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Hi Everyone,
I'm just posting in the hope that someone with more knowledge than me is able to kindly advise me on where I stand currently and how to handle the situation I find myself in.
on the 12th April 2017 I parked at Stanmore Station car park which is operated by NCP. I'll not go into too many details with a back story, but just for context. My wife is now very heavily pregnent, she was heavily back then. We had our 6 year old son with us and the whole point of the trip was to take him to a Star Wars show exhibition in London. We travelled from MK. We could have just got the train into Euston but my wife couldnt bear changing lines on the underground or getting a cab all the way to the O2. So Stanmore, single line, all the way end to end to the O2.
We got there early but no spaces were available. There was however a couple of cars parked in a clear area of the tarmac. no bays as such, but equally, leaving the car there didnt disrupt the working of the car park for traffic flow, block anyone in or out and not pose an obstruction. I parked behind one of the two cars. bought a ticket and went about the day. Got a PCN stuck on the windscreen when I got back, asking for £60 for not parking in a bay. I took photos of the car parked. I know parking companies dont care to find a reasonable explanation or even care if it matters or not, they just fine. But honestly, these 3/4 spaces could actually be extra bays.
Since then we have been getting threatening letters from ZZPS Ltd, as a debt collector for NCP. This has now matured to Wright Hassal Solicitors sending letters of the same. !4 days to pay, i've had about 3 of those.
Now, i've been given a formal letter of claim.
Rightly or wrongly, I think I messed up a bit when we received the PCN because I read on another forum and wrote an online letter to NCP, explaining what happened to us that day, nowhere to park, travelled down to park there, heavily pregnant wife, had to park and found somewhere that genuinely didnt affect the car park.
So they have bitten on hard to that, not given a toss about the reasoning but its been like bait I guess. I've possibly shot myself here? I read everywhere conflicting advice so it's hard to know what to do.
I have since ignored every single piece of correspondence from them, ZZPS and Wright Hassal.
With this formal letter of claim what should I do? Write back and let them know I'll make it hard for them as possible? Do I concede defeat and pay this fine that has grown somehow for a debt of parking? I still have the receipt for the ticket.
I wrote the letter as my wife to NCP, so these letters have been coming in addressed to her. It's causing her a great deal of frustration and stress opening them up and I'm just so annoyed that these organisations use such threatening tactics. The letters have talked about CCJ's, other court cases, implying I'll lose etc.
I apologise for the long message but if anyone has advice it would be most appreciated. Just want to sanity check my thoughts.
I'm thinking that I ignore this too and see if they take us to court, if I get told to pay by them then I'll pay it. Is this the right approach?
Thanks in advance
I'm just posting in the hope that someone with more knowledge than me is able to kindly advise me on where I stand currently and how to handle the situation I find myself in.
on the 12th April 2017 I parked at Stanmore Station car park which is operated by NCP. I'll not go into too many details with a back story, but just for context. My wife is now very heavily pregnent, she was heavily back then. We had our 6 year old son with us and the whole point of the trip was to take him to a Star Wars show exhibition in London. We travelled from MK. We could have just got the train into Euston but my wife couldnt bear changing lines on the underground or getting a cab all the way to the O2. So Stanmore, single line, all the way end to end to the O2.
We got there early but no spaces were available. There was however a couple of cars parked in a clear area of the tarmac. no bays as such, but equally, leaving the car there didnt disrupt the working of the car park for traffic flow, block anyone in or out and not pose an obstruction. I parked behind one of the two cars. bought a ticket and went about the day. Got a PCN stuck on the windscreen when I got back, asking for £60 for not parking in a bay. I took photos of the car parked. I know parking companies dont care to find a reasonable explanation or even care if it matters or not, they just fine. But honestly, these 3/4 spaces could actually be extra bays.
Since then we have been getting threatening letters from ZZPS Ltd, as a debt collector for NCP. This has now matured to Wright Hassal Solicitors sending letters of the same. !4 days to pay, i've had about 3 of those.
Now, i've been given a formal letter of claim.
Rightly or wrongly, I think I messed up a bit when we received the PCN because I read on another forum and wrote an online letter to NCP, explaining what happened to us that day, nowhere to park, travelled down to park there, heavily pregnant wife, had to park and found somewhere that genuinely didnt affect the car park.
So they have bitten on hard to that, not given a toss about the reasoning but its been like bait I guess. I've possibly shot myself here? I read everywhere conflicting advice so it's hard to know what to do.
I have since ignored every single piece of correspondence from them, ZZPS and Wright Hassal.
With this formal letter of claim what should I do? Write back and let them know I'll make it hard for them as possible? Do I concede defeat and pay this fine that has grown somehow for a debt of parking? I still have the receipt for the ticket.
I wrote the letter as my wife to NCP, so these letters have been coming in addressed to her. It's causing her a great deal of frustration and stress opening them up and I'm just so annoyed that these organisations use such threatening tactics. The letters have talked about CCJ's, other court cases, implying I'll lose etc.
I apologise for the long message but if anyone has advice it would be most appreciated. Just want to sanity check my thoughts.
I'm thinking that I ignore this too and see if they take us to court, if I get told to pay by them then I'll pay it. Is this the right approach?
Thanks in advance
