Private Parking Tickets discussion

Zebradome

Crabman wrote: »

Quick answer - no. You'd have to lose a court case then refuse to pay the court judgement for it to have an effect.

Interesting that it was £20 though unlike the ridiculous amounts some ask for - which PPC was that?

Thanks

It was CPP. The fine was actually £40, but if you pay within 14 days it's halved. If you ignore the fine like I did & get lawyer's letter, they helpfully allow you to pay the reduced rate within 14 days!!! However, I paid directly to CPP, not straight to law firm. Haven't heard anything since anyway.

peter_the_piper

Zebradome wrote: »

Thanks

It was CPP. The fine was actually £40, but if you pay within 14 days it's halved. If you ignore the fine like I did & get lawyer's letter, they helpfully allow you to pay the reduced rate within 14 days!!! However, I paid directly to CPP, not straight to law firm. Haven't heard anything since anyway.

Why????????

brian2208

peter_the_piper wrote: »

It depends on if it was a council or private car park. Private --ignore and wait for further paperwork. I'm assuming its not a council one, am I right?

Yes - it was a private car park at my local shopping park, run by Excel Parking (Sheffield). Just received by first letter from them demanding £100 today.

sarahg1969

Zebradome wrote: »

Thanks

It was CPP. The fine was actually £40, but if you pay within 14 days it's halved. If you ignore the fine like I did & get lawyer's letter, they helpfully allow you to pay the reduced rate within 14 days!!! However, I paid directly to CPP, not straight to law firm. Haven't heard anything since anyway.

Woops! You were had. Still, if you're happy that you got a bargain...

Pompeyboy

I live on a busy main road in North London, and although I own my flat I pay the freeholder of the land for one of the parking spaces outside my flat. Because people assume that at night they can get away with ignoring clear signs about 'Resident's parking only' and other signs telling them they will be fined if they leave their cars there, they still park there. Some of the spaces are rented to local businesses. If someone is in my space and I have to use an alternative space - that means I have to park in another location or move my car before one of the other users issues me with a ticket. The signage could not be clearer - many fines are issued to people who park facing a sign that says in huge red letters 'Resident's parking only'.

xbox_widow_3

Parking eye! Yes I have received a ticket in the last few days.

Parked in the local supermarket car park at 2:12 pm on a Sunday, checking the sign for relevant charge times.
I noted that there was a minimum 2 hour stay restriction although Sunday parking restrictions applied between the hours of 10am-4pm when, apparently, (according to the sign) the cameras were turned off and parking was free until they were turned on the following morning.

Bumping into a friend whilst shopping we decided to nip to the park with the kids and have a catchup. As 2 hours from my entry would take me to 4:12pm (past the restriction time) I figured the cameras would be turned off and that my parking was, as stated - free.

NOT SO! Infact my ticket says my car left at 16:55 and that I overstayed so have to pay £70!

I don't dispute that I was parked there, but the sign lead me to believe I interpretted that parking was free after 4pm!! You dont have to pay for street parking during the 'free paking' period, so why do they think they can charge??

The jumped up !!@* I spoke to said I'd been charged as my stay exceeded 2 hours and although, the sign states parking is free after 4pm, you have to arrive and park AFTER 4pm to qualify for free parking!! The signage is unclear thus misleading.

If i pay within 14 days then they will reduce the fine to £40, if not it will go up to £90! I cannot afford to lose and swallow £90 - Should I sit tight or just pay the £40?????

trisontana

Just sit tight and ignore any correspondence from them. And by the way, it's not a "fine", just an invoice.

Pound

I just read the article on private parking tickets. Although it's generally good advice, I think it still encourages people to do more than what they need to do, such as taking photographs, getting witness statements, writing letters, etc.

Although these may be useful if the company takes you to court I think it's very unlikely that this will happen and even if they do the onus is on them to prove that you breached a contract so in most cases they would just give up if you don't pay. I personally wouldn't do anything more than put the invoice in the bin.

earledawes

Not sure of the advice in this article. Like a few others, I'm surprised Martin advises to contact the cowboy PPCs.

I strongly advise against this. Having had approx 5 tickets from the same PPC over the last 18 months, the first time I engaged with them the threatening letters just kept coming.

Know that YOU are in the right and DO NOT EVER respond to any unenforcable and illegal threatening letters. You WILL receive debt collector letters and again you must NEVER contact them back. (Probably the only time you should ignore debt collector letters!). Keep all the letters, the tickets, and the yellow packet the ticket came in as overwhelming evidence that these cowboys are trying to make a fast buck and have no legal standpoint.

Contact the trading standards; they happily suggested to me that there was nothing to stop me taking legal action for the threats.

Needless to say, I have heard nothing further from the PPC or Debt Collectors and no court orders have come through the door, surprise surprise.

Hope this helps

Oh...and NEVER EVER EVER EVER PAY THEM!!!

desk_jockey

If you take photographs for evidence you need to make sure you take some showing the context of your car and the signs. For example.
Your car in the car park so its plain what car park it is.
Your car showing the number plate and the ticket in the window.
A view of the car park including the warning signs.
A close up of the warning sign.
The point being that just a picture of the sign or the ticket could be taken anywhere.