CEL - Letter Before Action - No previous correspondence

quid_stretcher

Hello, I'm looking for some advice regarding a letter I've received from Civil Enforcement Ltd.

It's a "Letter Before Action" for a PCN that I've had no previous correspondence with them about. The reason being that I moved address and only updated the V5C address with DVLA a couple of weeks after the alleged incident, so presumably they had sent correspondence to my old address.

They're claiming £170 including recovery fees.

The PCN is for a church car park where my wife took our kids to a baby group. It has a terminal to enter the reg number on arrival, and to the best of her knowledge my wife had done so (she had been to this location for the same group weekly and had no issues with other weeks parking there and entering the reg number). She also has evidence from the group provider of attendance at the time of the PCN.

They've provided a form to fill with options to acknowledge or dispute the debt. I understand from reading the FAQs in this forum that I don't need to do that. Their online portal does not allow me to submit an appeal now as it's past the 28 day window for that.

I've drafted an email to the church to ask them if they can cancel as land owner (my wife already asked them on the phone and they said we need to talk to CEL, but I'll try my luck again with email).

So I'm looking for some advice on how I should proceed with CEL now. Obviously they provide very little in the form of contact details. I don't want to pay this £170 to them, but I also don't fancy any CCJs or anything that would affect my credit record or whatever.

Thanks in advance!

Gr1pr

Keep on with plan A, to the landowner

Too late for any appeals

Email the LoC response template to CEL

Then see if they actually issue a Money Claim

quid_stretcher

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81983856#Comment_81983856

Thanks. So reading between the lines, you're saying there's no chance that CEL take into account the validity of the PCN at this point and cancel it themselves?

Coupon-mad

No chance but - if the daft landowner won't cancel it - you want the Claim Form.

See post 2 of the NEWBIES thread. Obviously you must change "your client" to CEL because it's in-house but that doesn't need us to check.

quid_stretcher

Ahh, I can tell this is going to be fun to deal with. Thanks for the response, lets see how we get on with the land owners.