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Good morning LegalBeagles (well it was when I started writing!)
Following reviewing information online and avoiding the poorly reviewed payable anti PCN sites I'm hoping you can help provide some guidance to me as I assist my wife in challenging a historic Parking Charge Notice from Vehicle Control Services Ltd which has now proceeded to County Court.
The charge relates back to the 04/10/2015 when my girlfriend (and now wife) parked up the road from our house very late night on a Saturday before being ticketed in the morning. Living close to a station, we had residential parking and both had payable permits from our local Brentwood council. Often spaces were at a shortage and we would have to park roads down from where we live, finding other related permit zoned roads with spaces. We both had issues parking that evening and my gf parked on the corner of a road with double yellow lines whilst I mistakenly part parked over double yellow lines of another road and received a council issued Penalty Charge Notice.
We looked to settle our tickets independently on the Monday after receiving them very early Sunday morning (we would often get up very early to try and move cars to spaces) and admitting my guilt, I paid my Penalty to the council accepting the early settlement fee of £35 to be paid within 14 days. My wife however called and spoke to VCS as she was confused as to why her early settlement fee was £60 – our first experience of the differences between a PCN and a PCN! Whilst she spoke to VCS (and we cannot recollect the call as so long ago) she must have informed that she was the registered keeper and owner and we believe told that she could not appeal over the phone.
She initially emailed VCS on the 15/10/15 admitting she had parked on the double lines (also giving her name, address and confirming the vehicle reg) but looked to appeal the early settlement amount rather than charge.
Having started to google the differences of PCN and reading forums, having heard no response from VCS, we further emailed them on the 30/11/15 with some further observations/issues.
The ticket had been marked that “the vehicle was seen in: Rollason Way” and the contravention code marked as “81” which refers to the vehicle being “Parked in a restricted area of a car park” and the site number being left blank. The area is not a car park at and the number of warning signs had also been marked as “2” – and we believe there were no signs in the vicinity when the vehicle was parked.
We further requested that VCS provide photographic proof that the vehicle was parked in a restricted car park and any evidence of warning signs, as well as their 10 digit verification code for use with POPLA but never received a reply.
Over the space of a year and a half we received half a dozen of threatening letters from VCS (none sent recorded proving receipt) pursuing the claim with varying amounts and threats of debt collectors and CCJs but as per other forums, did not respond to any further correspondence with VCS as they never supplied any more evidence or took threats further. I don’t believe we received any more correspondence for around a year and then in July of last year we moved property and subsequently sold the car January 2019. Thinking the matter had gone away, I believe we have shredded all VCS correspondence which I had previously kept.
Suddenly on the 24/04/19 my wife has now received a new letter titled “Letter before Claim” delivered to our new address in her maiden name for fees payable within 30 days of;
Principle Debt £160, Estimated Interest £44.47, Estimated Court Fees £25 totalling £229.47.
This was followed up with a Claim Form from the County Court Business Centre with the Issue Date of 26 Jun 2019 for a total of £185.
The only correspondence we still have is the proof of the two emails to VCS, the Letter Before Claim and Claim Form (all attached). The Claim Form still mentions this idea of a “car park” and signs which we didnt believe were there at the time in 2015 (but reviewing Google Streetview can vaguely be seen now)
I’m saddened we haven’t found LegalBeagles until now but given the issue date is 26 June 2019 and we have 14 days (or 28 to challenge), can any of the circumstances mentioned be used to dispute the claim?
Thanks for any assistance/advice offered.
Following reviewing information online and avoiding the poorly reviewed payable anti PCN sites I'm hoping you can help provide some guidance to me as I assist my wife in challenging a historic Parking Charge Notice from Vehicle Control Services Ltd which has now proceeded to County Court.
The charge relates back to the 04/10/2015 when my girlfriend (and now wife) parked up the road from our house very late night on a Saturday before being ticketed in the morning. Living close to a station, we had residential parking and both had payable permits from our local Brentwood council. Often spaces were at a shortage and we would have to park roads down from where we live, finding other related permit zoned roads with spaces. We both had issues parking that evening and my gf parked on the corner of a road with double yellow lines whilst I mistakenly part parked over double yellow lines of another road and received a council issued Penalty Charge Notice.
We looked to settle our tickets independently on the Monday after receiving them very early Sunday morning (we would often get up very early to try and move cars to spaces) and admitting my guilt, I paid my Penalty to the council accepting the early settlement fee of £35 to be paid within 14 days. My wife however called and spoke to VCS as she was confused as to why her early settlement fee was £60 – our first experience of the differences between a PCN and a PCN! Whilst she spoke to VCS (and we cannot recollect the call as so long ago) she must have informed that she was the registered keeper and owner and we believe told that she could not appeal over the phone.
She initially emailed VCS on the 15/10/15 admitting she had parked on the double lines (also giving her name, address and confirming the vehicle reg) but looked to appeal the early settlement amount rather than charge.
Having started to google the differences of PCN and reading forums, having heard no response from VCS, we further emailed them on the 30/11/15 with some further observations/issues.
The ticket had been marked that “the vehicle was seen in: Rollason Way” and the contravention code marked as “81” which refers to the vehicle being “Parked in a restricted area of a car park” and the site number being left blank. The area is not a car park at and the number of warning signs had also been marked as “2” – and we believe there were no signs in the vicinity when the vehicle was parked.
We further requested that VCS provide photographic proof that the vehicle was parked in a restricted car park and any evidence of warning signs, as well as their 10 digit verification code for use with POPLA but never received a reply.
Over the space of a year and a half we received half a dozen of threatening letters from VCS (none sent recorded proving receipt) pursuing the claim with varying amounts and threats of debt collectors and CCJs but as per other forums, did not respond to any further correspondence with VCS as they never supplied any more evidence or took threats further. I don’t believe we received any more correspondence for around a year and then in July of last year we moved property and subsequently sold the car January 2019. Thinking the matter had gone away, I believe we have shredded all VCS correspondence which I had previously kept.
Suddenly on the 24/04/19 my wife has now received a new letter titled “Letter before Claim” delivered to our new address in her maiden name for fees payable within 30 days of;
Principle Debt £160, Estimated Interest £44.47, Estimated Court Fees £25 totalling £229.47.
This was followed up with a Claim Form from the County Court Business Centre with the Issue Date of 26 Jun 2019 for a total of £185.
The only correspondence we still have is the proof of the two emails to VCS, the Letter Before Claim and Claim Form (all attached). The Claim Form still mentions this idea of a “car park” and signs which we didnt believe were there at the time in 2015 (but reviewing Google Streetview can vaguely be seen now)
I’m saddened we haven’t found LegalBeagles until now but given the issue date is 26 June 2019 and we have 14 days (or 28 to challenge), can any of the circumstances mentioned be used to dispute the claim?
Thanks for any assistance/advice offered.
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