Thread: PCN charge for £117- what next?

Hi Received a Notice To Owner (NTO) letter from SIP Car Parks Ltd, Manchester for non payment of £117 from Early Jan 09, ( i ignored the pcn they placed on my car at the time, i parked in car park for 15 mins before it would have been free)

They have obtained my details from DVLA and say payment due within 28 days otherwise they will refer me to a debt collection agency which will incur further admin charges of £15 per letter sent.

What should my reply be to them or shall i ignore?

Any advice please.

more details on the letter are:

" we understand that you were the registered keeper or hirer of the vehicle at the time the contravention occurred"

"This reminder is being served as The pcn has not been paid. You are responsible for complying with this reminder to owner"

Any ides how to respond please?

Completely ignore them. Expect a couple of debt collection letters before they give up and go away.

The owner is not responsible for anything, least of all a bit of junkmail called a 'Reminder to Owner'. See how it's a [problem] - they daren't use the term 'Notice to Owner', but like to infer that it has some relation to an official council penalty.

report them to trading standards. send copies of the documents from the PPC and keep the originals. Tell Trading Standards that the PPC is in clear violation of The Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 No.

What you do next is nothing.
This is an uneforcable invoice, which has no standing in law.
Do not contact them do not pay them, and you do not give any information what so ever.

Hi Thanks,

Should i just not write them the standard letter telling them i was not the driver and they need to take it up with that person?

No point. Their eyes might well light up if you contact them and you'll be put in the hooked fish pile.

These companies hate it when you ignore them. Imagine how powerless you'd feel if you were trying to get money out of somebody and they never answered your letters.

Don't bother!
Take the advice!

Ignore the PPC.

I'm a bit confused by some of the advice on this site, Bernie the Bolts Template letters say never ignore a letter if they contact you and to write them a few letters finally ending with Desist letter.
But some of you just say to totally ignore the letters from the PCP and any Baliff/DCA letters that arrive- surely they will continue to hound me with letters for the money.

Thanks

Originally Posted by jack2uk

I'm a bit confused by some of the advice on this site, Bernie the Bolts Template letters say never ignore a letter if they contact you and to write them a few letters finally ending with Desist letter.
But some of you just say to totally ignore the letters from the PCP and any Baliff/DCA letters that arrive- surely they will continue to hound me with letters for the money.

Thanks

My own view is that you should write just one letter denying you owe them anything. The reason is that when you get a letter from a debt collector, you should respond by saying the debt is in dispute, and should be returned to the originator - the PPC. If you have never communicated with them, you can hardly claim you are disputing the debt, since you have not told the PPC.

What you have to do is cover the unlikely event that it goes to court. The first thing a judge will look at is the steps you have taken to resolve the dispute. It does you no favours if you have never ever corresponded with these people.

Others hold a different view; but there is no hard evidence which is the best route to take since PPC's very rarely go to court.

Originally Posted by Travis Martin

You know the right thing to do.

Yep. The right thing to do is to ignore each and every demand for unlawful penalty charges.

Originally Posted by jack2uk

I'm a bit confused by some of the advice on this site, Bernie the Bolts Template letters say never ignore a letter if they contact you and to write them a few letters finally ending with Desist letter.
But some of you just say to totally ignore the letters from the PCP and any Baliff/DCA letters that arrive- surely they will continue to hound me with letters for the money.

Thanks

Bernie's templates were written some time ago,a nd although they are still valid and useable, the most common recommendation more recently is to ignore everything the PPC sends you.

Whichever path you take is up to you (as long as it isn't the "choosing to pay the [problem]mers" path) and you can always come back to the forums for further support.

Thanks Guys, seems the best way is just to ignore them totally and never respond to their unlawful requests for £117 - they are totally fraudulent companies that should never be allowed to trade and exsist.

Cheers

Jack

dont worry i will recommend that any of my friends/associates who are caught up in a similar fraudulent [problem] just never for 1 moment consider paying their crazy penaltys, they could never justify their fees of £120 for staying an extra 15 mins in an empty car park that charges £1 per hour, how dissproportiante is that, thay could never consider going to court , cos they they know they don't have a thread to stand on, lets hit back at these fraudulent companies, how can we hit them where it hurts? any ideas?

I've heard that writing an envelope without a stamp with "cheque enclosed" can coist them £1.90 a time? is this worth it?