Need help from anyone who lives/works in Worthing

Gr1pr

You now seem to have a good grasp of the issues etc

I didn't mention paying because the common theme is,  dont pay it,  dispute it,  never crossed my mind about  paying it, my focus was on answering the question posed, not the war and peace that is now this thread  ( an observation,  not a criticism   )

Yes the official MSE advice is years out of date,  yes they have been told in the past,  but no action,  probably been waiting for government regulation to start before changing the mse advice 

As for if you lost in court,  you get a grace period of 30 days to pay their lawyers   ( or sometimes it's the parking company themselves   ) in full, to avoid the CCJ threat,  it's expunged once paid in full within the 30 days window 

Racxie

Coupon-mad said:

What you're missing is that:

- not all cases go to court claims at all. Most don't, even when unpaid. NCP are not a common litigator.

- of those that do get a claim form, we win or see claims discontinued 99% of the time.

So, you have something like a 0.01% risk of ending up in a couple of years time, being told to pay £212.

POPLA is maybe 40-50% winnable. Worth a punt if you want. You DON'T then pay if you lose! Would have been 100% slam dunk win if you'd come here first but you know that now.

Thank you, this is a lot more reassuring, though honestly I'm still concerned about the consequences if I were to lose i.e. I understand it's likely that they will hound me for payment, and if I refuse they'll likely send debt collectors after me; and although the debt collectors won't be able to do anything, how long would they carry on doing it for before either giving up or threatening court action? Months? Years?

Also do you happen to know if offering to pay the missed cost & a reasonable administration fee (e.g. £20-25) go against me i.e. an "admission of guilt", or work in my favour by showing that I'm willing to correct my mistake?

Gr1pr said:

You now seem to have a good grasp of the issues etc

I didn't mention paying because the common theme is,  dont pay it,  dispute it,  never crossed my mind about  paying it, my focus was on answering the question posed, not the war and peace that is now this thread  ( an observation,  not a criticism   )

Yes the official MSE advice is years out of date,  yes they have been told in the past,  but no action,  probably been waiting for government regulation to start before changing the mse advice 

As for if you lost in court,  you get a grace period of 30 days to pay their lawyers   ( or sometimes it's the parking company themselves   ) in full, to avoid the CCJ threat,  it's expunged once paid in full within the 30 days window 

Sorry, there are contributing factors which cause me overthinking and struggle to be concise. Again I do also appreciate all of the advice and support, but as you said you two have been doing this for over a decade whereas this is completely new to me, adn being threatened to pay £60-£100 or potentially more over a couple of quid is incredibly nerve-wrecking especially for someone who currently isn't working. I also didn't initially ask follow-up conditions because again I genuinely believed from the outset I hadn't done anything wrong.

Coupon-mad

But nobody is sending debt collectors to your door.  That's not what happens.

Just stop. Relax.

No you can't offer money and if you do that, they'll know you are worried and will see you as a victim to hound.

Stop. 

Gr1pr

If you lost in court then the judge would probably give you a figure of circa £212 and 30 days to pay it in full

Debt collectors are powerless,  they send letters,  we tell people to ignore the debt collectors letters 

Under the Limitations Act 1980 the claimant   ( NCP in your case   ) has 6 years to sue you via MCOL in England and Wales,  so via the central business centre in Northampton,  the CNBC  ( A government centre for claims  )

It is extremely rare for claimants to take pity on a victim and accept a nominal fee, but there is possibly the option of appealing as a major keying error in which case they may reply with the standard £20 keying error settlement figure 

Racxie

Coupon-mad said:

But nobody is sending debt collectors to your door.  That's not what happens.

Just stop. Relax.

No you can't offer money and if you do that, they'll know you are worried and will see you as a victim to hound.

Stop. 

Sorry, meant in my appeal to POPLA

Gr1pr said:

there is possibly the option of appealing as a major keying error in which case they may reply with the standard £20 keying error settlement figure 

This would honestly be the 'ideal' and far more fairer outcome.

Coupon-mad

It's not a keying error and they've already rejected your appeal. Ignore them. Do nothing except tell them if you move house.

Racxie

Coupon-mad said:

It's not a keying error and they've already rejected your appeal. Ignore them. Do nothing except tell them if you move house.

Wait, so should I put in an appeal with POPLA or not?

Gr1pr

Coupon-mad said:

Nobody's telling you to pay this, BTW.

If you hadn't appealed as driver you could have won this at POPLA (no keeper liability) but it sounds like you've said who parked the car. But then again, so did this person and NCP didn't contest their POPLA appeal:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81355640/#Comment_81355640

POPLA stage is covered in the THIRD post of the NEWBIES thread. Worth a punt.

Paying the PCN or looking at the 'first 14 days' bribe is NOT worth thinking about. Nobody pays.

Racxie said:

Coupon-mad said:

It's not a keying error and they've already rejected your appeal. Ignore them. Do nothing except tell them if you move house.

Wait, so should I put in an appeal with POPLA or not?

Seems to me that you either take a punt at popla or you dont take a punt at popla

If you dont,  then its up to you to decide on the future course of action,  based on the extensive information provided by us so far , ( assuming that you don't pay )

If you did appeal to popla and lost, you would have to decide on the future course of action for the next 6 years
  ( assuming that you dont pay  )

If you win at popla,  its over with, if NCP withdraw at popla,  it's over with

Use the link and information Coupon-mad gave you if appealing to popla, like that example she linked you to 

I doubt that you can convince them about a keying error,  so unlikely to be offered the £20 settlement figure,  but it might happen , its not a 100% option,  perhaps less than 3% option,  never say never 

We know that you are looking for a magic bullet to make all this go away,  but there isn't one, no easy fix, sorry to say , you lost that magic bullet by appealing as driver 

Racxie

Gr1pr said:
We know that you are looking for a magic bullet to make all this go away,  but there isn't one, no easy fix, sorry to say , you lost that magic bullet by appealing as driver 

Definitely not expecting this at all! As I mentioned right from the beginning I'm just trying to understand the situation as best as possible so that I can make an informed decision which will hopefully lead to the best outcome.

I do also understand that no one has a crystal ball that will be able to tell me what the results of each action will be, but that's why I'm trying to understand things such as the probabilities and the consquences.

Does sounds like it won't hurt to give POPLA ago, it's just what "what ifs" that scare me and that's why I sincerely appreciate all of the advice/guidance/support you two have given me so far 

Coupon-mad

We help people who get the 'what if' (court claim) every day of every week. Don't worry. We'll be here.