A work colleague parked at her local gym the other week but forgot to put the permit on the dash (it was in the glovebox). Cue yellow plastic packet with notice of charge inside.
She has appealed to the firm, sending a copy of her permit from the gym and pointing out it was a genuine error. The firm has emailed back a novella explaining why they have rejected her appeal. They're basically sticking to the line that a valid permit must be displayed at all times. Fair enough I suppose, but £60 for a genuine mistake when she's proved she has a valid permit so wasn't trying to avoid paying for parking? Come on.
I've researched a bit and the firm is a member of the BPA (British Parking Association) so she can't ignore it as they can access her address from the DVLA database. I've also found out she can now appeal to POPLA, an independent body which assesses private parking cases.
Is there anything else she can do, or does anyone have experience of the POPLA appeals process and the likelihood of her being successful based on the circumstances, i.e. she's a total scatterbrain but has never committed a crime in her life.
If it was me I'd be of the mind to throw it in the bin and wait to see if they fancied the hassle of taking me to a small claims court, but she's not me.
Is it parkingeye? They have form for this. Firstly it's an invoice to pay not an official parking notice and she hasn't committed a crime. She may have trespassed but it is not a criminal notice
http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/parking-eye/
I used http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/appeal-service/ cost me £20 and the ticket got rescinded even tho' I was actually wrong (went over the limit)
This happened to me recently (Marriott Hotel Glasgow), the company (Parkingeye) rejected my appeal despite me having paid in advance for parking, apparently their ANPR system is flawless. A sharp email to the hotel got it sorted in short time. I would recommend she speaks to the gym and asks them to contact the parking company.
If that had failed though, I did intend to ignore it but I think the law is a little different in Scotland.
Return their correspondence with a short instruction to suppositorise.
And ultimately end up with a CCJ.Originally Posted by draftsmann
For a CCJ they would need to take her to court and win, if they were to try and win they would have to prove they were financially at a loss, as she has a permit already (assuming it's a paid permit) they are not at a loss.
It wouldn't even get to court, no case to answer.
In my opinion she's presented her case and they have rejected it, tell them to take her to court, they know they don't have a leg to stand on!
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My son has had 3 of these, we made him pay the first one because we didn't know anything about them. After reading up he ignored all correspondence for the second two including the last letter threading possible court action. Never heard anything more.
They are winning because people are ignoring letters due to bad advice on forums such as this.
This has been covered before.
Nobody would be saying pay them, far from it. You need a properly worded defence to make a nonsense out of it. Ignoring is not the correct option.
I successfully appealed using POPLA BUT if I had written my own appeal it would most likely have failed. Go to moneysavingexpert.com they have tried and tested successful letter templates for all the major companies. Just follow the advice on there.
Parking companies are taking these to court and winning almost always because they are not properly defended.
Ignore is no longer the correct advice.
parkingcowboys and MSE have been mentioned above. Both of which will give the right advice. Personally I use Pepipoo where you will also get expert advice. Using the info there, I've swerved about 5 of these things (all of them kindly picked up by my wife). http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60
The forum you link has a sticky thread that says ignoring them is the best advice....
http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=46975
Just saying.
Your link is from 2009, with the last update in 2012. Just saying.
I'd try writing to the gym and ask them to intervene. The gym likely contracts out car park management to a third party, given that the third party want to maintain the contract with the gym, and the gym want to maintain a contract with their member I'm sure they'd want to help.
She's just tried this today but the parking firm is contracted to the flats next to the gym, not the gym. The bloke on the phone said he'd tried to intervene before for his gym members but got nowhere.
POPLA appeal then bust I guess.
I had one roughly 2 years ago and ignored it. It went away. From the poster saying that this is now the worst thing to do now. What has changed?
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I had a collection of them in 2015. Ignored all. No comeback.
Would probably do the same again.
Don't ignore it. Go to the moneysaving experts parking ticket thread and follow the advice. Do it quickly, think you need to appeal within 14 days.
Simple terms, you appeal to the parking company, they will automatically reject your claim but allow you to appeal to POPLA. Appeal to POPLA using the letter from MSE, they set a date for the appeal.
That's all you have to do. The parking company won't turn up (you don't go either) and its thrown out. If the parking company do turn up they lose everytime because the 'fine' is too big.
Ignoring risks a CCJ, this is just the work of a couple of emails.
I believe the law in this area is different in Scotland.
I agree that the MSE site has good advice, but your advice on outcomes is not in-line with the information on the MSE site - (it has been updated recently).
Me too, about 2-3 years ago. Ignored about 5 threatening invoices. They stopped in the end. Don't communicate with them at all it just encourages the *******.
Last edited by kk; 23rd February 2017 at 17:33.
You might want to edit your post as it's an open forum.
this happened http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/parkingeye-vs-beavis/
Jim White the Sky Sports presenter was only talking about this very issue on Talksport radio today with Perry Groves. He urged people to pay. Apparently he ignored one and threw it in the boot and did nothing. CCJ, without him knowing and bailiffs at the door to collect over £900. It was pay or the car was going to be taken so he paid by CC there and then.
The OP's friend does appear to be hard done to and I can feel her pain. I have had two parking tickets in my own road which is permit parking only due to my pass falling off the dash (in a hire car) and another time when the sun heated up the sticky pass holder which then fell off my window and was not visible. No can do when I tried to appeal. I get severely peed off when I can't park in my own road which I actually pay for because of people parking there without permits.
I am not sure what the law says but there does seem to be a strange attitude nowadays of just ignore and it will go away which is not always the right advice in some circumstances. On occasion if someone has actually parked incorrectly, or where they shouldn't you just have to hold your hands up and pay. I see all the time the attitude of they can f*$k O££ I am not paying even if in the wrong. However, if you were the one that poor parking inconvenienced there may be a bit more understanding. I think the example in the OP is a bit different and the Gym should really get involved if they are selling parking to customers.
Chris
Check reviews on Google as a lot of these are now unenforceable
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I was completley unaware of this. Obviously changes the picture.
'Enemies of the people' indeed!
Didn't the law on this change slightly a few years ago?
I seem to recall the pre-change advice was to gnore but following the law change you were better off with a correctly worded appeal?
Indeed, but everyone on the internet thinks they know better and badly advises to throw the notices in the bin - cos that's what they read on Pepipoo
Exactly the above, so these opportunistic parasites can 'Do one'!
Not exactly the above, as per the caselaw I posted above #23
The following is not a comment about private parking charges; it is only about County Court and bailiff procedure:-
This story is in effect scaremongering and almost certainly over-simplified. (I am not accusing you of intentionally scaremongering; I am only saying that as it stands it is misleading).
There is no way to get a CCJ without knowing, unless you have ignored communication from the court or all communications were sent to the wrong address. Also, bailiffs do not just turn up out of the blue. Again, he would have needed to ignore letters from them first. Lots of people claim that they did not receive court or bailiff communications but this is usually untrue.
Last edited by markrlondon; 24th February 2017 at 13:22.
Does anyone have a link to the right page on MoneySavingExpert about contesting these charges?
** edit **
Ah, here it is: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/rec...arking-tickets
Any other useful links, anyone?
Last edited by markrlondon; 24th February 2017 at 13:39. Reason: Updated with link
Ask on this very helpful forum for legal advice. Don't just ignore the letters, thats the old advice and the laws have changed
http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...Charge-Notices
I had one of these about 18 months ago, car broke down so i overstayed my 1 hour limit and got an INVOICE for a CHARGE (they arent enforceable fines) in the post.
To cut a long story short after about 6 months i was able to prove frustration of contract and the charge was dropped by the company. By this time the case had already been passed to a debt collecting agency (probably owned by the same company), i could have contacted them to tell them the case had been dropped but i thought i would let it ride to see what happened.
Anyway, the charge was initially £50, it then went up to £100, they then threatened to add fee's if i didn't pay in 7 days etc etc, next they decided i could pay just £50 and then a few weeks later offered me a final settlement of £30. After that i didn't hear from them.
It's all a bit of a scam IMO
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