Parking charge notice

[TamworthFoxes]

As has been stated previous in the thread only ever pay police and council parking fines. All private company ones are non-enforceable. You will receive multiple threatening letters but all will state you MAY be taken to court. They will even quote a recent case they won. Trust me, if you ignore it you will not be taken to court and eventually they will stop writing to you. The key is to totally ignore them and not get into any dialogue whatsoever.

These companies play the numbers game. Ignore it totally and you will be fine.

[Jon the Hat]

I won an appeal on a pcn, but I paid for more parking than I used, just not within 10 mins of arriving. Sat in the car for a bit in torrential rain.

to be honest if you didn’t shop there and just parked for half the day then you are the reason these ****ers can fleece others, and you should pay the five.

[ScouseFox]

i got a letter trying to fine me for parking in the car park of my flat on the day i moved in, because i didn't have a parking permit (yet), but as it was a bank holiday there was nobody in the offices to obtain a parking permit. they said that wasn't a valid reason to park there, even though part of my flat contract is paying for the car parking space and i started paying the day of the fine etc. so i just ignored the rest of their letters. this was may bank holiday last year. they've either given up or i'm getting one hell of a backdated fine some day. pri cks. 

[La-Sayona]

On ‎13‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 19:33, Itsthejoeker said:

The key is not to admit you’re driving the car, the contract is not with the registered keeper but the person who parked. 

 

Chekout pepipoo forums, they’re really good at this stuff. 

 

This is absolutely correct. 

 

Either returning their letter unopened (not known at this address) or alternatively responding to say "this is a fleet car and we have no record of the driver on the date in question" both work in confusing and confounding them.  Since the case is now not 'straightforward' it dissuades them from pursuing it with a CCJ.

 

The 'no record of the driver on this date' dodge has worked well for me on a few occasions.  Never heard any more from them.

[Guest]

On 13/01/2018 at 09:29, Spudulike said:

Got one from Lidl - £100 or £60 if paid within 14 days.

 

Parked in there for 3 hrs 16 mins as the road to my office was gridlocked due to a crash so just parked and walked the final half mile. Recovered the car in my dinner break.

 

Anyone appealed one of these ??

My understanding is that simply having a notice up does not create a legally binding contract between driver and car park. 

 

Even if they took you to court and won (which they won't), they could only claim for loss, not a random amount they'd chosen.

 

So for Lidl they'd need to show the car park was full and they lost business worth £x. Not happening.

 

For a normal paid car park their loss is the amount you should have paid but didn't. 

 

This is just my understanding of the legal position. It's basically a con.

 

Ignore them completely.

 

On 13/01/2018 at 17:00, Webbo said:

I don't want to be "that guy" but if you've done wrong, shouldn't you pay the fine?

No, not unless you want a world where anybody can attach fines to anything with no legal powers required.

[Vlad the Fox]

Regardless of what the threatening letters say, they can not effect your credit rating. They're effectively speculative invoices.

 

Parking eye tried taking me court a few years back, after going to a forum that someones recommended on here (might have been pepipoo???, mentioned above) I got advice about fighting it. 

 

Speak to the manager, who did offer to get it cancelled as I pleaded my case with the kids in tow and a hastily filled trolley

 

However nothing seemed to have been done until I tried lodging my appeal, the online court appeals service wouldn't let me do it, when I rang the court I was told the plaintiff had paid the fine. 

 

It was the day we celebrated promotion and I'd been parked in morrisons for hours, told the manager we'd been shopping then went cinema, left the car their due to the traffic.

 

my advice would be to speak to the manager and get it stopped, otherwise ignore it.

 

If you do get a court summons however you can defend yourself, done online, and if it comes to paying you negotiate with the court mediating (on the phone) on a settlement figure, don't pay the full cost. There is plenty of good advice on all online, such has deducting solicitors costs has the solicitors are already on the pay role, disproportionate cost for parking etc.

[Webbo]

48 minutes ago, toddybad said:

My understanding is that simply having a notice up does not create a legally binding contract between driver and car park. 

 

Even if they took you to court and won (which they won't), they could only claim for loss, not a random amount they'd chosen.

 

So for Lidl they'd need to show the car park was full and they lost business worth £x. Not happening.

 

For a normal paid car park their loss is the amount you should have paid but didn't. 

 

This is just my understanding of the legal position. It's basically a con.

 

Ignore them completely.

 

No, not unless you want a world where anybody can attach fines to anything with no legal powers required.

I'm sure we all know there are rules when you park on other people's land. 

[Vlad the Fox]

I spoke to someone once who claimed that one of their relatives lived near Heathrow airport and came home one day to find a car parked on their drive with a note explaining they would be back in two weeks, and warned that any damage to the vehicle would lead to prosecution. They rang the police who basically said there's nothing that the family could do about it. 

[breadandcheese]

1 hour ago, toddybad said:

My understanding is that simply having a notice up does not create a legally binding contract between driver and car park. 

 

Even if they took you to court and won (which they won't), they could only claim for loss, not a random amount they'd chosen.

I'm not sure this is true. I think there was a court ruling that if the sign is clearly displayed (i.e. not hidden, on entry to car park,  etc) with correct terms and conditions, then you as the driver are judged to have read it, accepted it and proceeded to park according to them.  

 

Correct about claiming for loss, but this is why they call it a parking charge notice, as opposed to a penalty charge notice. They can also charge you for reasonable admin fees when writing to you.

 

You're right these people are scummers. Any appeal you make to them will be refused. But write an appeal anyway and ignore paying. You'll get a whole load of letters claiming to be from debt recovery companies. Ignore these. They are all rubbish.

 

It basically becomes a game of bluff. Are they prepared to take you to court? I ended up ignoring two tickets until they pushed to take to small claims. I had to make a judgement call on whether I would win in court (I wasn't confident on one of them) so made an offer for half the amount and they settled.

 

 

[Spudulike]

2 hours ago, Webbo said:

I'm sure we all know there are rules when you park on other people's land. 

Of course, that's true. However, don't you think that £100 is out of proportion ?? Do you think it's fair and reasonable or just a money making scam ??

 

This is just the clampers moving on to the next stage after the practice was outlawed in 2012.

 

This judgement hasn't helped at all.... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-34721126

[SystonFox]

On 13/01/2018 at 17:57, somebum said:

Well i continue not to pay anyhow. Not payed a fine in my life

Oooooooo you’re hard 

[Rob1742]

I asked my solicitor about a similar incident, he just told me to pay it as you get letters and letters, it’s a grey area and for £60 it’s not worth the hassle. 

 

The end of the day, you did park on their land, they have the restriction there for a reason. 

 

£60 gone, but forgotten and get on with your life. They haven’t done anything wrong, you did. 

[Rogstanley]

18 hours ago, Vlad the Fox said:

I spoke to someone once who claimed that one of their relatives lived near Heathrow airport and came home one day to find a car parked on their drive with a note explaining they would be back in two weeks, and warned that any damage to the vehicle would lead to prosecution. They rang the police who basically said there's nothing that the family could do about it. 

I think if that happened to me they would return to find I'd decided to build a wall around my driveway. Either that or spikes, or some elaborate booby trap that ****ed their shit right up the minute they tried to move their car. Could have some fun with that.

Edited 17 January 2018 by Rogstanley

[Nick]

Ignore.

 

Any successes and changes in this in relation to civil prosecution have been for people who ignore them every day and rack up thousands. It’s not worth them taking you to Court for less than a grand.

[Vlad the Fox]

29 minutes ago, Rogstanley said:

I think if that happened to me they would return to find I'd decided to build a wall around my driveway. Either that or spikes, or some elaborate booby trap that ****ed their shit right up the minute they tried to move their car. Could have some fun with that.

Me too. Or I'd somehow get it moved, bounce it down the road and round the corner then deny any knowledge. 

[Buce]

18 hours ago, Vlad the Fox said:

I spoke to someone once who claimed that one of their relatives lived near Heathrow airport and came home one day to find a car parked on their drive with a note explaining they would be back in two weeks, and warned that any damage to the vehicle would lead to prosecution. They rang the police who basically said there's nothing that the family could do about it. 

 

That story sounds apocryphal  to me. Clearly the legal threat would have been meaningless unless they could prove who was responsible for any damage to the vehicle.

 

39 minutes ago, Rogstanley said:

I think if that happened to me they would return to find I'd decided to build a wall around my driveway. Either that or spikes, or some elaborate booby trap that ****ed their shit right up the minute they tried to move their car. Could have some fun with that.

 

We have issues with parents parking on and across drives while they go off to drop off or collect their kids from the local school. When someone parked on my neighbour's drive he parked his car across the entrance and blocked them in. When they sheepishly knocked and asked him to move his car, he just told them it wasn't his car and proceeded to leave it there overnight. It never happened again.

[Vlad the Fox]

12 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

That story sounds apocryphal  to me. Clearly the legal threat would have been meaningless unless they could prove who was responsible for any damage to the vehicle.

 

 

We have issues with parents parking on and across drives while they go off to drop off or collect their kids from the local school. When someone parked on my neighbour's drive he parked his car across the entrance and blocked them in. When they sheepishly knocked and asked him to move his car, he just told them it wasn't his car and proceeded to leave it there overnight. It never happened again.

Yes I did wonder which is why i said claimed but I don't think the person who told me would lie and the relative was her sister. Unless they got the wrong end of the story. However if it was me I'd be fuming

 

[filbertway]

3 hours ago, Vlad the Fox said:

Yes I did wonder which is why i said claimed but I don't think the person who told me would lie and the relative was her sister. Unless they got the wrong end of the story. However if it was me I'd be fuming

 

I had to google this as I couldn't believe that'd happen but it turns out there's very little you can do legally to prevent someone just parking on your driveway haha

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/what-you-can-someone-parks-10224302

 

[Buce]

36 minutes ago, filbertway said:

I had to google this as I couldn't believe that'd happen but it turns out there's very little you can do legally to prevent someone just parking on your driveway haha

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/what-you-can-someone-parks-10224302

 

 

The key word there is legally...

 

If someone parks on my drive, he's coming back to a wreck.

[Strokes]

1 minute ago, Buce said:

 

The key word there is legally...

 

If someone parks on my drive, he's coming back to a wreck.

My dog produces a lot of excrement for his size, that’s all I’m saying.

[filbertway]

2 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

The key word there is legally...

 

If someone parks on my drive, he's coming back to a wreck.

I like the idea of knocking up a brick wall on your drive way and leaving a polite notice saying "any damage to this wall will lead to prosecution"

[Spudulike]

11 hours ago, Rob1742 said:

I asked my solicitor about a similar incident, he just told me to pay it as you get letters and letters, it’s a grey area and for £60 it’s not worth the hassle. 

 

The end of the day, you did park on their land, they have the restriction there for a reason. 

 

£60 gone, but forgotten and get on with your life. They haven’t done anything wrong, you did. 

Paying the invoice is most probably the stress free option. However, I don't like rolling over and almost feel a duty to kick back.

 

These are essentially the same arguments that eventually led to making clamping illegal in 2012. It will be outlawed at some point but in the meantime the parking cowboys will have made their profit before moving on to the next opportunity.

[Rob1742]

On 17/01/2018 at 19:58, Spudulike said:

Paying the invoice is most probably the stress free option. However, I don't like rolling over and almost feel a duty to kick back.

 

These are essentially the same arguments that eventually led to making clamping illegal in 2012. It will be outlawed at some point but in the meantime the parking cowboys will have made their profit before moving on to the next opportunity.

But a lot of companies need to employ parking companies due to non customers using the parking facilities.

 

I know you do get cowboys in certain parking situations, but I think this was an Aldi or Lidl car park? and these large companies would have only brought these parking  companies in if there was a real issue for their businesses.

 

I take your point if the parking situation is unreasonable, but if it could harm the companies business I can see the need for the penalty system

[Guest]

On 16/01/2018 at 16:52, Spudulike said:

Of course, that's true. However, don't you think that £100 is out of proportion ?? Do you think it's fair and reasonable or just a money making scam ??

 

This is just the clampers moving on to the next stage after the practice was outlawed in 2012.

 

This judgement hasn't helped at all.... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-34721126

Having seen this it seems you should pay.

What a crap ruling. 

[Carl the Llama]

On 17/01/2018 at 09:35, Vlad the Fox said:

Yes I did wonder which is why i said claimed but I don't think the person who told me would lie and the relative was her sister. Unless they got the wrong end of the story. However if it was me I'd be fuming

 

This got me thinking about how I'd deal with that scenario, surely there's no law against encircling the vehicle with protective spike strips... you wouldn't want anybody trying to steal the person's car while they're on holiday after all.