I tried to pay a parking ticket issued in February and have just received a letter from a debt recovery agency
The ticket, although issued by a private parking company, was valid. I posted a cheque and accompanying letter back in February. This was returned to me on Thursday last week, at which point I realised that the Royal Mail had delivered my cheque to the wrong PO Box. On Monday, I received a letter from debt recovery company demanding payment for a substantially higher amount.
I did not keep the envelope I received the cheque in, so I cannot prove that I only received it last week. However, I can prove that the cheque was delivered to the wrong address as it is date stamped and was returned with one of the company's compliment slips. The PO box is also very similar to that of the parking company.
Can I dispute this higher charge? Do I have a leg to stand on? Any legal advice would be appreciated... UK only!
Answers:
You need to ring both the dbt collection comany and also the ticket issuer comany.
Legally you have no rights, but morality may prevail.
Also if you addressed envelope correctly and royal mail osted it to wrong one then they have to pay, but without your original envelope you can't prove this so it is just going to be a case of asking them and see if they are kind.
Good luck
its a difficult one as one of the problems is that you really should have sent the cheque ether guaranteed or special delivery.
then you could have claimed of the royal mail insurance for the additional fees you have incurred.
they would also question why you didnt check to see if the cheque has been banked.
Not sure about private companies but i do know if it is a town council etc you can dispute a claim. Just seems odd that it only turned up the same week (6months) afetr you sent it and the same week you get the debt recvery letter.
Companies must send you a reminder before instigating a debt recover.
Give it a go if you have proof. I would call directly them though rather than write. Also ring the debt recovery people and explain the situation as they will often defer the request back to the company in question if there is a dispute. Otherwise they may go ahead with any proceedings.
Went to the wrong POBox, thats about the same as never paying it. You may be able to talk them down to the origional fine, if you go in person, but then they'll tack on a bunch of paperwork fees. Give it a go...
They're going to say, with good reason, nice try & quite inventive. It's not their problem that they didn't receive the money, nor that you didn't notice your cheque hadn't been presented, nor that you ignored the reminders.
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