Parking fine - 6 year mark

[Divamuffin]

My partner has received a ‘letter before claim’ dated 12.02 for past parking fines.
He is aware of these parking fines and has ignored them. they are from 2019 and it was at an old address) There has been no correspondence for a few years on these

The letter is saying there are 30 days to respond or pay the fines. The latest charge they have written about on the letter is dated 13.03.2019

From what I understand, after six years the debt is statute barred. Therefore am I correct in assuming, in 30 days time he is no longer liable for the debt? And they can’t start court proceedings, i.e get a CCJ?

Sounds like if they apply to court as soon as your 30 day letter before action deadline expires they'll be in time for legal action.

The original company has probably sold the debt on because it is old and unresolved, so the new company is incentivised to pursue it to get their money back. How much are the fines? It sounds like he has admitted to the offences why doesn't he just pay?

Is is a genuine letter before action? Some of them are worded to sound like it even thought they are not if that makes sense?

How kong is "a few years"? Has he ever acknowledged the debts?

is his reason for ignoring them reasonable? We’ve ignored parking fines when we thought they were unfair but unfortunately lost a POPLA appeal. They continued to send various letters until they fizzled out. We were adamant not to pay until if/when we lost a court claim (it never got that far).

When you saw ‘acknowledge’ do you mean with the company? He has never spoken to them and has ignored all previous correspondence

@NameChanged25 how would I know if it’s genuine? It’s from Gladstones solicitors who do not have the best rep when you search them

the reason for ignoring the fine is he was a resident with a permit, yet he still got a parking ticket (multiple times…I know)

That's stupid. Why didn't he appeal the fines instead of ignoring them?

It would have been much easier to prove that he was a resident with a permit at the time than it will be 6 years later.

He should probably just chalk this one up as a fuck up on his part (for ignoring the fines rather than dealing with them) and pay up.

So as they are approaching the six year mark,are they classed as statue barred?

Not until the 6 year mark has actually passed, and it sounds like whoever owns the debt is planning to commence legal proceedings against him within the limitation period.

it may be better to just reply now and say he had a permit so these charges should never have been issued, and suggest they are wasting their time pursuing this.

The six year timer starts when you lack acknowledged the debt or made a payment...sounds like you haven't done either of these but best to check.

If you do either of these things now (even just writing to them to say that the original fines were unwarranted), the clock will reset.

Only when the six years is up does the debt become barred. This doesn't mean that people can't chase you for it, just that a court won't enforce it.

Someone chasing you for a statute barred debt should stop if you speak to them and and confirm the debt is barred. That doesn't stop them selling it on for pennies to someone else though.

No, this will reset the barring period and leave them open to another six years of being chased.

Options are...

• Ignore and hope the barring period passes before they get taken to court
• Pay

With it being so close, I'd take my chances.