothing you can do unless you get a letter of/before claim or a court claim.

Thanks for this. The information on the V5 is correct - we received a 'keeper liability notice' from PCM anyway so they clearly have the correct details... I guess, as you say, the NTK was "lost in the post". In their 'keeper liability notice' PCM claim that the NTK was previously "served" which is clearly not the case as we have never received it.

Is it too late now to complain to the landowner? If not, I will do that, see what that brings and then if unsuccessful, wait for any claim letter.

Yellow_Fellow

Coupon-mad said:

You DO NOT need to go to another website or Facebook group nos you are here.

It was fine to ignore PCM and Trace. 

Is this about your own home car park? Complain to your managing agents if so.

Or were you a visitor, or delivering? Why was the driver on this private land?

Thank you.

We were visiting - picking up my disabled mother-in-law from my wife's sister's house. The ticket was issued while we were getting her organised and into her wheelchair...

Is your advice also to complain to the landowner? If so, I guess it's impossible to avoid revealing who the driver was to them? But I've read you should avoid doing that.

Fruitcake

It is never too late for Plan A.

Luckily, PCM are benign and one of the few PPCs where it won't hurt to ignore, but this is not always the case which is why it is safer not to ignore a PCN.

Coupon-mad

Admit to driving.  Your wife's sister (the resident) should complain to her MA and explain the circumstances and ask them to cancel the charge.

Yellow_Fellow

Fruitcake said:

It is never too late for Plan A.

Luckily, PCM are benign and one of the few PPCs where it won't hurt to ignore, but this is not always the case which is why it is safer not to ignore a PCN.

Thanks so much for your help - it's much appreciated.

Yellow_Fellow

Coupon-mad said:

Admit to driving.  Your wife's sister (the resident) should complain to her MA and explain the circumstances and ask them to cancel the charge.

Thanks very much for your advice.