Bailiffs letter received today for alleged offence nearly 3 years ago!!!

[Cerebra]

Hi all, I'm a CAG virgin and hopefully someone can help.

 

I popped home to my folks house this evening to find that they had had a letter delivered to their address for my attention. It's from a bailiff and debt recovery agency working on behalf of County Parking Enforcement Agency.

 

The alleged parking infringement is dated 15th January 2007 and this is the first I have heard about it. I've had absolutely no correspondence whatsoever from CPEA and my car has not been registered at my folks house for well over 18 months.

 

At the time of the alleged infringement I was working for a university on the south coast and am aware that CPEA were the enforcers there. Therefore my vehicle would have been parked on private property at the time of the infringement.

 

I have made contact with the bailiff - Philips Collection Services Ltd and have told them that I have never received any correspondence whatsoever and that I will be pursuing a formal appeal with CPEA, so hopefully that'll keep them off my back for the meantime.

 

I am loathe to contact CPEA as I feel that 3 years is a little excessive to start pursuing me and wanted to find out how I stand legally on this. The amount they are pursuing me for is £147.

 

Does anyone have any advice as to what I do from here?

 

Thanks.

[kiptower]

post up what they left removing personal details

 

its sounds like its a debt collection doorstep visit

 

a PRIVATE PARKING COMPANY cannot send a Balliff without it first going to the County Court,

[green_and_mean]

Are they acting as baliffs or debt collectors there is a huge difference. Unless they have a court judgement against you they can do nothing other than ask you for the money which you are under no obligation to give them. Just write back that you cannot ever remember parking on their property and as several people have driven the car it would be impossible after all this time for you to identify who was likely to have breached their parking contract.

[diskmandave]

CPEA is a PPC......

County Parking Enforcement Agency Ltd - Online Payment

 

If a Bailiff is involved, it suggests a CCJ has been won by Default??

 

If this is not the case then the standard advise applies, which

is to ignore everything..

[lamma]

"County Parking Enforcement Agency." thats a PPC and a low ranker at that. first I have heard of Phillps getting into this. they (Phillips) need to be careful they have a licence to protect. would be good to see their letter - scrubbed of personal identifying details of course !

[Cerebra]

The letter came throught the post and is dated the 7th November. Unfortunately I don't have a scanner yet as me and my wife just moved into a new apartment and we haven't got round to buying one yet.

 

Anyway, the basic gist is that it is a Notice of Instruction and that even though I 'have been sent previous correspondence', I 'have failed to satisfy arrears.....to County Parking Enforcement Agency'.

 

If my folks had moved address how would CPEA be able to track me down and is nearly 3 years excessive legally?

[Cerebra]

Thanks for all of your advice so far. I'll scan it at work tomorrow and post it asap, with all of the personal bits scrubbed of course.

[lamma]

by all means. but don't sweat this one. Obviously County Parking are suffering a downturn. Phillips really showing their true colours by getting involved in this. we'll see what opportunities their letter presents

[Cerebra]

[JimmySpangle]

That is a debt collector letter, they may well write bailiffs on the top too, but it is at this stage a debt collector. Ignore them completely.

 

The car was presumably registered at your parents address at that time, hence why they have written there. If there has been no previous correspondence that doesn't surprise me either.

[lamma]

Phillips have been VERY careful with the wording. Is that letter from them signed ? with a printed name ? you could have fun with a conditional acceptance upon proof of claim. they will ignore it but it will stuff them and if they then send anything else but a proof a claim i.e. the send more unisigned meaningless drivel like the letter above then you can start reporting them. they have a license to protect Or just ignore their rubbish.

[Cerebra]

Just purely out of interest, I've just had a text message from Philips....looks like they're getting very desperate. They didn't even have the noggin to put my name on it. It just say's and then 'you must ring us URGENTLY'.

 

Unfortunately I can't reply to it otherwise I'd threaten them with harassment!

[Cerebra]

I am receiving regular threatening text messages from Philips, and am getting sick and tired of being harrassed. I've just called them to ask them to stop contacting me but the line just goes dead when it gets to my turn.

 

The latest text is threatening 'a recovery agent'.

 

What can I do as I feel completely powerless and pi**ed off!

[dpick]

If Phlipings had anything even approaching an enforceable debt of any type they would have made more than these threats.

 

For now just ignore them until/if they send something official.

 

dpick

[Huff&Puff]

Report them to Trading Standards and the OFT. That can often get DCAs to bog off.

[buzby]

Can they?

 

I've yet to find them doing anyting even HALF useful. The OFT don;t deal with the public anyway.

 

If you are interested in how they tracked you down, do an internet search for yourself using the same details they had - name and RK address. You'll probably find your mobile number comes up... and a good opportunity to ensure any postings you have are removed and modified to give you a bit more anonimity!

[Al27]

Seriously, don't let it bother you.

 

You just have a junkmail letter and some annoying texts. How long do you really think they can keep it up?

 

Just ignore the lot in the same way you would ignore a takeaway pizza menu through the door.

[Cerebra]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Was a bit wound up after getting in from work yesterday as this topped off a bad day that included some correspondence from our unbelieveably incompetent landlords.

[JimmySpangle]

Contact your phone provider and report it as abusive and threatening texts.

[lamma]

Report them to Trading Standards and the OFT. That can often get DCAs to bog off.

 

Sounds like a clear breach of CSA Code. report them to the CSA. Codes & Standards

[Cerebra]

Thanks.

 

Just contacted my provider and they gave me the number of a compnay called Mblox (08712 230000, www.mblox.com), who are apparently sending the texts on behalf of Philips. I spoke to a lady in customer services who confirmed the details. I said I wanted an immediate stop on all texts from this company as they were threatening and abusive. She readily agreed and informed me it would be done straight away.

 

So, let's see if they're good for their word.

[lamma]

that is further evidence that should be included in the complaint to the CSA.