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Parking fine - not my car
Second problem of the day.:(
I got a letter from a collection agency about a car registered to a person I dont know at this address.
The DVLA has previously sent a letter to this person (I posted back return to sender) they then sent another letter so I phoned the number and they said I had to write to them to get the address de-registered.
I haven't yet done that (Was wating to new year). I will fire off the letter ASAP. My dad also said I should take the letter to the police station on saturday.
Im kinda worried now. How do i prove this person does not live here (my family have lived her for 22 years) ?
What are my rights if the bailifs come a-calling and how easy will this be to solve? Or am i in for a ruff time?
Anytone have any experience of this or any advice?
Merry xmas guys and thanks in advance!
I got a letter from a collection agency about a car registered to a person I dont know at this address.
The DVLA has previously sent a letter to this person (I posted back return to sender) they then sent another letter so I phoned the number and they said I had to write to them to get the address de-registered.
I haven't yet done that (Was wating to new year). I will fire off the letter ASAP. My dad also said I should take the letter to the police station on saturday.
Im kinda worried now. How do i prove this person does not live here (my family have lived her for 22 years) ?
What are my rights if the bailifs come a-calling and how easy will this be to solve? Or am i in for a ruff time?
Anytone have any experience of this or any advice?
Merry xmas guys and thanks in advance!
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Comments
Thats promising. What the latter says is "We have been instructed to collect the £70+. If you don't cough up our client may go to court for a claim then the bailiffs will come"
Ive paraphrased that but thats the essence of it. I do take hart that at least its not my name (nor anything even remotely like my name). But I cant help worrying a bit.:o
Just call DVLA and explain what is happening. Put it in writing if you don't get anywhere as DVLA (as I found out lately!) can be very slow to process things. But, as I say, if the letters are addressed to a specific person and that person does not live at your address - particularly since your family has lived there for many years - then the fault is with DVLA and it's just a matter of making them see that.
OP no need to worry, it's not in your name so you can't get into trouble for it. Collection agencies are like two week old kittens compared to proper bailiffs, so even if they don't believe you [which many of them don't] and they follow it up just tell them politely to go away.
Thank you. What they are saying is that they are not calling the bailiffs their client will apply via the court or something if Ms Naughty-Address-Stealing-Lawbreaking-B**ch doesnt pay up. Hopefully it wont get to that stage.
Unless someone posts to say its a bad idea. Ill go ahead with plan A and write to DVLA and ive the letter to the police. They probably wont care but its only down the road from me.
But Labour wish to change the law to allow bailiffs to, in essense, just self-certify and therefore mistakes like this one could be very unpleasent since the innocent party will have no opportunity to set the record straight in court.
If you think of the number of mistakes being made with addresses it's quite scarey really. No one would be safe in their own home...
Frankly, if I received a letter that didn't have my name on it, I'd simple write "NOT KNOWN" on it and shove it in the nearest post box. I wouldn't dream of opening someone else's mail.
Isn't doing so illegal?
Besides, I think the OP has already done that and the DVLA weren't interested...
Ten years ago the tenants in the flat above the flat I'd recently moved from decided to use my credit card that got sent there by mistake. If my land lord hadn't opened the statement, it would have been very difficult to prove that a fraud had taken place.
Last year I had my energy services transferred without my knowledge. If I hadn't opened the new suppliers letters from two different companies with two different customers names, then I wouldn't be able to deal with swapping back. Which has taken over a year to sort.
Once it had been delivered it was fair game.
I had the energy companies telling me [or should I say the named on the bills] they would be breaking in to fit pre-pay meters and charging £250 for the privilege. I was almost tempted to let them.
Debt collection companies believe every one that they have to deal with are liars and scum and treat everyone the same until concrete evidence from another source proves otherwise.
I did that and the DVLA persisted. I phoned via the number on the next envelope and they said they would not be able to help without details contained within and to go ahead and open it.
Since the correspondence was between the DVLA and the person I assume that they have the right to allow someone else to open it.
As for the fine if the police say anything I will say "I never looked at the name when I opened it. It had the correct address so I assumed it was for me - I am stupid, officer, have pity":D
The thing is it had YOUR address on it and you have lived their for 22 years. If it was for nummber 3 down the road they 'might' be bothered.:p
You have phoned up and explained, let them do the bloody leg work. They say Joe Bloggs lives there 'he doesn't' so why should you stress out because it is wrong. Half the time you will be talking to people that don't have a clue, so why should you?
You could write that letter, but 50% of the time they will say they never got it, so save yourself the 30p?
Ill send it once (as i have already got the letter read) and see what happens.
They can only come in with police which they rarely ever do as they have to pay the police for their time. This usually only happens after years if ever.
In your case, you could quite frankly wait for someone to come round and show your ID if they do, tell them to pi$$ off and if they come back you will call the police on them for harassing you. Most parking fines are from private companies so screw them.
I have told many bailifs to pi$$ off as a lot of random people get there red letters at my address.
Don't be a mug and waste money/time on a stamp/telephone call.
This is why this country is in such a state. Companies lending cash to all and sundry and most of them are not even going to pay them back.
I love it, serves big business right.
The whole Car registration thing needs to be looked at because there's nothing to stop somebody registering a car in "MY" name and address and them using it to go joy riding, clocking up speeding fines, parking tickets, drink driving and even leaving the scene of a accident. CCTV gets the number plate - police check their database and comes round to my place. I'm on my own can't provide a ALBI and I get arrested.
OK, if that did happen the Cars Log Book would come to me... no problem you might say, just get onto DVLA and tell them. Things get overlooked, one department forgets to communicate with another department... You go away thinking you've sorted it, until you start to receive fines, tickets, court letters and the police at your door.
Scary if you think of it.