Parking ticket chased 3 years later

fullyrendered

@jimmy156 report your own post and get the moderators to move it into the parking sub forum - this will ensure the experts on there get you the right advice for this stage.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/parking-tickets-fines-parking

jimmy156

fatbelly said:

The registered keeper not being the driver is the core of your defence, should it get to that stage

DO NOT IDENTIFY THE DRIVER

It already appears that the LBA is non-compliant.

Did they just refer you to a website where you could find the compliant text and the reply form?

Hi Fatbelly,

The "Letter before claim" have no time limit and made no mention of anything other than the various ways to pay the debt, namely the online portal and the payment phone line.

jimmy156

paul_c123 said:

jimmy156 said:

Good evening all,

I was pointed here from another forum that I am a regular user of, thanks in advance for any help - I will try to keep this brief.

In 2022 we were on Holiday in Cornwall. We got a couple of parking tickets from ANPR controlled car parks. Successfully appealed one, unsuccessfully appealed the other and then paid the fine.

Fast forward to December 2025 and we get a letter from a debt collection company about a third parking infringement. It is in the same car park (a few days later) as the one we paid the fine for. This was genuinely the first we had ever heard about it, we never received the original parking charge notice from the enforcement company.

The debt collection company provided us with the following

- Original letter from the parking company and proof of posting. This shows that we overstayed the end of our paid parking time by 10 mins (we were paid until 17:35 and we left at 17:45)
- Photographs of us entering and leaving that shows the registered keeper in the passenger seat, the driver is obscured by the rear view mirror.

Debt collection company have been predictably unhelpful with any communication.

A few weeks later we were then contacted by a solicitor company acting on behalf of the parking company with a letter titles "action before claim"

We have since written (emailed) to both the parking company and the solicitors to state the above and explain that had we received the original letter we would have either paid or more likely appealed the fine, based on the 10 minute guideline for grace period. We were never able to do this because we never received the letter. This one one of our first holidays with out then 5 year old, and my wife was heavily pregnant - hence us taking a bit longer to get back to car parks and get the car loaded then we initially anticipated.

Sorry - didn't manage to keep it that brief! So my questions:

I assume the next step is court, so...

1. Is the parking company/ solicitors (Alliance/Moorside) likely to actually take us to court?

2. If they do, is the fact the original letter never arrived and that we were within the 10 minute grace period / the driver is not identifiable going to be sufficient mitigation. We can prove that we paid / appealed the other fines in the same period, if this helps evidence that we genuinely didn't receive the original letter.

3. If we do go to court and lose, by how much is the fine / charge likely to increase?

I have no qualms paying a parking fine if i've broken the rules. I take issue with being chased for a fine inflated by 200% when we were never notified about the original fine 3+ years ago!

You missed out some important info - is the car park a member of the British Parking Association (BPA) or the International Parking Community (IPC)?

If so they can pursue the registered keeper for the fine, and don't have to identify the driver. See Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

Yes it looks like Alliance are members of both! Thanks for this.

Woodstok2000

jimmy156 said:

paul_c123 said:

jimmy156 said:

Good evening all,

I was pointed here from another forum that I am a regular user of, thanks in advance for any help - I will try to keep this brief.

In 2022 we were on Holiday in Cornwall. We got a couple of parking tickets from ANPR controlled car parks. Successfully appealed one, unsuccessfully appealed the other and then paid the fine.

Fast forward to December 2025 and we get a letter from a debt collection company about a third parking infringement. It is in the same car park (a few days later) as the one we paid the fine for. This was genuinely the first we had ever heard about it, we never received the original parking charge notice from the enforcement company.

The debt collection company provided us with the following

- Original letter from the parking company and proof of posting. This shows that we overstayed the end of our paid parking time by 10 mins (we were paid until 17:35 and we left at 17:45)
- Photographs of us entering and leaving that shows the registered keeper in the passenger seat, the driver is obscured by the rear view mirror.

Debt collection company have been predictably unhelpful with any communication.

A few weeks later we were then contacted by a solicitor company acting on behalf of the parking company with a letter titles "action before claim"

We have since written (emailed) to both the parking company and the solicitors to state the above and explain that had we received the original letter we would have either paid or more likely appealed the fine, based on the 10 minute guideline for grace period. We were never able to do this because we never received the letter. This one one of our first holidays with out then 5 year old, and my wife was heavily pregnant - hence us taking a bit longer to get back to car parks and get the car loaded then we initially anticipated.

Sorry - didn't manage to keep it that brief! So my questions:

I assume the next step is court, so...

1. Is the parking company/ solicitors (Alliance/Moorside) likely to actually take us to court?

2. If they do, is the fact the original letter never arrived and that we were within the 10 minute grace period / the driver is not identifiable going to be sufficient mitigation. We can prove that we paid / appealed the other fines in the same period, if this helps evidence that we genuinely didn't receive the original letter.

3. If we do go to court and lose, by how much is the fine / charge likely to increase?

I have no qualms paying a parking fine if i've broken the rules. I take issue with being chased for a fine inflated by 200% when we were never notified about the original fine 3+ years ago!

You missed out some important info - is the car park a member of the British Parking Association (BPA) or the International Parking Community (IPC)?

If so they can pursue the registered keeper for the fine, and don't have to identify the driver. See Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

Yes it looks like Alliance are members of both! Thanks for this.

Just because they have a right to do this, doesn't mean they ca  in this case. The POFA requirements on these companies are legally binding and stringent,and lots of times they fail to comply which removes their ability to transfer liability to the keeper. The experts in the parking forum will help, but you can research there yourself too - theres some great guides and lots of similar threads already on what to look for in thr letters you received.

prowla

paul_c123 said:

jimmy156 said:

Good evening all,

I was pointed here from another forum that I am a regular user of, thanks in advance for any help - I will try to keep this brief.

In 2022 we were on Holiday in Cornwall. We got a couple of parking tickets from ANPR controlled car parks. Successfully appealed one, unsuccessfully appealed the other and then paid the fine.

Fast forward to December 2025 and we get a letter from a debt collection company about a third parking infringement. It is in the same car park (a few days later) as the one we paid the fine for. This was genuinely the first we had ever heard about it, we never received the original parking charge notice from the enforcement company.

The debt collection company provided us with the following

- Original letter from the parking company and proof of posting. This shows that we overstayed the end of our paid parking time by 10 mins (we were paid until 17:35 and we left at 17:45)
- Photographs of us entering and leaving that shows the registered keeper in the passenger seat, the driver is obscured by the rear view mirror.

Debt collection company have been predictably unhelpful with any communication.

A few weeks later we were then contacted by a solicitor company acting on behalf of the parking company with a letter titles "action before claim"

We have since written (emailed) to both the parking company and the solicitors to state the above and explain that had we received the original letter we would have either paid or more likely appealed the fine, based on the 10 minute guideline for grace period. We were never able to do this because we never received the letter. This one one of our first holidays with out then 5 year old, and my wife was heavily pregnant - hence us taking a bit longer to get back to car parks and get the car loaded then we initially anticipated.

Sorry - didn't manage to keep it that brief! So my questions:

I assume the next step is court, so...

1. Is the parking company/ solicitors (Alliance/Moorside) likely to actually take us to court?

2. If they do, is the fact the original letter never arrived and that we were within the 10 minute grace period / the driver is not identifiable going to be sufficient mitigation. We can prove that we paid / appealed the other fines in the same period, if this helps evidence that we genuinely didn't receive the original letter.

3. If we do go to court and lose, by how much is the fine / charge likely to increase?

I have no qualms paying a parking fine if i've broken the rules. I take issue with being chased for a fine inflated by 200% when we were never notified about the original fine 3+ years ago!

You missed out some important info - is the car park a member of the British Parking Association (BPA) or the International Parking Community (IPC)?

If so they can pursue the registered keeper for the fine, and don't have to identify the driver. See Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

It's not a fine.

jimmy156

So i have sent an email to Moorside using the template from the sticky in the parking forum. It feels a bit scary as would really rather this doesn't go to court, and we very nearly paid the £170 but have stuck it out. If I thought we were bang to rights and we had just hoped we'd get away with it, I'd probably have folded.

• Hower we genuinely never received the original letter and so did not have the chance to pay the reduced charge
• Because we never received the original letter we weren't able to challenge the charge, where i think we would have been successful (10 mins overstay and pregnant wife + young kid / pushchair etc)
• registered keeper is not the driver
• Nearly 3 1/2 years passed before we recieved any communication
• The communication from Trace and Moorside feels like a genuine scam. They (Trace/Alliance) have falsely claimed that the reason they couldn't originally contact us is that the details of address for the registered keeper were wrong. The is demonstrably false. They (Moorside) have also falsely claimed that we appealed the original parking charge. Also demonstrably false. If they hadn't had images of the car, I would literally think these were scammers in a warehouse somewhere!
  

I have tried to get this thread moved to the parking sub-forum by reporting my own post, but it appears not to have moved. I am sure the moderators are very busy! Is there anyone other way to move it?

Gr1pr

It appears to be in the correct forum now

What you or your wife received is probably a pretend LoC but as long as you respond to a formal Letter of Claim giving the victim 30 days notice then await the Money Claim 

Do not get mixed up between a Money Claim and going to court 

A Money Claim is kickoff time, with a tale of 2 halves and a likely discontinued case when they fall to pay the hearing fee 

No fee = no hearing,  regardless of the facts

Ps, if the Registered Keeper was not the driver,  plus if the parking company failed to comply with Pofa2012,  then the keeper has no liability in law 

jimmy156

Thanks for your post!

Good to know its in the right place - might be I am just not used to the format of this forum!

Yes, the letter was titled Letter before Claim, but gave no timeline for payment.

What is a money claim?

I thought these things went Parking Charge --> Debt Collection Notice --> Letter before Claim --> Then the actual claim --> Court..

Do I not have this right? 

I have no idea whether they complied with Pofa 2012. It seems Alliance are a member of the BPA, so can chase the keeper?

Gr1pr

Private parking companies always chase the keeper first, because they have no idea who was driving

they have to be members of a trade body, BPA AOS members, or IPC AOS members, to gain access to the DVLA database to get RK details, many can be in both, but only one applies, the AOS they subscribe to, not the trade body, some are members of both, but its the AOS paid membership that counts , in this case only the IPC, not the BPA corporate membership

POFA 2012 may be used or invoked, or not, but must be used correctly in order for a keeper to possibly be liable, especially if they were not driving the vehicle

the parking companies have 6 years to issue a MONEY CLAIM using MCOL, google it ( they cannot issue a court claim any more, only a Money Claim , with many hurdles and payments etc ( you or I can also do this ) google stuff you dont know, MCOL is an online government service

I believe that Moorside sent a false Loc, a proper one would give 30 days notice ( a sneaky trick of theirs )

they may well issue a real LoC in due course ! or a Money Claim , which is what will eventually put this to bed

there are several stages to a Money Claim, many fail to reach court , read the typical timeline below

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6649355/claim-form-from-dcbl#latest

1505grandad

"...the parking company/ solicitors (Alliance/Moorside)....."

Alliance Parking UK Ltd (Trading as Alliance Parking)

www.alliance-parking.co.uk

The ppc are IPC AoS members.