Parking Ticket Help
Discussion
Really annoyed with this one 
Back in December last year, one of my van's was given a parking ticket.
During January I moved offices. Fast forward to May and a threatening letter comes to my new office from a Debt Recovery Agency claiming that I owe them £187 over an unpaid parking ticket. All they can tell me is the time and date of the offence, the vehicle registration and the location the offence took place. I rang the debt recovery agency and informed them (truthfully) that this was the first I had heard about this ticket and asked them to provide evidence of the offence, largely so I can take it to my guys with proof and get them to pay it. I spoke with the guys who may have been driving the van at the time and all confirm that they had not received a parking ticket on the van. I suspect who it was driving the van and I am not 100% sure that he hasn't simply scrumpled up the ticket and forgotten about it. On the other hand it may have blown off or not been properly issued/attached to the van.
The Debt Recovery Agency tell me that Swansea Council had written to me at my old address, yet they (the Agency) had miraculously found the correct address. These guys were ridiculously unhelpful and said I had to take it up with Swansea Council. After about two hours on the phone trying to navigate through the auto menus and the council call centre I eventually spoke to someone in Swansea Council who informed me that all appeals have to go through the Traffic Enforcement Centre. A very long winded approach but I did this, spoke to someone at the Courts who sent me an appeal form to sign and complete. I did this immediately and sent it back via email with a receipt proving my submission.
Few weeks go by and I get a card at my new office stating that a bailiff had called and I now owe £422. Back on the phone and the Traffic Enforcement Centre tell me my appeal didn't even get submitted because I filled the form in using my personal name, rather than the company name (I'm a Sole Trader), they informed me of this by email the day after submission, I establish that the email informing me of the mistake was in my junk mail folder. Still annoyed that this stopped them processing it mind.....
Anyway, I resent the form with the minor changes explaining my situation and it has been rejected by the court. Thinking back, I don't think I was accurate enough explaining when my office move took place. I believe that I had moved office while the DVLA were updating my log book details which Swansea Council would have used to contact me. The whole situation escalated without me even knowing about it.
I'm now after some advice on what to do next? Swansea Council wrote to me with a generic letter saying they will be contesting my appeal and I now have a name and contact address for someone within the Council, my thought is to write a detailed letter to this person stating exactly what has happened and pleading with them to remove all the crazy charges that have been added.
To make the whole situation worse, the guy who I suspected carried out the parking has been laid off through ill health
I am now expecting the Debt Recovery Agency to start chasing their £422+ again, Any advice would be very much appreciated
Back in December last year, one of my van's was given a parking ticket.
During January I moved offices. Fast forward to May and a threatening letter comes to my new office from a Debt Recovery Agency claiming that I owe them £187 over an unpaid parking ticket. All they can tell me is the time and date of the offence, the vehicle registration and the location the offence took place. I rang the debt recovery agency and informed them (truthfully) that this was the first I had heard about this ticket and asked them to provide evidence of the offence, largely so I can take it to my guys with proof and get them to pay it. I spoke with the guys who may have been driving the van at the time and all confirm that they had not received a parking ticket on the van. I suspect who it was driving the van and I am not 100% sure that he hasn't simply scrumpled up the ticket and forgotten about it. On the other hand it may have blown off or not been properly issued/attached to the van.
The Debt Recovery Agency tell me that Swansea Council had written to me at my old address, yet they (the Agency) had miraculously found the correct address. These guys were ridiculously unhelpful and said I had to take it up with Swansea Council. After about two hours on the phone trying to navigate through the auto menus and the council call centre I eventually spoke to someone in Swansea Council who informed me that all appeals have to go through the Traffic Enforcement Centre. A very long winded approach but I did this, spoke to someone at the Courts who sent me an appeal form to sign and complete. I did this immediately and sent it back via email with a receipt proving my submission.
Few weeks go by and I get a card at my new office stating that a bailiff had called and I now owe £422. Back on the phone and the Traffic Enforcement Centre tell me my appeal didn't even get submitted because I filled the form in using my personal name, rather than the company name (I'm a Sole Trader), they informed me of this by email the day after submission, I establish that the email informing me of the mistake was in my junk mail folder. Still annoyed that this stopped them processing it mind.....
Anyway, I resent the form with the minor changes explaining my situation and it has been rejected by the court. Thinking back, I don't think I was accurate enough explaining when my office move took place. I believe that I had moved office while the DVLA were updating my log book details which Swansea Council would have used to contact me. The whole situation escalated without me even knowing about it.
I'm now after some advice on what to do next? Swansea Council wrote to me with a generic letter saying they will be contesting my appeal and I now have a name and contact address for someone within the Council, my thought is to write a detailed letter to this person stating exactly what has happened and pleading with them to remove all the crazy charges that have been added.
To make the whole situation worse, the guy who I suspected carried out the parking has been laid off through ill health
I am now expecting the Debt Recovery Agency to start chasing their £422+ again, Any advice would be very much appreciated
I believe that I had moved office while the DVLA were updating my log book details which Swansea Council would have used to contact me. The whole situation escalated without me even knowing about it.
Research the above, if you can get it 100% correct then appeal or offer to pay the council the amount of the charge, due to the above mitigation.
can the Council not send photos too?
Research the above, if you can get it 100% correct then appeal or offer to pay the council the amount of the charge, due to the above mitigation.
can the Council not send photos too?
anothernameitist said:
I believe that I had moved office while the DVLA were updating my log book details which Swansea Council would have used to contact me. The whole situation escalated without me even knowing about it.
Research the above, if you can get it 100% correct then appeal or offer to pay the council the amount of the charge, due to the above mitigation.
can the Council not send photos too?
Yeah this is what I was hoping for. I will look into this heavily and try and get my time frames correct, problem is it was nearly 7 months ago and I had no reason to log when I sent them off etc, a week or two either way could be make or break. Besides, even if I knew exactly when I sent them, there's no way of tracking/proving this I shouldn't think Research the above, if you can get it 100% correct then appeal or offer to pay the council the amount of the charge, due to the above mitigation.
can the Council not send photos too?
I stated in my appeal letter than I was not 100% convinced that a parking offence had taken place as I had not received any proof. I then went on to state that I would be happy to provide details of the driver should the evidence materialise. This request just hasn't been acknowledged and Swansea Council seemed to be of the opinion that they were under no obligation to provide details directly to me, they simply pointed to the Court in Northampton.
In theory, the van may never have been parked illegally in the first place....
I can't offer you constructive advice but I think you stand a good chance of getting good help here:-
http://www.pepipoo.com/
http://www.pepipoo.com/
If it has gone to a debt recovery agency and is a council issued ticket, I'm assuming an Order Of Recovery has been issued.
You can make an Out Of Time appeal against it using a form TE7 - if this is accepted, then it resets the clock on the original penalty. https://www.gov.uk/appeal-against-a-penalty-charge...
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetFor... is the form to complete and submit to Northampton TEC.
You can make an Out Of Time appeal against it using a form TE7 - if this is accepted, then it resets the clock on the original penalty. https://www.gov.uk/appeal-against-a-penalty-charge...
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetFor... is the form to complete and submit to Northampton TEC.
Nothing constructive to add but good luck sorting it.
Always make sure you ask for evidence though....
https://youtu.be/2Gkiw7zpULo
Always make sure you ask for evidence though....
https://youtu.be/2Gkiw7zpULo
anothernameitist said:
OP when the court were chasing you where did they send the paper work.
Did they rely on out of date info from the Council, possibly did.
Another point for mitigation, beware though I did practice law in a back street boozer, but the peppipo link will be of use.
The only time the court got involved was the Transport Center or what ever its called in Northampton (sorry I haven't got the paper work with me tonight). They had my correct details because I applied for an out of time appeal. I am 100% sure that the Council used out of date information, they state that it was my fault that the DVLA didn't have my correct details and my argument is that I had applied to change the details and this unfortunate incident happened during that time.Did they rely on out of date info from the Council, possibly did.
Another point for mitigation, beware though I did practice law in a back street boozer, but the peppipo link will be of use.
S11Steve said:
If it has gone to a debt recovery agency and is a council issued ticket, I'm assuming an Order Of Recovery has been issued.
You can make an Out Of Time appeal against it using a form TE7 - if this is accepted, then it resets the clock on the original penalty. https://www.gov.uk/appeal-against-a-penalty-charge...
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetFor... is the form to complete and submit to Northampton TEC.
Order of Recovery has been issued and as stated above, I have applied for an Out of Time Appeal using the TE7, this is what has been rejected by the court. Sorry, I didn't explain myself very well earlier.You can make an Out Of Time appeal against it using a form TE7 - if this is accepted, then it resets the clock on the original penalty. https://www.gov.uk/appeal-against-a-penalty-charge...
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetFor... is the form to complete and submit to Northampton TEC.
Looking back, I definitely should have emphasised the timings more on the TE7, I naively thought that it would be reset because its obviously just an unfortunate and unusual set of circumstances but I was wrong. At the second time of completing the form, I was expecting a bailiff to knock my door and attempt to take goods and the Debt Recovery Agency and Swansea Council told me that they couldn't hold the bailiff off until the Traffic Centre acknowledged my appeal which takes 24 hours to show up on the Council system, therefore I wasn't exactly thinking straight when I completed it and it was kind of rushed
I am really, really disappointed with the whole situation to be honest. The Debt Recovery Agents are especially aggressive and totally uninterested in the situation. The fact that all their staff talk to you like you some kind of law breaking scum bag also boils my piss.
Call the DVLA they should have a record of the date that the change of address was received and then recorded on the V5C they may also have the date that the council asked for your details. If that data supports your story then you can put that in as evidence to Northampton. If it doesn't you may be screwed!
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff