hi all, i started driving in april this year and within the first month, racked up 4 PCNs for parking in a store car park next to my college if i had a short class. i realise this was stupid of me now, but at the time i did not know .
i couldnt by any means afford to pay these fines and now have recieved a threatening letter from DCBL ltd informing me of a notice of debt recovery coming to £680, which is more money than i could ever dream of having lol.
where should i go from here? the letter said my case isnt subject to high court or bailiff action, so do i need to be worried about bailiffs/CCJs etc or not?
To be able to advise you we'll need a little more information. To start us off...
- What parking company are DCBL acting on behalf of?
- Can you show us the original notices?
- Did you take any action when you received these notices?
Unfortunately land owners are allowed to decide who parks on their land, much like you would wouldn't want me to park on your drive just because it was convenient.
Whether you can afford it or not isn't relevant, as long as the signage was 'there to be seen' and created a meaningful parking contract such that you would know what they would seek for you to pay (whether you read it or not was then up to you) is what matters. It would of course have cost less to pay at the reduced rate as now it will cost you more if made to pay. If you don't have a viable defence you could offer to pay the parking company the original £100 (discount now gone) per ticket.
Driving I'm afraid comes with responsibilities.
Driving I'm afraid comes with responsibilities.
The OP has acknowledged this.
Let's see where the case is up to, original notices, signage etc. to see if there are any viable defences. However as The Rookie notes, if there's no viable defence negotiating may be the cheaper option.
To be able to advise you we'll need a little more information. To start us off...
- What parking company are DCBL acting on behalf of?
- Can you show us the original notices?
- Did you take any action when you received these notices?
the debt has been passed over from IPC to DCBL. when i first recieved the notice i appealed to give myself a bit more time to try and find a way to come up with some money though i knew there was no chance it would be accepted. ill attach a photo of an original notice. i know it doesnt look good on me and there isnt an excuse but im not looking for judgement, just advice on where to go from here because i feel like such an idiot, and im getting freaked out and paranoid about people coming to my house where my family live and whatnot lol.
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The parking company is VCS, not IPC.
Are you the registered keeper of the vehicle? (I.e. You hold the vehicle's V5C document) And did you reveal who was driving in your appeals? If so, it's a shame you didn't come here first, as that notice at least was issued too late to hold you liable as the keeper.
You'll not have debt collectors knocking at your door. But VCS can be litigious, so if you don't settle with them then there's a fair chance they'll take you to court, especially with 4 charges in play.
The £680 total means that DCBL have added on their spurious £70 per charge debt collection fee. This could be challenged in court. On that basis, one option is to offer VCS the original charge amount (£100 per ticket), pointing out that if it were to go to court the extra £70 would likely be dismissed.
Any photos of the signage at the site?
The parking company is VCS, not IPC.
Are you the registered keeper of the vehicle? (I.e. You hold the vehicle's V5C document) And did you reveal who was driving in your appeals? If so, it's a shame you didn't come here first, as that notice at least was issued too late to hold you liable as the keeper.
You'll not have debt collectors knocking at your door. But VCS can be litigious, so if you don't settle with them then there's a fair chance they'll take you to court, especially with 4 charges in play.
The £680 total means that DCBL have added on their spurious £70 per charge debt collection fee. This could be challenged in court. On that basis, one option is to offer VCS the original charge amount (£100 per ticket), pointing out that if it were to go to court the extra £70 would likely be dismissed.
Any photos of the signage at the site?
thank you for letting me know - i am the registered keeper and without doing further research i did reveal that i was the driver in my appeals. i dont have any photos of the signs, but all i can say is i think they were pretty clear and i made a mistake and wasnt aware of the rules at the time.
would contacting them and making an offer be my best option?
would contacting them and making an offer be my best option?
Possibly - I haven't seen anything so far that would give rise to a particularly good defence, although we haven't seen the signage to be able to comment on that.