Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hello,

My disabled son has received a Bailiffs letter stating he has not paid a PCN  from "Civil Parking Offices Ltd" This bailiffs letter was dated 24th Sept 2025 and relates to a PCN he received for a parking offence dated 1.12.24, This is the 1st he was aware of such offence, He moved home on the 1st Oct 2024 and the bailiffs letter has been sent to his new address not his prior address.

On calling the bailiffs "DCBL" who don't listen to anything being said ! they tell me all letters went to my son's old address which he left 3 months before said offence, And yes I did make sure at the time he notified DVLA for his change of address.

DCBL now say he has to pay £170 and that we cannot disput the fine.

DCBL have sent me pictures of his car entering and leaving the car park ( he was there for 18 mins) so we don't dispute him being there, just the fact that he didn't get any letters or original PCN as it was sent to an address he moved out of 3 months before the offence. His landlady at that address is good friends with him and hands him any post that still comes to him and she doesn't recall any "offical "post coming for him, as she said it was all junk mail that she handed over to him. My son is adamant he has not received anything either

What, if anything can we do?

10 months after the offence is a long time ! Why did the bailiffs suddenly send their letter to the correct address and not the address where all the other letters supposidly went too?

Thanks, Jaynehttps://imgpile.com/p/E4DfmvY

This is a private parking ticket so I have asked for move to correct section.

Civil Parking Offices Ltd is a private parking firm despite its name.

Does it say on the letter such as on the very bottom that they are not working as bailiffs?

Also, do not telephone to any of these people, everything in writing.

b789 - thank you for the detailed reply, I have a couple of questions to ask ( in red below) to make sure I understand correctly what you are saying:

You can safely ignore any debt recovery letters. DO NOT, ever, EVER, try and communicate with a powerless debt collector. You can safely shred their letters and use them as Hamster bedding for anyone cares. A debt collector is not a party to any contract allegedly breached by the driver. All they can do is try and intimidate the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree into paying out of ignorance and fear. NOTED

If you follow the advice you receive here, you will not be paying a penny to anyone for this. However, DO NOT continue to communicate with DCBL. Just because they have the word +Bailiff+ in their company name does not make them bailiffs in this case. Ignore them. WILL HAPPILY DO SO !

It is entirely possible that when you say the DVLA were updated with your sons new address, you mean the drivers licence. The V5C has to be updated separately. YES IT WAS HIS DRIVING LICENCE HE CHANGED ONLINE, RE V5 WILL GET THIS DONE NOW, HOWEVER IT'S A MOTOBILITY CAR SO NOT SURE IF THEY HAVE THE V5, WILL ASK SON TO FIND OUT

Anyway, what you MUST do immediately is send a Data Rectification Notice (DRN) to the parking firms Data Protection Officer (DPO) instructing them to update their records with the correct address for service and to erase any old address. The highlighted words are there for a reason, so use them. If your son changes address again, he will have to repeat the exercise. DO YOU MEAN SENDING A "DRN" TO WHO ISSUED THE PCN ( CIVIL PARKING OFFICES LTD) ?

Apaer from that, do nothing else until you receive confirmation that they have updated their records with the correct address for service. Once that is done, you are then waiting for a Letter of Claim (LoC) which will come from DCB Legal (not DCBL). When that arrives, let us know and we will advise on how to respond.

This will eventually lead to a county court claim being issued to your son. However, I can assure you with greater that 99.9% certainty that it will never go as far as a hearing as the claim will either be struck out or discontinued before they are required to pay the £27 trial fee, many months down the line.