Private Parking Tickets discussion

trisontana

Sheila_S wrote: »

Many thanks for your reply. The company is Excel Parking and it does say in big letters that 'Liability for this parking charge notice (PCN) lies with the driver of the vehicle'. It says the contravention is 'parking for longer than the maximum period permitted'.

Excel are easy to ignore. They once took somebody to court in Mansfield and were given a sound thrashing by the judge, who ruled that the extortionate sum they were demanding was an unfair penalty that bore no relation to the actual losses suffered by the land-owner.

esmerobbo

Expect letters saying you are obliged to inform them who was driving. However you are not, regardless of the mumbo jumbo they send!

Coupon-mad

Sheila_S wrote: »

Many thanks for your reply. The company is Excel Parking and it does say in big letters that 'Liability for this parking charge notice (PCN) lies with the driver of the vehicle'. It says the contravention is 'parking for longer than the maximum period permitted'.

My goodness you are giving it a lot of credibility it does not deserve! Have you seen our pictures of the Excel letter-chain? Have you watched the Watchdog lawyer's advice about what to do with one of these pieces of rubbish they slap on your windscreen?

If not then you should show them to your OH as he is wrong when he says pay it. Would he pay a phishing emailer? Would he pay ME £75 if I said he had to pay it for reading this reply?!

FWIW my OH also said he felt uncomfortable ignoring our PPC rubbish ticket - but that was nearly 3 years ago now. It was also for overstaying in a Supermarket car park and the driver did indeed overstay. So what, the driver and passengers were shopping, it isn't a crime!

Here's the Guardian's advice on a PPC ticket (it makes no odds that the example was not in a Supermarket car park, same advice applies):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/sep/04/parking-ticket-private-property

So, as well as that link you need to read up a bit more and make sure your OH watches Watchdog and convince him that this is a generic and well-known scam. Ensure that he is ready to just laugh and play snap with each letter that arrives and matches our pictures, and NOT to panic over the legalese wording!

To see the sticky threads by Crabman that have all that info, click on the link I mention in my signature which gives you the whole current parking board of threads like yours. The link is at the top of the page underneath the banking/Saving tab. Settle down with a cuppa and read everything except the irrelevant Park Right thread, until your eyes glaze over with number of times you will have seen the word 'IGNORE'!

Ann244

Hello, I've had a pcn this morning from a private firm. I went into the car park at 4.30 and paid 1.50 for three hours. I was going to the hairdresser's and knew I could be a couple of hours at least.

When the ticket came out it said expiry time was 17.59. The charges go down to 50p at that time, but I thought I'd be OK. I've done that before and there was no pcn in the post. In my view I paid for three hours. The pcn says I stayed beyond the expiry time. If that had been my intention I'd only have paid a pound which would have covered me up to that time.

Am I right or are they right?

Also, I'm a bit worried now as I've emailed them with a scanned image of my ticket showing that I'd paid 1.50 and therefore paid for three hours parking and now I've seen all the advice which says don't answer them!

Oh dear.

Any advice would be most welcome.

taffy056

You've paid, keep the ticket safe, and ignore utterly their threatograms from them their powerless solicitors and useless debt collectors.

If they do ever take you to the small claims you can defend with the ticket, but to be honest you have more chance of getting 6 numbers on the lotto than that happening

Ann244

Thank you for that reassurance, I feel better now. I wish someone would just get rid of these companies or that there was a law saying that every car park has a ticket you take when you enter and then a pay machine you go to on your way back to the car.

I could do without this. I won't be paying though and it's very heartening to read all the don't pay advice.

Thank you

aec34

I have been reading some of these and wonder if anyone has any dealing with Town and City Parking. I got a ticket for apparently parking outwith the marked bay. I wrote to them disputing this ticket explaining that we parked between two cars and if this meant that we wer parked outwith bay then did not know it at the time or notice when we returned to our car, they wrote back saying still valid, I wrote to them asking for proof, they wrote back saying not legal requirement to take pictures, I wrote back continuing to dispute ticket, did not get a letter from them but got one from AA Hutton, wrote to AA Hutton stating still in dispute with TCP and awaiting reply from last letter. Got another letter from AA Hutton, phoned them to state still in dispute and awaiting reply, they advised that they had got an email from TCP advising to continue with proceedings, I stated that I was still not paying and what should I do they advised to get legal advise!!!

I can see the scanned letters from them but could not see anyone who had had a personal experience. Do I just ignore this and wait?

Thanks.

taffy056

First mistake was trying to appeal, really there is no point because as you can see it's turned down, the second thing parking bays are advisory only and hold no legal standing, thirdly the invoice is not enforceable so you have no legal reason to pay.

Also Hutton are acting illegally as you have informed them to send back the file to the ppc, they are an unethical company and you should tell this when you speak to them or email

The alleged debt is expressly denied, hand the file back to the ppc and do not contact me again, if you attempt contact you will be reported to the police for harassment.

Then utterly ignore everything they send to you

Flossy123_2

I picked up a parking 'fine' today courtesy of Town and City in Harlow. I was 30 minutes over my 2 hours and came back to find a £40 invoice, reduced to £20 if I pay within 10 days plastered to the car.

I'm going to ignore the invoice along with any subsequent threatening letters per the advice on this thread.

I just wondered however.

It cost me £1.20 to park in the shopping centre and this £1.20 was refunded by Asda as I spent over £5. The parking refund is clearly shown and time coded as a deduction on my receipt 28 minutes after my paid parking had expired. Since they refunded me against a technically expired ticket I wondered if that had changed the t&c of the parking conditions.

Not that it will go anywhere but just thinking about a suitable defence.

aec34

Taffy, I am going to pen a reply to Huttons as per your suggestion and then relax. Many thanks.