National Parking Management Woodgrange Road 13-15 Vehicle not pre-authorised (no-e-Permit) NPM ZZPS

1301Trigger

No Notice to Keeper. Not Delivered or Received from National Parking Management LTD [NPM] / ZZPS / Woodgrange Road 13-15 / Vehicle not pre-authorised (no-e-Permit)

Hello

I would appreciate any help the forum could give.
Thank you for taking the time to read and reply.

Is this a scam?

Got a letter of outstanding balance in January [see attached picture] from ZZPS claiming a £170 parking charge on behalf of National Parking Management LTD [NPM]. No other information with this letter no pictures or details of alleged parking contravention.  The letter from ZZPS has no information on how to appeal against the £170 charge only details of how to pay (so why we thought it's a scam). 

Have not received in the post the Notice to Keeper from NPM. Also have not received any other letters from NPM before the ZZPS letter of outstanding balance.
Since the Notice to Keeper was not delivered/received no appeal to NPM was made in 14 days of the alleged contravention.

The letter of outstanding balance from ZZPS was disregarded as assumed as a scam. After this have also got text messages saying, "Please contact ZZPS Limited in relation to a personal business matter and quote reference number ###". Not sure how phone number are obtained by ZZPS? Worried that data theft has occurred and that this is a scam!

Have tried to view images/details of the alleged contravention on NPM pay/appeal website using their reference number NPM### only to receive an error message, "Sorry, there was a problem obtaining these details - please click here to try again."

NPM Website FAQs states:  "Posted by admin on 25/07/2016  > Why have I been contacted by a debt recovery company?             If you have received a letter from a debt recovery company and wish to pay the outstanding charges, you will need to contact the debt recovery company direct as this is now out of our hands and the additional charges they have applied are to cover their costs."

Some threads here MSE forum suggest disregarding letters from debt collectors until the Letter of Claim/Letter Before Claim is delivered. However, in those threads, an appeal was made to and rejected by the private parking company/POPLA. That's not the case with me. Since the Notice to Keeper was not delivered/received no appeal to NPM was made in 14 days of the alleged contravention. So far no communication to ZZPS or NPM LTD.

How can we confirm this is not a scam before getting to the last stage of Letter of Claim issued and then going to court? Where no communication with the debt collector or private parking company might be held against us by a court judge as suggested in some MSE threads I have read. In this, the Notice to Keeper was not delivered/received so no appeal to NPM was made.

The parking area where the alleged contravention happened (Woodgrange Road 13-15) is not a typical retail/car park with a cash or card payment point or mobile payment scheme [vehicles here require a pre-authorised e-Permit?]. No physical PCN ticket was issued on the vehicle at the time.

Google Maps shows the location at 51°32'50.2"N 0°01'31.0"E (sorry cant post link).

Not sure how to go about dealing with this. We are wondering if this is a scam but won't be able to confirm until we get more details of this alleged parking contravention. We would appreciate your help with the following questions:

1/ Who should we contact in the first communication ZZPS or NPM?

2/ How should we contact them by post or email?
    -ZZPS Debt collection has both email and postal address
     -NPM Email is not available on their website only the postal address

3/ What to write in the letter?  
    -Any templates available to help write
    -What not to write
 
4/ Does anyone have Pictures/Video of the NPM Parking area Woodgrange Road 13-15? Please post here or if on YouTube etc please send the link.

5/ Anyone please share their experience of dealing with National Parking Management LTD or ZZPS debt collection over parking, appeals, and court? (Especially in this location Woodgrange Road 13-15).

Please forward links to other threads from this website or other websites/forums that may be useful.

6/ How long could NPM/ZZPS take to get to court?

7/ What could be the total cost that the private parking company, debt collectors/, and their solicitors could claim in court? (Can debt collectors keep increasing their fees and adding interest until the court date? Could they stretch it out for 6 years?)

NPM FAQs Website states: "Posted by admin on 25/07/2016 :

"What happens if I ignore the charge affixed to my vehicle?        The charge should be paid by the driver/keeper within 28 days from when the charge was issued unless the charge is with the appeals board. If the charge remains unpaid and no appeal has been lodged, then we will request the keeper details from the DVLA on the 29th day. Once we have the keeper details we will send a formal demand to the keeper for the full amount. If this still remains unpaid then the debt will be sent to a debt recovery specialist at a higher rate who will attempt to settle the debt or start the county court proceedings against the driver. We can chase a debt for 6 years from the date of issue, so if you have not heard anything for a while from us, then please do not be fooled into thinking you have got away with the charge."

Please forward any links to other threads from this website or other websites that may be helpful.

Please forward any links for letter templates that can help write letters with the format/wording that is required or photos/videos of the parking area.

Thank you for taking the time to read and look forward to your response. 

Gr1pr

1)  The DPO at NPM, giving them your correct address for the service of papers,  in case they sue you using MCO

Ignore the powerless debt collectors letters,  especially ZZPSlettets

2)  Email,  check the NPM privacy page 

3)  google a Data Rectification Notice,  where they must update the current address and must erase the old details,  under GDPR 

4)  try Google Street View 

5)  probably quite a few cases on here over the years

6)  6 years in England and Wales,  from the incident date 

7)  6 year statute under the Limitations Act1980 , a typical loss in court is around £212 for a single pcn 

Get your V5c log book and driving licence out and check your details are up to date 

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

As you have received nothing before this debt collector's letter, it might be prudent to check that the Registered Keeper's address on the vehicle's Registration Document(V5c) is up to date and correct.
If it isn't, that can easily be corrected via the DVLA's website.

kryten3000

The whole thing is a scam. There's little you can do until you receive a Letter of Claim.

Coupon-mad

Just ignore them at this stage.

And check your logbook address now.

1301Trigger

Thank you, Gr1pr, KeithP, kryten3000, and Coupon-mad, for taking the time to reply. Although not good, it is better to have some sort of parking scam rather than a data breach/fraud type of situation.  

As advised, we have checked the log book contact address, which is the same as in this Jan ZZPS debt letter. If there was NTK sent in Dec 24, not sure what happened with NTK? Perhaps a Royal Mail issue, as was around the busy Christmas period.

On a side note, it was interesting to read the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 4 ruling on NTK letter delivery. As stated, "(6)A notice sent by post is to be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, to have been delivered (and so “given” for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4)) on the second working day after the day on which it is posted;"
                                      Perhaps we reading it wrong? 6A suggests that the burden is on the letter recipient to prove to NPM or the Court that the Notice To Keeper was not delivered to the recipient's address! (Who put this into law?)


Anyway, since there is no NTK and only vague details from the ZZPS debt letter...... Gr1pr suggested contacting "The DPO at NPM, giving them your correct address for the service of papers".

What would the forum say about also using the Data Protection Act to get more information on the alleged parking contravention i.e. times, pictures, and video? (Any links to templates would be much appreciated)

There is a lot to read and digest on MSE forum, and do not want to waste your time by asking for information already covered in other threads.
Would really like to get ahead and get ready for LBC/LOC so not overwhelmed at the time (it took me a week just to make this thread :P). Also, collect any evidence we might rely on now rather than somewhere down the road at LOC/LBC.

As Gr1p suggested, we had a look at Google Maps' street view pictures from September 24 and compared them to what's there now on February 25. We noticed that NPM had added more signage, which was not there in pictures from September 24. We hope it was not there on December 24 so we can mention that

Thank you for taking the time to read and look forward to your response.

Gr1pr

We dont recommend emailing a SAR until a few months after any claim is filed,  sometimes knowing less is better for you if the Particulars of Claim are woeful,  letting the claimant and their lawyers deal with the early issues, usually self inflicted 

Do ensure that the DPO at NPM has the correct details for the service of papers 

Do ensure that the V5c and driving licence are correct and up to date 

I seem to remember that Johnersh posted the details regarding posting details,  such as presumed delivered 2 business days later 

Here is one Google found account 

https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/w-029-3284?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true

And

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part06

Also

Deemed service is the date calculated in accordance with Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) part 6.14 that is used by the Court as the delivery of a court form or document. Delivered to or left at the relevant place before 12.00 midnight, on the second business day after that day.