MSE News: Most motorists beat the cowboys to win ...

[MSE Jamie]

"55% of private parking ticket appeals made to Popla since last October were upheld in favour of the motorist ..."

Read the full story:

Most motorists beat the cowboys to win parking ticket appeals



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[Princess Mary Poppins]

I had a parking ticket on private property at a restaurant, completely unfairly. I ignored all letters, which saw the penalty fare increase and increase, then decrease as a compromise, threaten to take me to court, reduce credit rating etc etc. I still ignored it and now haven't had a letter for months! Cowboys.

[cepheus]

It's still unclear what's the point of appealing if they can't enforce the ticket. Do we know of anyone who has been made to pay a private ticket who has refused? Perhaps by appealing you make it enforceable if you lose?

[Pincher]

Wait till somebody leaves their car in your drive for a week,
and the council and police tell you they can't do anything about cars on private land.

[spikyone]

Originally Posted by Pincher

Wait till somebody leaves their car in your drive for a week,
and the council and police tell you they can't do anything about cars on private land.

Yet another case of reductio ad absurdum (thanks, Sheldon Cooper). This is not about someone leaving their car on your driveway, which has never, ever happened to anyone, but always gets trotted out in this debate.

This is about people using 'private' car parks outside supermarkets and the like, which are often free to use unless you break some imaginary rule, such as parking with a wheel over a white line, or as per the article, "staying too long" because they were spending £400. The charges that then arise are imposed by companies unrelated to the landowner, that consequently have no legal title to the land, and no legal right to suggest you have formed a contract with them by parking there.
They will then send numerous letters threatening to take you to court, trash your credit record (which they can't do), send bailiffs round (which they can't do), and generally trying to intimidate you into paying up.

POPLA is redundant. Ignore any private parking ticket.

[daveyjp]

Originally Posted by Pincher

Wait till somebody leaves their car in your drive for a week,
and the council and police tell you they can't do anything about cars on private land.

If they did the Police would be lying. Since 1st October 2012 they have powers to have vehicles removed from any land if the vehicle is there without permission.

[surfboy1]

Originally Posted by Pincher

Wait till somebody leaves their car in your drive for a week,
and the council and police tell you they can't do anything about cars on private land.

You could try putting a ticket on it for £100, rising to £170 in 28 days, you could then threaten court, bailiffs, and trashed credit record!!
Oh, wait, thats not lawfull is it??

[Pincher]

Originally Posted by spikyone

"This is not about someone leaving their car on your driveway, which has never, ever happened to anyone, but always gets trotted out in this debate."

It DID happen to me, about seven years ago.
I did call the police, and I did call the council.

The even more absurd thing is, the road had parking bays with time restrictions, which I didn't usually need a resident permit for, as I had my own drive. So I got the parking ticket.

[Caddyman]

I was going to post this in the original thread concerning getting a ticket in a Homebase car park. Well, this happened just two weeks ago when I and my wife went to Homebase in our local town and sat down and spent 3.5k on a new bathroom suite. To be honest, we didn't even realise there was a parking time limit in place and the project manager for our new bathroom didn't ask us if we had our car parked outside. So, you can imagine our dismay when six days after our visit, we got a letter demanding £95 off the contractors that Homebase use to enforce their parking rules. There we were in all our glory, me and the Missus photographed by ANPR like a right pair of lemons driving out of the car park after spending a considerable amount of money. No denying it was us M'lud!

So, next day I went back to the store, very calmly asked for the manager, showed him the receipt for the 3.5k we'd spent on the day of the 'offence' gave him a copy of the ticket demand and very politely I said 'Sort that out'. The Store Manager smiled and said it would be cancelled immediately. What's more, he made a point of telling me not to worry about it. He took my Wife's email address and within two hours, she had an email confirming the 'charge' had been cancelled. Thing is, we could prove exactly what time we arrived and left (so could the parking contractor lol!), I mean, we had the credit card receipt with the time of the transaction on it, plus CCTV of us entering and leaving with time stamps. Not only that, the Store Manager stated that the project manager should have taken our vehicle details the moment we sat down, but that of course never happened. The main thing is, the email my Wife received cancelling the parking charge, has come from the Enforcement Company concerned via Homebase, so if they subsequently dispute it and try to get us to pay, then we can ping pong it back.

[Pincher]

I got one after loafing around in a Maplins, which was actually withn the time limit, but went into McDonalds and went over the time limit. Got the ticket in the post a few days later.

Ever since then, I have been paranoid about shopping centre parking. Wickes has a log book, in which you can register your car for extended stay. About four years ago, I was buying a kitchen, whch took forever. Nobody said anything, but when I saw the sign in the car park, I rushed back in, and then they brought out the log book. Apparently they fax it to the parking company at the end of the day.

They must operate a system for staff parking, at least.

They only go for easy targets. My neighbour's builder decided the most convenient position for their concrete mixer was right in front my drive. So I had to get my car out of my drive every day to avoid being blocked in. Calling the council got the reply "We can't give a parking ticket to a concrete mixer." I ended up getting a ticket because I forgot to move the car during the restriction time one day, from the council!

[Stroma]

Originally Posted by spikyone

Yet another case of reductio ad absurdum (thanks, Sheldon Cooper). This is not about someone leaving their car on your driveway, which has never, ever happened to anyone, but always gets trotted out in this debate.

This is about people using 'private' car parks outside supermarkets and the like, which are often free to use unless you break some imaginary rule, such as parking with a wheel over a white line, or as per the article, "staying too long" because they were spending £400. The charges that then arise are imposed by companies unrelated to the landowner, that consequently have no legal title to the land, and no legal right to suggest you have formed a contract with them by parking there.
They will then send numerous letters threatening to take you to court, trash your credit record (which they can't do), send bailiffs round (which they can't do), and generally trying to intimidate you into paying up.

POPLA is redundant. Ignore any private parking ticket.

Yep this post is the reality of parking on private land, not some absurd if parked on a driveway garbage that is posted up by people who have no concept of the issue at all.

Thanks for the post

[nicechap]

Originally Posted by MSE Jamie;

Figures obtained by MoneySavingExpert.com show of the first 997 cases that have been heard by Popla, 55% were upheld in favour of the motorist. Drivers were told to pay up in the remaining 45%.

What the figures don't tell you is how many motorists have been denied the opportunity to appeal to POPLA - Parking Eye for example have simply ignored my request for a POPLA code as they know they will lose and want to save themselves the £27 +VAT POPLA cost.

The other thing your article misses is that POPLA isn't binding on the motorist (only the Parking Company), so POPLA are not empowered to tell the motorists to pay up. I wonder how many of the 45% didn't. Plenty of examples on MSE showing they haven't.

[trisontana]

"told to pay up"? I don't think so, as the decision is not binding on the motorist.

[Stroma]

According to the latest figures available, between April 2010 and March 2011, 50% of complaints made about council parking tickets were upheld by the Tribunal Penalty Tribunal in the driver's favour.

So I guess the other 50% went in the council's favour

[Bebs]

My husband got a ticket from Euro Car Park, he was working at one of the stores, the problem is that the car he used is registered to the company and they will get the tickets, should he just pay it? or contact them and tell them to put it in his name?

[AltheHibby]

Yes, let them know he was the driver. Then ignore the bog roll that comes through your letterbox.

[Coupon-mad]

Originally Posted by Bebs

My husband got a ticket from Euro Car Park, he was working at one of the stores, the problem is that the car he used is registered to the company and they will get the tickets, should he just pay it? or contact them and tell them to put it in his name?

This is not a thread for new queries. There is a whole parking board for that.

But here you go, post #11 is my advice, just do a weak appeal DIRECT to Euro Car Parks (who never do Court) to hook them into writing to your husband instead:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4423949

You certainly don't pay the darn thing! I had a ECP fake PCN a few years ago and laughed at it, still carry the letters in my bag to show friends about this scam.

[HO87]

Originally Posted by daveyjp

If they did the Police would be lying. Since 1st October 2012 they have powers to have vehicles removed from any land if the vehicle is there without permission.

Sorry but all this does is to amend s.99 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act - which has been around since 1984. The amendment does nothing to change the discretionary nature of the powers (whether exercised by the police or the local authority) but extends the power to cover "other land" to ensure that this does not need to be "occupied". The OP's scenario was capable of being encompassed by the unamended provision as he was in occupation.

Irrespective of this "new power", normally, the removal of a vehicle in this sort of situation would fall to the landowner. As unfair as that might appear some landowners have sought to use it to their advantage to clear land of supposedly "abandoned" vehicles to keep their costs down.

@OP Comparing a private driveway where, generally, people are not invited willy-nilly, with land fully intended and offered to the public for use as a car park is rather like comparing chalk and cheese.

[taxiphil]

I'm irritated to see the MSE news story (linked to in the first post) once again using the word "militant" to describe the approach of ignoring PPCs which is espoused on this forum.

My dictionary defines "militant" as "favouring confrontational or violent methods in support of a political or social cause".

Not really a good choice of word to describe people who won't be bullied or misled into handing over money.

[Coupon-mad]

I was amused to see MSE use the word 'Cowboys' when it wasn't a million years ago that we regulars were told not to use such terms on this board about PPCs!

I even got a pm about it from MSE Andrea but refused to remove the word COWBOYS from my signature because it's a direct quote from Martin Lewis.