Stooky, have you had any further developments with your case? I've just received another letter which is a FINAL NOTICE. It says failure to pay WILL result in court action. I'm assuming this is the one you'd received when you last posted. Surely it would be illegal for them to state this unless they do actually plan to take me to court? All the previous letters have said may result in court action, this is the first saying they actually will take me to court.

Sorry to hear there are others having problems with VCS but at least we're all united in the fact we're refusing to pay the bloodsucking leeches! After originally posting this thread in October, and in keeping with VCS throughout the whole saga, it's taken them over two months to follow up on their previous letter. As I mentioned earlier in the thread I opted to ignore the last letter for fear of saying something that may play into their hands in any further correspondence. Today I got a letter with 'NOTICE TO OWNER OF INTENT TO ISSUE COURT PROCEEDINGS - DO NOT IGNORE THIS NOTICE' in large type across the top. Reading on it's just a rehash of their previous letter but crucially the warnings further down detail how they may take me to court if I still refuse to pay. It really is scandalous the tactics used by these companies. Upon opening the letter they try their best to convince you that you are being taken to court, but reading on it's apparent they are just making more threats. When I step back from the scenario and think that I pay these people, in order to stop others from parking on the drive of the property that I rent, yet they are behaving in such a despicable manner. It really does make my blood boil. I'm sticking to my guns though, I'll just pop this letter in a drawer along with the others and hope they shut up eventually. Good luck to everyone else battling these scumbags, I'll keep the thread updated with any developments.

OK, in that case I'm convinced. I'll just leave it at that and let the letters roll in.

Thanks for the prompt responses, you've certainly made me feel a lot more confident about it. I think I'll just send a quick email saying I'm not paying and if they want to go to a small claims court then bring it on.

Hi there This is my first post and I'm hoping someone can offer some assistance with what I feel is a completely unfair parking fine I have received. I live in rented accommodation and the house has a garage across the road which has a parking scheme managed by VCS. We pay a yearly fee for permits to park on the garage. This year my permit expired on 28/06 and so we applied for replacement permits prior to expiry of the existing ones. Although the request for new permits was sent in June, payment was not taken from my account until 18th July. I noted that cars on the other garages covered by the scheme were also still parked there with permits dated the same as mine and although I frequently saw the ticket inspectors no parking tickets were being issued. Presumably this was because the inspectors were aware that new permits had not yet been sent out for our scheme. I continued to park on my garage until I received a parking fine notice on 7th August at which point I had still not received my new permit. Having not seen this site or any template letters I sent this email the same day: To whom it may concern I have received a parking ticket whilst parked in front of my garage on ##### Road in Sheffield this morning. You will find if you check your records that my car ####### is registered and fully paid for the parking scheme up until 2009. Unfortunately, although the new permit request was sent in June and you have taken payment for the permit on 18th July, I am still awaiting delivery of my new permit. I trust my new permit has been shipped and will display it in my windscreen as soon as it arrives. Regards The permit actually arrived two days after me sending the email but was dated to follow on exactly from the expiry of my previous permit i.e. it became valid on 28th June and expired on 29/06/09. I received a generic response from VCS with my case number stating they would investigate etc. Today, just shy of two months later, I received this letter in response to my appeal: Firstly we would like to apologise for the late response to your appeal received on the 7th August 2008, regarding the above Parking Charge Notice. We are sorry, but in the circumstances we must advise you that grounds for representation against the Parking Charge Notice have not been established and this letter is issued as a formal Notice of Rejection. We note your comments however our signs in situ do state that a valid permit is required. As the date on the permit displayed in your vehicle had expired, the permit is not longer valid and therefore the Parking Charge Notice was issued correctly. Any issues you have with not receiving a new permit will have to be taken up with the landowner of the site in question. The payment of £80.00 is to be received within our office by 7th October 2008. If payment is not received by this date the amount payable will increase to £120.00. Failure to comply may result in the issue of court proceedings whereby further costs will be incurred. Yours sincerely So basically, although I applied for a new permit in June and it took them until August to send a new one (which was back dated to June), they are saying I am not allowed to park on my garage in the interim because I am not displaying the permit they haven’t sent me?! This compounded by the fact that I, and other members of the scheme parked on the garages for the whole of July and did not get issued a ticket even though their inspectors had been round. I’m at a complete loss as to what to do now and would be extremely grateful of any advice. I can ill afford to pay £80.00 at the minute never mind £120.00 or the threatened cost of court proceedings. Sorry for the long-winded post and thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far!