Parking fines from 5 years ago totaling 5k

angeldelight01

Hi - I'm hoping someone on here can help/advise please.

I have just received a letter from DCBL informing me that I owe £5,100 for multiple unpaid parking charges for parking in a carpark in August in 2019. They have also sent a 4 page document detailing the PCN number, date location (as above), amount and fee.

Prior to this I have never heard from ANYONE about these alleged parking charges.

I have never had anything stuck to my windscreen and never received any correspondence from anyone.

I sold the vehicle the tickets relate to in 2020. I moved address and also changed my name in 2019 but, at that point, and since, I had absolutely no idea about any of these charges.

The client the debt collection company are working for are G24 LTD, who, I'm assuming work for Argos.

I plan to ignore them, as advised in multiple threads on here but not sure what else I should be doing at this stage. Should I be submitting a SAR and asking for evidence of the tickets, any CCTV from the car park, images of my vehicle and how I was supposedly notified of theses PCN's? If so would that be to G24 LTD? Should I be complaining to the land owner and is that Argos? I understand that its 5 years on so no chance of appealing but should I be writing to my local MP at this stage?

I am so annoyed and upset that these revolting people can just contact me out of the blue 5 years after an event and expect me to pay 5k for something I knew nothing about!!!

Gr1pr

Chances are that G24 obtained the registered keeper address from the DVLA database back then, and posted the Parking Charge Notices ( Definitely not fines, just PCNs. Invoices. ). to that address, as is standard practice. They wouldn't know if the RK had moved because the DVLA database wasn't updated by the RK

We don't advise emailing a SAR to the DPO at the parking company until 2 or 3 months after any court claim is issued 

Yes you should be complaining to the retail park management company or the landowner. ( No it won't be Argos, they will be tenants, so not we employed by Argos . ). 

They have 6 years to sue you in civil court, hence why these letters have now turned up 

How many parking charge notices are there, in total. ? 20 or 30 or 40  ?

Brie

Have you updated all your data with DVLA?  If so how soon after you moved?  

Nellymoser

And how soon after you changed your name? I think your saying all the pcns are from when you were the owner of the vehicle but I hope you informed DVLA when you sold the vehicle and provided new owners name and address. 

angeldelight01

Thanks everyone for your comments. I’ve actually been thinking about all the timescales for the “30” pcn’s and looking through the “list they sent me and I was still living at my previous address with my previous name back in 2019. (I had lived there for 12 years and all my details were fully up to date with the DVLA. 

I checked and I moved from that address in July 2020. 

All the PCN’s are dated between Jan-Dec 2019. So me moving and changing my name would have no relevance because it was a year after the date of the first on the list and 7 months after the last. More than enough time for them to post something to me to notify me but I have NEVER until now, received any communication on this matter.

Surely if they had posted 30 pcn’s to my address they would have issued court proceedings within the 5 years which have now passed?!

there is no mention of court proceedings on the letter they sent.

I’m totally baffled by this. How on earth am I expected to defend myself or provide evidence of signage- or lack of it- 5 years after an event. When I didn’t even know that event had happened, because I never received any notification- until now.

Gr1pr

G24 are new to the litigation bandwagon, so ONLY a recent addition to the problem 

The debt collectors will eventually hand it back to G24 to pass to a legal firm for litigation against you 

Regardless of the lack of evidence or paperwork, they will proceed to a court claim before the 6 year deadline under the statute 

Presumably with so many PCNs do we assume that you worked on that site and parked on site, possibly without the permission of the managing agent or landowner. ?  Maybe as an Argos employee. ?

If so, what made you believe that you could park onsite for free. ?

Perhaps there was an error on the details lodged with the DVLA. ?

angeldelight01

Chances are that G24 obtained the registered keeper address from the DVLA database back then, and posted the Parking Charge Notices ( Definitely not fines, just PCNs. Invoices. ). to that address, as is standard practice. They wouldn't know if the RK had moved because the DVLA database wasn't updated by the RK

I’m assuming they didn’t think they needed to do this on any of the “events” detailed in their summery statement.

Still- having read some of the threads about debt collection agencies and proving  communications were sent I’m sure they would manage to lie their way out of it somehow. 

Seems a waste of time to have any sort of time limit on notification periods.

Grizebeck

which debt firm?

Gr1pr

As above, more detail required, debt collector firm ? , was it DCB LTD or DCB Legal. ?

What was the location of the parking ? Etc

Did you park there due to working onsite. ?  Who gave you permission to park there. ?

G24 are only allowed to access the DVLA database ONCE per PCN, no second chances, so in theory they did so 30 times or so, paying the DVLA a fee for each one, plus postage for each, plus reminders for each one too

I believe that there was a currently unknown problem that caused all of them to go astray 

I expect that DCB Legal or Moorside will eventually be involved 

The 6 year rule for England and Wales came in during 1973 ( its 5 years in Scotland. )

angeldelight01

Thanks Gr1pr think I’ll speak with citizens advise & a solicitor

Gr1pr

Citizens advice is a bad idea, nobody mentioned getting them involved, they haven't a clue about these matters 

If you are going to contact a solicitor, it will probably be a good idea to Google Contestor Legal and contact them about the case, especially if its a demand for 5 grand 

Their blog has a case from 2 months ago regarding G24 and Moorside legal