Private Parking Tickets discussion

king_chino86

Hi,

I'm new and I am posting following your discussions surrounding PPC. Sorry for the essay but I'm a bit stuck

Prior to yesterday, for over a year, I had permission from a pub next to the main station into london to use his overflow car park. The pub is owned by the brewery. It recently underwent a refurb and as of yesterday must of been open no longer than a fortnight. None the wiser I parked there, went to work, returned and had what looks like an enforcable fine from what is now a new landlord. He says its tough and he didnt agree to it so I have to pay.

I have read alot on these forums about similair companies and infact this one based in woking and the general advice is ignore due to it falling under contract law.

I do however have a couple of questions which would put my mind at ease:

1. Why can they not enforce yet the council can? Surely it is the same principle in accepting entering into the contract? All well saying prove I'm the driver but if I'm the sole owner and it wasn't reported stolen, who else would it be?

2. Debt Collectors and Bailifs. I have been threatened once with these before over a dispute with council tax and they did turn up at my door and i DID have to pay them. What is to stop this private company getting someone to come to my door again threatening to enter the property and take what they see fit settlement. Does any one know the process the ppc has to go through to get to this stage, i.e. would I HAVE to go to court first to defend myself or could they ask the court to allow debt collectors to turn up unannounced.

If anyone has any advice that would be great,
thanks

lucylucky

king_chino86 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm new and I am posting following your discussions surrounding PPC. Sorry for the essay but I'm a bit stuck

Prior to yesterday, for over a year, I had permission from a pub next to the main station into london to use his overflow car park. The pub is owned by the brewery. It recently underwent a refurb and as of yesterday must of been open no longer than a fortnight. None the wiser I parked there, went to work, returned and had what looks like an enforcable fine from what is now a new landlord. He says its tough and he didnt agree to it so I have to pay. Who is it from actually?

I have read alot on these forums about similair companies and infact this one based in woking and the general advice is ignore due to it falling under contract law.

I do however have a couple of questions which would put my mind at ease:

1. Why can they not enforce yet the council can? Surely it is the same principle in accepting entering into the contract? There is no legislation appropriate to parking on private land in this instance and you have not entered into any contract with anyone All well saying prove I'm the driver but if I'm the sole owner and it wasn't reported stolen, who else would it be? It matters not who it might be it is immaterial

2. Debt Collectors and Bailifs. I have been threatened once with these before over a dispute with council tax and they did turn up at my door and i DID have to pay them. What is to stop this private company getting someone to come to my door again threatening to enter the property and take what they see fit settlement. Does any one know the process the ppc has to go through to get to this stage, i.e. would I HAVE to go to court first to defend myself or could they ask the court to allow debt collectors to turn up unannounced. Yes they would have to take you to court, they would have to win and then you would have to refuse to pay

If anyone has any advice that would be great,
thanks

Hope the above helps

loopdiloo

Thank's everyone. I will keep you posted on the outcome... or no outcome ! :T

bromsgrovebarry

Once you are convinced, tell all your friends not to pay 'fines' from private car parks. Get your revenge on this pondlife!

king_chino86

lucylucky wrote: »

Hope the above helps

Thanks for the swift response. I was reading other posts which were saying something about contract law and you driving the vehicle.

I was under the impression the court would have to order you to pay.
On a side note, How can some companies send debt collectors yet these ppc can't. Is it because you have entered into a contract purchasing something or signing up to a service with other companies i.e. not paying your phone bill, gas, credit card, etc, they can pass your debt on without taking you to court to a colleciton agency.

Happy not to pay, going to go with my better judgement and ignore. Not affraid of a few letters.

lucylucky

king_chino86 wrote: »

Thanks for the swift response. I was reading other posts which were saying something about contract law and you driving the vehicle.

I was under the impression the court would have to order you to pay. If you lost a case (won't happen) then the court would order you to pay
On a side note, How can some companies send debt collectors yet these ppc can't. Is it because you have entered into a contract purchasing something or signing up to a service with other companies i.e. not paying your phone bill, gas, credit card, etc, they can pass your debt on without taking you to court to a colleciton agency. Do not confuse debt collectors with officers of the court. When you don't pay this invoice you will get letters from debt collectors, these should be ignored as well as there is no debt

Happy not to pay, going to go with my better judgement and ignore. Not affraid of a few letters.

Who actually issued the "ticket"?

king_chino86

At the top it says EPN Parking Charge Notice

Yelloow ticket, long and thin.
About half way down it says EPN are issueing on behalf of the "Landlord at the above location".

Address is :
Notice Pressing Office I Bennett EPN
PO Box 1174 Ripley Woking GU23 6WX

Bit suspect that its a PO Box and no telephone number.

peter_the_piper

Its a po box so its harder for you to find them. Just ignore them and avoid the pub in future.

Coupon-mad

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Just ignore them and avoid the pub in future.

Seconded, ignore the scam, nothing will happen at all except maybe a few letters.

But with that piece of trash I suspect it's just a landlord issuing his own speculative tickets to try to make money. I suspect he doesn't even follow through with letters but even if he does, ignore them all.

It won't go to Court because they so rarely do (and they lose!). But anyway, no Court woulld uphold this amount of money as a fair charge, when you were not aware of any restriction (therefore no contract established).

kirstles77

Help! Any advice?

My boyfriend works as a security officer in the local NHS Hospital and recently received a parking ticket from a private company since he parked his vehicle in a 15 minute bay at the beginning of his shift, hoping to move it once he had checked in etc. He over-stayed by 5 minutes as he was dealing with a potentially violent patient and didn't think that he ought to leave the situation.

When he returned to the vehicle he saw that he was being written a ticket and explained the situation to the parking officer. The man did not give the ticket to my boyfriend and let him move the vehicle and so my boyfriend did not think anything of it, thinking he had been let off. Shortly afterwards he received a letter through the post advising that he had not paid his fine and that it had increased due to non-payment. Panicking I looked up on MSE and found Martin's advice on private parking fines (I note that it was a private parking enforcement agency and not council). We wrote a letter appealing the ticket since my boyfriend was only 5 minutes late returning to the vehicle, and the man had not given him the ticket. We later received a letter advising that the appeal had been rejected by the client (NHS) and that the amount owing had increased further. They disputed that we had not received the fine and stated that it was left on the windscreen which was an absolute lie.

We wrote another letter advising that the fine should be in proportion to the amount that the landowner would have lost due to breach of contract etc, although it was a free bay, and that my boyfriend was providing a service to the hospital by restraining a violent patient so that he did not become a risk to other patients/staff. We argued that it was common sense that this would have been more important than moving the car and even the NHS surely wouldn't want to endanger any of their patients or staff???? :mad:

Since then we have not heard back, but today received a letter from a debt collection agency stating they need instant payment etc etc. :eek: I'm so worried since surely it would not be sensible to ignore this letter? The fine has increased by several hundred pounds now and I'm sort of wishing we had paid the original fine of £60, no matter how unfair.

Any advice on what we should do now? Has anyone else had this happen to them? If the ticket is not enforceable are they entitled to sell the debt to a debt collection agency?

Any advice would be appreciated