Free Traffic Legal Advice

This is amazing, thank you! I've now sent it.

This is probably already on your radar, but in researching Excel v. Wilkinson I came across this government consultation with the public that closes in two days, you might be interested: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/private-parking-code-of-practice

Hi! I received this reply from Moorside today.

They have attached (i) the original NTKs (ii) images of the vehicle entering and leaving the car park - same ones as are shown in the NTKs and (iii) certificates of postage for each NTK. Let me know if you want me to reattach any of these.

---

We write in relation to the above matter.

Please see the attatched and the below.

1. An explanation of the cause of action

Our client has instructed us to collect the outstanding balance of £170.00 in relation to an unpaid Parking Charge Notice.

2. Whether they are pursuing me as driver or keeper

Please see the attached Notice to Keeper.

3. Whether they are relying on the provisions of Schedule 4 of POFA 2012

We are instructed that a compliant PCN was sent. In accordance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 8 ( "A notice sent by post is to be presumed... to have been delivered (and so “given”... on the second working day after the day on which it is posted. 

4. What the details of the claim are; for how long it is claimed the vehicle was parked, how the monies being claimed arose and have been calculated

The PCN was issued for "Present without payment having been made for the duration of the vehicles stay" see the attatched.

5. Is the claim for a contractual breach? If so, what is the date of the agreement? The names of the parties to it and provide to me a copy of that contract.

The Terms and Conditions on which Alliance Parking UK Limited services are provided are clearly displayed throughout the private land. Please be advised that there are several signs within this location displaying the terms and conditions,  As you breached the terms and conditions of the car park, this PCN was correctly issued. Considering the evidence, we are satisfied that the PCN has been issued in line with industry standards and is compliant with the International Parking Community’s (IPC) code of practice. The signage of the car park also complies with the International Parking Community’s Code of Practice.

By entering and parking the vehicle on our client's private land, you agreed to enter into a contract with our client and to be bound by the terms and conditions of that contract. The terms and conditions were clearly displayed at the entrance and in prominent places within the car park. Due to your failure to comply with the terms and conditions, our client has issued the PCN.

6. If the claim is for a contractual breach, photographs showing the vehicle was parked in contravention of said contract.

Please see the attached images.

7. Is the claim for trespass? If so, provide details.

N/A

8. Provide me a copy of the contract with the landowner under which they assert authority to bring the claim, as required by the BPA/IPC Private Parking Single Code of Practice (PPSCoP).

It is unclear why you would need to inspect any agreement between our client and the landowner as you are not party to that agreement, not could it aid your dispute or any potential defence.

9. A plan showing where any signs were displayed

We have requested this and will send in due course.

10. Provide details of the original charge, and detail any interest and administrative or other charges added.

Please be advised that the original amount of the PCN was £100.00. As outlined in the notice, a reduced amount of £60.00 would have been accepted as full and final settlement if payment had been received within 14 days from the date of issue.

Unfortunately, as no payment was received within that time frame, the opportunity to pay the reduced amount has now expired. As a result of continued non-payment and additional charges, the balance has increased and now stands at £170.00.

11. Am I to understand that the additional £70 represents what is dressed up as a 'Debt Recovery' fee, and if so, is this net or inclusive of VAT? If the latter, would you kindly explain why I am being asked to pay the operator’s VAT?

The additional charge which has been levied on your Parking Charge of £70 is the amount set out in both the British Parking Association and International Parking Community Codes of Practice as the amount which may be added to a Parking Charge when a Parking Charge remains unpaid and when further recovery is required. Our Client is a member of the International Parking Community which is a government approved Accredited Trade Association (ATA) for Private Parking. Our Client adheres to the ATA’s Code of Practice. The £70 does not represent the cost of recovery but is a reasonable amount in relation to the Parking Charge amount, in order to encourage early payment of the Parking Charge without the need for debt recovery. It is a fair amount set by our Client’s government-approved Accredited Trade Association Code of Practice. There are however also costs incurred by our client in relation to debt recovery services.

12. With regard to the principal alleged PCN sum: Is this damages, or will it be pleaded as consideration for parking?

By entering and parking the vehicle on our client's private land, you agreed to enter into a contract with our client and to be bound by the terms and conditions of that contract. The terms and conditions were clearly displayed at the entrance and in prominent places within the car park. Due to your failure to comply with the terms and conditions, our client has issued the PCN therefore if we are instructed to issue a claim the reason would be for Unpaid parking charges/ breach of contract.

 

We ask that you make the full payment of £510.00 within 7 days of receipt of this email.

 

 

You can make payment in the following ways: 

Contact us on 0330 822 9950 (our opening times are Monday- Friday 9:00- 17:00);
portal.moorsidelegal.co.uk - Login to our portal
https://pay.moorside.legal - Quick Pay
 

 

If you fail to respond or make payment, we may be instructed by our client to issue legal proceedings against you. This will incur further costs and fees that will be added to the outstanding balance. You may wish to seek independent legal advice. 

 

Please note that we will not be addressing any further correspondence related to disputes of the same nature, as we have provided you with a response.

 

Yours sincerely,

Moorside Legal

Thanks so much for the explanation.


Re. vehicle address - noted. The vehicle has long since passed out of our ownership so presumably no need to do anything now.

Re. Paragraph 9(2)(e)(i), I think that invitation is included in the NTKs, it's just on page 2 (under 'Transferring liability for this charge'). Do you agree?

Re. Paragraph 9(2)(f), so from what I understand the NTKs should have explicitly mentioned the Schedule 4 when asserting their right to recovery. The fact that they didn't makes the NTK fail the PoFA.

With all that in mind, it sounds like we would need to rely on that last point for our defence. In your experience, how effective is such a defence likely to be? (Your first post, before you saw the NTKs, said that the possibility of defending it was 'remote'.)

Final question: if we do stand our ground and defend it, do you have any idea what the likely worst case scenario is, assuming we comply with any court orders? I'm not clear how much more money we stand to lose if the court doesn't rule in our favour.

Thanks again for your help, it is so kind!

Thank you so much!

I have emailed that reply today.

Wow, thank you so much for drafting that!

I've sent it, though note that the email info@moorsidelegal.co.uk doesn't seem to exist any more (it was rejected by their server).

I resent it instead to help@moorsidelegal.co.uk which I found on moneysavingexpert.com.

I need to know whether the wording you have shown us in your offer to part pay is the EXACT wording you used or have you paraphrased any of it?  Was that correspondence to the parking company or to the useless debt collector?

Yes, it's the exact wording, and it was correspondence to the debt collector.

However, if there has been no instance where the Keeper has said "I did this or that"...

Other than what is said in the offer I've shared, nowhere else does it say anything about what we may or may not have done.

It is the Keepers responsibility to keep their V5C address up to date.

I'm aware of that, yes. I think we would have changed the address in the V5C around that time (presumably after the first notice though) but it seems impossible to find out when exactly we changed it. I would have thought if it were sent to the old address once we had changed it, then the NTK would be invalid, right?

Right now, there is nothing more you can do except to wait and see if/when they issue a Letter of Claim (LoC).

Ok, thanks!

Hi, thanks in advance to anyone who is able to consider this!

Brief summary: I am being asked for £510 for failure to pay for parking on three successive occasions nearly four years ago. We didn't receive the original NTKs because they were sent to the wrong address, possibly due to us moving house around that period and there being a time lag for us telling the DVLA of our new address. I immediately offered to pay £60 for each ticket plus £20 extra, but they are unwilling to negotiate.

What are my options?

More details

I received three letters from Trace Debt Recovery (all dated 25 Apr 2025) on behalf of Alliance Parking, for three parking charges back in 26, 27 June / 4 July 2021 (just under 4 years ago). They total £490.  This is the first I heard about them.

I emailed the debt recovery agency immediately on receipt of the letters to request copies of the Notice to Keepers: they were sent to an address we had recently moved out from, and although we left a forwarding address these were not forwarded. They were dated 1, 2 and 20 July 2021. Each NTK asks for £60 / £100 / £160 depending on when it's paid. (Note that one of the debt recovery letters demands £170, not £160 - it doesn't explain why.)

It is possible that at least for the original Notice to Keepers, we had not yet updated the DVLA of our new address. We were in temporary accommodation, so perhaps we delayed updating it until we had a permanent address - it's too long ago to remember. It doesn't seem to be possible to obtain a history of registered addresses from the DVLA. Note also we no longer own the car.

Along with providing the original Notice to Keepers, Trace Debt Recovery included a covering letter dated 19 May 2025 demanding a total of £510 (I don't know where this number comes from - the total of the three letters is £490).

I decided to try to settle the matter by sending this email on 20 May:

Thank you for sending the notice to keepers for these three cases.

We dispute your invoiced amount of £510, which we do not feel is proportionate, but we are willing to make a payment of £200 in full and final settlement for all three cases.

We never received the Notice to Keepers until you emailed them yesterday. This is because we were no longer resident at that address: we moved out on 23rd March 2021, and into temporary accommodation until the 14th July 2021. We left a forwarding address, but the new occupants of <address> did not forward us our post. We therefore only found out about the charges several years later. I have not yet been able to find details of the DVLA address history over that time (which presumably you used to contact us), but we do admit it is possible we did not notify the DVLA of our change of address until after you sent the notice to keepers, at least for the first two.

Several years have passed since we entered your car park so it is difficult to remember what happened, but given that we have records of paying for parking at many beaches in the area over that period of time, and we never paid at your car park, we probably did not realise we needed to pay. From the many complaints about the car park on trip advisor, it seems we are not the only ones.

However, in the interests of settling the matter we are willing to pay the original charges listed on the notice to keepers, of £60 each - as if we had paid them on receipt of the original Notice to Keepers. We feel this is a fair amount, given that we have responded promptly to your correspondence as soon as we received it.

We also acknowledge the possibility of a delay in updating the DVLA address history, which may have caused you additional costs. We offer a further £20 to cover the cost of your correspondence dated 25 April, and the recent email.

This comes to £60 x 3 + £20 = £200.

This offer should not be interpreted as an admission of liability.

Please let us know if you accept the offer within 14 days, after which time it will expire.

Yours faithfully,

We received this reply:

Good morning,

Thankyou for your correspondence.

We are unable to reduce the PCNs at this stage.

Regards,

Customer service

It also says in their covering letter that "We will not enter into any further correspondence regarding this matter." so I have not responded since.

I feel I have acted in good faith throughout, and don't want to give into bullying. Could anyone advise me of my options?