Do not respond a debt collector letter. They are powerless to do anything. You can safely ignore the debt collectors. Use their correspondence as kindling or to line the bottom of a litter tray.
However, you say that it is a lease vehicle. Have you changed address at any time since you leased it? You have to ask whether the lease company has your current address on record.
The original Notice to Keeper (NtK) will have been sent to the lease company. What they should have done, if they want to absolve themselves of any liability of the Parking Charge Notice is to transfer liability to you, the Hirer by informing ECP that the vehicle is hired to you. They should also have forwarded to you a copy of the NtK. ECP then is supposed to send you a Notice to Hirer (NtH) in your name.
If you've not received anything, then you have to ask whether your address details are up to date with the lease company. the second problem is that if your details are not up to date with the lease company but they have transferred liability to you at an address when you no longer reside, it means that ECP could send court documents to an address you do not have access to and if there is no response, they could obtain a CCJ ny default.
For now, I suggest you do the following, with urgency... Make sure that the lease company have your correct address. Also, you need to contact the DPO at ECP, only as the Hirer, and send them a Data Rectification Notice (DRN) instructing them to update your address for service and to erase your old address and to tell any third party they have passed your details on to to do the same.
They will require proof of identity so only give them a utility bill or council tax bill as evidence. Don't give them your drivers licence. Any contact with them MUST only be as the Hirer. Neither the lease company nor ECP have any idea who was driving and there is no legal obligation on the Hirer to identify the driver to an unregulated private parking company.
Normally, if the PCN had been received in your name as the Hirer, this is very easily dealt with. In almost every single case of a lease/hire car, the operator will mess up the process and fail to comply with all the requirements of PoFA, which is why you do not reveal the identity of the driver. By not complying with PoFA, they cannot transfer liability to the Hirer.
At the end of the day, even if this is too late to appeal and they issue a claim in the county court, no one who is here receiving advice pays a penny to ECP. I can sate with greater than 99% certainty that they will eventually discontinue any claim as long as it is defended.
For now, you need to check that your address details are up to date with the lease company and if not, get that corrected and send the DRN to the DPO at ECP immediately.
