DCBL Notice of Debt Recovery - Civil Enforcement - OYO Hotel Finchley, London

Hi all,

I have received a Notice of Debt Recovery from dcbl relating to a Parking Charge Notice issued by Civil Enforcement Ltd. I only received the letter yesterday (06/09/25) despite the letter being dated to 26/08/25.





Vehicle was parked opposite a restaurant with free parking. Unfortunately those particular spaces were actually owned by the hotel next door, it was late and all the spaces were free. Signs indicating this weren't noticed in the dark. These signs were up when the the site was revisited.



From what I can gather about the hotel their management are not particularly nice nor responsive. Not sure what I should do as a next step, as I am not a customer of the hotel, so not sure they would care about my complaint. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Did you receive the original PCN?  The letter from DCBL says 'wrote to you at a different address' - is your V5C up to day with the correct address (best to check, people often think it is, but find it's not when they get it out!).

The original PCN was sent to and received at my parents address where I suspect the log book is still addressed to from when I lived there. The notice of debt recovery was sent to my current address. Should I update my V5C now?

As long as things sent to your parents reaches you, you’re not required to update your V5C but by the sound of it this didn’t work for the PCN. If you were caught speeding you might miss the opportunity to avoid court.

OK good to know, thank you. Any idea what my next steps should be then now that dcbl have sent this notice to my current address?

Hi all, an update on the above and a further call for help.

I have been trying to contact the owner of the hotel however upon walking up to the building in person I was told by security that there are no staff, manager, or reception, as it is being used by the council for accommodation. Upon contacting the council they told me that it is not owned by the council but that they are paying a third party for the use of the hotel, but no one was able to give me any contact details of the third party. I contacted OYO Hotels (the sign on the building) and they said they haven't owned it for over 3 years but also didn't know who did. I also cannot find anything on the land registry for N12 0QZ.

I have since received 2 more letters from dcbl, a final reminder and a final notice. I have reuploaded all the letters on imgpile below.






Any advice would be very greatly appreciated here.

Nothing to do until you receive a Letter of Claim (LoC). Come back when you do.

Hi all, I have since received a Notice of Intended Legal Actions from dcbl and a Letter Before Action from Civil Enforcement. I don't know if this is equivalent to an LoC or not and whether I need to take action at this stage or continue to wait for an LoC.

I would very much appreciate any advice here. Thanks so much in advance.

DCBL is irrelevant.
Letter before Action is the same as Letter of Claim, and should be responded to.

Thank you, what is the recommended way to respond to the Letter before Action?

That depends on its contents.