Appealed to ECP on a PCN and got no reply, now I have a debt collection letter from DRP.

cantpa · 10 February at 1:15PM

Sorry to start a new thread but I have tried to read the Newbies Thread and I thought I had done everything write but now I think I have done eberything wrong. I am dylexic so please bear with me, I struggled to find my way around the Newbie Thread.

I'm an18 year old student, I'm so scared as I can't afford the fine, all I own is my phone and my car that my grandad left me.

On 12 September I parked in a Sainsbury's car park, this was the first time I had parked there since passing my driving test but I have parked there for many years with my mother. As far as I was aware it was 1 hour paking free but I had up to 3 hours if I paid or bought something in Sainsbury's. I had followed this proceduure hundreds of times with my parents. I spent longer in town that I planned and I only had about 10minutes left to the 3 hours so instead of shopping in Sainsbury I decided to pay the parking. I have a photograph of the m/c not letting me pay. It wasn't until I recieved a PCN that I realised the parking limit had changed to 2 hours. I admit that I didn't really check the signage as I was convienced by experience that I had 3 hours and my dyslexia makes me sign blind anyway.

I appelled and recieved an acknowledgment on 2 October. I then heaed nothing until I got a final notifiction letter on 12 December. I tried to contact ECP to discuss that I hadn't recieved an appeal decision but I could find no way of doing so, (maybe my dyslexia again!) so I completed the appeal form on line again explaining I hadn't recieved a response. Again I got an acknowledgement on 23 December, again I heard nothing about that appeal. On 14 Jan I got and email saying thank you for your appeal, but you are out of time for an reduced rate so you now owe £85 and its to late to appeal to POPLA.

At that point I complained to BCA who replied to say they can't get involved in debate about whether correspondance was recieved or not as they can't prove it one way or they other but they would pass on my concerns to their contact at ECP and ask them to get in touch with me, they haven't as yet.

Having now read the Code of Practice I realise that ECP should have a complaints procedure, I found this hidden at the bottom of their website, so I complained that I still didn't have a response to my appeal. I got a reply almost immediatly, saying that the responded to the appeal on 23 October, the showed a screen shot of this! They said I had to contact DRP to pay as ECP, are now unable to assisst.

I have serached my email and I only have the 3 emails from ECP that I have already mensioned so I don't know where that email went. They still haven't told me what the response to my appeal said, just that they sent it.

On 8 February I got a letter from DRP saying I now owe £155 and to call them by 13 February (ONLY 3 DAYS TO GO) to pay £10 and then the balance in 30 day's. They said thet can't contest the charge, I can't afford this.

Sorry of the long thread but what do I do now. I think I should have just borrowed the money and paid the £50 in the fist place, but I still don't think they have communicated this with me problerly. Why can I not pay £50 now? I'm so scared, I feel no one is listening to me or are prepared to help me in any way.

Gr1pr · 10 February at 1:23PM

Ignore the powerless collectors letters , it's definitely not a fine either, its an invoice

Assuming that you complained about the saga to ECP using their complaints option, then complain about it to the BPA AOS compliance team on the BPA website, online, with copies of all paperwork, which you appear to have already done

If ECP replied, it could have gone in your spam folder, not the inbox

Do not pay the debt collectors , completely ignore those deadlines etc

You must deal with any Letter of Claim from DCB Legal however, which will give you 30 days notice

You must come back here to this thread for that LoC , or any future court claim pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL

Both of those last 2 need dealing with

Ideally complain about the PCN to the business or landowner and get it cancelled ASAP, known as plan A, so probably Sainsbury's