PCN despite having paid for the parking ticket

KayB1

In December 2023 we parked at a Europe car Parks car park in Manchester.  We paid for the ticket and left in an appropriate time.  Two weeks later we received a demand for £65 in the post saying we had not paid for the ticket.

We were told we could appeal and so we sent a copy of the ticket and a copy of our bank statement showing that we had paid.  We were told that we would hear in writing if the appeal were successful, if the appeal was unsuccessful, we would get a reference number to take it further.  However, we heard nothing.

We then received a letter from debt recovery plus saying that we have not paid and would therefore have to pay £170.  We were told by debt recovery plus that we had had a letter offering to settle for £20.00, we never received such a letter. Nor had we received the reference number to appeal or any further correspondence from Euro car parks. We said that it seemed strange, living here for over 25 years we have never had a problem with the post.  All the letters from the debt recovery companies reached us and yet none of the letters that would have helped us to resolve things arrived.  Debt recovery plus continue to send us a number of letters asking for money.

The letters from debt recovery plus stopped and we started to receive similar threatening letters from dcbl a different debt recovery company.  I called them and explained that we had paid for the ticket, that we never received the outcome of the appeal and that we had never been offered a £20.00 settlement.  They said they were instructed to try to get the money and that they wouldn’t discuss the merits of it. The most recent letter from them suggests that they will take us to court.

Having done some research it seems that these companies just keep threatening people to get them to pay. I don't feel that is right. If I hadn't paid for a ticket due to my error, I would have paid the charge.

Any advice gratefully received
Thanks

DE_612183

Have you read the newbees thread?

have you complained to the landowner?

Gr1pr

go to the BPA AOS members website

look at the complaints link for ECP on the right hand side

use it and complain to ECP, adding copies of the paperwork and ticket receipt

it sounds like there was a keying error, seeing as they offered £20 , so check the payment details and registration carefully on the receipt first

ECP may have replied at the time via email with the reply going into your email spam folder, junk folder , not by post as you assumed , hence why you never saw the outcome

see what ECP come back with and post below

KayB1

DE_612183 - Not sure how to find the newbees thread nor how to find who owns the land - I'll try to find out,only signed up today
Gr1pr - Will have a look at that, thanks. The ticket didn't have the full reg on, but like I say we proved we paid. It is a very small car park (not sure its even there anymore). Thanks

DE_612183

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

Gr1pr

KayB1 said:

DE_612183 - Not sure how to find the newbees thread nor how to find who owns the land - I'll try to find out,only signed up today
Gr1pr - Will have a look at that, thanks. The ticket didn't have the full reg on, but like I say we proved we paid. It is a very small car park (not sure its even there anymore). Thanks

Top of the forum below the yellow banners,  several announcements there,  the Newbies sticky thread being one of them,  typically around the 3rd one down 

Some ideas below for finding the landowner details 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6337652/how-to-find-details-of-landowner?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=landowner+details

The lack of the full VRM details is why they issued the PCN,  payment is only one of the rules,  correct VRM details being another one 

Coupon-mad

Come back when you get the DCB Legal claim form to defend. No worries.

Easy stage! Easier than appeal. And you'll pay nothing.

This will be a keying error case. Wrong VRM paid for but that's defendable and HHJ Pema confirmed this by refusing a parking firm's appeal about a case like this. A picture of his decision is in a thread, easily found.