A car was parked in my allocated bay, yet I get taken to court. Is this fair?

[stanleym]

I live in Ingress Park, Greenhithe.

 

 

 

 

Back in February, I came back late at night to find a car parked in my allocated bay.

This is not the first time it happened.

 

 

I took photos for proof. and parked temporarily in a Visitor Bay.

 

 

In the morning I had a ticket (as I hadn't been able to find a visitor permit and there is no out of hour number to call)

 

I assumed it would be fairly simple to get this sorted , and possibly even send a warning note to the owner of the car in my bay.

 

How wrong I was - PCM refuse to back down.

 

 

Ingess Park management didn't really help much.

I've been keeping a quiet record of other misuses since, including cars without permits continually parked in a disabled bay.

In fact , I have an email on record that PCM decided not to check the disable bay.

 

I have been through all the various nice letters.

Now I get threatened with court action.

 

 

To me, I have a reasonable counter claim, which is that PCM / Ingress Park failed to adequately enforce parking restrictions on the allocated bays,

so those in the know simply park in them with impunity.

 

Any thoughts? Do I have a good case? If I lose, will my credit rating be screwed for years?

Edited August 17, 2015 by stanleym
Minor typos

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

Who has mentioned court please and what have they said? The forum guys should be along later with advice for you.

 

My best, HB

[caro]

This is not the first time I've heard of PCM ticketing residents. Friend of mine rather hopes they'll take her to court so she can show the judge her tenancy agreement indicating her right to park there, despite not being provided with a resident permit but so far they haven't. You'd think they'd notice the address they send the letters to (which are all ignored).

[stanleym]

Hi HB - Thanks for the speedy reply - I wrote to PCM clearly stating the reasons for my objection - that I considered the contract they are trying to enforce unreasonable and that if they wished to proceed I would like a court to adjudicate (as I could for say a speeding fine). I made it quite clear I would pay the fine if the court's decsion were to go against me. I also requested that they DONT send me letters via a debt collector. Which of course they now are. DRP (Dept Recover Plus Ltd) sent me a letter recently titled "Notice of Intended Cour Action". PCM say they can no longer deal with this matter, as it is now with their Debt Collectors - Stanley

Edited August 17, 2015 by stanleym
typo

[honeybee13]

Ah right, so it's Dr+? That usually isn't anything to worry about, but the forum guys should be along soon to pick this apart for you.

 

The letter about intended court action, does it contain words like 'will' or is it more like we may take you to court and your credit rating could be affected? I think that's the type of wording we normally see.

 

HB

[stanleym]

HB - To quote "To prevent this case being recommended to the creditors to commence court preceedings, you.... "

Its now the second letter - the wording is stronger, and the last "deadline" has slipped past

[honeybee13]

I think that probably speaks for itself, but please wait for the people who are more knowledgeable than me to comment.

 

HB

[caro]

DRP were going to advise PCMs solicitors to take my friend to court. That was months ago but nothing happened.

[mikeymack2002]

You should have appealed the notice from the company and been issued a code to appeal to POPLA then make a further appeal to them, it is then the ticket gets cancelled. Looks like they and maybe you were not advised that you could have used the appeals process...

[mikeymack2002]

In the meantime read up on the other threads on this topic in the PPC section of this site...

[caro]

You should have appealed the notice from the company and been issued a code to appeal to POPLA then make a further appeal to them, it is then the ticket gets cancelled. Looks like they and maybe you were not advised that you could have used the appeals process...

 

PCM are members of IPC not BPA, so POPLA doesn't apply.

[f16]

DR+ , next it's Zenith Collections. .............. Yet more "Toilet Paper"

 

Court ??????

Bring it on. You have "supremacy of contract" Your the Land owner via any tenancy agreement or leasehold you may have.

Nothing to worry about.

 

Can you give us some dates ???

When was the "NTD" put on your windscreen ?

When did the "NTK" arrive ?

What dates did you make contact ?

[stanleym]

Hi - Thanks for the feedback

 

The original notice was around middle of February this year. I contacted PCM the following day via the managment company at Ingess Park. I have been through the long and drawn out "official" complaints process, making sure I return any docs by the necessary deadline. The second letter from DR+ (I asume this what you mean as NTK?) was a few days ago

 

DR+ , next it's Zenith Collections. .............. Yet more "Toilet Paper"

 

Court ??????

Bring it on. You have "supremacy of contract" Your the Land owner via any tenancy agreement or leasehold you may have.

Nothing to worry about.

 

Can you give us some dates ???

When was the "NTD" put on your windscreen ?

When did the "NTK" arrive ?

What dates did you make contact ?

[f16]

You replied to the NTD (windscreen ticket). Thus IDed your self as the driver, so there was no NTK (notice to keeper)

 

DR+ can do nothing. ......... Nor can Zenith.

They will send lots of letters with ever increasing amounts of "RED INK" and use the words "Might , Could , May"

They can do nothing but refer it back to PCM

 

If PCM are foolish enough to issue Court papers they will lose.

If official, stamped Court paper arrive let us know.

Keep the thread updated

 

Edit : any chance you could post up a photo of the signage please ??

[stanleym]

Many thanks - always felt I have a fair case, which is why I don't pay up. And forum comments are backing that up. Will update thread if court action ever comes through.

 

You replied to the NTD (windscreen ticket). Thus IDed your self as the driver, so there was no NTK (notice to keeper)

 

DR+ can do nothing. ......... Nor can Zenith.

They will send lots of letters with ever increasing amounts of "RED INK" and use the words "Might , Could , May"

They can do nothing but refer it back to PCM

 

If PCM are foolish enough to issue Court papers they will lose.

If official, stamped Court paper arrive let us know.

Keep the thread updated

[ericsbrother]

If the matter has been passed to either DR+ or Zenith then this is usually the last hurrah. You are not being taken tou court, the toothless DCA's have no authority to do that but they write in such a way that you think they do. Cobblers!

With regard to a defence should PCM want to lose some money then they will have to send you a LBA and then you rerspond saying they have no locus standi as your lease allows you to park and their contract cannot override that right. The chances are that their contract isnt worth a bean as it will be with the managing agents and they have no say in the matter. That is one of the reasons they will not help you out, they knwo that their money earner for them will be severely damaged if everyone knew the truth.