Parking fine - Vehicle Control Services

matthwnm

My partner recently returned to her car from work to find she had been given a parking ticket for "failing to display a valid permit". She has a valid permit, it had become unstuck from the window as it was a vary warm day.
The car park is in rented, shared premises with a shared car park, monitored by Vehicle Control Services Ltd. The fine is £80, or £120 if not paid within 7 days.

My partner appealed using the email address provided, attaching a scan of the permit.

She has now received a letter which acknowledges that she holds a valid permit, but continues to enforce the charge.
She is threatened with court proceedings if she does not comply.

Could anybody tell me how enforcible this is, would they really go to court, and what is the likely court outcome?
I'm hoping to hear from someone with experience in this field or with this company, rather than conjecture . Maybe there's even a form letter or similar she could use?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Matthew

bargepole

matthwnm wrote: »

The fine is £80, or £120 if not paid within 7 days...My partner appealed using the email address provided, attaching a scan of the permit...Could anybody tell me how enforcible this is, would they really go to court, and what is the likely court outcome?

It isn't a fine, only Police and Councils can impose parking fines. Private Parking Companies can only issue invoices based on a contract between the driver and the car park owner, for which "penalties" are not enforcible in law.

Writing to these companies to "appeal" is a complete waste of time, they are moneygrabbing bloodsuckers who will use all sorts of bogus quasi-legal threats to extort money, but won't go to court because they know they can't win.

You'll find plenty of advice about this on the forums at www.pepipoo.com, the general concensus of which is just ignore them, and after about five or six threatening letters they'll go away.

anewman

Send a nice letter asking them to cease and desist harassing you for payment they have no right to, and invite them to take you to court

tomstickland

Don't bother replying to them at all. Just keep their letters.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

They will not take it to court. It just isn't worth their time.

Stick the letter in a cupboard along with any others they send. Even if they start talking about bailiffs, ignore them.

matthwnm

Thanks for the advice, that's what I thought. Does anyone have any knowledge of cases that have been taken to court?

Thanks,
Matthew

bargepole

matthwnm wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, that's what I thought. Does anyone have any knowledge of cases that have been taken to court?

This one http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770 is usually cited as a landmark case, in which a clear precedent was set that PPCs cannot impose unfair penalty charges, only their actual losses, which is just the normal parking fee for the period in question.

There was another one thrown out of Oldham court a couple of months ago, don't have a link for that, but generally finding examples of where these PPCs have even started a court action is like looking for rocking horse manure ...

mink999

I've registered to comment on this specific thread.

I recently got a ticket for parking in a place which i assumed was ok only to return to my car to find a ticket the next morning for £80. As soon as I saw it was from this company VCL and not the council I was suspicious.

Since then I appealed twice just to delay proceedings (possibly a mistake giving them my address! ) but both were responded to with letters explaining that it was well within their rights to charge me for parking there.

I decided to ignore their responses from then on, and since I have had numerous follow ups plastered in red FULL CAPS text explaining that they MAY take me to court or MAY take legal action.

The last letter I got yesterday was from a debt collector who claims to have been hired for VCL to get the money for the fine, which has now risen to £160. To me it looks like a shoddy attempt at the company pretending to be a dept collector, so I'm going to continue ignoring their letters and see what happens...

Glad to hear that there are others standing up to these pathetic bullies. Feel sorry for those scared into paying the fines.

kevski

Was interested to read your comments about this outfit - I've just got an £80 ticket from them for being in a car park for 1 hour 50 mins when the limit is apparently 1 hour 30 mins! There's no meter, it's just a shoppers car park - I was shopping i.e. spending money in the local area and then I get this.

£80 is excessive and I'm planning to totally ignore the ticket and see what happens. You're a few weeks ahead of me in the process so keep us posted about what happens!

sillygoose

In all these private parking cases its a mistake to reply in ANY way, even to appeal or even just to tell them to get stuffed. One of the major downfalls in their 'case' is that the DVLA only supply them with the address of the vehicles registered keeper.

The registered keeper is NOT automatically the DRIVER! Their 'claim' is against the driver who they are saying breached their parking contract.

IF (unlikely) it did go legal any form of correspondence could be used to try to claim the respondent was the driver and a case raised.

If you don't respond in anyway they can't even identify who exactly to sue, suppose it goes to court and you say 'I don't remember who was driving that day but sure it wasn't me' it will become a farce!

Appealing is playing into their hands as its a pretty good admission in writing it was you!

intimid

I recently received a £60 fine from VCS and responded to then via email; as I had parked at the car park and paid and displayed, but did not keep my ticket.

On reading your post I am now worried that I have confirmed that I was the driver and have no evidence to support my case.

I've since had a response via post stating that the charge is going up to £90 if I do not pay by the 5th Sept.

Should I ignore that letter now?

Thanks,

QUOTE=sillygoose;49570755]In all these private parking cases its a mistake to reply in ANY way, even to appeal or even just to tell them to get stuffed. One of the major downfalls in their 'case' is that the DVLA only supply them with the address of the vehicles registered keeper.

The registered keeper is NOT automatically the DRIVER! Their 'claim' is against the driver who they are saying breached their parking contract.

IF (unlikely) it did go legal any form of correspondence could be used to try to claim the respondent was the driver and a case raised.

If you don't respond in anyway they can't even identify who exactly to sue, suppose it goes to court and you say 'I don't remember who was driving that day but sure it wasn't me' it will become a farce!

Appealing is playing into their hands as its a pretty good admission in writing it was you![/QUOTE]