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moms_taxi
Hi All

This is the first time I have posted to a forum, I am usually a lurker, so here goes...

I parked at the Red Lion carpark in Coulsdon, operated by Civil Enforcement Ltd trading under Star Parks (I think!?!). It's one of those call and pay car parks where there are no ticket machines and you pay a flat rate of £1 per hour by phone with your card. So I park, call and after some trouble connecting, register the car and my card and pay for an hours parking. Or at least I think I did given the recorded woman said 'thank you' and the call disconnected. huh.gif

Then on Friday, my husband receives a Parking Charge Notice from Civil Enforcement for £150 or £75 if paid in 14 days. blink.gif Car is registered to him so that's where they have sent the notice. Naturally, first thing I did was check my credit card and the charge hasn't been taken off so it didn't go through.

I have a record of the call on my mobile bill showing the length of time I was on the phone so I know I called them and went through the necessary steps, something must have gone wrong during payment. mad.gif

So should I:
1. Call them and explain the situation? I am more than happy to pay the £1 I thought I had already paid but no way am I paying more than that!
2. Have my husband respond with the 'please contact the driver, I am not the driver' response
3. Ignore them
4. Any other option I haven't mentioned?

I don't want to ignore them and end up receiving nasty letters / ccj's / have bailiffs knocking down my door etc but then from what I have read on other posts these guys do this a lot and don't really accept challenges (there isn't even a note on how to challenge this as there is from a Penalty Charge Notice which I think they need to provide?) and also have no clout?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks Kindly


Gan
Ignore is by far the best strategy but your husband could always send :

Dear Sir

Any debt to your company is denied
After checking the relevant mobile phone and credit card records, however, I note that the payment was not completed

As a goodwill gesture I have therefore enclosed a postal order for £1. I will not make any further payment in the absence of a court judgement. If you believe you are entitled to an additional sum, please commence proceedings. Please note that I was not the driver and have no legal requirement to provide further information.

I will not respond to any further letters and regard them as harassment. Don't contact me again
Broadsword
I would make the payment £5.00 (rather than £1.00) because CEL have had to pay DVLA £2.50 for your husbands details and the remaining £1.50 would cover the admin cost of sending the letter to your husband.

Summarised there as:-

£1.00 outstanding parking fee
£2.50 for the DVLA data request
£1.50 to cover the admin

Makes a total of £5 (in a postal order)




Gan
QUOTE (Broadsword @ Tue, 19 Jun 2012 - 08:29) *
I would make the payment £5.00 (rather than £1.00) because CEL have had to pay DVLA £2.50 for your husbands details and the remaining £1.50 would cover the admin cost of sending the letter to your husband.

Summarised there as:-

£1.00 outstanding parking fee
£2.50 for the DVLA data request
£1.50 to cover the admin

Makes a total of £5 (in a postal order)

+1
moms_taxi
Thanks so much for the advice, we will send £5 as suggested and a strongly worded letter.

Broadsword
QUOTE (moms_taxi @ Thu, 21 Jun 2012 - 21:33) *
Thanks so much for the advice, we will send £5 as suggested and a strongly worded letter.


No, simply copy and paste Gan's letter as it is, it's specifically worded like that for a number of reasons founded on expert knowledge and experience.
moms_taxi
Update --->

Sent the letter (worded as directed) and £5 postal order and have received a response with the postal order returned ("we do not accept your proposal to pay a reduced rate" - it was a goodwill gesture, not a payment!). They claim that "It is quite widely (but wrongly) believed that registered keepers cannot be compelled to disclose information of this nature if a car park is operated on private land. The relevant order is called a Norwich Pharmacal Order after the name of the case in which its availability was confirmed in the House of Lords". They say that if the details are not provided within 7 days they will seek such an order unless there are reasonable grounds for failure to do so.

I checked my phone bill and I made 4 calls (totalling more than the £1 that wasn't processed) to their line, 3 of 30 seconds and one of 3 minutes 44 seconds so clearly I didn't attempt to avoid payment. Any attempt to contact them by phone goes to a voicemail asking you to leave your contact details (dodgy!).

Any advice on how to proceed further? I am tempted to go the route of http://timkevan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/cha...ing-charge.html but not sure if it's worth it.
bama
do a search on here for
Norwich Pharmacal Order

or even just for
NPO


and then you will be able to see what that entails. (huge costs that they bear, and its a request for written information in your possession...)
WageSlave
And, as far as we are aware, Civil Enforcement Ltd (despite their big hard scary name) have never sued - althought they do send out mock claim forms to show that, by criminy, they are, like, sooo serious.

You can always make an FOIA request to the court service asking how many claims they've issued out of the Northampton County Court in, say, the last two or three years. All MCOL claims are issued out of that court. It's free to make an FOIA request.

I don't think they've ever issued any . . . . . .

Gan
Dear Sir

Thank You for your letter acknowledging that a payment was received even though it was declined.

I note your proposal regarding a Norwich Pharmacal Order. My understanding is that the Applicant is liable for the full cost of the Order, whether or not it is successful. I understand that it also refers to written records.

To save you unnecessary expense I can confirm that no such records exist.

Yours Faithfully

Although as your husband's already stated that he won't respond, why bother ?



MrPeter
If you have had problems with the extortionate charges for overstaying, the telephone not working and other issues with Civil Enforcement send the details to MP Richard Ottoway who is looking into this matter on behalf of local people. He needs specific genuine cases.
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