Consequences of not paying private parking tickets?

Hello

Xpost from r/personalfinance as I didn't know we had our own one here!

So where I used to live (don't live there anymore but everything is still registered there) we had double yellow lines and parking notices go up because parking was a nightmare. They had no legal right to put the yellow lines or signs up, and the signs they did put up they weren't allowed to as they had to ask local council permission for both (which they didn't). So I parked there because there wasn't anywhere nearby to park, and we only had 6 visitor parking spaces for 150 flats and each flat had 1 space each.

The company is UK Parking Control Limited and they ticketed me lots, I ignored them as they had no right to ticket. They took me to court for 3 of them, I lost because the judge took their side and didn't give me a chance, everything I said (which was correct) he dismissed. So I gave up fighting and paid £160 per ticket and the court fees, yay 😣

I thought they'd messed up and couldn't get me for the other tickets and thought that was the end, but now I'm getting more warnings of being taken to court from tickets over a year ago. I don't know if these 3 latest ones will be it, or if they'll send more. They could potentially send me 30+ which would be a few thousand £.

I know this is my fault, but I feel this isn't right. And it's not! I thought about phoning them and asking if they would settle for the initial £60 per ticket, as long as they only send these 3 and no more, but I don't know if I can trust them to not send future ones. If I phone them I'm acknowledging the debt (not sure if that matters in this case or not), I don't know if they'd settle for anything less than £160 each. They may accept that then send more demands of payment for other tickets. I'd like to settle this now, but I can't trust them, also I don't want to pay these scoundrels.

From the looks of it they won't give up, they've got lawyer teams and will milk everyone they can. They're even disputing my friends (we lived in the same flat) case after he won over 6 months ago. They have a lot of weight behind them.

Oh, I'm also not at that address anymore, and didn't till recently get my mail diverted to a family members. I'm planning to leave the country to tour Europe for as many years as possible. I'd only have to pop back each year to get my motorhome MOT then I'd go back over. So I may not find out all of the tickets they send me if they drag this out over months and months, and I won't find out if they proceed with ccj or other avenues. I phoned citizens advice and they said potentially they can sieze my vehicle, and go after savings or future earnings. Most companies wouldn't, but these guys seem very determined.

So what could happen here? It could add up to a few thousand £, and given how determined they are would it be easy for them to ccj me, go after savings/future earnings etc? I could sign my motorhome over to a family member, so that can't be taken, but then I have savings and earnings to worry about. I don't know if it matters but for a good while, future earnings will be in European countries if I can find work there.

Tldr; Going out of the country soon, private parking company is trying to get me to pay their tickets which could come through a few at a time over the next months/years, So what consequences could I face?

Sorry for formatting if it's bad, I'm on mobile and sometimes it's a wall of text. And thanks for any advice!

Posted Jun 17, 2017, 11:56 AM UTC

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