Successful complaints about private parking tickets - how to get them cancelled!

bod1467 · 4 November 2013 at 10:39PM

Stroma wrote: »

Nice one to add

You were 3 minutes too late.

piers3180 · 10 November 2013 at 5:32PM

I received a PCN from MET Parking Services for an overstay in a McDonalds car park in London.

I had been a customer of McDonalds and had then gone off to run another errand nearby on foot. On my return to my car I picked up an ice-cream at McDonalds and then left. I overstayed the stated 90 minutes (I didn't see any signs) by about 30 minutes.

I used the template letter on MSE contesting the formation of a contract as well as arguing that the proposed fine was punitive, unfair and unreasonable. I also requested various information from MET.

MET replied rejecting my "appeal" and said that they would welcome taking the case to court where they were confident that they'd win. They also refused to provide the information that I had requested on the grounds that it “may be commercially sensitive, may not be relevant or which would not normally be provided prior to issue of court proceedings”.

In my second letter, I reiterated that there was no formation of contract and that the fine did not reflect any increase their costs as these were day-to-day operating costs and thus could not construe a loss on MET's part. I also pointed out that their behaviour could be construed as harassment and continued demands might be referred to the police for prosecution.

I concluded my letter as follows:

Future Correspondence

In summary, there was no contract between either (a) Mr. _________ or (b) Mr. _________ and MET Parking Services Ltd. The invoice issued by MET Parking Services to Mr. ____________ is both erroneous and unenforceable.

No further correspondence of any kind should be sent to Mr. ____________ as it may constitute harassment and be a criminal offence.

Please only write to me to confirm that you accept that there was no contract and to answer my points in full.

Any further communications from MET Parking Services demanding payment, threatening court proceedings or bailiff debt recovery will each incur a £25 processing and handling charge (reduced to £15 if paid with 14 days).

Continued persistent demands may be construed as aggressive, threatening or harassing and may lead to criminal charges being pressed.

You now have two options:

1. Desist from pursuing this erroneous invoice and write to me agreeing to this within 14 days.

2. Provide all of the information requested in both this letter and my letter of 3rd September. This will allow me to consider the validity of your claim and I will then inform you of my decision within 28 days.

Happily MET chose to drop their claim. A small victory for common sense.

trujimana · 11 November 2013 at 12:08AM

Hi!

I wanted to share this information since it may be useful to others (this forum and other sites were very useful sources when preparing my reply, so I wanted to give something back).

After receiving a NTK from Athena ANPR Ltd. I sent them the email below and they cancelled the parking charge :

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to you with reference to Notice to Keeper number (insert reference number on Notice to Keeper) regarding an alleged parking incident on (insert date) at (insert name of store and full address).
In order to take an informed decision on how to deal with the above-mentioned document I would like to request further information on this alleged incident and the alleged parking charges of £(insert amount).
First of all, your Notice to Keeper mentions a company called Athena ANPR Ltd. but fails to identify the actual creditor making this parking charge demand, as required under Schedule 4 paragraphs 8(2)(h) and 9(2)(h) of the PoFA 2012. Therefore I would like you to send me this information, since I need to know exactly who is making the claim and in what capacity.
I would also like to receive all photographic evidence that you hold on this alleged incident since the image you have included in your document of (insert date) as alleged evidence of the vehicle exiting the car park is a blurry picture of an unidentifiable vehicle in an unidentifiable location. I do not expect to pay for this information as it would be disclosable in any future court proceedings.
I would be very grateful if you could send me evidence that besides your management duties within the car park, you also enjoy the rights of possession or occupation needed to be able to enter into an individual contract with drivers and to issue parking charge notices. I therefore require you to send me a copy of the contract that gives you authority to demand these payments together with the instructions that you have received from (insert store name) regarding the time limits and sanctions they wish to impose on their customers.
Further to the above, please explain fully on which of the following grounds your claim is based: trespass, breach of contract or contractually-agreed sum. Please note that if you are claiming that trespass was committed, I would like to receive a full breakdown of the actual loss suffered by your business or the landowner which could give rise to your claim for damages. If on the other hand you are claiming there was a breach of contract or a contractually-agreed sum, I would like to receive a copy of the contract which the driver allegedly entered into.

Please note that I do not wish to receive a standard template answer which fails to address the specific issues that I have raised with you.

I look forward to receiving your acknowledgement within 14 days and a comprehensive reply within 35 days (in accordance with the BPA AOS Code of Practice B.22.8). Only then will I be able to make an informed decision as to how I shall respond to your Notice to Keeper.

Yours sincerely,

Five days later I received an email saying the following:

Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your email in regards to the above parking charge.
Please be advised your charge has been cancelled and confirmation is attached
Please ignore any further letters that may be received as nothing remains outstanding.
Regards
Athena ANPR Ltd

Good luck to all of you going through the unpleasant experience of dealing with this company. Hopefully we'll manage to put these parking cowboys out of business soon!

Stroma · 12 November 2013 at 9:09PM

The reason why complaining can work, this poster is £50 better off because of a complaint raised to Wickes, hats off to them on this! Now next step is to rid themselves of the vermin

mib150 wrote: »

Well Mr Wickes was as good as his word, on my return home today I was greeted with a letter of apology together with vouchers for £50!
:money::money::money::money::money::money::money:
:D:D:D:D:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:

An outcome that would not have been possible without this forum! :T

Thanks again

pastie321 · 13 November 2013 at 11:13AM

Successful outcome - offered payment of original parking fee due of £10, PE charges cancelled - after contacting Welcome Break direct:

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4812747

For any others in the same situation with Welcome Break, the best way to contact them is via this email address:

parking@WelcomeBreak.co.uk

(sorry, can't post links)

haznbaz · 14 November 2013 at 1:18PM

Just to follow up on my other posts my PCN was cancelled by PC Plus after the NHS requested them to do so. I was in the process of my POPLA appeal so just goes to show its never to late to try this approach too. Many thanks to all that have posted advice, much appreciated. :j

Umkomaas · 16 November 2013 at 1:55PM

One from PePiPoo showing yet again that a well constructed appeal with receipts attached will see ParkingEye quickly cancelling charges.

This is my first post on this site for a long time and after having received help through reading A LOT of threads on pepipoo I thought it only fair to share my recent experience.

I received a PCN generated from an ANPR at a 'Free' retail car park. I had overstayed by over an hour and there were clear signs that had been overlooked - However I had been shopping at the retail park and had receipts to prove this.

After much reading on pepipoo, the consumer action group, money saving expert and so I on, I decided I had two options, to appeal or ignore. Since there were mixed messages and following the concern about the October 2012 law change and the recent small claims court cases made against the registered keepers, I made the decision I would try a 'softish’ appeal.

After much reading I followed a simple guide;

1. I responded as the registered keeper and never once gave away who was driving the vehicle at the time of the alleged incident (alleged because the only evidence were date/time stamped pictures of my car entering and exiting the car park).

2. I explained that 'the driver' had been a customer of the retail park stores and provided copies of receipts.

3. I pointed out that this was a 'free car park' and as such the overstay could not have caused any losses, damages or additional costs.

4. And I concluded with requesting the validation code for a POPLA appeal if the charge was not cancelled.

I sent this and received a reminder note a day later (I assume the letters crossed in the post) and then heard back in about a week saying the charge had been cancelled.

Thankfully this worked for me but please note I am not legally trained and I am only relaying my own personal experience and cannot take responsibility, legal or financially for anyone else’s decision.

After my research I had made the decision early on that I would go all the way to court if they chose to proceed and felt that a reasonable response would look better then not engaging.

Thank you to all those out there that did the hard work – I sense PE will think twice if people appeal in a confident and educated way and hopefully this means no more stressful and unjustified tickets!

I hope this helps some one and good luck!

This post has been edited by medic1982: Yesterday, 22:37

Here's the link as there's a bit of interesting discussion developing on the thread:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=85372

AoD · 19 November 2013 at 12:10PM

So after my two successes against OPC (one an out of time NtK and the other a POPLA appeal based on no GPEOL) I put an offer out on our local forum and social media site offering to share my "expertise" (!).

I am currently helping 6 or 7 people but we have already had our first success. Neighbour parked in Bluewater in a bay which had previously been hatched lines but it had been re-painted to form a normal parking bay (confirmed by Bluewater staff).

Neighbour had actually already done everything correctly. Ignored NtD, appealed NtK as the registered keeper, didn't admit to being the driver and told PCM the charge was a penalty and that they were parked correctly in a bay anyway. It all went wrong when PCM ignored the appeal and started sending threatening letters instead. My neighbour was considering paying at this stage.

Anyway, I convinced them we would win this at POPLA and I also worded some complaints to send to the DVLA and BPA about PCM not sending a POPLA code. In the meantime my neighbour wrote to Bluewater Management who have just written back confirming that the charge has been cancelled and confirmed the car WAS parked correctly!

Umkomaas · 19 November 2013 at 4:03PM

If you've got some spare time available, you might want to consider joining in to advise newbies, helping the fight from here too - it would be good to have your experience on board.

dontpayparkingtickets · 21 November 2013 at 6:00PM

Hello

Im new to this thread so excuse me butting in. Just wanted to tell some
experience ive had may be of use .

1. I received a ticket for parking on double yellow lines at Morrisons supermarket . The long and short, these tickets are 101% UNenforceable and you can ignore all the ranting and raving they may throw your way. The fact is they could NEVER enforce them in Court so you canignore them.

2;. Friend of mine is disabled and parks in disabled bay at Waitrose all the time . He came back to car other day and had been given a ticket for not displaying his blue badge. He paid it before I spoke to him. He gave me all the info and I rang the management company who own/manage the land and they promised to arrange a repayment of the £60 . I do though think that they are in same position as Morrisons, if it is on Private Land then they cannot enforce these tickets ,especially not for such things are blue badge ,yellow lines etc which are only enforceable of public land.

3. I see that the LBHF (Hammersmith & Fulham) have have lost 2 appeals against Yellow Box tickets issued at the Yellow Box junction of Uxbridge Road near to the bus park/underground station befpre the Holland Park Roundabout. The location description was apparently wrong and is likely wrong on hundreds of previous/other tickets at same location and they should be ue a refund !!!!!

Successful complaints about private parking tickets - how to get them cancelled!

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