PCN not found until two months after it was sent as we were away from home

tartiflette

I'm in a situation where I am unsure what the best course of action is.
On 17.6.25 a PCN was posted for a supposed incident on 11.6.25 (£100 but reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days)
On 4.11.25 a PCN -"notice before further action" was posted (£100 demanded)
On 18.7.25 an "Action Needed" letter was posted (threatening that the amount will escalate to £170 if not paid within 14 days)
On 1.9.25 I returned from a long visit abroad to find all three letters.
The parking charge was for a car park of a gym where it is necessary to record your reg plate on a keypad at reception. (I thought I had done this but maybe I didn't, or maybe I typed the number incorrectly.)
On 2.9.25 I visited the gym and they attempted to cancel the charge through their online system. They were unable to do this as more than 28 days had passed since the incident. They provided me with a printout from their system as evidence of the times that I was at the gym (which corresponds with the times on the parking charge).
On 3.9.25 I used Civil Enforcement Ltd's online portal to appeal the charge. I explained that the driver was using the wall legitimately, attached a copy of the evidence of attendance provided by the wall and requested that the fine be cancelled. (I did not divulge the name of the driver.)
On 25.9.25 I received this response to my appeal: 
   We refer to your recent correspondence. However, as set out clearly on the parking charge notice, it is now too late to make an appeal/representation against this PCN. This Parking Charge Notice has been passed on to a Debt Recovery Agent. All further queries, including payments, must be directed to them. Please follow the instruction on the correspondence you have received. Yours faithfully, Civil Enforcement Ltd

I understand that the standard advice now is not to contact the debt collection agency and to wait until they bring a claim against me and defend it in court. However, the problem is that I left the UK again on 9.9.25. I had not received any letters from the debt collection agent before I left, so I don't have their details. I will not be able to check the mail at my address until mid-November, and in late December I am leaving the country again. I am concerned that things may go to CCJ stage without me even knowing that a court hearing has been arranged. 
(A further complication is that the letters are addressed to the registered keeper, and not the driver- I definitely need to avoid the car owner being wrongly hit with a CCJ in their absence!)
NB There is nobody who can access the post at this address, and I don't have another address to which mail could be redirected.

So, now I am wondering:
a) Should I attempt to get the debt collection agency's contact details from Civil Enforcement Ltd and then ask them to email all correspondence to me? (This could be difficult as I can't find contact details for Civil Enforcement Ltd.)

b) If I can get the debt collection agency's details, should I let them know who the driver was, to remove the risk from the registered keeper?

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thank you

Gr1pr

The CEL email address has been published on here numerous times 

Ignore the powerless debt collectors letters 

You should get the Registered Keeper to name you as the driver with a suitable postal address for the service of papers,  even if its the address abroad,  or use a UK address where the post is checked regularly 

The keeper transfers the liability to you as the driver,  because until they do that CEL will continue to chase the keeper and possibly issue a court claim against the keeper 

So to be clear,  they name you, ( its not you naming yourself   )

The NTK PCN letter rear explains transferring liability by naming the driver,  but can be done online 

Car1980

Email CEL AND DCB Legal today, transfer liability to you and give your current address abroad. Ignore the debt collectors because they can't make any court claim. Then do the same in December for your next address abroad. And just keep on doing it.

office@ce-service.co.uk
dataprotectionofficer@ce-service.co.uk
Legal3@ce-service.co.uk

info@dcblegal.co.uk

It's more about covering yourself and creating a paper trail if they're daft enough to make a claim against a wrong address.

Gr1pr

The problem here is that the letters are addressed to the Registered Keeper,  whereas the OP was the driver,  so currently the OP is not the person receiving the letters,  they are going to the Registered Keeper at a UK address 

My suggestion is that the RK name the driver,  with the foreign address 

James_Poisson

And of course this whole scenario is one of the reasons why authorities are not allowed to use ANPR in their car parks.

The camera on a pole trick used by scammers just to extract money after the event is a cheap trick full of pitfalls all used liberally against the keeper.

A notice to driver on the day at least is fair warning there and then, but when has fair been on a PPC business model!

Coupon-mad

Keeper definitely names you as driver but with your address abroad. That kills it.

kryten3000

The Single Code of Practice allows late appeals where it can be shown that the RK did not have a chance to respond within the 28 day window. This needs to be evidenced when writing to CEL to prevent them pretending it is "too late" to appeal.  

Remind them that the POFA requires the keeper to provide an "address for service" of the driver.  It does not specify that this must be a UK address. 

tartiflette

Thanks to each of you for the help. I have done as advised and will wait to see what happens next...