Help with 3 year old Euro Car Parks fine

[Conbizzle]

Hi I’m asking for my girlfriend who received a parking fine 22/07/20 where she had apparently not paid for a ticket at a Euro Car Parks. She had in fact paid for a ticket (which we still have) 12 minutes after entering the car park as there was an issue with the card payment. The payment went through and we have both the ticket and the receipt however since then they have sent us an initial letter of the fine and since 9+ letters from 5 different company’s with very threatening “YOU OWE” messaging with the price increasing with every letter. After looking on forum’s after the initial few letters the best course of action seemed to be ignore those letters however this latest letter from QDR solicitors seems more legitimate than the rest, threatening to recommend court action to their client.

The first company Euro Car Parks used to send was Debt Recovery Plus who sent 4 letters, then Zenith Collections who sent 2 then ZZPS and GCTT who sent a “NOTICE OF TRANSFER TO SOLICITORS”. Since all of this we have moved address and changed cars so the letters have been getting delivered to family at the old address so we’ve only just received the latest letter from QDR solicitors. Compared to the rest of these companies who seem to only scare monger people into paying absurd fines out of fear QDR seem somewhat legit.

My question is what is the best course of action, get back in touch with Euro car parks with the ticket for an appeal or is it too late? Contact the latest debt collector/ solicitor that contacted us? Or carry on ignoring the shady businesses that have been harassing with letters for the last 3 years?

Any help would be appreciated thanks

[PallasAthena]

Just trying to threaten and bully again. "Threatening to recommend court action to their client" is just empty bluff. Think about it, it's meaningless! You only need to act if they send your girlfiend an actual "letter before action" or if you receive court papers. You can safely ignore QDR in the meantime. They are, as far as I know, a genuine firm of solicitors but so what? Firms of solicitors write stuff like this all the time, it doesn't mean anything will happen.

The only concern I have is that your girlfriend has changed her address but correspondence is still being sent to her old address because ECP/QDR don't know she has moved. This gives ECP/QDR the possibility of getting a 'backdoor CCJ' when they send court papers to the old address so they don't reach your girlfriend in time for her to respond to the court claim. ECP then win by default because you didn't defend it.

Best to tell ECP and QDR in writing what your current address is. Quote all relevant reference numbers etc. Get proof of posting and retain that. No need to engage with the actual PCN or the contents of QDR's letter, just state that their letter of date X has been received and has been sent to an old address. Your current address is....