Advice needed: Parking 'Letter of Claim' for 5-year-old charge - paid but with keying error.

PeteDaMeat

Hi everyone,

I'd be grateful for some advice on a Letter of Claim we've received from a firm of solicitors acting on behalf of a private parking company. Below are the details.

Timeline

• Date of Parking: 20 July 2020
• First Letter Received (from a debt collection agency): 20 May 2025
• Letter of Claim Received (from the solicitors): 15 July 2025

Key Facts

• The letters are addressed to my wife.
• I am the registered owner of the car and was the driver on the day. I have my wife's authority to handle this, and the initial debt collectors were told this on the phone.
• The claim is for £170.00 for 'Insufficient Paid Time' at a car park in Newquay.
• I have proof of payment. I paid for the full parking session via a parking app at the correct time and location.
• Crucially, I made a "major keying error" and entered the registration of our other car into the app instead of the one I was driving.
• Regarding the original notice, I have no recollection of receiving it. At that time, my family was dealing with the terminal illness of my father, so it's possible a letter arrived and was overlooked. The first I was aware of this issue was the letter that arrived nearly 5 years later
  

What are your thoughts on this? Shall I just pay the £170 to be done with it or challenge it? As I say, I cannot guarantee with absolutely certainty whether a PCN was received back in 2020. This period of time was all very much a haze due to my fathers terminal illness.

Gr1pr

Name the private parking company involved,  plus Name the solicitors  ( is it Smart Parking and DCB Legal   ?  )

You mean registered keeper,  not registered owner,  who are the letters addressed to  ? You as driver or someone else  ?

Email the LoC response template to the solicitors,  found in the second post in the newbies sticky thread in announcements near the top of the forum by coupon mad 

PeteDaMeat

You're right, it's Smart Parking and DCB Legal.

So, I'm the registered owner of the car and was driving on the day of the parking error. My wife is the registered keeper of the car and all letters have been addressed to her.

I'll have a look for the LoC template. 

Gr1pr

If she is getting the letters as a non driving Registered Keeper,  then she deals with everything,  but you can assist her,  so the LoC response comes from HER in her name,  not yours , she can also add that she was not the driver on the date of the incident  ( but no blabbing about who was actually driving,  Don't do their job for them , it's currently a secret,  keepitthatway  ))

She has no liability if she wasn't the driver,  so has a good legal defence when she gets a court claim in her name 

You are the owner , there is no such thing as a Registered Owner,  no database,  just a Registered Keeper database and a Driver database 

PeteDaMeat

Thanks for the information. I'm strugging to find the LoC template. Can you share the URL. Thanks

Nellymoser

It's in the NEWBIES thread
POST 2  Small Claim  which begins with the info on LOC/LBC

Gr1pr

PeteDaMeat said:

Thanks for the information. I'm strugging to find the LoC template. Can you share the URL. Thanks

Top of this forum,  in announcements,  a few down from the top   ( we dont link announcements   )

Coupon-mad

The claim is for £170.00 for 'Insufficient Paid Time'

What makes you say 'claim'? Just checking: you don't have an actual Claim Form from Northampton CNBC yet, do you?