Parking Charge on Private Land from 2 years ago
Discussion
Hi all, I think I know the answer to this but want to make sure before paying I am thinking this through properly.
Back on the 29th of June 2017, I sold a Ford Fiesta to a scrappy. This was the first car I had sold privately and stupidly, I gave the new owner the V5 to post off to the DVLA and he obviously never let the DVLA know about the change of keeper. I subsequently got fined in early 2019 for this by the DVLA as they received a notification in January of that year that the car had been scrapped and I failed to notify them of this. I paid this fine.
Roll on November 2021 and I get a debt collection notice from a firm acting on behalf of a trade body registered company (I don't want to say any names just yet). They said that on Novemeber 2018, the car was parked on private land and I owe them £170.00. I initially called to say I wasn't the owner at the time of the contravention and to please seek the original owner, and I asked why I hadn't been contacted sooner. They said their client (the private land owner) had tried to get in touch with me through the registered address that I had since moved from in 2018. They have since persisted and I asked the DVLA for proof that I didn't own the car at the time. Unfortunately as the car was scrapped in 2019 (after the contravention), they say I was the legal registered keeper on the V5 at the time of the contravention.
I have called the debt collection agency and asked for the original parking charge as from my perspective, I have only ever had communication with them and they could be making up a false charge. They have said that this isn't their responsibility, and that because the end client has tried to communicate with me via my old address already, they won't deal with me. I have then told them that I will seek independent legal advice on where I stand.
I feel I may have made a mistake here as I wonder if I can legally get in touch directly with the client, or do I need to have some form of legal representative do this for me? And if I do need to pay, can I negotiate a lower cost seeing as it wasn't me that caused the offense. If I need to cough up the £170.00 I will, but I need to know what my options are before coughing up any legal expenses/paying the fine.
Appreciate any advice.
Back on the 29th of June 2017, I sold a Ford Fiesta to a scrappy. This was the first car I had sold privately and stupidly, I gave the new owner the V5 to post off to the DVLA and he obviously never let the DVLA know about the change of keeper. I subsequently got fined in early 2019 for this by the DVLA as they received a notification in January of that year that the car had been scrapped and I failed to notify them of this. I paid this fine.
Roll on November 2021 and I get a debt collection notice from a firm acting on behalf of a trade body registered company (I don't want to say any names just yet). They said that on Novemeber 2018, the car was parked on private land and I owe them £170.00. I initially called to say I wasn't the owner at the time of the contravention and to please seek the original owner, and I asked why I hadn't been contacted sooner. They said their client (the private land owner) had tried to get in touch with me through the registered address that I had since moved from in 2018. They have since persisted and I asked the DVLA for proof that I didn't own the car at the time. Unfortunately as the car was scrapped in 2019 (after the contravention), they say I was the legal registered keeper on the V5 at the time of the contravention.
I have called the debt collection agency and asked for the original parking charge as from my perspective, I have only ever had communication with them and they could be making up a false charge. They have said that this isn't their responsibility, and that because the end client has tried to communicate with me via my old address already, they won't deal with me. I have then told them that I will seek independent legal advice on where I stand.
I feel I may have made a mistake here as I wonder if I can legally get in touch directly with the client, or do I need to have some form of legal representative do this for me? And if I do need to pay, can I negotiate a lower cost seeing as it wasn't me that caused the offense. If I need to cough up the £170.00 I will, but I need to know what my options are before coughing up any legal expenses/paying the fine.
Appreciate any advice.
Put this up on Pepipoo.com on the Private parking thread.
They may well ask questions so answer truthfully, they do not like people who paravicate or hide information. They will advise you on the best course of action and there will be template letters to use and do copy them word for word, do not change a full stop,
They may well ask questions so answer truthfully, they do not like people who paravicate or hide information. They will advise you on the best course of action and there will be template letters to use and do copy them word for word, do not change a full stop,
Tried that but unfortunately I don’t have the details of the scrappy and have no online transactions for the sale of the car.
I’ve submitted a SAR to the company as I haven’t received any info from them directly and hope that there is something on the original ticket I can use to fight my case (as advised by Pepipoo)
I’ve submitted a SAR to the company as I haven’t received any info from them directly and hope that there is something on the original ticket I can use to fight my case (as advised by Pepipoo)
You can definitely fight it, but much of the important detail would appear to be word of mouth and you probably shouldn’t consider that as watertight proof of the facts.
Or, you cut your losses/personal time spent sorting this out and pass the wisdom of experience on to your kids and other people.
This isn’t a ‘suck it up’ suggestion, just a consideration of how much of your personal time, you wish to spend fighting the invoice.
If you do go for it, did you cancel the car tax online on the date of sale, or was it on SORN?
I don't remember what I did with the tax but it definitely wasn't SORN as I didn't have any off road parking at the time. Might be the car was running around without tax for a year before it was scrapped.
I may end up just paying it to save me the grief, just feels wrong so want to explore one more avenue before doing so.
I may end up just paying it to save me the grief, just feels wrong so want to explore one more avenue before doing so.
Given that you seem to have no proof whatsoever that you actually sold the car and weren't in fact driving it yourself for those 2 years, how do you expect to convince the parking company otherwise ? I suppose you might be really lucky and they'll just give up, but since from their perspective they have you bang to rights, I'd say this is one to chalk up to experience.
outnumbered said:
Given that you seem to have no proof whatsoever that you actually sold the car and weren't in fact driving it yourself for those 2 years, how do you expect to convince the parking company otherwise ? I suppose you might be really lucky and they'll just give up, but since from their perspective they have you bang to rights, I'd say this is one to chalk up to experience.
Yeah it's likely to go down this route. Like I said I haven't actually seen the parking charge and I'm going purely on what the debt collectors are saying so want to see this first before paying. Who knows, maybe they will have a good picture of the driver. First time I checked it after selling was back when the DVLA fined me and it was saying the MOT and Tax were due but I wasn't paying attention to the dates. Now when I search it just says "Vehicle details could not be found"?! I've scrapped another car and it still comes up on the gov website so unless someone is still running it with a private reg, I have no idea what has happened.
mcflurry said:
Can you google the scrappy's name, based on where you dropped the car off?
(assuming it wasn't collected)
It was picked up unfortunately. Closest to proof of sale is a photo I have of it being taken away on the back of the truck (no identifiable markings) and I can't see the truck's reg in the photo.(assuming it wasn't collected)
Pouks said:
It was picked up unfortunately. Closest to proof of sale is a photo I have of it being taken away on the back of the truck (no identifiable markings) and I can't see the truck's reg in the photo.
Was the picture taken on your phone?If so, it should be timestamped with the disposal date..
mcflurry said:
Was the picture taken on your phone?
If so, it should be timestamped with the disposal date..
It was yeah and I still have access as it was uploaded to iCloud. Problem is I’m not sure that this counts as proof of sale other than it being on the back of a truck. Happy to be proven otherwise though…If so, it should be timestamped with the disposal date..
Pouks said:
Hi all, I think I know the answer to this but want to make sure before paying I am thinking this through properly.
Back on the 29th of June 2017, I sold a Ford Fiesta to a scrappy. This was the first car I had sold privately and stupidly, I gave the new owner the V5 to post off to the DVLA and he obviously never let the DVLA know about the change of keeper. I subsequently got fined in early 2019 for this by the DVLA as they received a notification in January of that year that the car had been scrapped and I failed to notify them of this. I paid this fine.
Roll on November 2021 and I get a debt collection notice from a firm acting on behalf of a trade body registered company (I don't want to say any names just yet). They said that on Novemeber 2018, the car was parked on private land and I owe them £170.00. I initially called to say I wasn't the owner at the time of the contravention and to please seek the original owner, and I asked why I hadn't been contacted sooner. They said their client (the private land owner) had tried to get in touch with me through the registered address that I had since moved from in 2018. They have since persisted and I asked the DVLA for proof that I didn't own the car at the time. Unfortunately as the car was scrapped in 2019 (after the contravention), they say I was the legal registered keeper on the V5 at the time of the contravention.
I have called the debt collection agency and asked for the original parking charge as from my perspective, I have only ever had communication with them and they could be making up a false charge. They have said that this isn't their responsibility, and that because the end client has tried to communicate with me via my old address already, they won't deal with me. I have then told them that I will seek independent legal advice on where I stand.
I feel I may have made a mistake here as I wonder if I can legally get in touch directly with the client, or do I need to have some form of legal representative do this for me? And if I do need to pay, can I negotiate a lower cost seeing as it wasn't me that caused the offense. If I need to cough up the £170.00 I will, but I need to know what my options are before coughing up any legal expenses/paying the fine.
Appreciate any advice.
So basically first things first. It's reasonable and required for the debt collector to supply a copy of the original invoice(parking ticket) and this is called disclosure, They then need to demonstrate that they have made reason measures to collect the debt and this would require chasing letters with a frequency of less than every twelve months. Back on the 29th of June 2017, I sold a Ford Fiesta to a scrappy. This was the first car I had sold privately and stupidly, I gave the new owner the V5 to post off to the DVLA and he obviously never let the DVLA know about the change of keeper. I subsequently got fined in early 2019 for this by the DVLA as they received a notification in January of that year that the car had been scrapped and I failed to notify them of this. I paid this fine.
Roll on November 2021 and I get a debt collection notice from a firm acting on behalf of a trade body registered company (I don't want to say any names just yet). They said that on Novemeber 2018, the car was parked on private land and I owe them £170.00. I initially called to say I wasn't the owner at the time of the contravention and to please seek the original owner, and I asked why I hadn't been contacted sooner. They said their client (the private land owner) had tried to get in touch with me through the registered address that I had since moved from in 2018. They have since persisted and I asked the DVLA for proof that I didn't own the car at the time. Unfortunately as the car was scrapped in 2019 (after the contravention), they say I was the legal registered keeper on the V5 at the time of the contravention.
I have called the debt collection agency and asked for the original parking charge as from my perspective, I have only ever had communication with them and they could be making up a false charge. They have said that this isn't their responsibility, and that because the end client has tried to communicate with me via my old address already, they won't deal with me. I have then told them that I will seek independent legal advice on where I stand.
I feel I may have made a mistake here as I wonder if I can legally get in touch directly with the client, or do I need to have some form of legal representative do this for me? And if I do need to pay, can I negotiate a lower cost seeing as it wasn't me that caused the offense. If I need to cough up the £170.00 I will, but I need to know what my options are before coughing up any legal expenses/paying the fine.
Appreciate any advice.
Further the invoice from the scrap yard is the proof they own the car not you. The V5 is simply the registered keeper and they are not the same thing. My next step would be write to the debt collector asking them for the original invoice and giving the scrap company as the driver at the time of the offence. Stay solid and I think they will drop it.
Pouks said:
Hi all, I think I know the answer to this but want to make sure before paying I am thinking this through properly.
Back on the 29th of June 2017, I sold a Ford Fiesta to a scrappy. This was the first car I had sold privately and stupidly, I gave the new owner the V5 to post off to the DVLA and he obviously never let the DVLA know about the change of keeper. I subsequently got fined in early 2019 for this by the DVLA as they received a notification in January of that year that the car had been scrapped and I failed to notify them of this. I paid this fine.
Roll on November 2021 and I get a debt collection notice from a firm acting on behalf of a trade body registered company (I don't want to say any names just yet). They said that on Novemeber 2018, the car was parked on private land and I owe them £170.00. I initially called to say I wasn't the owner at the time of the contravention and to please seek the original owner, and I asked why I hadn't been contacted sooner. They said their client (the private land owner) had tried to get in touch with me through the registered address that I had since moved from in 2018. They have since persisted and I asked the DVLA for proof that I didn't own the car at the time. Unfortunately as the car was scrapped in 2019 (after the contravention), they say I was the legal registered keeper on the V5 at the time of the contravention.
I have called the debt collection agency and asked for the original parking charge as from my perspective, I have only ever had communication with them and they could be making up a false charge. They have said that this isn't their responsibility, and that because the end client has tried to communicate with me via my old address already, they won't deal with me. I have then told them that I will seek independent legal advice on where I stand.
I feel I may have made a mistake here as I wonder if I can legally get in touch directly with the client, or do I need to have some form of legal representative do this for me? And if I do need to pay, can I negotiate a lower cost seeing as it wasn't me that caused the offense. If I need to cough up the £170.00 I will, but I need to know what my options are before coughing up any legal expenses/paying the fine.
Appreciate any advice.
So basically first things first. It's reasonable and required for the debt collector to supply a copy of the original invoice(parking ticket) and this is called disclosure, They then need to demonstrate that they have made reason measures to collect the debt and this would require chasing letters with a frequency of less than every twelve months. Back on the 29th of June 2017, I sold a Ford Fiesta to a scrappy. This was the first car I had sold privately and stupidly, I gave the new owner the V5 to post off to the DVLA and he obviously never let the DVLA know about the change of keeper. I subsequently got fined in early 2019 for this by the DVLA as they received a notification in January of that year that the car had been scrapped and I failed to notify them of this. I paid this fine.
Roll on November 2021 and I get a debt collection notice from a firm acting on behalf of a trade body registered company (I don't want to say any names just yet). They said that on Novemeber 2018, the car was parked on private land and I owe them £170.00. I initially called to say I wasn't the owner at the time of the contravention and to please seek the original owner, and I asked why I hadn't been contacted sooner. They said their client (the private land owner) had tried to get in touch with me through the registered address that I had since moved from in 2018. They have since persisted and I asked the DVLA for proof that I didn't own the car at the time. Unfortunately as the car was scrapped in 2019 (after the contravention), they say I was the legal registered keeper on the V5 at the time of the contravention.
I have called the debt collection agency and asked for the original parking charge as from my perspective, I have only ever had communication with them and they could be making up a false charge. They have said that this isn't their responsibility, and that because the end client has tried to communicate with me via my old address already, they won't deal with me. I have then told them that I will seek independent legal advice on where I stand.
I feel I may have made a mistake here as I wonder if I can legally get in touch directly with the client, or do I need to have some form of legal representative do this for me? And if I do need to pay, can I negotiate a lower cost seeing as it wasn't me that caused the offense. If I need to cough up the £170.00 I will, but I need to know what my options are before coughing up any legal expenses/paying the fine.
Appreciate any advice.
Further the invoice from the scrap yard is the proof they own the car not you. The V5 is simply the registered keeper and they are not the same thing. My next step would be write to the debt collector asking them for the original invoice and giving the scrap company as the driver at the time of the offence. Stay solid and I think they will drop it.
ashenfie said:
Pouks said:
Hi all, I think I know the answer to this but want to make sure before paying I am thinking this through properly.
Back on the 29th of June 2017, I sold a Ford Fiesta to a scrappy. This was the first car I had sold privately and stupidly, I gave the new owner the V5 to post off to the DVLA and he obviously never let the DVLA know about the change of keeper. I subsequently got fined in early 2019 for this by the DVLA as they received a notification in January of that year that the car had been scrapped and I failed to notify them of this. I paid this fine.
Roll on November 2021 and I get a debt collection notice from a firm acting on behalf of a trade body registered company (I don't want to say any names just yet). They said that on Novemeber 2018, the car was parked on private land and I owe them £170.00. I initially called to say I wasn't the owner at the time of the contravention and to please seek the original owner, and I asked why I hadn't been contacted sooner. They said their client (the private land owner) had tried to get in touch with me through the registered address that I had since moved from in 2018. They have since persisted and I asked the DVLA for proof that I didn't own the car at the time. Unfortunately as the car was scrapped in 2019 (after the contravention), they say I was the legal registered keeper on the V5 at the time of the contravention.
I have called the debt collection agency and asked for the original parking charge as from my perspective, I have only ever had communication with them and they could be making up a false charge. They have said that this isn't their responsibility, and that because the end client has tried to communicate with me via my old address already, they won't deal with me. I have then told them that I will seek independent legal advice on where I stand.
I feel I may have made a mistake here as I wonder if I can legally get in touch directly with the client, or do I need to have some form of legal representative do this for me? And if I do need to pay, can I negotiate a lower cost seeing as it wasn't me that caused the offense. If I need to cough up the £170.00 I will, but I need to know what my options are before coughing up any legal expenses/paying the fine.
Appreciate any advice.
So basically first things first. It's reasonable and required for the debt collector to supply a copy of the original invoice(parking ticket) and this is called disclosure, They then need to demonstrate that they have made reason measures to collect the debt and this would require chasing letters with a frequency of less than every twelve months. Back on the 29th of June 2017, I sold a Ford Fiesta to a scrappy. This was the first car I had sold privately and stupidly, I gave the new owner the V5 to post off to the DVLA and he obviously never let the DVLA know about the change of keeper. I subsequently got fined in early 2019 for this by the DVLA as they received a notification in January of that year that the car had been scrapped and I failed to notify them of this. I paid this fine.
Roll on November 2021 and I get a debt collection notice from a firm acting on behalf of a trade body registered company (I don't want to say any names just yet). They said that on Novemeber 2018, the car was parked on private land and I owe them £170.00. I initially called to say I wasn't the owner at the time of the contravention and to please seek the original owner, and I asked why I hadn't been contacted sooner. They said their client (the private land owner) had tried to get in touch with me through the registered address that I had since moved from in 2018. They have since persisted and I asked the DVLA for proof that I didn't own the car at the time. Unfortunately as the car was scrapped in 2019 (after the contravention), they say I was the legal registered keeper on the V5 at the time of the contravention.
I have called the debt collection agency and asked for the original parking charge as from my perspective, I have only ever had communication with them and they could be making up a false charge. They have said that this isn't their responsibility, and that because the end client has tried to communicate with me via my old address already, they won't deal with me. I have then told them that I will seek independent legal advice on where I stand.
I feel I may have made a mistake here as I wonder if I can legally get in touch directly with the client, or do I need to have some form of legal representative do this for me? And if I do need to pay, can I negotiate a lower cost seeing as it wasn't me that caused the offense. If I need to cough up the £170.00 I will, but I need to know what my options are before coughing up any legal expenses/paying the fine.
Appreciate any advice.
Further the invoice from the scrap yard is the proof they own the car not you. The V5 is simply the registered keeper and they are not the same thing. My next step would be write to the debt collector asking them for the original invoice and giving the scrap company as the driver at the time of the offence. Stay solid and I think they will drop it.
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