Debt recovery plus - Euro Car Parks - Walsall

jdub1206

Hi everyone. I have received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus regarding a parking violation within a Euro car park. They are claiming that I parked in the Waterfront car park in Walsall back in February 2024 without paying. We were in the process of buying a new car at the time and we sold the vehicle in question shortly after the alleged incident. Therefore, they have traced me 5 months later via DVLA. 

That day we did visit that car park to visit Bella Italia, (thank you google maps for the reminder 😊), but we are certain we paid for parking. Usually, we use the pay-by-phone app, but on this occasion We think that we must have paid cash for the parking.  According to our Google timeline we visited for just less than an hour before moving on. This aligns with the CCTV photos they have sent us.

Obviously, as we sold our car and cleared out the paperwork etc. we have no record or proof of our parking purchase. However, my wife and I are extremely strict when it comes to checking parking terms etc. especially in a car park we are unfamiliar with.

Debt recovery plus are saying we have missed 2 payment deadlines and we are at the "final reminder" stage and therefore we now owe £170!! 

Is there anything we can do? This is the 2nd time this year we've faced this from Euro car parks/debt recovery plus as we came under the Sainsburys "double dip" scam back in March, (thanks again to Coupon-mad   who helped us immensely with getting that fine canceled). We would extremely grateful for any thoughts or advice. Thank you.

@Coupon-mad

Gr1pr

Ignore debt collectors, they are powerless 

It won't be CCTV cameras or photos, it will be ANPR camera photos 

Study post 4 in the newbies sticky thread in announcements regarding ignoring these debt collectors letters and their pointless demands 

Come back to this thread if you ever receive a Letter of Claim or a court claim in the future, but please don't tell us about debt collectors letters, no thanks 

So LoC, or court claim ONLY 

jdub1206

Gr1pr said:

Ignore debt collectors, they are powerless 

It won't be CCTV cameras or photos, it will be ANPR camera photos 

Study post 4 in the newbies sticky thread in announcements regarding ignoring these debt collectors letters and their pointless demands 

Come back to this thread if you ever receive a Letter of Claim or a court claim in the future, but please don't tell us about debt collectors letters, no thanks 

So LoC, or court claim ONLY 

Hi! Thank you for your reply. I'm really sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place!Do you mean this thread to study?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822/newbies-private-parking-ticket-old-or-new-read-these-faqs-first-thankyou#latest

Apologies again, I'm just really concerned about it as we simply don't have the money to pay it and we don't have physical evidence of us purchasing a ticket although we are certain we did. Is there a thread explaining how we should word a complaint letter to this effect? Last time we went through this, we quoted the BPA CoP "23.8 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."

Is that appropriate to this new case? Thank you and apologies again 😊👍

patient_dream

In simple words. IGNORE DRP THE MONEY SCAMMERS, nothingthey can do

LDast

PLease re-read the Newbies/FAQ thread to update yourself with the procedures. You are now in a limbo stage waiting to see if/when a Letter of Claim or an N1SDT claim form arrives. Until then, simply ignore any and all debt collector letters. They are powerless to do anything except to try and scare you into paying. Do not even conned getting in touch with the useless debt collectors.

Gr1pr

Yes that is the thread to study 

You posted in the correct place, no problem with that 

Now just follow what I said and ignore the debt collectors letters like that newbies sticky thread explains 

If you receive either of the 2 letters I told you about, come back to this thread for further guidance ( at the moment you dont need any guidance, apart from studying and digesting the newbies sticky thread, so you understand the situation so far. )

At the moment there is nothing to discuss regarding the PCN or parking event, so I wont speculate, neither will anyone else because its not needed at the debt collectors stage 

Coupon-mad

Wait - they "traced you via the DVLA" 5 months later?  No PCN received? You didn't have the old car registered to a previous address, did you?

Debt recovery plus are saying we have missed 2 payment deadlines and we are at the "final reminder" stage and therefore we now owe £170!! 
Is there anything we can do?

Of course. This is what we do every day. £170 threatograms are normal, laughable and to be ignored.  As long as no older address was used by ECP at first.

The BPA Code clause 23 or thereabouts, says they must pause debt recovery and reissue the PCN to appeal, if no PCN was received.

jdub1206

@Coupon-mad

Hi. Thank you for your reply. We were waiting on a new V5c to come through for our new address. The car was part-ex'd just before we received this and then we sent the updated V5 through to the garage where we part-ex'd it. So, yes, it was registered at our old address when we parked there. Will this make a difference?

We received the PCN this week but the alleged offence was on 25/02/2024. So, I'm assuming we just wait for them to contact us again? 

Coupon-mad

You didn't receive the PCN this week though, did you?  You said you had a DRP letter. That's not a PCN.

Use the clause I told you about and tell DRP (by email not phone, obviously!) to pause debt recovery so the PCN can be reissued to appeal.

They won't, but you must contact them anyway to tell them to ERASE THE OLD ADDRESS.

Same goes to ECP.  This is vital.

jdub1206

Thank you @Coupon-mad for your reply. We received the attached letter on Thursday this week. We part-ex'd the car a few days after the alleged parking date. The car at that moment was still in the process of being transferred to our new address. 

Based on this, should I email DRP and ECP and quote the BPA CoP clause 28.2? In your experience, do they stop chasing at that point? 

Thank you for your help! Really appreciate it.

KeithP

You might want to edit your latest post as you have left your name clearly visible.