PCN Appealed - No reply to appeal and now with debt collectors

Hippobird1

Hi and thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any help. I made the following post on a reddit page and was directed to this site but haven't had much luck finding the answer. I wish I found this site before appealing but unfortunately I've only just found my way here. So, my story is...

My girlfriend drove my car to a retail park one evening near our house for a few bits, and when she was about to leave noticed one of the tyres was fully flat, so she left the car and walked home. I was at work that evening so we woke up early the following morning and went to change the tyre and bring the car home.

As the car had been left overnight we received a fine from UK Parking Control through the post showing images and time stamps of the arrival and exit. It was for £100 and £60 if paid early.

I appealed it online, attaching pictures of the flat tyre and asking for leniency as it was an issue my girlfriend couldn't sort and I went first thing the following morning to fix it. I acknowledged it was my girlfriend who was driving and didn't dispute the fine - just asked for leniency given the circumstances.

We received the fine on 29/08/24, and then I appealed it on 04/09/24, and then for the next 3 months (every 28 days) received generic correspondence asking me to provide any valid evidence to support my claim. I logged in to their website and basically copy and pasted the same appeal I sent from the start.

I heard nothing back and then today received a letter from Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd saying I have to now pay £170. I tried to log back into UK Parking control but it says my case has been passed onto debt collection.

It feels very unfair that I didn't receive a response to the appeal. If it was rejected I would happily have paid the £60 and just moved on. Is there any point in trying to fight this any further or should I just cut my losses and pay the £170?

Thanks for reading and for any advice

Gr1pr

Put a complaint in to UKPC using the complaint weblink listed in the BPA AOS members list,  about the lack of a response to your appeal,  include your name and address,  pcn reference number and the VRM details too

Do not pay the debt collectors a penny,  ignore them,  they are powerless 

Just use the latest dcb letter as a kick up your backside to complain to the organ grinder,  ignoring the dancing monkey

Fruitcake

In addition, complain to the landowner and your MP.

Note that attending to a vicissitude of some duration such as a flat tyre is not parking, as determined in the persuasive appeal case of Jopson v Homeguard, transcript available online. Have a look at what the judge said around paragraphs 19 and 20.
Briefly add these comments to your complaints.

UKPC signs are inadequate and incapable of forming a contract with a motorist because the charge for breaching Ts and Cs is always too small to read. Try doing so from only a car length and you will see what I mean.

When complaining to your MP, ask them when the government mandatory parking code of practice is going to be introduced. The parking industry have recently issued their own joint IPC/BPA self-serving CoP. Make sure that your MP understands that this is not the one you are asking about because it was deliberately introduced in my opinion to support the parking companies who paid for it, and to confuse people into thinking it was the real deal that the government approved in 2022, but was delayed by a forced (by the parking industry) judicial revue and then the general election.

Please sign the petition below, and get all your friends and family to do the same. MPs/the government are the only ones who can end this misery that affects around 12 million motorists a year.

Bring the Parking Code of Practice into law, as per the 2019 Act of Parliament.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701453

The petition runs for 6 months closing 6 June 2025

Coupon-mad

If it was rejected I would happily have paid the £60 and just moved on.

No you wouldn't. Nobody pays UKPC.

Put in a complaint to UKPC online then complain to the BPA and DO NOT say the above. Do not offer money.