Private Parking Tickets discussion

kyoto98

The advice about the signs came from an email I sent to 'honest John' at the telegraph, but I prefer your answer . My initial letter admitted no liability with respect to who is the registered keeper and who was driving at the time. I didn't even provide my address, I liked the fact that if they wanted to chase me down it would cost them to get my name and address via the DVLA.

Thanks for all the other links and suggestions, I'll be ignoring all future letters barring any from the court from now on. I'm far from a caught fish if they want to take it to court bring it on.

esmerobbo

kyoto98 wrote: »

The advice about the signs came from an email I sent to 'honest John' at the telegraph, but I prefer your answer . My initial letter admitted no liability with respect to who is the registered keeper and who was driving at the time. I didn't even provide my address, I liked the fact that if they wanted to chase me down it would cost them to get my name and address via the DVLA.

Thanks for all the other links and suggestions, I'll be ignoring all future letters barring any from the court from now on. I'm far from a caught fish if they want to take it to court bring it on.

I do wish these people would stop advising people to write and appeal or explain anything. This may have been seen as the correct approach when this industry first stuck its oar in, but not for a long time has it been advisable to have any contact. Also the point of liability, liability to what?

If you have not admitted anything on your email, then you are back to basics. Let them chase you and ignore their letters.

Oopsadaisy

esmerobbo wrote: »

I do wish these people would stop advising people to write and appeal or explain anything.

Chief amongst 'these people' has to be MSE Martins own advice [as opposed to the Forum advice]. Now I don't want to the one to call [St] Martin a retard, but I do feel 'these people' are retards!!!

Ehlias_Leckie

Hello people, can somebody answer my question?

I have been receiving fines after I got clamped at a mini car park outside a train station. I got clamped in November, I paid the clamp on the spot. A few days after I started receiving fines, 2 dated from August which I paid, then one from October which I paid in December then I got another one in December dating from November which I havent paid. I sent a letter expressing how I felt and how suspiciously I got the fines. I been in the car at these times, but had been caught via camera. I got no reply but a couple weeks after I received another fine!

Can they do this? Is there a time limit for them? Please get back to me, thanks.

j.bab20

we received a parking 'fine' from ldk security for over staying our ticket time by 7minutes in a car park next to a hospital on new years eve. Being noble people we took advantage of their 'appeals' procedure and sent a letter off explaining why we where late (we dropped the car keys inside the hospital). This was before we scoured the internet about the company, and now regret it!

The letter was sent in my husbands name, but the car is registered in my name. We have now received a 'Formal Demand' from LDK, addressed to my husband, which shows that they have received the letter but do not address anything in the letter and simply state that 14days has passed so we now must pay £90 within 14days rather than the discounted amount (£60), which will rise to £140 with debtors arriving. The original parking 'ticket' claims that proceedings will end in court if it is ignored/unpaid. £60 (or indeed £90 and £140) seems a huge unjustified amount for 7mins over the time, and they certainly wont have lost any earnings as the car park barely had any cars in it!

Now, do we ignore this letter and any further letters we get from them, seen as we have, in a roundabout way admitted some sort of breach of contract? The car park is in pitch black at night (when we were parked) and so it is impossible to actually read what the sign says, so would it be unjustified to say we could not see the sign so therefore did not know what we were breaking?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Driver8

Here it is again for all the newbie's.

PRIVATE PARKING TICKETS - DON'T PAY!
IT IS NOT A FINE! YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING ILLEGAL!

This is an information page for the thousands of people who receive "tickets" from private companies in the UK ever day at supermarkets, retail parks, and in any other privately-owned carpark.

We are NOT encouraging anybody to openly flout parking restrictions on private land, or to refuse to pay reasonable charges for parking. Landowners have a right to make reasonable charges for the use of their land.

For advice specific to your case, you should visit the forums at http://forums.pepipoo.com or http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/parking-traffic-offences.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

1. What you should know about these companies

It is important to remember that private parking companies (or PPCs as they are often called) have NO OFFICIAL POWERS - that's right, none at all! They give out their "tickets" on the basis that you have seen the signs in their car park and that you have therefore agreed to a contract obliging you to pay a certain sum of money.


2. What happens to people who don't pay?

In 99.9% of cases, absolutely NOTHING! The company pays the DVLA £2.50 to get your address, and then sends lots of threatening letters. In the main, these letters can be safely IGNORED. The only way the company can actually force you to pay is by taking you to the small claims court, which costs them even more money. And they are by no means guaranteed to win! And they practically never do.

The two main reasons for this (among others) are the following:

- Only the person DRIVING the car could ever have agreed to any such parking contract. The company can only get the Registered Keeper's address from the DVLA: you don't have to tell them who was driving.

-Many of these charges are so extortionately high that they constitute a penalty, which is unenforceable in a consumer contract.


3. Can they affect my credit rating?

NO! The only way your credit rating could be affected by ignoring private parking companies is if you were taken to court, lost, and then still refused to pay. But they will not take you to court.


IN SHORT

The vast majority of the time, you can safely IGNORE tickets from private parking companies, they are not official fines.

The vast majority of the time, you can safely IGNORE the threatening letters, including those from debt collection agencies.

You DO NOT have to pay a penny of your hard-earned money to these companies. Remember that the chances of being taken to court are very slim indeed.

DO NOT IGNORE COURT PAPERS!
If you receive real court papers from a private parking company (very rare) then you should go to http://forums.pepipoo.com or http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/parking-traffic-offences for help defending the claim. Do not be afraid to sign up and ask questions regarding any paperwork you are not sure about.

Don’t believe the above? Watch a solicitor on Watchdog advising you what to do with the scam invoices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAIcdi9niHA

THEY ARE NOT FINES

Only the Police, Courts or Council’s can fine you. NOT a private company, please remember that.

Coupon-mad

Ehlias_Leckie wrote: »

Hello people, can somebody answer my question?

I have been receiving fines after I got clamped at a mini car park outside a train station. I got clamped in November, I paid the clamp on the spot. A few days after I started receiving fines, 2 dated from August which I paid, then one from October which I paid in December then I got another one in December dating from November which I havent paid. I sent a letter expressing how I felt and how suspiciously I got the fines. I been in the car at these times, but had been caught via camera. I got no reply but a couple weeks after I received another fine!

Can they do this? Is there a time limit for them? Please get back to me, thanks.

Oh Jeez why did you pay any of these bogus fines, how much money have you forked out?:eek:

A quick Google of private parking tickets or the company's name would have told you about the cowboy industry that hides behind the name of private parking. Start ignoring them and stop calling their parking charge notices 'fines'. Unless acting for a Council, no private company has any power to fine you!

You can also reclaim your clamping money back, if you have it within you to take the landowner/agent and the clamper jointly to Small Claims Court. It can be done.

peter_the_piper

Chances are that as they have your number(literally) they just keep churning out the tickets (also known as unenforcible invoices) even if you had not been there. Follow CM's advice and to add to that try pepipoo.com to get help recovering your money for the clamp at least.

Ehlias_Leckie

Ok thanks people, I shall not reply to any more letters! I thought it too suspicious and yes I have forked out over £300 already before Xmas! I'm a doughnut I know but it shan't happen again! I'm going to look into reclaiming.

But when they clamped me, is there a way they can take the clamp off there and then without me paying? I literally got to my car, and the woman was there, and as I was paying the tow truck showed up ready to take my car away!

Coupon-mad

Ehlias_Leckie wrote: »

Ok thanks people, I shall not reply to any more letters! I thought it too suspicious and yes I have forked out over £300 already before Xmas! I'm a doughnut I know but it shan't happen again! I'm going to look into reclaiming.

But when they clamped me, is there a way they can take the clamp off there and then without me paying? I literally got to my car, and the woman was there, and as I was paying the tow truck showed up ready to take my car away!

They would never take the clamp off without you paying!

They are just money-grabbers and are not nice people who will just 'let someone off'. That's why clamping is due to be banned because many firms tread a fine line of legality/criminality.

You can legally remove a private clamp yourself without damaging it (best to do at night unnoticed with a heavy angle-grinder or huge bolt-cutters, just cut off the padlock and then replace it with a new one, hand the whole thing in at a Police station making sure the desk clerk notes there is no damage).

There' are loads of private clamping cases on pepipoo, read up & then start a thread:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

You must understand it will be a long process over this year, finding out who contracted the clampers and then taking BOTH parties to Court. Do not be rash, never just take a clamper to Court alone. Even if you win how likely do you think these people are to care about or pay CCJs?

Was it the same firm that sent you all those 'fines'? Did you keep copies? You could also include them in your claim if you believe the paperwork, the amount charged and the signs were not clear or were unfair. I think you should include the whole total in your claim against the clampers and landowner/retailer/agent (whoever contracted them).

Do you have house insurance which includes legal cover? You can use this to help you, to provide a solicitor to represent you (otherwise Small Claims is set up for you to state your case in front of a judge yourself, which is what most people do). Either way get pepipoo advice first and learn how to word a strong 'letter before action' to both parties.